The White House on Wednesday released an even 100 pages of administration emails relating to last September's terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, after facing mounting criticism because of early revisions to the talking points relating to the attack.
The emails show that the CIA drafted the original version of the talking points, which were then further shaped and revised during a daylong process among various officials in the White House, State Department, CIA, and FBI.
They show a significant amount of concern on the part of the State Department into their drafting and revisions.
CNN has posted the full 100 pages of email exchanges between various administration officials. You can read them here.
The key points from the emails:
- The CIA drafted the initial version of the talking points. In the first set of talking points, the CIA said that the attack was "spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the U.S. consulate and subsequently its annex."
- The first change in the talking points came when the CIA added that "we do know that Islamic extremists participated in the violent demonstrations." Senior counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, who is now the CIA Director, requested this change.
- Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokesperson, expressed concern at Brennan's edits, saying they were "arming members of Congress to start making assertions to the media that we ourselves are not making because we don't want to prejudice the investigation."
- The second change came when the word "attacks" was revised to "demonstrations."
- The third change: Removing references to al-Qaeda, which the CIA said were made because they did not want to conflict with the FBI's investigation.
- The final change was a removal about the warnings of the security situation at the mission in Benghazi.
This looks like the key page, which CNN reported contains the handwritten edits of Deputy CIA Director Mike Morrell. They include removal of references to al-Qaeda and earlier warnings about potential threats:
Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, said the release of the emails confirms a "political nature of the State Department's concerns."
The full statement:
The House interim report found that ‘senior State Department officials requested the talking points be changed to avoid criticism for ignoring the threat environment in Benghazi’ and that those changes were ultimately made. Those findings are confirmed by the emails released today, and they contradict statements made by the White House that it and the State Department only changed one word in the talking points. The seemingly political nature of the State Department’s concerns raises questions about the motivations behind these changes and who at the State Department was seeking them. This release is long overdue and there are relevant documents the Administration has still refused to produce. We hope, however, that this limited release of documents is a sign of more cooperation to come.