Transcript: Former Ambassador Susan Rice on "Face the Nation," June 10, 2018

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Transcript: Former Ambassador Susan Rice on "Face the Nation," June 10, 2018



President Trump arrived in Singapore on Sunday ahead of this week's historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. He flew to Singapore straight from a meeting of the G7 nations in Canada, one that turned contentious over Mr. Trump's trade demands of Western allies.

Susan Rice served as U.N. ambassador and national security adviser in the Obama administration. She joined us to discuss U.S. goals at the Singapore summit, Mr. Trump's comments about Russia and more.

The following is a transcript of the interview with Rice that aired Sunday, June 10, 2018, on "Face the Nation."

MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to President Obama's national security adviser and former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice. Ambassador it's good to have you here on Face the Nation.

FORMER UN AMBASSADOR SUSAN RICE: Great to be with you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: This is a historic summit. For you, what do you think the best possible outcome could be?

AMBASSADOR RICE: I think the best possible outcome is that we have more than a photo op or even a cordial conversation, but the two leaders agreed to some very concrete steps that they can then pass on to their negotiators in the form of a framework that the negotiators can then flesh out into a substantive agreement. It's going to take quite a while. This is very complicated set of issues and success can't be declared on the basis of a happy meeting.

MARGARET BRENNAN: President Obama liked to embrace diplomacy. Why did he choose not to try to negotiate with Kim Jong Un?

AMBASSADOR RICE: Well in fact there were efforts at discussions we had them during the Clinton administration, we had them during the Bush administration, and we even had opportunities and efforts during the Obama administration. The problem is that at every turn the North Koreans would make commitments and then break them and we need to be mindful that that is again what might happen in this context.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But this is a different diplomatic structure right? It's flipped on its head. You're starting with--

AMBASSADOR RICE: Starting with the leaders

MARGARET BRENNAN: --the leaders.

AMBASSADOR RICE: Yeah.

MARGARET BRENNAN: So do you give the president some credit for being willing to take this high level of risk?

AMBASSADOR RICE: Well, I think- you know it's clear that the past set of efforts have not succeeded. I am a believer in diplomacy and I am open to- to new methods of trying to accomplish the- the consistent objective that we have of full denuclearization. I think the question is are we walking in prepared? Are we walking in with our allies behind us? Are we in a position to understand that one meeting it's not going to be one and done. This is the start of a serious negotiating process.

Who is Susan Rice, the Obama ally behind the 'unmasking' controversy?

By Miranda Green, CNN



Updated 5:37 PM ET, Tue April 4, 2017








Washington (CNN)Since her time as a national security adviser and former UN ambassador during the Obama administration, Susan Rice had largely been out of the limelight until she was recently thrust into the snowballing White House surveillance controversy.

Rice reportedly attempted on numerous occasions to uncover the identities of President Donald Trump's associates caught on tape incidentally during intelligence surveillance. The report quickly re-opened an unsubstantiated debate on whether the Obama administration previously ordered wiretaps on Trump's phones.

Rice defended her actions Tuesday, telling MSNBC that her requests were "absolutely not for any political purposes, to spy, or anything."

"There were occasions when I would receive a report in which a US person was referred to -- name not provided, just a US person -- and sometimes in that context, in order to understand the importance of the report, and assess its significance, it was necessary to find out, or request the information as to who the US official was," Rice said.
"The notion that some people are trying to suggest, is that by asking for the identity of a person is leaking it, is unequivocally false," Rice added. "There is no connection between unmasking and leaking."

It's not the first time Rice has found herself at the center of a political controversy. A steadfast fixture through both of Obama's presidential terms, she served as the US ambassador to the United Nations and later national security adviser from 2013 to 2017.

Benghazi

At one point Rice had a clear trajectory to succeed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state in 2013, but withdrew her name from consideration following a public outcry over her role in the handling of the Benghazi attacks.

US to provide South Sudan with $180M in food aid

By JULIE PACE 23 minutes ago

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EDGARTOWN, Mass. (AP) — The United States is providing $180 million in emergency aid to address a food crisis in South Sudan.

White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice says the people of South Sudan face the worst food shortage in the world. She blamed the suffering of the South Sudanese on their leaders' inability to put the people's interests ahead of their own.

The money for the food aid is coming from USAID, as well as a Department of Agriculture trust.

The White House says the U.S. has already provided South Sudan with more than $456 million in humanitarian aid, but more is needed because of the threat of famine.

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Thrust Into Nonstop Turmoil, an Obama Adviser Counsels Pragmatism

By MARK LANDLER
Published: August 16, 2013



CHILMARK, Mass. — Each morning this week, Susan E. Rice has called or come to a secluded contemporary house here, intelligence reports at hand, to brief President Obama about the chaotic world that has followed him on vacation.



