This is interesting...
Indeed. The whole thing did not pass the smell test from the get go. At this point there seems to be no question the “offensive video” is/was a ruse. My gut feeling is that it was a way to make the assertion of general peace more palatable during an imminent election. They could also lie in order to diffuse what is otherwise an inflammatory condition and dispense with an Ambassador and some special forces as collateral damage (a bump in the road). The end justifies the means.
Incompetence? Lots. Malfeasance? Lots more. I am not convinced, although I may be in the future, there was an attempt to hide a greater wrong of intentionally enabling the enemy; or a plan to offer Stevens as an object of ransom and rescue. If those things happened, this goes way beyond political opportunism and into literal treason. Not that Elijah Cummings can discern the difference.