Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) on Sunday disagreed with some of the conclusions in the New York Times investigation on Benghazi, specifically that the attack was fueled in part by an anti-Islamic American video.
“It was never about a video,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The New York Times did not find any evidence throughout its investigation that al Qaeda was involved in the attack, even if other regional terrorist groups carried out the attack.
Issa has claimed that al Qaeda was involved in the attack, and still claims that a group affiliated with the terrorist organization founded by Osama Bin Laden attacked the U.S. consulate.
“There was a group that was involved that was affiliated with al Qaeda,” Issa said. “It is not about al Qaeda as the only terrorist organization.”
David Kirkpatrick, the journalist who authored the Times report, said on Sunday that even if the attack was carried out by an anti-Western terrorist group inspired by al Qaeda, it was not organized by al Qaeda itself.
“There’s just no chance that this was an al Qaeda attack,” Kirkpatrick said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “It was an armed terrorist attack motivated in large part by the video.”
Watch the video via NBC:
