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Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Intelligence Committee, defended U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice Friday, saying “We have seen wrong intelligence before, and it all surrounded our going into Iraq, and a lot of people were killed based on bad intelligence. And I don’t think that’s fair game. I think mistakes get made– you don’t pillory the person.”
Feinstein spoke to reporters after a closed hearing with testimony by Gen. David Petraeus, who submitted his resignation
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Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who chairs the Intelligence Committee, defended U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice Friday, saying “We have seen wrong intelligence before, and it all surrounded our going into Iraq, and a lot of people were killed based on bad intelligence. And I don’t think that’s fair game. I think mistakes get made– you don’t pillory the person.”
Feinstein spoke to reporters after a closed hearing with testimony by Gen. David Petraeus, who submitted his resignation from the Central Intelligence Agency after it was revealed he had an extramarital affair. Rice has been under heavy attack from Republicans led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., claiming she misled the public in comments to Sunday news talk shows in December about the terrorist attacks that killed U.S. ambassador to Libya Christopher Stephens and three other Americans.
President Obama angrily defended Rice in a news conference earlier this week. Rice is considered a top contender to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. McCain and Graham have made clear they would object to the nomination. The issue flared up in the presidential race, with Republican nominee Mitt Romney accusing Obama in a debate of misrepresenting the attacks and deliberately downplaying the idea that terrorism was involved.
Feinstein said based on what she has learned, “What Susan Rice did was use talking points originally put out by the CIA, signed off by the intelligence community, and those talking points, as I understand it, were requested by the House Committee, and all the intelligence community signed off on them.”
“The way it keeps going, it’s almost as if the intent is to assassinate her character, and I really object to that,” Feinstein said. She said the talking points “subsequently became available to anybody I guess who asked for talking points, which the ambassador did.”
McCain was also at the briefing but did not address the Rice controversy. He praised Petraeus for providing thorough testimony and conceded that there had been “clearly a failure of intelligence.”
Feinstein said the original talking points given to Rice said: “The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the United States Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the United States diplomatic post in Benghazi and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations.”
Again from the talking points: “This assessment may change as additional information is collected and analyzed and as currently available information continues to be evaluated.”
Feinstein said, “That’s clearly what happened.”
Feinstein said Petraeus “was both eager and willing to give us his views on this and his experience on it. And that’s very much appreciated, particularly because of the situation.” Referring to the closed briefing, she said “We didn’t want to make it any more difficult for him, and you know, you people aren’t always the easiest.”
Asked about security lapses at the Libyan consulate, Feinstein said she has her own views on that but will hold off until the final committee report.
Feinstein is scheduled to appear on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday at 10:30 EST.
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