Juan Cole: Top Ten Republican Myths on Benghazi that Justify Hillary Clinton’s Anger

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. I want to know what the CIA was up to in Benghazi.

"The Benghazi US mission was very clearly an operation of the Central Intelligence Agency, and that is the reason that the Obama administration officials have never been able to speak frankly and publicly about it. McCain and the others know this very well, and they know that their public carping cannot be “simply” answered because the answers would endanger sources and methods. The consulate was amazingly well-guarded by some 40 CIA operatives, many of them ex-special forces, in a nearby safe house. These were viewed by consular officials as “the cavalry.” It is still not clear what Ambassador Chris Stevens and the CIA were doing in Benghazi, and unless we know that we can’t know why they were attacked."

40 CIA operatives? Juan Cole says they weren't shipping arms to the Syrian rebels. Okay, what were they doing?

And damn those Republicans for obscuring the serious questions with their pseudo-outrage and posturing.