Sarasota News Leader
May 17, 2013
OPINION
Page 64
THE TAO OF BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
By David Staats
Contributing Writer
COMMENTARY
Among other
things, Taoism
instructs us that creatures of the natural world
move in perfect harmony with the Tao, or path
of belief, and the greater universe. Taoism
also teaches us the virtues of wu wei, or "doing nothing," in order to prevent disruption of
the perfect universal harmony of the Tao.
been drafted by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies and that they represented the
best analysis by the intelligence community
of what had happened in Benghazi on Sept.
11, 2012.
What Carney failed to disclose, however, was
that between Friday, Sept. 14, and Saturday,
Sept. 15, the talking points had undergone as
Foreign policy has been an especially fertile many as 12 separate revisions by the White
field for the Obama Administration to culti- House and the State Department before they
vate the art of doing nothing. A prominent ex- were released for use.
ample is the administration's blanket fiction
The CIA's Office of Terrorism Analysis orighung over the murders in Benghazi, a blanket
inally wrote that, based on electronic interthat is now rapidly unraveling.
cepts and reliable eyewitness reporting, the
On the night of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, mem- attack had been planned and carried out by
bers of Ansar al-Sharia, a known terrorist Ansar al-Sharia and other terrorist groups
organization with links to al-Qaida, attacked allied with al-Qaida. The revised document,
the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. U.S. however, fraudulently shifted responsibility
Ambassador to Libya John Christopher Ste- for the attack from Ansar al-Sharia to a mob
vens and three other American officials were reportedly incited to violence by a crudely
killed during the attack. Other Americans made anti-Islamic film posted on YouTube.
were injured.
On Sunday, Sept. 15, 2012, U.S. Ambassador
Information on the attacks was immediate- to the United Nations Susan Rice, who had
ly demanded. Accordingly, talking points on no direct knowledge of the incident, went on
the incident were drafted for officials briefing five different national television news shows
members of Congress, the news media and to claim that the Benghazi attack was not prethe public. White House Press Secretary Jay meditated by terrorists. Appearing on ABC's
Carney announced that the talking points had This Week, Rice said that "our current best
