Now for the two classic coverup questions: What did President Obama know about the 9/11 Benghazi terrorist attack? And when did he know it?
Answers:
* Plenty.
* Soon enough to realize that the savage attack was in no way a spontaneous event — and to understand that lying about its origins wasn’t going to wash.
But lie Obama did, repeatedly — and now he, his administration and his re-election effort are in a world of well-earned hurt.
E-mails revealed Tuesday by several news agencies show that within two hours of the initial assault, the White House Situation Room was told that a major Libyan al Qaeda affiliate had claimed responsibility.
In fact, the group had even posted its claim on both Facebook and Twitter.
Though the names of both senders and recipients were redacted, it’s clear that copies of the e-mails were sent to people at the Situation Room, the State Department, the FBI command center and various intelligence and military units.
Which may not prove that Obama personally knew — but it certainly shows that those in a position to tell him did.
And that means the White House claim that there was no information pointing to a well-planned terrorist raid was no misunderstanding, but an unadorned lie.
In fact, it was fully two weeks before Obama & Co. finally went back on their earlier insistence — supposedly based on CIA “talking points” — and admitted that it wasn’t a spontaneous attack.
The president’s credibility lies in shreds — and his administration has been exposed for its incompetence.
They lied not only to the American people, but also to themselves — which no doubt explains why no one has even been reprimanded, let alone disciplined, for the humiliating failure.
Both the White House and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday dismissed the e-mail news as “not in and of itself evidence” of anything.
But that’s lawyers’ lingo — evasive maneuvering meant to shield the president from the consequences of his fabrications.
Perhaps the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others was unavoidable. And yes, initial intelligence reports are often wrong.
But for two weeks, the public statements by Obama and his subordinates did not reflect any of the supposed confusion. Indeed, the administration was definite: This was the work of a flash mob.
It seems pretty clear why Team Obama desperately clung to this line:
Because any suggestion that al Qaeda had not been decisively crippled by the death of Osama bin Laden threatened the president’s political narrative.
So the White House, knowing there was a damning e-mail trail, lied anyway.
That’s duplicitous, and it’s very dumb.
Par for the course, sad to say.