 

Christopher Gregory/The New York Times
Susan E. Rice, left, seen in the White House Rose Garden in June, has been on the job as national security adviser for six weeks.





Related

Blood and Chaos Prevail in Egypt, Testing Control (August 17, 2013)

Ties Fraying, Obama Drops Putin Meeting (August 8, 2013)


On Wednesday, Ms. Rice, the national security adviser, delivered a particularly troubling report: Egypt’s military had begun a bloody operation to clear two camps of demonstrators protesting on behalf of that country’s ousted president, Mohamed Morsi. Among the options she laid out was a plan already on the table to pull the United States from joint military exercises with Egypt.

After Mr. Obama left to play golf, Ms. Rice, 48, returned to her own lodgings to consult with aides at the White House. After 5 p.m., the two spoke again, and Mr. Obama signed off on the plan.

The turmoil in Egypt, which erupted in early July just as she took up her job, has presented the toughest test yet for Ms. Rice, who in six weeks has already dealt with a terrorist scare that prompted the closing of embassies across the Middle East and with the latest chapter in deteriorating relations with Russia: the saga of Edward J. Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, which led Mr. Obama to cancel a meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

Given her reputation as an outspoken defender of human rights and advocate of American intervention to prevent abuses, some analysts wondered if Ms. Rice, a former United Nations ambassador, would bring a more muscular, idealistic cast to Mr. Obama’s foreign policy.

Aides said her counsel on Egypt, however, had been resolutely pragmatic: signal America’s displeasure by canceling the military exercises and holding up the delivery of F-16 fighter jets, but avoid rupturing a four-decade relationship with Egypt’s military leaders.

“She has wanted to preserve the relationship,” said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. “She’s pretty realistic on some of these issues.”

The mere fact that Ms. Rice has traveled to Martha’s Vineyard this week attests to her closeness to the president. She is the first national security adviser to make one of Mr. Obama’s vacation trips, which were staffed in the past by aides like Benjamin J. Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, and Denis R. McDonough, the chief of staff, whose history with Mr. Obama goes back to the 2008 campaign.

And Ms. Rice is not only working, she is also socializing with Mr. Obama and his wife, Michelle. On Wednesday evening, after briefing him on Egypt, Ms. Rice attended a sunset cocktail party given for the Obamas by the cable TV mogul Brian Roberts, mingling with guests like Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.; Valerie Jarrett, a close Obama adviser; and Larry David, who talked about his new HBO movie, set on Martha’s Vineyard.

Ms. Rice, who got to know Mr. Obama as a foreign policy adviser during his campaign in 2008, has brought along her husband, Ian Cameron, a TV producer, and their two children. In between the crises, aides say, she is trying to spend time with her family.

People who know Ms. Rice said she aspires to be not just a confidante and internal broker of policy options for the president — as was the model for previous national security advisers — but also a strategic thinker and a public voice for foreign policy.

If so, Egypt may be a hard policy to sell. The administration’s reluctance to cast off the Egyptian military is exposing it to criticism that it is tolerating a brutal regime with no plans to return Egypt to democracy and no qualms about gunning down its people. Ms. Rice, officials said, will have to judge how much bloodshed the United States can stomach.

It is a familiar quandary. Ms. Rice pushed Mr. Obama to back a NATO intervention against Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya and has expressed regret, as an official involved in the debate, that the Clinton administration did not do more to prevent the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.


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Susan Rice: Snowden leaks haven't weakened Obama

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In this June 25, 2013 photo provided by the United Nations, outgoing U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice speaks to reporters at her final news conference at the U.N. headquarters. Rice, who will start her new job as U.S. national security adviser on July 1, said the U.N. Security Council's failure to take action to stop the conflict in Syria is "a moral and strategic disgrace that history will judge harshly." (AP Photo/United Nations Photo, Devra Berkowitz)

EDITH M. LEDERER 29 minutes ago PoliticsForeign PolicyBarack ObamaUnited States



UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice dismissed claims that Edward Snowden's highly classified leaks have weakened the Obama presidency and damaged U.S. foreign policy, insisting that the United States will remain "the most influential, powerful and important country in the world."

Rice's remarks were her only public ones on Snowden and came in an interview with The Associated Press as she prepared to leave the U.N. post and start her new job Monday as President Barack Obama's national security adviser.

She said it's too soon to judge whether there will be any long-term serious repercussions from the intelligence leaks by the former National Security Agency contractor who fled to Hong Kong and then Russia after seizing documents disclosing secret U.S. surveillance programs in the U.S. and overseas, which he has shared with The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers.

"I don't think the diplomatic consequences, at least as they are foreseeable now, are that significant," she said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have called Snowden's leaks a serious breach that damaged national security. Hagel said Thursday an assessment of the damage is being done now.

