David Petraeus, former CIA director, has testified on Capitol Hill that 'talking points' on Benghazi initially prepared by the CIA were subsequently altered before being given to Ambassador Susan Rice.
Far from expressing spontaneous or even personal opinions, Obama administration officials appearing on Sunday talk shows, as Rice did in the aftermath of the September 11th Benghazi attack, are given a virtual script beforehand.
These are usually distributed on Saturday night, when a conference call or meeting is held to go over key points.
As President Obama put in this week, Rice 'made an appearance at the request of the White House in which she gave her best understanding of the intelligence that had been provided to her'.
When foreign policy is involved, these 'talking points' are coordinated by the National Security Council after inputs from agencies throughout the U.S. government.
Representative Peter King of the House Intelligence Committee spoke on Friday of an 'interagency process' that Petraeus had said had changed the initial CIA assessment of the events in Benghazi.
'He said that the talking points that were drafted [by the CIA] were specific about an al-Qaeda affiliate...after they went through that process, whatever that process is, which they seem unclear about, that was taken out.'
King added that he had 'got the impression about seven, eight, nine different agencies' had been involved in drafting the talking points.
There are 16 different agencies in the U.S. intelligence community. In addition, it is overseen by the Directorate of National Intelligence (DNI), which almost certainly would have had an input.
In the case of Benghazi, the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Security Agency (NSA) and FBI would almost certainly have been involved in drafting the talking points.
The State Department would also have had a key role, perhaps drawing on work from its Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), one of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies.
As well as the DIA input, the Pentagon and perhaps the U.S. Special Operations Command would have been consulted.
Representative Adam Schiff, a Democrat, said that Petraeus had disputed Republican suggestions that politics were involved in altering the talking points.
'There was an inter-agency process to draft it, not a political process. They came up with the best assessment without compromising classified information or sources or methods. So changes were made to protect classified information.'
'The general was adamant there was no politicisation of the process, no White House interference or political agenda.
-BY TOBY HARNDEN
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I'm trying to understand what exactly the White House is being accused of when it appears that several agencies determined what the public would be told.