Fox News is no longer alone in uncovering revelations about the Benghazi attack the Obama administration wanted nobody to hear about. CNN has done some investigating of its own and discovered that 3 Al Qaeda operatives were involved in the sustained assault on two US diplomatic facilities that claimed 3 lives.

Several Yemeni men belonging to al Qaeda took part in the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi last September, according to several sources who have spoken with CNN. One senior U.S. law enforcement official told CNN that "three or four members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula," or AQAP, took part in the attack. Another source briefed on the Benghazi investigation said Western intelligence services suspect the men may have been sent by the group specifically to carry out the attack. But it's not been ruled out that they were already in the city and participated as the opportunity arose.

This is precisely the sort of information that puts the lie to President Obama's campaign claim that "Osama bin Laden is dead and al Qaeda is on the run." That is why the media had to be signaled to ignore holes in the story, at least until the election was over. With one major exception, they did so, and focused in the early days on the "inappropriateness" of Mitt Romney commenting on the attack before all the facts were known.

Those AQ fighters in Libya did not fold their tents and go home to play nice, either:

According to one source, counterterrorism officials learned the identity of the men and established they had spent two nights in Benghazi after the attack. Western intelligence agencies began trying to track the men in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, but were always behind in their manhunt. They were later traced to northern Mali, where they are believed to have connected with a fighting group commanded by Moktar Belmoktar, a prominent jihadist leader, according to a senior law enforcement source.

Yesterday, I wondered on these pages how long the media cofferdam around the story could hold, especially as a House investigation will be hearing testimony next week. This scandal has major potential, and letting Fox get all the glory would be just too painful for other MSM news outlets, many of which are struggling (like CNN) to generate healthy audiences. One story on CNN alone is not going to change the tide, but it is a signal that willful blindness is no longer the order of the day on the story.

Last night on Greta van Susteren's show, Karl Rove posited that Jay Carney's flip dismissal of Benghazi as old news was a big mistake, signaling that there is something that the administration desperately doesn't want uncovered. It is decision time for the MSM. Do they stay on the sidelines and let a potentially huge story fall to their rivals?