"There will always be difficult issues of the day," Rice said, "and frankly this period is not particularly unique."

"I think the Snowden thing is obviously something that we will get through, as we've gotten through all the issues like this in the past," she said in the interview Thursday before heading to a lunch in her honor hosted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The United States has charged Snowden with espionage and demanded his extradition, but China and Hong Kong let him fly to Moscow and the Russians have so far refused. The Snowden case has not only raised tensions with Moscow and Beijing but with many Americans concerned about the NSA collecting their Internet and phone data.

Rice dismissed commentators who say Snowden's disclosures have made Obama a lame duck, damaged his political base, and hurt U.S. foreign policy, saying: "I think that's bunk."

"I think the United States of America is and will remain the most influential, powerful and important country in the world, the largest economy, and the largest military, (with) a network of alliances, values that are universally respected," she said.

Rice said Obama has "significant ambitions and a real agenda" for his second term, pointing to major speeches last week on disarmament and nonproliferation and this week on the impact of climate change.

As for Snowden, she said, "It's often, if not always something, and U.S. leadership will continue to be unrivaled, demanded, expected — and reviled and appreciated around the world."

Rice, 48, is expected to bring her outspoken and aggressive negotiating style to her new, higher-profile job.

At the United Nations, she has been a bold and blunt ambassador, successfully pushing for tougher sanctions against Iran and North Korea and international intervention in Libya. But Libya ultimately caused her greatest professional disappointment when she became the face of the administration's bungled account of the terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador.

The furor scuttled Rice's long-held hopes of becoming secretary of state when it became clear she would not gain Senate confirmation to that post, which went to John Kerry.

Rice has called her 4 1/2 years at the U.N. "the best job I ever had," and told The AP she would be "hard-pressed" to think of any better place to prepare for her new post.

"You get to deal with ... literally every country under the sun, and I think you get a unique feel for the orientations, interests, styles, of a wide, wide range of countries," she said.

To succeed at the U.N., Rice said, it's crucial to form alliances and coalitions, which change depending on the issue, so a friend one day can be an opponent the next day.

Rice has sparred repeatedly with Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who can be equally blunt. But despite being on opposite sides of the Syrian conflict, which has paralyzed council action to end the fighting, Rice said they agree perhaps 85 percent of the time.

"I like and respect him," she said. "I think he likes and respects me, and it's been a good relationship. That's why I asked him to speak at my farewell. I asked people who were important to me. He's a very smart and a very funny guy and he can be a pain in the butt, too — and I tell him that to his face!"

At the farewell, Churkin delivered an off-the-record roast of Rice, without notes, that had some 300 diplomats, U.N. officials and journalists doubled-over in laughter.

The Syrian conflict will be near the top of Rice's agenda in Washington as will the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.

Rice said the result of Iran's presidential election earlier this month, a victory for Hasan Rouhani, a moderate who supports direct talks with Washington, "was a dramatic demonstration of the Iranian peoples' dissatisfaction with the status quo."

"To the extent that the leadership feels obliged to heed popular opinion — obviously we would hope they would — it may perhaps signal a readiness to move in a different direction, and if so, we would welcome it," she said.

Source

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P.S.

*Susan Rice (CFR, Trilateral Commission Executive Committee)

.http://lefemineforlife.blogspot.com/2008/12/obama-announces-five-more-nwo.html

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Susan Rice biography

Synopsis

Susan E. Rice was born on November 17, 1964, in Washington, D.C. She went on to study at Stanford University and the University of Oxford in Oxfordshire with a focus on international affairs. She worked with President Clinton as part of the National Security Council and oversaw African affairs, later working at the Brookings Institution. In 2009, she joined President Obama's Cabinet, receiving Senate confirmation to be U.N. ambassador. In 2013, she was appointed national security adviser by Obama.

CONTENTS
Synopsis
Early Life
Interest in Diplomacy
Government Appointments
U.N. Ambassador
National Security Adviser

Early Life

U.N. Ambassador and foreign policy adviser Susan Elizabeth Rice was born in Washington, D.C., on November 17, 1964, to parents Lois Dickson Fitt and Emmett J. Rice. Rice's family is well renowned among the Washington elite; father, Emmett, is a Cornell University economics professor and former governor of the Federal Reserve System, while mother Lois is an education policy researcher and guest scholar at the Brookings Institution.

Growing up, Rice's family often spoke of politics and foreign policy at the dinner table. Her mother's job also brought notable figures through the house, including Madeleine Albright, with whom Rice's mother served with on a local school board. Albright would later become a pivotal figure in Rice's personal and professional life.

