CBS: Intel office cut terror links from Rice briefing

[Texas Lawyer]

Source: USA Today

References to "al-Qaeda" and "terrorism" were deleted by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence from "talking points" given to Ambassador Susan Rice three days after the deadly Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, CBS News reports.

The al-Qaeda mentions were passed along by the CIA and cut because they were too "tenuous" to publicize, an intelligence source told CBS, citing a lack of confidence in the person providing the information. But, CBS writes, former CIA director David Petraeus "told Congress he agreed to release the information -- the reference to al-Qaeda -- in an early draft of the talking points, which were also distributed to select lawmakers."

The CIA then signed off on the "substantive edits," as did the FBI, which made additional edits as part of "standard procedure," according to the CBS source.
...
"The points were not, as has been insinuated by some, edited to minimize the role of extremists, diminish terrorist affiliations or play down that this was an attack," the official said, adding that there were "legitimate intelligence and legal issues to consider, as is almost always the case when explaining classified assessments publicly."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2012/11/20/intelligence-director-al-qaeda-benghazi-susan-rice/1718149/

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Will these actual facts make any of the know-nothing Repubs shift their focus from Rice? Don't hold your breath.

[still_one]

1. No, but the Democrats damn will better

[agent46]

2. If I didn't know better

I'd say there may be a new policy of dialing back the knee jerk bogeyman terrorism rhetoric in favor of accurate intelligence. Not a bad thing but not as useful if you want to generate propaganda. Maybe a more moderate regime is assuming power. One can hope.

[Hulk]

3. McAncient is an angry, old, frustrated fart....

Won't make any difference to him. Nothing would. As for lindsey graham...that slimy weasel....won't make any difference for him neither. Those two are about as smart as vannity...and that's saying NOTHING!

[Ford_Prefect]

4. Well look who finally woke up: MSM gets the facts in the correct order and almost in Prime Time.

12 hours later and its even in USA TODAY! What a stunning revelation tucked in amid all the rethug rehash. Must be all the fact checking that caused the delay.

Silly Rabbit, truth is for grown-ups!

[Cha]

5. John McCain and Lindsey Graham are dangerously close to being

buried by FACTS! That's what you do to lying republicons.




http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021842536

[dennis4868]

6. Someone needs to explain this

to Sen Feinstein. She was on Piers Morgan's show on CNN last night and she had no clue about this when it was widely reported during the day yesterday. How is it that she would not know this and instead continue talking about investigations and getting to the bottom of this. Even John McCain quieted down yesterday. Feinstein needs to go. She is clueless!

[John2]

7. Senator Feinstein

is Jewish, that might have something to do with her decision making. I think it also has something to do with Senator Lieberman's decisions on Foreign Policy. Especially when it comes to Muslim Terrorists. They may favor McCain's position more.

The question should be what connections does Ansar Al Sharia have with Al Qaeda. If it was tied to Al Qaeda or even mentioning Al Qaeda would give the Republicans Political talking points. The intelligence officer controlling the data is in fact the CIA chief ( General Petraeus). The final interpretation of the evidence comes from him. Petraeus does not link Al Qaeda to the act just by saying so. He needs to provide the actual links. He is just providing an opinion as an expert but with no factual evidence. There is only factual evidence for one suspect ( Ansar Al Sharia). Only members of Ansar Al Sharia has been taken into custody and questioned, that is publicly known by the media. So he needs to make a connection between Ansar Al Sharia and Al Qaeda to make the claim Al Qaeda was even involved.

The only information known so far on Ansar Al Sharia, is they were one of the militant groups that helped to overthrow the Ghaddaffi regime but they disagree with the Democratic process. They want Sharia Law instead which would be anti Israel and more hostile to the United States. They are more similar to the Taliban who has the same objectives as Al Qaeda. That dis not mean Al Qaeda committed the act though. Just using that nomenclature causes an alarm with Americans.

[Doctor_J]

8. If it walks like treason, quacks like treason,

please get the gallows out of storage.