This came out yesterday, but in case you missed it, some important pieces of the Benghazi puzzle came to light yesterday. The first, from David Ignatius, somewhat exonerates UN Ambassador Susan Rice and her infamous tour of the Sunday shows:

“Talking points” prepared by the CIA on Sept. 15, the same day that Rice taped three television appearances, support her description of the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate as a reaction to Arab anger about an anti-Muslim video prepared in the United States. According to the CIA account, “The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the U.S. Consulate and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations.”

Secondly, Ken Dilanian and Shashank Bengali at the LA Times report that the Benghazi attack had nothing to do with Al Qaeda:

The assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi last month appears to have been an opportunistic attack rather than a long-planned operation, and intelligence agencies have found no evidence that it was ordered by Al Qaeda, according to U.S. officials and witnesses interviewed in Libya.

Finally, Kevin Drum puts everything in context.

@ryanlcooper