Rice attended National Cathedral School, a prep academy in Washington, D.C. She excelled in academics, becoming her class valedictorian, and showed her aptitude in the politic realm as president of the student council. She also loved athletics, competing in three different sports, and became a star point guard on the basketball team.

After graduation, Rice attended Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. In college, she pushed herself to excel. She not only earned Departmental Honors and University Distinction, but also became a Harry S. Truman scholar, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and earned a Rhodes scholarship. She turned the heads of top administrators when she created a fund that withheld alumni donations until the university either stopped their investments in companies doing business in South Africa, or the country ended apartheid.
Interest in Diplomacy

After receiving her bachelor's degree in history in 1986, Susan Rice went on to attend University of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. Here, she earned her M.Phil and D.Phil in international relations, and wrote a dissertation that examined Rhodesia's transition from white rule. Her paper won the Royal Commonwealth Society's Walter Frewen Lord Prize for outstanding research in the field of Commonwealth History, as well as the Chatham House-British International Studies Association Prize for the most distinguished doctoral dissertation in the United Kingdom in the field of International Relations.

She finished her schooling in 1990, and started work as an international management consultant at McKinsey & Company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. On Septmber 12, 1992, she married her Stanford romantic interest, Ian Cameron, who was working as a television producer in Toronto for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

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From Ricin to Rice

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Approximately two weeks ago it was all about Ricin sent to Bloomberg and Obama; now in the middle of the week it's all about Susan Rice being named national security chief. 

Why the hoopla?

After the Talking Points Debacle, Rice? ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Really?

Why all the cryptic cipher? 

Ricin, and now Rice?

The controlled media is being directed by an entity that takes pride in telegraphing subliminal messages...  The so-called journalist and reporters will not investigate, they only repeat (without ever questioning what is being said) what the powers that be hand them as news.

Don't forget your breakfast in the morning.  Cheery-O!

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Arsenio.

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Obama Sticks It to the GOP with Rice Appointment

Photo: REUTERS/Jim Bourg



By DAVID FRANCIS, The Fiscal Times
June 5, 2013



By adding embattled U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to his inner circle, Obama is provoking Republicans while bringing Chicago-style politics to the Beltway.

Choosing Rice as national security chief is a politically shrewd choice since she will not have to be confirmed by the Senate--she can take the job without facing-off with her Republican critics.

It’s also a clear show of confidence in Rice, who has been under nearly constant fire because of her role in the aftermath of September’s Benghazi attack. Days after four Americans were killed, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Rice appeared on NBC’s "Meet the Press" and other news networks and told the country that the attack was prompted by an Anti-Islam film produced in the United States.

"There's no question, as we've seen in the past with things like 'The Satanic Verses,' with the cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad, there have been such things that have sparked outrage and anger and this has been the proximate cause of what we've seen," Rice said.

“What happened in Benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, prompted by the video,” Rice said.

Her statements later proved false as the government’s “talking points” emails revealed that the terrorist organization Al Qaeda was behind the attack.

Since then, Republicans have charged that Rice intentionally lied to protect the president before an election. They allege she downplayed the seriousness of the incident to prevent the president from looking soft on security issues.

Republican anger over their perception of Rice’s actions forced her to withdraw her name from consideration as Secretary of State. In recent months, Rice’s name has been synonymous with the alleged Benghazi cover-up, as Republicans continue to insist she misled the public.

Her appointment is a giant snub to Republicans by Obama who simply doesn’t care about their criticisms. Rice has been a willing sacrificial lamb for the White House, standing silent as Republicans accused her of lying. By making her an untouchable part of his inner circles, he’s rewarding her loyalty.

Obama is also sticking it to Republicans by forcing them to work with someone whom they’ve openly despised for months. Some have grudgingly said they’ll now work with her to keep the nation safe.

“I will not be petty. I will put my differences on Benghazi aside and work with her," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said. John McCain (R-AZ) added on Twitter, "I’ll make every effort to work w/ her on important issues."

Republicans are already gearing up to challenge Obama’s pick to replace Rice, Samantha Power. In a book about genocide Power alleged the United States failed to meet its moral obligation to stop mass killings in Africa and the Balkans.

“I don’t know about you, but it might be helpful to have someone representing America at the UN who doesn’t think we are the source of world’s ills,” Keith Urbahn, a former chief of staff to former Pentagon chief Donald H. Rumsfeld, tweeted this morning.

Power will to be grilled on her book when she sits in front of the Senate for confirmation hearings, but she’s likely to get confirmed. Obama and his allies will find a way to get it done.

Both Rice and Power are bold, controversial picks that the White House knows will irk Republicans. But that doesn’t matter to the president. Nearly six years in office has shown Obama to be an expert at getting what he wants, no matter the opposition. That’s the Chicago way.



