Ayrton Senna to be remembered in Imola 20 years after his death

Link to video: Ayrton Senna: fans mark 20th anniversary of F1 legend's death

Ayrton Senna never drove for Ferrari, the most passionately supported of all Formula One teams, but in the northern Italian town of Imola, where the great champion perished 20 years ago, they are putting aside such petty prejudices.

Five days of events to mark Senna's death will commence on Wednesday, for the last man to die in a grand prix is remembered like no other.

Senna was one of the three or four greatest drivers in history, and very possibly the finest; his sheer speed, high intelligence, utter dedication, ruthlessness and good looks placed him apart from his rivals, and his early death added lustre to the legend.

The figures are incredible enough – three world championships, 41 wins and 65 poles – but it was the ferocity of his will outside as well as inside the car that separated him from the others in his sport. This was a man who walked away from his wife, his country and his friends in order to devote himself to Formula One.

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are not always in agreement, as anyone who worked at McLaren in 2007 would ruefully agree, but in their grief for the loss of their hero they are united.

Sitting beside each other shortly before the last grand prix in Shanghai, Hamilton said: "When I was a kid I had all the books, all the videos ... Ayrton was the driver I looked up to, way before I even started racing.

"He inspired me to be a driver and on the day of his passing, his death was ... it was very difficult for me to show my emotions in my family, so I went off to a quiet place and it was very difficult for several days ... your hero's gone.

"He is an incredible legend. You can still learn things from how he approached racing and how he drove. You like to think that one day you may be recognised as someone that was able to drive similarly to him. He was always my favourite driver."

Alonso said: "It's the same for me. He was an inspiration. I remember some of the races that we could see in the news in Spain, because we didn't have the TV coverage of Formula One.

"I remember I went to school and on my book I didn't have pictures of girls, but I had Ayrton there, and the same in my room. I had a big poster of Ayrton and even my first go-karts were in the colours of Ayrton's McLaren because my father also liked him.

"It was a very sad moment [when he died]. I know there is something happening at Imola in Italy in the next weekends and I intend to be there, just to be close on this unfortunately important day."

He was first known as Ayrton da Silva, then Ayrton Senna da Silva and finally Ayrton Senna. His first F1 team was Toleman, and his aggression – he would drive straight at competitors rather than yield – upset everyone. "I could maybe forgive him if I liked him, but I don't," said one of his rivals, Michele Alboreto.

But Toleman knew exactly how good he was. The engineer Pat Symonds, who is now with Williams, told Christopher Hilton, in Memories of Senna: "There was one area at Dallas where just about everyone hit the wall. He hit it there too. When he got back to the pits he said: 'I just cannot understand how I did that. I was taking it no differently than I had been before. The wall must have moved.'

"We thought: 'Yeah, right, sure the wall's moved.' He was very insistent on this so after the race we went out and had a look. The wall had moved. It was concrete blocks and someone had clipped it, moved it, moved it just a few millimetres – and I mean just a few millimetres – and he had been judging it that perfectly."

His last employer in F1 was Frank Williams, who said: "My abiding memory of Ayrton is not his world-class ability as a racing driver but as an intellectually unbeatable businessman. Throughout the several meetings that took place between me and Ayrton regarding his joining Willams, it became apparent that he arrived for each and every meeting fully prepared on every point for discussion.

"He had prepared in his mind at least three counter moves to every possible counter move by myself. He was gifted with a propensity for extraordinarily clear thinking and an outstanding ability to out-guess, out-think and out-manoeuvre his business opponent."

When the president and CEO of Formula One Management Bernie Ecclestone was asked about the great Brazilian he said: "The trouble with asking for good memories of Ayrton is that I do not have any bad ones. Perhaps my very vivid memories are of his strong opinion, and most of the time he was right."

Back to Hamilton, who said recently: "Sebastian Vettel always runs over the astroturf and over the kerb a little more than he should, going beyond the white line, which you're not actually allowed to do but they let you get away with it.

"In Senna's day, if he went one foot over that kerb, it would be grass and he would spin, and be penalised. He would be right on the limit, rather than over the limit, and I respect that style of driving more.

