Petraeus

At Forbes.com, Larry Bell offers a nice summary of the unanswered questions surrounding the Benghazi-Patreaus controversy. He asks (and addresses) the following: “Did the White House blackmail General Petraeus to support a cover story?” “When did the President really learn about the Petraeus affair?” “Why weren’t repeated precautionary consulate security requests heeded?” “If the President ordered that personnel be secured, why weren’t they?” “Are even larger cover-ups being hidden from Congress?” 

Yet there is at least one other crucial question (in addition to, Why did the White House mislead the American people about whether this was the work of terrorists?), which should be slotted in between the fourth and fifth ones listed above:  Why didn’t President Obama follow through on making sure that every effort was being made to save the Americans under attack?  Would anyone find it acceptable if President George W. Bush—having skipped his daily intelligence briefings for a week or so before the attacks (which, of course, occurred on the anniversary of September 11) — had simply said, let’s “make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to,” and left it at that?  When Americans are under attack, what sort of commander in chief says, just do “whatever we need to” and then calls it a day?

David Petraeus is going to tell members of Congress that he "knew almost immediately after the September 11th attack, that the group Ansar al Sharia, the al Qaeda sympathizing group in Libya was responsible for the attacks," CNN reports.

In his closed door meeting on the Hill,  "[Petraeus] will also say he had his own talking points separate from U.N. ambassador Susan Rice. [Hers] came from somewhere other in the administration than his direct talking points," Barbara Starr of CNN reports, referencing a source close to Petraeus.

The former CIA director will move to further himself from comments that didn't accurately characterize the terror attack that Rice made 5 days after on national television shows.

"When he looks at what Susan Rice said," CNN reports, "here is what Petraeus's take is, according to my source. Petraeus developed some talking points laying it all out. those talking points as always were approved by the intelligence community. But then he sees Susan Rice make her statements and he sees input from other areas of the administration. Petraeus -- it is believed -- will tell the committee he is not certain where Susan Rice got all of her information."

"The FBI probe into the sex scandal that prompted CIA Director David Petraeus to resign has expanded to ensnare Gen. John R. Allen, the commander of U.S.