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'60 Minutes' investigates Benghazi source

CBS announced Thursday evening they are looking into new information unearthed about the man who was their source for a special “60 Minutes” piece about the events in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012.

On Thursday evening the New York Times published a story about how the source, Dylan Davies (given the pseudonym Morgan Jones by CBS), had given different accounts to the FBI than he did to “60 Minutes” about where he was the night of the attack on the diplomatic compound. Moments before the story went up on the Times web site, CBS released a statement noting that new information had been unearthed and that they were investigating.

(UPDATE: Lara Logan: 'We were wrong' on Benghazi)

“60 Minutes has learned of new information that undercuts the account told to us by Morgan Jones of his actions on the night of the attack on the Benghazi compound. We are currently looking into this serious matter to determine if he misled us, and if so, we will make a correction,” the network said in a statement.

CBS has also removed the Benghazi segment from the "60 Minutes" web site, posting the statement instead.

According to the Times, Davies, whose story has already come under fire, told the FBI he did not go to the compound the night of the attack. That version of events is consistent with a report Davies gave to the Blue Mountain security business which had been hired to protect United States interests in Benghazi, as originally reported by the Washington Post last week.

The New York Times reports:

The incident report described Mr. Davies as remaining at the villa he occupied in Libya and not getting to the scene on the night of the attack. In the version he wrote in his book and gave to “60 Minutes,” Mr. Davies said he left the villa that night to visit a hospital, where he said he saw the body of the deceased ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, and twice rushed to the scene of the attack. At the compound, he said, he had a confrontation with an attacker, whom he dispatched with a blow to the face with a rifle butt.

Until Thursday, CBS news had been standing by its source, despite intense media scrutiny. On Wednesday in an interview with the New York Times, Lara Logan, the journalist who interviewed Davies, attributed the criticism to the intense political debate surrounding the Benghazi issue.

The Times reports CBS always acknowledged the FBI report existed and suggested the agency’s interview would corroborate Davies’s account.

“Instead, the disclosure that the F.B.I. interview matched the incident report leaves CBS facing more questions about the primary source for what it called a yearlong investigation of the Benghazi incident," the Times reports.