Source: http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/06/05/Obama-Sticks-It-to-the-GOP-with-Rice-Appointment.aspx#1WFKDEGZCZPzkXws.99

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P.S.

Remember the spontaneous reaction to the video?

NRCC Communications


Published on May 8, 2013


On Face the Nation immediately after the attack on our mission in Benghazi, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said it was a spontaneous protest caused by an inflammatory video.

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Exclusive: Benghazi Talking Points Underwent 12 Revisions, Scrubbed of Terror Reference

US News | Syria News | More ABC News Videos

White House Benghazi Attack Talking Points Edited

By Jonathan Karl
@jonkarl
Follow on Twitter
May 10, 2013 6:33am

When it became clear last fall that the CIA’s now discredited Benghazi talking points were flawed, the White House said repeatedly the documents were put together almost entirely by the intelligence community, but White House documents reviewed by Congress suggest a different story.

ABC News has obtained 12 different versions of the talking points that show they were extensively edited as they evolved from the drafts first written entirely by the CIA to the final version distributed to Congress and to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice before she appeared on five talk shows the Sunday after that attack.




AFP/Getty Images

Related: Read the Full Benghazi Talking Point Revisions

White House emails reviewed by ABC News suggest the edits were made with extensive input from the State Department. The edits included requests from the State Department that references to the Al Qaeda-affiliated group Ansar al-Sharia be deleted as well references to CIA warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi in the months preceding the attack.

That would appear to directly contradict what White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said about the talking points in November.

“Those talking points originated from the intelligence community. They reflect the IC’s best assessments of what they thought had happened,” Carney told reporters at the White House press briefing on November 28, 2012. “The White House and the State Department have made clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two institutions were changing the word ‘consulate’ to ‘diplomatic facility’ because ‘consulate’ was inaccurate.”

Summaries of White House and State Department emails — some of which were first published by Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard — show that the State Department had extensive input into the editing of the talking points.

State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland raised specific objections to this paragraph drafted by the CIA in its earlier versions of the talking points:


“The Agency has produced numerous pieces on the threat of extremists linked to al-Qa’ida in Benghazi and eastern Libya. These noted that, since April, there have been at least five other attacks against foreign interests in Benghazi by unidentified assailants, including the June attack against the British Ambassador’s convoy. We cannot rule out the individuals has previously surveilled the U.S. facilities, also contributing to the efficacy of the attacks.”

In an email to officials at the White House and the intelligence agencies, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland took issue with including that information because it “could be abused by members [of Congress] to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either? Concerned …”

The paragraph was entirely deleted.

Like the final version used by Ambassador Rice on the Sunday shows, the CIA’s first drafts said the attack appeared to have been “spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo” but the CIA version went on to say, “That being said, we do know that Islamic extremists with ties to al-Qa’ida participated in the attack.” The draft went on to specifically name the al Qaeda-affiliated group named Ansar al-Sharia.

Related: ABC News’ Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl Answers Your Questions About Benghazi

Once again, Nuland objected to naming the terrorist groups because “we don’t want to prejudice the investigation.”

In response, an NSC staffer coordinating the review of the talking points wrote back to Nuland, “The FBI did not have major concerns with the points and offered only a couple minor suggestions.”

After the talking points were edited slightly to address Nuland’s concerns, she responded that changes did not go far enough.

“These changes don’t resolve all of my issues or those of my buildings leadership,” Nuland wrote.

In an email dated 9/14/12 at 9:34 p.m. — three days after the attack and two days before Ambassador Rice appeared on the Sunday shows – Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes wrote an email saying the State Department’s concerns needed to be addressed.

“We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation. We thus will work through the talking points tomorrow morning at the Deputies Committee meeting.”

Related: Diplomat Says Requests For Benghazi Rescue Were Rejected

After that meeting, which took place Saturday morning at the White House, the CIA drafted the final version of the talking points – deleting all references to al Qaeda and to the security warnings in Benghazi prior to the attack.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said none of this contradicts what he said about the talking points because ultimately all versions were actually written and signed-off by the CIA.

“The CIA drafted these talking points and redrafted these talking points,” Carney said. “The fact that there are inputs is always the case in a process like this, but the only edits made by anyone here at the White House were stylistic and nonsubstantive. They corrected the description of the building or the facility in Benghazi from consulate to diplomatic facility and the like. And ultimately, this all has been discussed and reviewed and provided in enormous levels of detail by the administration to Congressional investigators, and the attempt to politicize the talking points, again, is part of an effort to, you know, chase after what isn’t the substance here.”

UPDATE: A source familiar with the White House emails on the Benghazi talking point revisions say that State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland was raising two concerns about the CIA’s first version of talking points, which were going to be sent to Congress: 1) The talking points went further than what she was allowed to say about the attack during her state department briefings; and, 2) she believed the CIA was attempting to exonerate itself at the State Department’s expense by suggesting CIA warnings about the security situation were ignored.

