Republican-led House panel dismisses allegations of intelligence failure in Benghazi attacks

Two years, thousands of pages of classified documents, and scores of interviews with intelligence officials later, a Republican-led House Intelligence Committee concluded that both the CIA and U.S. military carried out appropriate responses during the 2012 attack on U.S. diplomatic quarters in Benghazi, Libya, The Washington Post reports.

"We concluded that all the CIA officers in Benghazi were heroes," a joint statement from Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), the ranking committee members, said. "Their actions saved lives."

While the committee did find that initial assessments of the motives behind the attack, along with the identity of the militants, resulted in "flawed" talking points by then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, the overall findings agreed with the Obama administration's description of events.

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Militants believed to have al Qaeda links carried out a night-time assault on the U.S. compound, killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens, along with a foreign service officer and two CIA security contractors.