Smoking Gun? WH Email Instructs Officials to Blame Benghazi on Video

April 30, 2014 in News by The Manimal

Source: Truth Revolt

A new State Department document obtained by Judicial Watch ​via a FOIA request reveals that then White House Deputy Strategic Communications Adviser Ben Rhodes and other Obama administration public relations officials coordinated a campaign to “reinforce” President Obama’s image and to portray the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack as being “rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.”

According to the Judicial Watch press release:

The main point of the White House team’s strategy was to paint the terrorist attack as being “rooted in an Internet video and not a failure of policy,” Judicial Watch said in an emailed release. Meanwhile, the State Department — at the same time that message was being shaped — initially considered the incident simply an “attack,” and perhaps even a kidnap try, the watchdog said.

A review of the Rhodes’ email (shown below) shows it to be a possible “smoking gun” explaining how Ambassador Rice received the direction to blame the Benghazi attack on an internet video.

The email was sent two days before Susan Rice appeared on five of the Sunday news programs, Friday, September 14, 2012, at 8:09 p.m. with the subject line:  “RE: PREP CALL with Susan, Saturday at 4:00 pm ET.” indicating that Rhodes was dictating the political line that was used for the Ambassador Rice appearance.

In the goals section, Rhodes gave direction that the purpose of Rice’s appearance was “To underscore that these protests are rooted in and Internet video, and not a broader failure or policy.

Then in the “top lines,” section Rhodes returns to the You Tube video:

We’ve made our views on this video crystal clear. The United States government had nothing to do with it. We reject its message and its contents. We find it disgusting and reprehensible. But there is absolutely no justification at all for responding to this movie with violence. And we are working to make sure that people around the globe hear that message.

Copied on the email were all the major Administration communication and political personnel including: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, Deputy Press Secretary Joshua Earnest, then-White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer, then-White House Deputy Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri, then-National Security Council Director of Communications Erin Pelton, Special Assistant to the Press Secretary Howli Ledbetter, and then-White House Senior Advisor and political strategist Davie Plouffe, so there is no way the White House can contend they were unaware of the memo.

While the mainstream media attempts to convince the public that everything about the Bengazi attack that killed four American heroes on 9/11/12 has been discovered, the release of this and other memos revealed by Judicial Watch proves there is much more to be investigated.