In one email, Nuland asked, why are we suggest Congress “start making assertions to the media [about the al Qaeda connection] that we ourselves are not making because we don’t want to prejudice the investigation?”

One other point: The significant edits – deleting references to al Qaeda and the CIA’s warnings – came after a White House meeting on the Saturday before Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on five Sunday shows. Nuland, a 30-year foreign service veteran who has served under Democratic and Republican Secretaries of State, was not at that meeting and played no direct role in preparing Rice for her interviews.


Source: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/05/exclusive-benghazi-talking-points-underwent-12-revisions-scrubbed-of-terror-references/

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Benghazi Talking Points Revisions Pushed By State Department

Posted: 05/10/2013 12:49 pm EDT | Updated: 05/11/2013 1:50 pm EDT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/10/benghazi-talking-points_n_3253638.html?ir=Politics 


By DONNA CASSATA, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senior State Department officials pressed for changes in the talking points that U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice used after the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya last September, expressing concerns that Congress might criticize the Obama administration for ignoring warnings of a growing threat in Benghazi.

An interim report by Republicans on five House committees last month had detailed how the talking points were changed, days after the Sept. 11 attack and in the heat of the 2012 presidential campaign. New details about the political concerns and the names of the administration officials who wrote emails concerning the talking points emerged on Friday.

The White House has insisted that it made only stylistic changes to the intelligence agency talking points in which Rice suggested that protests over an anti-Islamic video set off the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Before the presidential election, the administration said Rice's talking points were based on the best intelligence assessments available in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

But the report and the new details Friday suggest a greater degree of White House and State Department involvement.

The latest developments are certain to add fuel to the politically charged debate over Benghazi. Republicans have suggested that the Obama administration sought to play down the possibility of terrorism during the campaign and has misled the country. A senior administration official reiterated Friday that the talking points were based on intelligence assessments and developed during an interagency process, which included the CIA, officials from the Director of National Intelligence, State Department, FBI and the Justice Department.

The official commented only on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the investigation

Last Sept. 14, two days before Rice's appearance, the CIA's initial draft of the talking points referred to Islamic extremists taking part in the attack in Benghazi, possible links to Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Sharia, a CIA assessment of threats from extremists linked to al-Qaida and a mention of five previous attacks against foreign interests in Benghazi.

A congressional official who reviewed 100 pages of emails and the 12 pages of talking points said former State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland expressed concerns about the talking points, writing that they "could be abused by members of Congress to beat the State Department for not paying attention to agency warnings so why would we want to seed the Hill."

The reference to al-Sharia was deleted, but Nuland wrote later that night, "these don't resolve all my issues and those of my building leadership, they are consulting with NSS," a reference to the National Security staff within the White House.

A meeting of senior officials was convened on Saturday morning after the attack to work on the talking points and they included officials from the White House, State Department and CIA.

Deleted from the final talking points were mention of al-Qaida, the experience of fighters in Libya and Islamic extremists, according to the congressional official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the emails that have not been released.


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Panel faults security failures in Benghazi attacks

A high-level panel faults the State Department for systematic security failures, which left the U.S. mission in Libya ill-equipped to deal with the attacks.




A man brandishes his weapon at the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, the night it came under attack by Islamist militants. (AFP/Getty Images / September 11, 2012)


Related photos »

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Susan Rice withdraws name from running for secretary of State

GOP senators criticize Susan Rice after meeting on Benghazi attack

Fog of politics on Benghazi



By Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times

December 18, 2012, 11:03 p.m.



WASHINGTON — The State Department was guilty of "systematic failures" in security that made the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Libya possible, a high-level investigative panel concluded in an unflinching examination made public late Tuesday.

The panel faulted the department for ignoring requests from U.S. diplomats in Tripoli for security assistance and for relying on ill-prepared local militias and inadequate equipment to protect the mission in Benghazi. It found that two key bureaus failed to properly coordinate their security planning, and it pointed to a failure in leadership by officials at several levels.

"Systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department resulted in a … security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place," the report says.

The attacks by dozens of Islamist militants killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans and set off a broad reexamination of how the U.S. government protects its thousands of diplomats in dangerous parts of the world. The incident has also become the focus of a months-long battle between the Obama administration and Republican critics, who contend officials have sought to cover up their lapses.

United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice was among those caught up in the political fray, eventually withdrawing her name from consideration as secretary of State after fierce criticism of her comments on television talk shows regarding the Benghazi attacks.

According to the report, which is likely to represent the government's lasting judgment on the attacks, the assault was the calculated effort of militants and not a "spontaneous" reaction of an outraged crowd, the first explanation offered by U.S. officials.

