Graham: 'Al-Qaeda is Alive and Well, and Counter-Attacking'

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) lashed out at the Obama administration’s foreign policy strategy this morning on CBS’ Face the Nation, saying that when something goes right the White House pushes everything out there, but “when something goes bad, they deny, they deceive, and they delay.”

“This is the same administration that leaks every detailed of classified operations that are successful. Within a week, you had three stories about cyber attacks against the Iranian nuclear program, about disrupting the underwear bomber case, about every detail of bin Laden, all over the New York Times, all over the press, showing how strong and effective this administration was,” Graham said.

The senator also tore into one of Obama’s key campaign lines, stressing that bin Laden may be dead but “al-Qaeda is alive.”

“And they’re counter- attacking throughout the entire region,” he said. “And the truth is that the foreign policy choices of President Obama are allowing the region to come unraveled.”

Graham said that within 24 hours of the assault on the Benghazi compound, the intelligence community on the ground in Libya told Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and him that it was a terrorist attack.

“The president of Libya on the same date said it was a terrorist attack. The video of the compound shows that there was nobody at the Benghazi consulate. There was never a group to riot. And the evidence is overwhelming, and the idea that it was spawned by a video and a riot would hold the administration blameless,” he said. “…It’s not just Susan Rice, the president of the United States said it was the result of a video on David Letterman two days later. And the facts are very clear. There was never a riot. There was never a group of people around the embassy.”

“The reason they’re trying to sell this, if it is true it was an al Qaeda-inspired attack that was coordinated involving heavy weapons that lasted six to eight hours and our embassy consulate was so exposed and they had denied numerous requests to reinforce it, is exhibit A of a failed foreign policy,” Graham continued. “I have seen this movie before. I went to Iraq in 2004 and everybody told me things are going fine. This is just a few dead-enders, Iraq was falling apart, and you couldn’t get the truth from the Bush administration.”

“The Mid-East is falling apart. And they’re trying to spin what happened in Libya because the truth of the matter is, al-Qaeda is alive and well, and counter-attacking.”