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David Petraeus testifies before Intelligence Committee

After two days of testimony at closed door House and Senate Intelligence Committee hearings, one fact has emerged: Someone in the Obama administration is playing fast and loose with the facts before, during and after the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

As reported early Thursday evening, senior national security officials testified it was clear from the very start that the Benghazi consulate was subjected to a pre-planned armed assault. This information came to us from Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Saxby Chambliss who told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, “It was very clear from day one this was a terrorist attack.”

The real blockbuster came during Friday’s hearing, when former CIA Director David Petraeus told the committee members that the CIA memo he prepared indicated that the raid was a planned assault involving al-Qaida affiliated terrorists and that there was no mention of a demonstration against an anti-Muslim YouTube video.

Somewhere that language got changed.  According to Rep. Pete King (R-LI), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, “Nobody knows where it was changed.”

Clearly upset, King continued, “ It was nobody in the intelligence community, so it goes to the Justice Department, State Department, White House — somewhere along the line.” According to a Fox News report,

King called for White House staff to testify in the committee’s probe of the botched response to the Sept. 11 Benghazi attack “to see if anyone there changed the talking points . . . and why.”

“There is still a lot of unanswered questions,” he said of the Benghazi probe. “It’s far from over.”

Some lawmakers claimed the language in the talking points was changed so the terrorists wouldn’t be alerted that US authorities were on their trail. Others said that explanation was preposterous.

U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), is also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He described the CIA talking points memo’s alteration as “either a cover-up or the worst kind of incompetence” by Obama and his administration.

Whether the memo was altered before or after it reached the White House, one thing is certain: The “buck stops” in the oval office.