"Now you can go beyond and get back because modern tracks have run-off areas. They used to be gravel. Hit that, and your car was damaged or stuck. Now you can push beyond, go wide and come back on.

"If I could choose an era, I would love to have driven in Senna's time, 1988, 1989. The cars were dangerous then. When I went around Silverstone in his car, I went flat out and my head felt so exposed. I thought to myself: 'Jeez ... those guys.'"

Floyd Mayweather denies showing signs of decline in Las Vegas win

Floyd Mayweather and Marcos Maidana, right, exchange punches in Las Vegas. Mayweather won a majority points verdict. Photograph: John Gurzinski/AFP/Getty

Glimpses of the real Floyd Mayweather are rare, so carefully does he massage his image and so dutifully do those around him comply with each swing of his mood. As Amir Khan said beforehand: "When you're talking with Floyd Mayweather, he's the boss. You have to listen to him."

That is true. Yet, in the course of his 46th victory, a bruising majority points verdict over Marcos Maidana at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Saturday night that he later rated nearly as tough as his win over Miguel Cotto in 2012, Mayweather's command of his landscape began to shrink.

Even as he pawed at his wounds two hours later and drank in the applause of his acolytes at another chaotic press conference – he had only to chant "Hard work!" than the room filled with the call-and-response he demands, "Dedication!" – minor suspicions surfaced that we might have seen the best of Mayweather. He is still unbeaten. But he is no longer is unbeatable.

Mayweather remains the best boxer in the business, ahead of the legally entangled Andre Ward and the seemingly untouchable heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko, but, at 37, his task of reaching Rocky Marciano's career record of 49-0 looks onerous rather than a given. He needs three wins to deliver on his six-fight deal with Showtime. None of them is likely to be as easy as most of the 46 he has already compiled.

Klitschko and Mayweather started their careers within a month of each other 18 years ago, and, while the Ukrainian's boast that he might box until he is 50 is fanciful, Mayweather's prospects of drawing alongside Marciano in boxing history also need closer examination.

For a man who regards himself so highly to be continually trapped and hurt by a willing but predictable assailant – the same fighter that Khan dropped then outpointed four years ago – is so palpably evidence of the first signs of decline that for Mayweather to pretend otherwise is slightly worrying.

Certainly after he had weathered the early storm on Saturday, he found much of his old genius for eluding punishment while punishing his opponent for impertinence. There were even extended passages of such brilliance and much to applaud as he finally took a grip on the contest. But the man in front of him was as easy to read as a bus ticket. As Maidana wound up his right arm it was liking watch a young cricketer learning to bowl, head down and hurling for all he was worth.Yet he found "all the right areas" way too often.

Mayweather, naturally, did not agree. He complained with justification that many of Maidana's blows were illegal, crashing down on the back of his head or so far south of the border as to require a visa for Mexico. He said, to the astonishment of any sane witness: "I could have made this a lot easier for myself, but I wanted to give the fans a show."

If the audience were sadists (and some of them are), he fulfilled their every wish. But it surely was stretching the point for Mayweather to claim that he willingly exposed himself to the dangers of defeat for their benefit.

The truth was he was a step slower than in his last fight, a magnificent performance against the Mexican Saúl Álvarez in September which ranks among his most convincing victories at elite level. This time, there were punches Maidana might have launched back in Argentina yet somehow travelled to their destination unimpeded.

Mayweather, who has wrestled with the recent break-up of his relationship as well as witnessing the turmoil that is raging inside the camp of his co-promoters, Golden Boy Promotions, said before this fight he had already contemplated leaving the business. He has retired before. He must one day do it again, although it is highly unlikely he will walk away now.

"Boxing is all I have ever done," he said on Saturday night. As for next time, he said: "I don't know what I'm going to do for my next fight yet. But I always find a way to win."

And that remains the truth.

Amir Khan's assured win over Collazo may cost him shot at Mayweather

Amir Khan, right, said he was pleased with his discipline after beating Luis Collazo in his first fight for 13 months. Photograph: Harry How/Getty Images

Hours after Amir Khan's pleasingly efficient debut at welterweight, a clear points win over the former world champion Luis Collazo to move him closer to a fight with Floyd Mayweather, a Showtime suit confided that the network was indeed pleased with the result. "But we also liked the old Amir," he said, "the one who gambled."

