CIA takes bullet for Obama on Benghazi

Key witness defends decision to withhold key info

WASHINGTON — Former Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell testified before Congress this morning that the CIA ignored a key piece of information that was the exact opposite of what then-U.S. ambassador to the U.N Susan Rice told the American public about Benghazi, Libya shortly after the attack on the U.S. embassy compound.

The CIA’s station in chief in Libya wrote an email on Sept. 15, 2012 to Morell that the attack was “not an escalation of protests” and there was no anti-American demonstration that sparked the attack.

That was one day before the White House dispatched Rice to tell several Sunday talk shows that the attack on Benghazi began as an anti-American protest against an anti-Islam video.

The talking points used by Rice were written by the CIA, but the email to Morell indicates the agency ignored the assessment of its own station chief inside Libya that what happened was an intentional assault and not an escalation of a protest.

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