New York Time report finds that assault on Benghazi did NOT involve terrorist organizations and WAS partially inspired by the US made anti-Islamic video. That sound you hear is hair being pulled out of Republican heads. Update!

Courtesy of USA Today:  

A lengthy New York Times investigation of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, found no involvement by al-Qaeda or other international terrorists groups and was accelerated in part by anger at a U.S.-made video denigrating Islam. 

The attack left four Americans dead, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. 

The six-part report on the investigation is written by David D. Kirkpatrick and was posted Saturday on the Times' website. It centers on extensive interviews with Libyans in Benghazi who, the newspaper says, had direct knowledge of the attack and its context. 

"The attack does not appear to have been meticulously planned, but neither was it spontaneous or without warning signs," the Times concludes. 

The newspaper notes that Republicans have argued that the Obama administration was trying to cover up al-Qaeda's alleged role in the attack. 

"It was very clear to the individuals on the ground that this was an al-Qaeda-led event," Rep, Mike Rogers, R-Mich., who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said last month on Fox News. "But the Republican arguments appear to conflate purely local extremist organizations like Ansar al-Shariah with Al Qaeda's international terrorist network," the Times report says. 

"The only intelligence connecting Al Qaeda to the attack was an intercepted phone call that night from a participant in the first wave of the attack to a friend in another African country who had ties to members of Al Qaeda, according to several officials briefed on the call. But when the friend heard the attacker's boasts, he sounded astonished, the officials said, suggesting he had no prior knowledge of the assault."

First CBS is forced to retract their Benghazi story and now this.

In light of this report if Fox News had a shred of journalistic integrity they would simply fold up shop and go out of business. You know, if they had a shred.

It is almost like a crazed Right Wing conspiracy can't catch a damn break anymore.

When reached for comment Darell Issa started frothing at the mouth. rending his clothes, and  shouting "Benghazi! Benghazi! Benghazi!"

Update: I just watched Issa on MTP this morning, and he was  incredibly duplicitous in his response to questions, suggesting that the attackers "had ties" to al-Qaeda, which according to his rather loose interpretation could be defined as simply being sympathetic to their cause.

He also has this extremely annoying technique of seeming to agree with somebody (In this case Andrea Mitchell and the New York Times reporter.), and even complimenting them, and then modifying what they just said right in front of them to fit his narrative and almost daring them to correct him. Which I have to say neither of them did effectively.

As you might imagine Issa is not the only Republican who is fighting back against this report.

“I dispute that, and the intelligence community, to a large volume, disputes that,” Michigan GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told “Fox News Sunday.” 

 He also repeatedly said the story was “not accurate.”

It is important to note that the New York Times piece does not give the administration a free pass. but it does completely blow out of the water any idea that there was a conspiracy to  lie to the American people about Benghazi.