PRESS RELEASE

Obama Administration Gun-Running
to Syria Becomes a Public Issue

May 10, 2013 (EIRNS)—The issue of the Obama Administration running guns to the jihadi rebels in Syria, in a vastly expanded replay of the Iran-Contra scandal, has finally become public issue.

Appearing on Fox & Friends today, attorney, journalist, and talk show host Geraldo Rivera questioned whether the Central Intelligence Agency annex in Benghazi was involved in running guns through Turkey to the Syrian opposition. Rivera added that former GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, during the third TV debate, may have been told by former Director of Central Intelligence David Petraeus to back off claims of a cover-up in Benghazi, for national security reasons.

Questioned by the hosts about the recent revelations that the CIA's initial talking points memo had stated that the attack on the Benghazi mission was carried out by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists, and then changed to eliminate any reference to al-Qaeda, Rivera responded:

"I think the biggest vulnerability to the Obama administration, indeed, to the President himself comes from the cover-up. If, indeed, as these papers suggest very strongly, there was an intent to take a terrorist attack and morph it into something much more benign and spontaneous, then I believe that this is something that goes to the very heart of the integrity of the office."

Fox & Friends host Brian Kilmeade asked:

"What was David Petraeus doing allowing those changes to be made in a CIA document and then briefing the press off the record that we really think the video had something to do with it? Why would the CIA risk its reputation?"

Rivera's reply:

"Why didn't Mitt Romney say exactly what you just said during that third, crucial debate? He could have won the Presidency. Was he briefed by David Petraeus and the CIA to suggest that there was a secret mission going on there, we can't go there, we can't talk about it? I believe, and my sources tell me, that they were to round up those shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles. They were going to hand those missiles over to the Turks, and the Turks were going to give them to the rebels in Syria. It was like Iran-Contra. It merits a gigantic investigation."