Associated Press Helps Rep. Issa Push Benghazi Hoax

The Associated Press gave Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) space to parrot tired Benghazi myths about military aid and President Obama’s whereabouts the night of the attacks in its coverage of the congressman’s recent speech in New Hampshire.

On February 18, the Associated Press detailed Issa’s criticisms of the Obama administration during a New Hampshire speech, highlighting Issa’s accusation that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta refused to send military aid to Americans under attack in Benghazi in September 2012 and his suggestion that Obama was absent as the administration planned its response to the attacks.

Rather than acknowledge that Issa’s claims have been soundly discredited, AP prefaced his remarks with the vague disclaimer, “Democrats complain that the continued focus on the Benghazi attack, in particular, is a political stunt designed to weaken Clinton should she run for president.”

And yet, Issa’s claim that Clinton and Panetta “didn’t react” that night, which AP takes at face value, has been called “cartoonish” by military leaders, who have repeatedly testified that the response represented the best of our military’s capabilities.

All available military assets were deployed to Benghazi during the attacks. In fact, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence credited these responding personnel with saving the lives of Americans that night, and went on to debunk the notion that more could have been done, finding “there were no U.S. military resources in position to intervene in short order in Benghazi to help defend the temporary mission facility.”

Indeed, Panetta ordered the Marine Corps’ Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team (FAST), stationed in Spain, to deploy to Libya “as fast as you can” after the first attack began. But the unit encountered logistical issues, as former diplomatic security agent Fred Burton and journalist Samuel M. Katz explained.

Here’s a photo showing what Obama was doing during the attacks, which has been available on the White House Flickr page for over a year:

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