CIA officer confirmed no protests before misleading Benghazi account given
Information on ground rejects
protest account
Updated: 12:04 p.m. on Tuesday,
April 1, 2014
By Guy Taylor
The Washington Times
** FILE ** Then-Deputy CIA
Director Michael J. Morell received an email dated Sept. 15, 2012, from the Libya
station chief saying that the Benghazi attack was "not an escalation of
protests." (Associated Press)
Before the Obama administration gave an inaccurate narrative on national
television that the Benghazi attacks grew from an anti-American protest, the
CIA’s station chief in Libya pointedly told his superiors in Washington that no
such demonstration occurred, documents and interviews with current and former
intelligence officials show.
The attack was “not an escalation
of protests,” the station chief wrote to then-Deputy CIA Director Michael J.
Morell in an email dated Sept. 15, 2012 — a full day before the White House
sent Susan E. Rice to several Sunday
talk shows to disseminate talking points claiming that the Benghazi attack
began as a protest over an anti-Islam video.
That the talking points used by
Mrs. Rice, who was then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, were written by a CIA that ignored the assessment
by its own station chief inside Libya,
has emerged as one of the major bones of contention in the nearly two years of
political fireworks and congressional investigations into the Benghazi attack.
What has never been made public is
whether Mr. Morell and others at the CIA explicitly shared the station chief’s
assessment with the White House or State Department.
Two former intelligence officials
have told The Washington Times that this question likely will be answered at a
Wednesday hearing of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence
during which Mr. Morell is scheduled to give his public testimony.
Mr. Morell, who has since left the
CIA, declined to comment on the matter Monday. He now works at Beacon Global Strategies, a Washington insider
strategic communications firm.
One former intelligence official
close to Mr. Morell told The Times on the condition of anonymity that “the
whole question of communication with the station chief will be addressed in his
testimony.”
“We’re confident that it will
clarify the situation in the minds of many who are asking,” the former official
said.
Another former intelligence
official told The Times that Mr. Morell did tell the White House and the State
Department that the CIA station chief in Libya
had concluded that there was no protest but senior Obama administration and CIA
officials in Washington
ignored the assessment.
Why they ignored it remains a
topic of heated debate within the wider intelligence community.
A third source told The Times on
Monday that Mr. Morell and other CIA officials in Washington were weighing
several pieces of “conflicting information” streaming in about the Benghazi
attack as the talking points were being crafted.
“That’s why they ultimately came up
with the analysis that they did,” the source said. “The piece that was coming
out of Tripoli
was important, but it was one piece amid several streams of information.”
One of the former intelligence
officials said the Libya
station chief’s assessment was being weighed against media reports from the
ground in Benghazi
that quoted witnesses as saying there had been a protest. Analysts at the CIA,
the source said, also were weighing it against reporting by other intelligence
divisions, including the National Security Agency.
“The chief of station in Tripoli
who was 600 or 700 miles away from the attacks wouldn’t necessarily have the
only view of what actually went on in Benghazi,” that former official said.
U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack.
U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens
J.
Christopher Stevens was the U.S.
ambassador for Libya, and killed in the 2012 attack on U.S.
consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Note: Thomas R.
Pickering was the chairman of review board that investigated the 2012 attack on U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya
in 2013, the under secretary for the U.S.
Department of State, a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), is a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and
a co-chair for the International Crisis
Group.
Susan
E. Rice was the assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of State, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), the
United Nations U.S. ambassador for
the Barack Obama administration, and
is the White House national security adviser for the Barack Obama administration.
Cass R. Sunstein
is a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), a member of the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies, and
married to Samantha Power.
Michael J. Morell
is a member of the Review Group on
Intelligence and Communications Technologies, works
at Beacon Global Strategies, and
was the deputy director for the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Julianne Smith is
the SVP for Beacon Global Strategies,
and was the deputy national security adviser to the vice president for the Barack Obama administration.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution
(think tank), the International
Rescue Committee, and the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
George Soros
was the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society, and a board
member for the International Crisis
Group.
Samantha
Power was a board member for the International
Crisis Group, a director at the International
Rescue Committee, Barack Obama’s
aide, is the United Nations U.S.
ambassador for the Barack Obama
administration, and married to Cass
R. Sunstein.
Condoleezza Rice is a trustee at the
Aspen Institute (think tank), an overseer at the International Rescue
Committee, was the secretary for the U.S.
Department of State, Muammar Abu
Minyar Al-Qadhafi said he loved her & kept scrapbook of her photos, and
a 2008 Bilderberg conference
participant (think tank).
Muammar
Abu Minyar Al-Qadhafi said he loved Condoleezza
Rice & kept scrapbook of her photos, and was the Libya
leader.
J.
Christopher Stevens was the U.S.
ambassador for Libya, and killed in the 2012 attack on U.S.
consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
Thomas R.
Pickering was the chairman of review board that investigated the 2012 attack on U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya
in 2013, the under secretary for the U.S.
Department of State, a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), is a distinguished fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and
a co-chair for the International Crisis
Group.
Cameron F. Kerry
is a fellow at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), John F. Kerry’s
brother, and was general counsel; acting secretary for the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is an honorary trustee at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), and married to John F. Kerry.
John
F. Kerry is Cameron F. Kerry’s
brother, married to Teresa Heinz Kerry,
and the secretary at the U.S. Department
of State for the Barack Obama
administration.
Hillary Rodham
Clinton was the secretary at the U.S.
Department of State for the Barack
Obama administration, Melanne
Verveer was her chief of staff, is a principal for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, and the founding
chair for the Georgetown Institute for
Women, Peace and Security.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a co-chair, national finance council for Ready for Hillary, and was the chairman
for the Foundation to Promote Open
Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for People for the American Way,
Common Cause, the International
Rescue Committee, the Aspen
Institute (think tank), and the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Alec
Baldwin is a director at People for
the American Way, and was the host of Up
Late With Alec Baldwin.
Alec Baldwin: 'I've Had the Entire Internet Shoved up My
*ss' (Past Research for People for the American Way & Alec Baldwin)
Melanne Verveer
was the EVP for People for the American
Way, a field manager for Common
Cause, the ambassador-at-large for global women's issues for the U.S. Department of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief of staff,
and is the executive director for the Georgetown
Institute for Women, Peace and Security.
Georgetown
Institute for Women, Peace and Security is an institute at Georgetown University.
Madeleine K.
Albright is a professor at Georgetown University,
an overseer at the International Rescue
Committee, a friend of Susan E. Rice,
a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think
tank), was the secretary for the U.S.
Department of State, and the United
Nations U.S. ambassador.
Susan
E. Rice was the assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of State, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), the
United Nations U.S. ambassador for
the Barack Obama administration, and
is the White House national security adviser for the Barack Obama administration.
Thomas R.
Pickering was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), , the under secretary for the U.S. Department of State, the chairman
of review board that investigated the 2012
attack on U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya in 2013, is a distinguished
fellow at the Brookings Institution
(think tank), and a co-chair for the International
Crisis Group.
J.
Christopher Stevens was killed in the 2012
attack on U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya,
and the U.S. ambassador for Libya.
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