More “senior U.S. official” gibberish

From CBS comes this as delivered by “a senior U.S. official familiar with the drafting of the [CIA’s original Benghazi] talking points”:

“The points were not, as has been insinuated by some, edited to minimize the role of extremists, diminish terrorist affiliations, or play down that this was an attack,” the official tells CBS News, adding that there were “legitimate intelligence and legal issues to consider, as is almost always the case when explaining classified assessments publicly.”

“Most people understand that saying ‘extremists’ were involved in a direct assault on the mission isn’t shying away from the idea of terrorist involvement,” added the official. “Because of the various elements involved in the attack, the term extremist was meant to capture the range of participants.”

If the above is true, why did the President and his surrogates tie themselves up in knots in order to blame the deaths of four Americans at Benghazi on the YouTube Mohammad video? The answer is transparent: they needed to do so to keep their pre-election ‘we won the war on al Qaeda’ narrative from unwinding. 

Furthermore, if the above block quote is true, why would Mr. Obama then claim during the presidential debate that he called Benghazi ‘a terror event’ (which he didn’t) the next day in the Rose Garden?

Obama denied, people died.