Former CIA deputy director rejects Republican Benghazi claims

WASHINGTON, May 4 (UPI) -- Former Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell said Republicans politicized and repeatedly distorted the agency's analysis of the 2012 Benghazi attacks.

The allegation that the U.S. military and CIA officers "were ordered to stand down and not come to the rescue of their comrades" is not true, Morell wrote in his book The Great War of Our Time, set for release later this month.

Morell wrote there was no evidence supporting the claim that there was a conspiracy between the CIA and the White house to spin the Benghazi story in a way that would protect the political interests of the president and" of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The Benghazi attack on Sept. 11, 2012, at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya left four people dead, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Morell was deputy director of the CIA at the time.

Morell also wrote that the White House under President Barack Obama embellished the agency's reviews as talking points and that the CIA was blocked from sending an internal study conclusions to Congress.

The anticipated report by the Republican-led House Select Committee on the deadly 2012 Benghazi attack is likely to be delayed until 2016.

Morell also argues that U.S. intelligence underestimated al-Qaida's ability to seize advantage of political turmoil in the Middle East and to regain strength after the death of Osama Bin Laden.

"We thought and told policy-makers that this outburst of popular revolt would damage al-Qaida by undermining the group's narrative," Morell wrote, but instead, "the Arab Spring was a boon to Islamic extremists across both the Middle East and North Africa."