Yet the five-member independent panel said that, despite the lapses, no officials had failed to carry out their duties in a way that required disciplinary action.

It also determined that there had been "no immediate, specific intelligence" on the threat against the mission.

The report prepared for lawmakers includes classified sections.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a letter to congressional committees that she has accepted "every one" of the Accountability Review Board's 29 recommendations, several of which remain classified.

She praised the board, saying that it had offered "a clear-eyed look at serious, systematic challenges that we have already begun to fix."

To begin remedying the problems, officials are planning to reallocate $1.3 billion that was to be spent in Iraq to add hundreds of Marine guards and diplomatic security personnel, and to bolster security infrastructure in dangerous locations.

The board, which was convened in September, was led by retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael G. Mullen. The two will meet Wednesday in closed session with the Senate and House foreign affairs committees to discuss the findings.

On Thursday, the committees will convene again in public session to discuss the report with Clinton's deputies, William J. Burns and Thomas Nides. Clinton had agreed to appear before the committees Thursday, but asked to be excused last weekend after suffering a mild concussion in a fall. She has told the committees she would answer their questions in January.

The report criticizes officials for waiting to react to specific threats rather than anticipating the dangers that U.S. officials could face in a deteriorating security environment.

More than a year after the end of the end of a revolution that brought down Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi, the nation is still overrun by rival armed groups and lacks a central authority that can guarantee security for foreign missions, as it is required to do under international agreements.

Accountability Review Boards are set up under federal law to examine failures and assign blame. This one found shortcomings in the bureaucratic system, in personnel and equipment.

The report details how the Libyan militias that were supposed to protect the compound were not capable of carrying out the assignment. It deems the mission's fire-safety equipment and physical protections inadequate, and adds that the security arrangements were weakened by the relative inexperience and rapid turnover of personnel, despite their courage.

It also cites "diminished institutional knowledge, continuity and mission capacity."

The report says the mission security shortcomings were made clear by Stevens' trip to Benghazi. Stevens, one of the most respected U.S. diplomats in the region, believed that he faced no special threat in his visit to Benghazi, even though the general level of risk had been on the rise for much of the year.

And the security officials assigned to protect him were not even aware of the specifics of his plans to travel outside the compound during his visit, the panel said.

The investigative panel found that although officials in the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli had sought more security staffing in Benghazi, they had generally not done enough to try to improve security at the lightly protected Benghazi mission.

It said their faith in a local militia and contract security personnel was "misplaced," noting that some militia members had stopped accompanying the mission vehicles to protest their salary and hours.

Among State Department personnel, "there appeared to be very real confusion over who, ultimately, was responsible and empowered to make decisions based on both policy and security considerations," the report says.

The report says certain senior officials in the State Department's Diplomatic Security and Near East Affairs bureaus, whom it didn't identify, "demonstrated a lack of proactive leadership and management ability" in their responses. "However, the board did not find a reasonable cause to determine that any individual employee breached his or her duty," it adds.

The report calls for a strengthening of security and for the department to "urgently review the proper balance between acceptable risk and expected outcomes in high risk, high threat areas."

paul.richter@latimes.com

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"A response to a hateful and offensive video"...

Published on Sep 16, 2012 by uneditedpolitics

This video was uploaded from an Android phone.

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President Obama's silly, sexist defense of Susan Rice

By Kirsten Powers

Published November 15, 2012

FoxNews.com

Nov. 14, 2012: President Obama answers a question during a news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP)


Don't pick on the little lady.

Wednesday, President Obama bizarrely cast the U.N. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, as some delicate flower the boys should stop picking on for her dissembling claims on five Sunday talk shows following the killing of 4 Americans in Benghazi. But, there is no damsel in distress and Obama's paternalistic bravado in defense of a top administration official is going to come back to haunt him.

"If Sen. McCain and Sen. Graham and others want to go after somebody, they should go after me," Obama intoned to the stenographers worshipping at his feet. The media had gathered for a rare "press conference" where Fox News' Ed Henry and ABC's Jake Tapper are usually the only ones who ever seem to ask a question that elicits anything other than filibustering presidential pabulum. (One "journalist" actually congratulatedthe president on his win and gushed about how she has never seen him lose an election.) Group hug!

Obviously caught up in his own silly yarn about meanie Senators and helpless U.N. Ambassadors, the President complained, "When they go after the U.N. ambassador apparently because they think she's an easy target, then they've got a problem with me."

Imagine George Bush saying that people criticized John Bolton because he was an "easy target." He wouldn't.

It's absurd and chauvinistic for Obama to talk about the woman he thinks should be Secretary of State of the United States as if she needs the big strong man to come to her defense because a couple of Senators are criticizing her.

