Earlier, an official said that Petraeus' aim in testifying was to clear up "a lot of misrepresentations of what he told Congress initially."

Petraeus testified that he developed unclassified talking points in the days after the attack but he had no direct involvement in developing the ones used by Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, King said.

"No one knows, yet, exactly who came up with the final version of the talking points, other than to say the original talking points prepared by the CIA were different from the ones that were finally put out," said King, stressing that the original talking points were more specific about al Qaeda involvement.

Rice has been under fire for suggesting the attack on the consulate was a spontaneous event spurred by a protest against the anti-Muslim film.

The three unclassified talking points that were used by Rice on September 16 were read aloud to reporters on the Hill Friday.

They are:

-- The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi and subsequently its annex. There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations.

-- This assessment may change as additional information is collected and analyzed and as currently available information continues to be evaluated.

-- The investigation is ongoing, and the U.S. government is working with Libyan authorities to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of U.S. citizens.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who leads the Intelligence Committee, read the points to journalists and vigorously defended Rice.

Feinstein said lawmakers should be careful not to "pillory" someone for intelligence failings.

"We have seen wrong intelligence before and it all surrounded our going into Iraq, and a lot of people were killed based on bad intelligence," she said. "And I don't think that is fair game. I think mistakes get made. You don't pillory the person.

"To select Ambassador Rice because she used an unclassified talking point, to say that she is unqualified to be secretary of state, I think, is a mistake," the senior lawmaker said. "And the way it keeps going it is almost as if the intent is to assassinate her character."

There has been speculation that Rice was among the people being considered as a replacement for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, if she steps down as she has indicated.

But the committee's senior Republican, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, said he doesn't think the issue is settled.

He said the concern is not whether the talking points were correct, but that Rice didn't go far enough.

"She knew at that point and time that al Qaeda was very likely responsible in part or in whole for the death of Ambassador Stevens," he said, intimating that Rice should have said that.