CBS Releases Secret Obama Statements on Benghazi Attacks, Supports Romney's Challenge About Rose Garden Speech

ForexTV NewsDesk   |  November 5 2012 6:18 EST

ForexTV.com (New York) by Timothy Kelly

On the eve of the Presidential election, CBS has released edited footage of a taped interview it conducted with President Barack Obama on September 12 for 60 Minutes,  regarding the Benghazi attacks.  In the interview, the President repeatedly refuses to acknowledge the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya as an act of terrorism, contrary to statements he made during the second Presidential debate.

This omission is yet another high profile political "courtesy" in news reporting by the CBS network in favor of democratic candidates.  Withholding this critical information calls into question the integrity of the news organization that has already shown its inclination to stray from objective reporting into partisan coverage of political parties.

The omission is particularly suspect since it was such a key issue in foreign politics as well as the debates.  Why CBS chose to keep it secret is unknown, but many conservative observers agree that it was withheld till this point to minimize the damage to the Obama campaign.

The edited segment of the interview contains the following exchange between Steve Kroft and President Obama:

KROFT: Mr. President, this morning you went out of your way to avoid the use of the word terrorism in connection with the Libya Attack, do you believe that this was a terrorism attack?

OBAMA: Well it’s too early to tell exactly how this came about, what group was involved, but obviously it was an attack on Americans. And we are going to be working with the Libyan government to make sure that we bring these folks to justice, one way or the other. 

KROFT: It’s been described as a mob action, but there are reports that they were very heavily armed with grenades, that doesn’t sound like your normal demonstration.

OBAMA: As I said, we’re still investigating exactly what happened, I don’t want to jump the gun on this. But your right that this is not a situation that was exactly the same as what happened in Egypt. And my suspicion is there are folks involved in this. Who were looking to target Americans from the start. So we’re gonna make sure that our first priority is to get our folks out safe, make sure our embassies are secured around the world and then we are going to go after those folks who carried this out.

KROFT: There have been reports, obviously this isn’t the first time…there have been attacks on the consulate before. There was an attack against the British ambassador. Do you…this occurred on Sept. 11. Can you tell me why the ambassador was in Benghazi yesterday? Was it to evaluate security at the consulate?

OBAMA: Well keep in mind Chris Stevens is somebody that was one of the first Americans on the ground when we were in the process of saving Benghazi and providing the opportunity for Libyans to create their own democracy. So this is somebody who had been courageous, had been on the ground, had helped to advise me and Secretary Clinton when we were taking our actions against Muammar Qaddafi. And is somebody who is very familiar with the train. He was doing the work that he does as a diplomat helping to shape our policies in the region at a time when things are still fairly fragile. But I think it’s important to note that we have a Libyan government in place that is fully cooperative, that sees the United States as a friend that recognizes we played an important role in liberating Libya and providing the Libyan people an opportunity to forge their own destiny. And in fact we had Libyans who helped protect our diplomats when they were under attack. But this is a country that is still rebuilding in the aftermath of Qaddafi. They don’t necessarily always have the same capabilities that countries with more established governments might have in helping to provide protection to our folks. But beyond that, what I want to do is make sure that we know exactly what happened, how it happened, who perpetrated this action, then we’ll act accordingly.

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