'60 Minutes' says to correct report on Benghazi attack
Nov 8 (Reuters) - TV newsmagazine "60 Minutes" on Friday said it would correct an October report on the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, saying that a source who told the program that he had been present at the scene of the attack gave conflicting testimony to the FBI.
The program on Oct. 27 aired a segment on the attack, in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were killed, quoting a security official who described being at the compound during the attack, fighting off an assailant and seeing the ambassador's body.
Reporter Lara Logan said 60 Minutes no longer had confidence in the information the security official had given the program and it was a mistake to put him on air.
"60 Minutes" has since learned that the official, who it named as Dylan Davies, gave the FBI a different account of his actions that night, Logan said on a CBS morning news program on Friday.
"The most important thing to every person at '60 Minutes' is the truth, and today the truth is we made a mistake," Logan said on "CBS This Morning." "Nobody likes to admit they made a mistake, but if you do, you have to stand up and take responsibility and you have to say that you are wrong. And in this case, we were wrong."
The program plans to air a correction on Sunday, Logan said.
Simon and Schuster, a publisher owned by CBS Corp, on Friday began withdrawing a book on the incident, "The Embassy House," which was written by Davies under the pseudonym Morgan Jones.
"In light of information that has been brought to our attention since the initial publication of 'The Embassy House,' we have withdrawn from publication and sale all formats of this book and are recommending that booksellers do the same," said Jennifer Robinson, a spokeswoman for Simon and Schuster's Threshold Editions unit.
The Benghazi attack, mounted by militants linked to al Qaeda, has emerged as a political flashpoint in Washington, with Republican lawmakers saying the assault and death of an ambassador show that President Barack Obama's administration has failed to maintain security at foreign posts.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham last month threatened to block Janet Yellen, Obama's pick as next head of the Federal Reserve, until the administration provides more information on how the attack occurred.