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It's absurd and chauvinistic for Obama to talk about the woman he thinks should be Secretary of State of the United States as if she needs the big strong man to come to her defense because a couple of Senators are criticizing her.

Believe it or not, Rice isn't the first potential Cabinet nominee to be opposed by members of Congress up on the Hill. Obama also left out the inconvenient detail that there is another senator who has Rice in the crosshairs: Sen. Kelly Ayotte. But perhaps a female Senator holding Rice accountable didn't sound menacing enough in the era of the "War on Women."

But it gets much worse.

As the president expressed outrage over the atrocity of members of Congress holding administration officials accountable, he said, "I'm happy to have that discussion with them. But for them to go after the U.N. ambassador? Who had nothing to do with Benghazi?"

Feast on those words for a second: The U.N. Ambassador had "nothing to do with Benghazi." At this point, the White House press corps should have flown into a frenzy, demanding to know why a person who had nothing to do with Benghazi was put on five Sunday talk shows as...the face of Benghazi!

This was an issue that had people scratching their heads the day of the Rice interviews, and plenty of questions were asked as to where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was, and why Rice was put out instead. The administration at the time acted as though there was nothing remarkable about it, even though there clearly was.

But now we know -- straight from the lips of the president of the United States -- that they sent out a person who knew "nothing" about Benghazi to explain an atrocious attack against the United States that killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans serving their country abroad.

No temper tantrum from the White House on the insult of being questioned about a terror attack against the U.S. abroad would be complete without their perennial favorite: the straw man.

The conceit of Obama's argument is that people are picking on a helpless girl -- a lowly U.N. ambassador -- because they are afraid of the big bad president.

Oh, please.

President Obama, incredibly, claimed that he was "happy to have the discussion" about Benghazi.

Really?

Because every time anyone asks the president about Benghazi he claims he can't say anything because there is an investigation going on. The State Department actually said at one point that they would no longer take questions on the issue from reporters.

Senator Graham's response to the president's revelations and accusations at the press conference was exactly right: He said, "Mr. President, don't think for one minute I don't hold you ultimately responsible for Benghazi."

The president says he is ready to talk about this? Great. We are all ears.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/11/15/president-obama-silly-sexist-defense-susan-rice/#ixzz2CPXc6wdN

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Ryan won’t call for Rice’s resignation

By Justin Sink - 10/01/12 02:03 PM ET

 

GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan said Monday that he would "let other people speak on" whether U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice should resign, after some of his Republican colleagues in the House called for her to step down.

"We're making these judgments after we have all the facts," Ryan said of the Romney campaign during an interview on the Laura Ingraham Show. "We don't have all of the facts surrounding this particular person, but we do know the administration has been extremely inconsistent, we do know that was a pre-planned terrorist attack, and the point I'm trying to make is we need to get all the facts to prevent it from happening again."

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Pete King (R-N.Y.) told CNN on Friday that he believed Rice should resign after the ambassador said that an amateur anti-Islam video posted to YouTube had sparked deadly attacks on U.S. installations throughout the Middle East. 

GOP lawmakers questioned that explanation and called on the administration last week to provide more details about the violence at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that left four American foreign service officers dead. On Friday, the administration said that new information suggested that the assault was a "deliberate and organized terrorist attack."

In his interview with CNN, King said Rice's explanation was "a failure of foreign policy message and leadership" and "a misstatement of facts."

Ryan also blasted Rice's initial explanation in the interview, but repeatedly stopped short of calling for the ambassador's resignation.

"Hey look, I mean, we've seen a confused, slow, inconsistent response to what is now very clearly known as a terrorist attack. To simply conclude right away it was a spontaneous mob is in the face of the facts," Ryan said. "The key is that we get the full story so we can make sure something like this never happens again."

And the Wisconsin lawmaker said Rice's case differed from that of Attorney General Eric Holder, whom he has previously called on to resign. Ryan said that unlike the Justice Department's botched "Fast and Furious" gun-tracking program, the administration response to the violent protests in the Middle East had not been thoroughly investigated.

Democrats have defended Rice from Republican calls for her resignation.

“I’m deeply disturbed by efforts to find the politics instead of finding the facts in this debate,” Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said in a written statement. “I’m particularly troubled by calls for Ambassador Rice’s resignation. She is a remarkable public servant for whom the liberation of the Libyan people has been a personal issue and a public mission. She’s an enormously capable person who has represented us at the United Nations with strength and character.”

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'They'd rather sell arms than stand with the Syrian people': U.S. envoy storms out after Russia and China veto U.N resolution | Mail Online

'They'd rather sell arms than stand with the Syrian people': U.S. envoy storms out after Russia and China veto U.N resolution | Mail Online:

'via Blog this'

Another Rice in the Mix

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

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She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Aspen Strategy Group..

(Source:Wiki)

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