Susan Rice Deserves An Apology

On Wednesday the Obama administration released 100  pages of emails that detail the process in which the Benghazi talking points were shaped. Those same talking points were the ones that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used on the September 16 Sunday talk shows after the attacks.

For weeks after the attack in Benghazi, Libya the Obama administration as well as State Department officials insisted that the incident was due to a anti-Muslim film posted to YouTube which had sparked outrage and violent protests across the middle east. While President Barack Obama did in fact call the attack an "act of terror" on September 12th, the day after, Press Secretary Jay Carney didn't use either "act of terror" or "terrorism" to define the Benghazi incident until late September. The emails released Wednesday highlight the strong belief by State Department officials as well as the CIA that the anti-Muslim video responsible for protests in Cairo among other locations was also to blame for the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.

Last fall Ambassador Rice was grilled by congressional Republicans for her part in the now erroneous talking points that were released the Sunday after the Sept. 11 attacks. Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsay Graham (R-SC) pointed to her recital of those same talking points as justification for revoking her nomination to succeed Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. After weeks of pushback between the White House and Congressional Republicans Rice withdrew her candidacy for the post. The position was later filled by then Senator John Kerry with support from Senate Republicans.

Contained within the emails released on Wednesday was the revelation that despite being critiqued for her part in the production of the Sept. 16 talking points, Ambassador Rice had no part. Rather the formation of them was between the State Department and the CIA, with minor involvement from the White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes. If anything the emails highlight inter-department  consternation over their public appearance and how it would be affected. However what is even more of interest is that these emails were released months ago to Congressional Republicans and, despite being in receipt of these, they insisted that Susan Rice should be held accountable. Her part in this, if anything, was merely to relay the pre-drafted talking points.

It remains to be seen if Senate Republicans, who were largely responsible for blocking her from the Secretary of State post, will issue a formal apology to Ms. Rice now that the public knows they had knowledge from the beginning of her confirmation process just how far she was involved. So the saying goes: "Don't shoot the messenger." Unfortunately for Ambassador Rice that was not the case.