Is it more sensational that House Republicans would ignore available facts - that no ready US reinforcements were in range, save for four of US forces in Tripoli with 9mm sidearms, and the larger force needed to mobilize from Germany to Croatia to Benghazi +30km overland would not arrive in time?
That GOP strategists would prep video of the calamity to exploit the horrendous death of a diplomat and his 3 associates for electoral gain?
That the explosive chaos cascading from Egypt to Libya to Tunis to Pakistan, Yemen, Morocco, the Phillipines, Australia, France and 23 nations sparked by a noxious inflammatory video was potentially promoted by an operative from the suburbs of Virginia, timed precisely to September 11. The operative was a Coptic Christian named Morris Sadek. He phoned repeatedly to Egyptian reporter Gamel Girgis in the week ahead of the uprising.
On Sept. 4, Sadek called Girgis to tell him he "produced a movie last year and wanted to screen it on September 11 to reveal" the threat from terrorists.
On Sept. 6, Girgis published a 3-paragraph article in his daily column about the offending video clip, which had yet to gain traction or go viral.
2 days later, an Egyptian TV personality on the Al Nas channel aired a partial clip of Innocence of Muslims. Page views soared; the region ignited.
According to The Week magazine (Sep 18) timeline of events:
Sept 11
Protesters decrying the movie storm the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, scaling the wall and replacing the American flag with a black one inscribed with a Muslim slogan used by militant groups. In Benghazi, Libya, a protest outside the U.S. consulate turns deadly when heavily armed militants, possibly using the protest as cover for a premeditated attack, kill U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other U.S. diplomatic personnel.
As violent protests spread across the region, Google blocked the YouTube clip from Egypt and Libya viewing.
The intertwined events are complicated more because the consul operation in Benghazi was also a coordinating and staging area for Ambassador Stevens for supplying materials to rebels in Syria.
According to the Republican outline of events that unfolded in Libya, the planned attack on the consul building and the fanning of the flames by the propaganda video were two events entirely divorced.
That possibility seems remote.