Former CIA deputy director rebuts Republican charges on Benghazi
By David Ignatius, WashPost, Updated: April 2 at 5:00 pm
Perhaps the chief remaining mystery about Benghazi is why Republicans are still harping on it 19 months after the attack — and why they have been so willing to attack career diplomats, military officers and intelligence officials in their jihad against the Obama administration.
The latest official to be caught in the Benghazi shredder is Michael Morell, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has charged that Morell “lied” about his role in crafting the famous talking points, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has claimed Morell “compromise[d]” his “oath of office” in the hope of getting a promotion to CIA director. Those are serious allegations, even if often made in the Benghazi echo chamber of Fox News.
Morell responded Wednesday by doing something unusual in Washington: He answered the charges in open testimony to the House Intelligence Committee. That may only expose him to further assault — there is no winning battles like this in today’s political climate — but it was novel to see someone push back against personal attack.
Previous hit-and-run victims of the GOP’s Benghazi campaign have included retired Adm. Mike Mullen and former ambassador Thomas Pickering. A report last September by Rep. Darrell Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Reform questioned “the independence and integrity of the review” conducted by the Accountability Review Board headed by Mullen and Pickering. Issa presented no evidence to back up his smear against a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former ambassador to six countries.
(More here.)
Perhaps the chief remaining mystery about Benghazi is why Republicans are still harping on it 19 months after the attack — and why they have been so willing to attack career diplomats, military officers and intelligence officials in their jihad against the Obama administration.
The latest official to be caught in the Benghazi shredder is Michael Morell, former deputy director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has charged that Morell “lied” about his role in crafting the famous talking points, and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has claimed Morell “compromise[d]” his “oath of office” in the hope of getting a promotion to CIA director. Those are serious allegations, even if often made in the Benghazi echo chamber of Fox News.
Morell responded Wednesday by doing something unusual in Washington: He answered the charges in open testimony to the House Intelligence Committee. That may only expose him to further assault — there is no winning battles like this in today’s political climate — but it was novel to see someone push back against personal attack.
Previous hit-and-run victims of the GOP’s Benghazi campaign have included retired Adm. Mike Mullen and former ambassador Thomas Pickering. A report last September by Rep. Darrell Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Reform questioned “the independence and integrity of the review” conducted by the Accountability Review Board headed by Mullen and Pickering. Issa presented no evidence to back up his smear against a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former ambassador to six countries.
(More here.)
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