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May 11th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
ABC
News today revealed how the talking points Mrs Rice eventually used
went through an extensive 12-draft editing process and were cut down to
remove any reference to terrorism.
In one of the removed paragraphs, the CIA noted that it had produced “numerous”
warnings of the threat from extremists in eastern Libya. It also said that
organised elements may have conducted surveillance on the consulate, which
could have increased the deadliness of the assault.
The paragraph was removed following concerns raised by Victoria Nuland,
the-then State Department spokeswoman, who said the paragraph “could be
abused by members [of Congress] to beat up the State Department for not
paying attention to warnings”.
After the editing, Ms Nuland said the changes “don’t resolve all of my
issues or those of my building’s leadership”. It is not clear whether
that was a reference to Hillary Clinton, then Secretary of State.
The final version of the talking points had also been stripped of any
reference to Ansar al-Sharia, the militant group whose members are believed
to have been among the attackers.
However, the edited versions of the talking points appeared to bear out the
White House’s central claim: that the intelligence community was responsible
for the incorrect assessment that the attack began as a protest.
In the first draft of the talking points, the CIA wrote: “We believe
based on currently available information that the attacks in Benghazi were
spontaneously inspired by the protests [against an anti-Islamic video]”.
Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, refused to make any concessions and
said the furor was part of a Republican plan to smear the Obama
administration. “This is an effort to accuse the administration of
hiding something that we did not hide,” he said.
Republicans refused to accept that explanation. Representative Jim Jordan
said: “They knew the truth and they didn’t have Mrs Rice go out and
tell the truth.”
Mr Carney repeated his claim that the State Department and the White House had
made only a single edit to the CIA’s talking points – changing the word “consulate”
to “diplomatic post”.
But he refused to explain how that claim squared with extensive email
conversations between officials at the White House and State Department with
the CIA, where they appeared to ask for a string of edits.
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