COMMENTARY | We know why powerful married men have extramarital affairs.
What we still don’t know is why CIA Director David Petraeus allegedly went along with the political narrative of a seriously dumb video titled “The Innocence of Muslims.” The Conservative Daily News posted video clips of the president and his top officials claiming that the anti-Muslim video caused U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others to be killed in Benghazi.
Things were falling apart in Libya, as Ambassador Stevens and the CIA were reporting, and drastic measures were needed. The situation called for vast public lying. Did the political cover story emanate from the White House or did the false narrative originate at the Central Intelligence Agency?
To complicate matters further, Paula Broadwell told a Denver audience in October that the terrorists who killed Stevens and three others may have attempted to rescue cohorts captured by the CIA and held at the embassy annex in Benghazi.
That kind of publicity, proved or alleged, ran counter to President Barack Obama’s 2009 order that suspected terrorists were not to be held in secret, and subjected to clandestine interrogation. The CIA continues to deny any such detentions, according to the Associated Press, but the CIA, last I checked, is under no mandate to tell the truth.
The old CIA categorized its lies into white, gray, and black propaganda. The less volatile propaganda consisted of half-truths that you leaked to newspapers. Black propaganda items were complete falsehoods. The “Innocence of Muslims” narrative, told repetitively by Hillary Clinton, by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, by Press Secretary Jay Carney, could be a good example.
The obvious reason for misleading the American public about Benghazi would be to protect President Obama’s chances at re-election. The conservative American Thinker is skeptical of reports that President Obama learned of Petraeus’ involvement with Broadwell on Nov. 7, a day after the national elections.
There is good reason for skepticism. The FBI investigations, which began when Jill Kelley complained to an FBI acquaintance of being harassed by Broadwell, Petraeus’ romantic liaison, began in May. Further, we are expected to believe that the U.S. Attorney General didn’t inform President Obama of the investigations, which had by then expanded to Petraeus.
Yes, that’s the story, and they’re sticking to it. John Le Carre would have done a better job of weaving a web of intelligence agency lying.
Anthony Ventre is a freelance writer who has written for newspapers and online publications. He is a Yahoo contributor in commentary and financial writing.
