King on Petraeus

By Diana West

After Rep. Peter King's appearance before the press after David Petraeus appeared before the House Intelligence Committee on November 16, he is clearly struggling with what he has heard from Petraeus: a version of Petraeus' September 14 briefing at odds with what King and, more important, the record as set at the time by the ranking Democrat Dutch Ruppersberger, recall. In a nutshell, on September 14, Petraeus emphasized a "spontaneous," video-driven protest that became violent as "extreme" groups opportunistically attacked the U.S. compound (with RPGs and mortars). Petraeus spun this false narrative to the intell committee at a time when the U.S. government already knew no protest whatsoever had taken place in Benghazi; rather, that the ambassador and three other Americans had been killed in a planned assault by al-Qaeda linked groups on the anniversary of 9/11. Petraeus' testimony, in other words, was a lie and an outrage - but no one seems to care. Meanwhile, it is a crime to lie to Congress, oath or no oath. [more...]