Emails urged Benghazi terror group mentions be deleted

WASHINGTON -- Political considerations influenced the talking points that UN Ambassador Susan Rice used five days after the deadly Sept. 11 assault in Benghazi, Libya, according to department emails.

State Department and other senior administration officials asked that references to terror groups and prior warnings be deleted, the emails showed.

The disclosures Friday raised new questions about whether the Obama administration tried to play down any terrorist factor in the attack on a diplomatic compound less than two months before the November presidential election. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed when insurgents struck the U.S. mission in two nighttime attacks.

The White House has insisted that it made only a "stylistic" change to the intelligence agency talking points from which Rice suggested on five Sunday talk shows that demonstrations over an anti-Islamic video devolved into the Benghazi attack.

Numerous agencies had engaged in an email discussion about the talking points that would be provided to members of Congress and to Rice for their public comments. In one email, then-State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland worried about the effect of openly discussing earlier warnings about the dangers of Islamic extremists in Benghazi.

Nuland's email said such revelations "could be abused by members of Congress to beat the State Department for not paying attention to [CIA] warnings," according to a congressional official who reviewed the 100 pages of emails.

The final talking points that weekend reflected the work of several government agencies -- CIA, FBI, State Department, the office of the director of national intelligence -- apparently determined to cast themselves in the best light.

The GOP argues that the administration deliberately tried to mislead Congress and the American people. The White House insists that Republicans are trying to politicize the issue.

"The problem with that effort is that it's never been clear what it is they think they're accusing the administration of doing," White House spokesman Jay Carney said Friday.

Republicans have complained that the administration was trying to conceal that the attack was the work of terrorists and not a protest over an anti-Islamic film that got out of hand. Such revelations just before the election perhaps could have undercut President Barack Obama's record on fighting terrorism.

An official familiar with the emails said former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was unaware of Nuland's concerns about the talking points. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.