By Jake Tapper, CNN Chief Washington Correspondent
The White House released more than 100 pages of e-mails on Wednesday in a bid to quell critics who say President Barack Obama and his aides played politics with national security following the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
The exchanges detailing discussions between top Obama administration officials from multiple agencies suggest the CIA took the lead in developing talking points to describe the attack last September 11 that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
READ MORE: http://on.cnn.com/16As0iJ
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After spending 17 days trapped beneath the rubble of a collapsed building, 19-year-old seamstress Reshma talks to CNN's Leone Lakhani (@LeoneCNN) about her ordeal from her hospital bed in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
While cracks in the building had already been detected, Reshma said her managers blamed it on water damage, and it was okay for her to continue working.
"Everyone was looking to see which parts were cracked. So I went in and I see that there's a wall where a little bit is cracked," Reshma recalls. "The managers said this is just water damage, and you guys can work."
Read more of Reshma's amazing story here.
Last night, in response to the news that actress and activist Angelina Jolie underwent a preventive double mastectomy after learning that she carried the BRCA1 gene, CNN's Piers Morgan welcomed back Debbie Wasserman Schultz to share her own experience with both breast and ovarian cancer.
"It was like reading my own story and reliving my own decision," said Wasserman Schultz who tested positive for the BRCA2 gene mutation and opted to have both a double mastectomy and to have her ovaries removed. "It's not an easy decision to have your breasts removed and to force yourself into early menopause."
CNN iReport reveals the honorees for the 3rd Annual CNN iReport Awards which recognize outstanding contributions to the network’s global participatory news community. Representing a mix of punditry, videos and emotional personal essays, recipients have been chosen from more than 100,000 iReports submitted in 2012. The honorees were determined by a combination of an esteemed panel of judges, online voters and the CNN iReport staff.
Also, for the first time ever, the iReport team unveils honorees in a new category called Excellence on the Web, highlighting examples of the best in citizen journalism outside of iReport in 2012.
…and the honorees are:
CNN.com Takes Top Spot for Breaking News
As the events in Boston unfolded last month, the world turned to CNN on air, online and on the go. Topping every news and information competitor, CNN Digital posted its most trafficked week (536 mm page views) and story in history (87 mm page views, source: Adobe SiteCatalyst). April also marked CNN.com’s second highest month on record for global video starts (162.5mm) and the narrowest margin (15%) ever between the CNN Digital Network and combined Yahoo!-ABC News rollup in unique visitors. A record-breaking month for CNN, April highlights include:
#1 Site for Breaking News
Throughout the week of the Boston manhunt, CNN.com was the most trafficked news and information site online, topping Yahoo! News with an all-time high of 536 million page views:
CNN.com (536 million)
• Yahoo! News by 8% (496 million)
• HuffingtonPost.com by 22% (441 million)
• FoxNews.com by 42% (377 million)
• NBCNews.com by 94% (276 million)
• NYTimes.com by 201% (178 million)
*Source: comScore Media Metrix for week ending 04/21/13
Today on CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley, Senator Susan Collins of Maine spoke about revelations about the IRS, the Boston bombings investigation and the Benghazi hearings. A full transcript of the interview may be found here.
Sen. Collins on IRS targeting of conservative groups:
COLLINS: "This is truly outrageous. And it contributes to the profound distrust that the American people have in government. It is absolutely chilling that the IRS was singling out conservative groups for extra review. And I think that it's very disappointing that the president hasn't personally condemned this and spoken out. His spokesman has said it should be investigated, but the president needs to make crystal clear that this is totally unacceptable in America.”
Collins says IRS revelations will fuel government distrust"I honestly do not think that we have to resort to enhanced interrogation...," former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta says during an interview airing as a special edition of Fareed Zakaria GPS this morning on CNN/U.S. and CNN International.
CIA, NSA, and FBI insiders give insights into America’s secret wars on terrorists in the U.S. and abroad in the one-hour special Beyond the Manhunts: How to Stop Terror – A Fareed Zakaria Special on CNN/U.S. on Sunday, May 12 at 10:00am and 1:00pm, and on CNN International at 3:00pm. All times Eastern. Viewers can join the conversation on Twitter by using #stopterror.
Also interviewed for the special are author and national security analyst Peter Bergen (author of Manhunt, 2013), former National Security Agency director Michael Hayden, Pulitzer Prize-winning national security journalist Mark Mazzetti, former CIA director and U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former FBI agent Ali Soufan, and former CIA officers Nada Bakos, Robert Grenier, and Cindy Storer.
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In a CNN exclusive, Pedro and Onil Casto, the brothers of Ariel Castro who were
originally arrested in the Cleveland kidnaping case, break their silence and
tell CNN’s Martin Savidge they never had knowledge of their brother’s alleged
activities.
Pedro Castro tells CNN, “…it’s going to haunt me down because
people going to think, yeah, Pedro got something to do with this and Pedro don’t
have nothing to do with this. If I knew, I would have reported it. Brother or no
brother.”
CNN’s full interview with Pedro and Onil Castro airs Monday, May 13, on Starting Point beginning at 7amET. CNN en Español will broadcast the exclusive interview beginning on Cafe CNN in the 6amE hour.
CNN Exclusive: Hunted and haunted, Castro's brothers say they didn't know'Vanished' and 'Murder in the First Degree,' two Anderson Cooper 360° specials, taking a in-depth look into the week's top stories encore, beginning at 8:00pm on Saturday, May 11. All times Eastern.
Vanished: Anderson Cooper 360° Special is a town hall hosted by CNN's Anderson Cooper which will highlight the frightening numbers of missing persons in America. With John Walsh of America's Most Wanted, this special will feature individual stories of people still looking for loved ones, tell the stories of people who were found and reunited with their families, and feature the everyday heroes who have helped find missing people. Vanished: Anderson Cooper 360° Special will encore Saturday, May 11 at 8:00pm and 12:00am.
Murder in the First Degree – Inside the Arias Trial will focus on the now notorious trial that has captured the attention of many viewers across the nation. Now that Jodi Arias has been convicted of first-degree murder of businessman Travis Alexander, this special Anderson Cooper report examines the unusual trial as it enters the sentencing phase. CNN’s Randi Kaye reviews the case and interviews legal experts – including HLN anchor Vinnie Politan – who parse the testimony and the evidence in the now-notorious “break-up murder” trial that has riveted court watchers and television viewers for months. Murder in the First Degree – Inside the Arias Trial will encore Saturday, May 11 at 9:00pm and 1:00am.
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CNN is set to air a new special “Escape from Captivity” that uncovers this week's dramatic events surrounding three freed women, who were kidnapped for years by former school bus driver Ariel Castro.
The half-hour special details the interviews with relatives of the victims, takes a look at the alleged kidnapper behind it all, and gives an up to date look at what’s been discovered about this house of horrors and the victims’ time inside.
CNN Anchors Zoraida Sambolin reports from Cleveland and John Berman from New York.
“Escape from Captivity” airs on Saturday, May 11th at 7:30pm ET and re-airs at 11:30pm ET on CNN.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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