Issa cites the "time" of the emails and the corresponding hours and minutes in Behghazi in the still "classified" documnent:
"...An e-mail sent at 9:11 pm eastern time on September 11, 2012, (3:11 am September 12 in Libya) to the Diplomatic Security Command Center under the subject line 'Update on response actions--Libya' recounts items discussed in a Secure Video Teleconference attended by senior Administration officials. Among the items noted in this e-mail, one states: 'White House is reaching out to U-Tube to advise ramifications of the posting of the Pastor Jon Video.' ..."
Issa states that among the descriptions of actions from different agencies, the email says nothing else about what the White House was doing that night:
"...This information is troubling for a number of reasons. First, it contradicts White Press Secretary Jay Carney's claim this month that White House assertions about an Internet video were 'drawn directly from talking points produced by the intelligence community.' ... The intelligence community talking points that were used, in part, to brief Ambassador Rice were not even requested until September 14--three days after the attack and the White House's decision to embrace its story line ... Second, former Libya Deputy of Chief of Mission Gregory Hicks--who spoke to Ambassador Christopher Stevens on the phone during the attack--indicated that it was immediately clear to him that the assault on the Benghazi diplomatic compound was a terrorist attack and not a protest of a YouTube video gone awry. Retired Brigadier General Robert Lovell, who had served as Deputy Director for Intelligence and Knowledge Development at U.S. Africa Command the night of the attack also testified that the assault on the Benghazi compound was clearly identifiable as a terrorist attack and not a protest gone awry. Former Deputy CIA Director Mike Morrell publicly testified that incorrect conclusions by his agency that there had been a protest were made as a result of analysis that took place after, not during, the attack. In fact, reports and evidence collected during the attack and embraced by some Administration officials specifically pointed to Al Qaeda linked militia Ansar al-Shaira. A State Department draft memo for Secretary Clinton from September 12 about a condolence letter to the mother of slain American Sean Smith actually references both the White House assertion of a YouTube video and the involvement of Ansar al-Sharia ... Third and finally, the e-mail shows the White House had hurried to settle on a false narrative--one at odds with the conclusions reached by those on the ground--before Americans were even out of harm's way or the intelligence community had made an impartial examination of available evidence. According to the e-mail, the White House--at 3:11 am Libya time--had resolved to call YouTube owner Google about an Internet video being responsible for violence more than two hours before Americans Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed by militants at 5:15 am..."Issa's address provides context by referring to emails recently released to the government watchdog organization, Judicial Watch, as a result of that group's Freedom of Information Act law-suit to obtain the Obama Administration's heretofore withheld documents about the 2012 Benghazi consulate terrorist attacks. Said Issa:
"...On April 17, 2014, the State Department sent a letter informing the Committee that it was producing previously unreleased e-mails subject to prior requests and subpoenas. In this letter the State Department acknowledged that these documents were responsive to a September 20, 2012, request and an August 1, 2013, subpoena. These subpoenaed documents had been willfully withheld from the Committee and were only turned over after a federal judge ruled against the administration's efforts to block a Freedom of Information Act request from the organization Judicial Watch..."
Issa cited the email in which White House official Ben Rhodes coordinated talking points for then Ambassador Susan Rice, which attempted to show that the attacks were "...'rooted in an Internet video, and not a failure of policy.'..." Issa said:
"...[The emails] ... exposed false White House claims that inaccurate statements made by then Ambassador Susan Rice on national television were solely the product of bad information from the intelligence community even though the intelligence community talkers made no reference to an Internet video..."
In spite of the information that Issa alleges is in this email, he laments that the Obama administration continues to inhibit the Benghazi investigation by designating information related to the Benghazi incidents as "classified."
"...Unfortunately Secretary Kerry and the State Department continue to try to keep this information from the public, only turning this document over to Congress last month. While the information I have cited from this e-mail is clearly unclassified, the State Department has attempted to obstruct its disclosure by not providing Congress with an unclassified copy of this document that redacted only classified portions outlining what the Department of Defense and the Secretary of State were doing in response to the attack in Benghazi that night. This tactic prevents the release of the e-mail itself..."
