Fox Recycles Debunked Benghazi Myths To Claim There Are “Unanswered Questions” About The Attack

Written by Media Matters Staff

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On the October 19 edition of Fox News' America's Newsroom, Fox national security analyst KT McFarland pushed a number of debunked myths about the 2012 Benghazi attacks to claim questions remain for the House Select Committee on Benghazi to answer. McFarland, citing a “rumor,” speculated that the diplomatic mission was in Libya on a covert operation, and falsely claimed there was no rescue mission the night of the attacks and that the Obama administration failed to label the event a terrorist attack. McFarland and host Bill Hemmer concluded that the scandal, which Fox News helped create, was worse than Watergate:

BILL HEMMER (HOST): Your singular question is what were we doing in Benghazi in the first place?

KT MCFARLAND: Nobody has asked that question.

HEMMER: Why is that so important?

MCFARLAND: Because it speaks to the whole Middle East policy of the Obama Administration. You know, we went into Libya, had a Libyan war, got rid of Qaddafi, and then what happened? Jihadi chaos in Libya. There wasn't a democracy. There is now jihadi chaos throughout the entire region. So the question I want to know is, what were those guys doing at that consulate? You know, at the State Department, a consulate is where diplomats work and they issue visas and they look for tourists' lost luggage. They don't walk around with special forces. They don't have a lot of weaponry there. What were they doing?

HEMMER: So go ahead and answer your own question. What's your theory?

MCFARLAND: Here is the rumor that's been swirling around for the last two years, is that they were running guns, is that the Qaddafi forces, Qaddafi had a lot of weapons, particularly shoulder-fired MANPADS, they're weapons that can -- one man operates them and you could take down a helicopter with them. Those all went missing after Qaddafi was overthrown. The rumor was that these guys were in Benghazi, these former special forces guys, because they were looking for those weapons. What were they doing with those weapons? Those are all the unanswered questions that we have.

HEMMER: If that is true, where does that lead?

MCFARLAND: Well, it leads to what were they doing there? Were they taking those weapons and then dismantling them? Were they taking those weapons and they were sending them on? If so, who were they sending them on to?

HEMMER: That's a covert operation.

MCFARLAND: That's a covert operation, that's the Iran Contra. That's -- were they running guns to the Syrian rebels?

HEMMER: Is that where you think this hearing is going? Is that where it's leading?

MCFARLAND: I don't know where it's going. But listen to Trey Gowdy. He's not talking about Hillary's emails and the server and whether they were classified. That's another investigation. He's talking about what was the policy? Why was there no security given even though it was asked again and again and again for more security? Why was there no rescue mission the night of the attack. Why after the Benghazi attack was the administration saying, well, it wasn't really a terrorist attack, it was a riot that got out of hand. And so all of those questions have still not been answered.