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The White House’s ‘False Narrative’ Accomplice? Ex- CIA Chief Denies ‘Deliberately’ Hiding Role of Terrorists in Benghazi
(Fox News) — The former acting director of the CIA, in his first public testimony on Benghazi, insisted he did not “deliberately” downplay the role of terrorists in that attack — as the head of the House Intelligence Committee pointedly accused him of helping the White House shape a “false narrative.”
Mike Morell, who served as both deputy and acting director of the agency, is under increasing scrutiny over his role in forming the administration’s public narrative about the attack — a narrative which inaccurately blamed a protest from the outset. Morell is accused of heavily editing the so-called “talking points,” which were the basis for then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice’s controversial comments on several Sunday shows after the attacks that also blamed a protest.
He’s also accused of ignoring guidance from the CIA chief of station in Libya that the attacks were “not/not an escalation of protests.”
Morell, though, said nobody at the CIA “deliberately misled” Congress about the attack.
“We did not deliberately downplay the role of terrorists in the Benghazi attack,” he testified before the House Intelligence Committee, in a rare open session.
He also explained that when he received the email from the CIA chief of station, he recognized the “discrepancy” between what he was saying and what other analysts were saying. He said he quickly had his analysts “revisit their judgment” that a protest was underway, but “based on a totality of the information available to them, they stuck with their initial conclusions.”
Morell also challenged his chief of station’s judgment, saying it was based on “press reports” and reports from officers who arrived in Benghazi after the attack had already started. He said that basis was not “compelling” enough.
However, committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., repeatedly pressed Morell on the flawed talked points and accused the administration of using them for political purposes.
“The talking points did not reflect the best information available. They did not mention that Al Qaeda-linked terrorists were involved in the attacks, though briefings and intelligence reports assessed they were involved,” Rogers said. “The talking points suggested that there had been a demonstration … when there had been none and the officers on the ground said so.”
He continued: “I must conclude that the White House used your talking points to [perpetuate] its own misguided political agenda.
Read the full story at FoxNews.com
Source: http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines/the-white-houses-false-narrative-accomplice-ex-cia-chief-denies-deliberately-hiding-role-of-terrorists-in-benghazi
