(IBD) Was David Petraeus Blackmailed By Obama Administration To Hide Benghazi Truth?

[Daniel John Sobieski]

Petraeus Scandal: An affair that was known to the FBI for months and  kept from congressional oversight committees might explain his complicity in a  false narrative of the Benghazi terrorist attack and the order to "stand  down."

The addition of sex to Benghazigate adds a dimension sure to keep the scandal  going and one that does indeed make Watergate seem like a third-rate burglary.  The affair admitted to by Gen. David Petraeus, now our former director of the  Central Intelligence Agency, might have attached blackmail or the potential for  blackmail to a scandal we have already called a case of criminal negligence.

But blackmail by whom?

Petraeus isn't the first general to have an affair while in uniform. But as  CIA director, Petraeus' knowledge of the nation's secrets was unparalleled, as  was his knowledge of what happened and when regarding the assault on our  consulate in Libya.

The timing of his resignation is most curious — just days after the  presidential election and days before he was scheduled to testify before  Congress, under oath, regarding the Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi that  killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. CIA Deputy Director  Michael Morrell is expected to testify in his place. But lawmakers want to hear  from Petraeus, and so do we.

As we've noted, just two days after the attack on our Benghazi consulate,  representatives of the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) gave  Capitol Hill briefings in which they said the evidence supported an al-Qaida or  al-Qaida-affiliated attack.

The FBI and NCTC also briefed that there were several al-Qaida training camps  just outside Benghazi. The area was described as a hotbed for the militant Ansar  al-Sharia as well as al-Qaida in North Africa.

So why, as we asked then, did Petraeus, whom we said "has to have known  otherwise," tell lawmakers the opposite a day after — that the attack was more  consistent with a flash mob, where militants showed up spontaneously with  rocket-propelled grenades? Petraeus downplayed to lawmakers the skill needed to  fire mortars, as if it were something every spontaneous demonstrator knows how  to do. Why?

Read More At IBD:  http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/111212-633199-cia-director...