Petraeus testifying on Benghazi today
By: CBS News
Updated: November 16, 2012
Gen. David Petraeus will testify before the House and Senate Intelligence Committees on the Libya embassy attack this morning, despite the ongoing FBI investigation into an extramarital affair that led to his resignation as director of the CIA.
The hearings are taking place early this morning in secure rooms in the U.S. Capitol - the House meeting is at 7:30 a.m. and the Senate hearing is at 9 a.m. - and are closed to the public and the media. Petraeus is expected to answer questions about the CIA's knowledge and handling of the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. Two of those Americans were with the CIA.
It was unclear at first whether or not Petraeus would testify at all on Capitol Hill at all, after he abruptly resigned from the agency amid news of his affair with biographer Broadwell.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calf., chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Wednesday that the focus of the hearing is specifically about the events in Libya, not the affair that led to his resignation.
"It's just on Benghazi. Our hearings are on Benghazi and the intelligence that preceded Benghazi and the intelligence that determined security," she told reporters.
Congressional investigators get access to telegrams, intelligence reports, and classified emails as they interview top security and Pentagon officials. Sources tell CBS News' Margaret Brennan that intelligence officials will show footage from an unmanned surveillance drone that was overhead during the assault.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which has oversight of the State Department, has already been briefed about the attack by Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy and Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell.
2012 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.