In a city and a business where risk-taking is part of the cultural fabric Khan's instinct for laying it all on the line has been his biggest-selling asset. The people here like blood. So do the fans. They crave knockouts and excitement. Khan invariably delivered that, with his quick fists and his suspect chin. It was as though he fought to the rhythm of the baying mob, his courage taking him to places better left unvisited, as whenDanny Garcia recovered from a shellacking to grab his light-welterweight belt with a brutal knockout.

While there was little to criticise and much to applaud about Khan's clinical win on Saturday night, the fight was short on the sort of drama that had crowds edging forward in the past. When Khan might have gone for a stoppage towards the end after knocking Collazo down and building up a big lead, he could not find the single-shot power at the higher weight to put away an opponent almost begging to be hit, hands down and his back on the ropes. That is at least a minor concern because, as Ricky Hatton, who edged a win over Collazo eight years ago, told him beforehand, it is tougher physically one weight up.

None of this should count against the winner in his quest for the most lucrative engagement in the sport, a fight with the reigning king of the division, Mayweather, whose top-of-the-bill victory over the tenacious Marcos Maidana kept his unbeaten record intact.

Mayweather had teased Khan with the prospect of a shot at his title for this show, switching to Maidana after he shocked the cocky Adrien Broner in December. Now, having beaten Maidana in 2010, Khan is entitled to go back to the top of the queue, yet that is no certainty.

He bordered on the cheeky when he observed later: "Mayweather put on a great performance but you look at the way I fought Maidana and the way he fought Maidana. I put him down with a great body shot. Maidana is slower than me and he was still catching Mayweather. Floyd is getting older and people want to see him get beat. It would be a boxing match, skills v skills, and the youth will take him, that's for sure."

However, Khan says he will not compromise his commitment to Ramadan, which finishes on 28 July, and will cut deeply into the preparation time required for a possible fight with Mayweather in September, one of the two months he chooses to perform.

Showtime and Mayweather would gladly give the old Khan a shot, because it would be simultaneously thrilling and less of a threat to the sport's cash cow. Paradoxically the new Khan, fashioned astutely by his trainer Virgil Hunter, would have a better chance of beating Mayweather and consequently his value to them dips.

That is not to say Mayweather would not still start favourite. Khan knows that. But a rematch with Maidana is a more likely fight for Mayweather this year, with Khan looking elsewhere, possibly towards Devon Alexander, with whom he was paired last December before withdrawing on a promise from Mayweather to be his opponent on Saturday night.

Or he could try for a fight with Shawn Porter, who took the Alexander gig and his IBF title and destroyed Paulie Malignaggi in his first defence. Porter has a mandatory challenger in Sheffield's Kell Brook, however, so there are obvious contractual difficulties there.

There is an obvious lucrative alternative: an all-British showdown between Khan and Brook. But that contest is loaded with career-changing possibilities for both, especially with the tantalising prize of a Mayweather fight in the background for next May. It surely would be an all-or-nothing war. And Khan would have to go back to Matchroom to negotiate a deal for that one.

Richard Schaefer, who is still the chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions despite an unresolved row with Oscar De La Hoya, said: "I'm going to talk to Amir and his team and Al Haymon [Mayweather's adviser] and see what we can work out. Tonight I think we saw that his move to 147 was long overdue.

"There are a lot of big fights out there at 147 but I am going to do what I can to match his dream of fighting Floyd Mayweather. Amir Khan has made a very strong case tonight, with his youth and skills. These are all great options for Floyd, whether it is a rematch with Maidana or a fight with Amir Khan. I know Floyd is pretty much set on these dates, May and September, but I am going to have discussions with him."

Khan was bruised but content after seeing off Collazo, and rightly so. It was, as Schaefer observed, "his best performance in two or three fights". He looked cut and strong at the weight, even though he had to do a lot of his work on the back foot, his speed was undiminished and he responded calmly to pressure, refusing the lure of a tear-up in a contest marred by a lot of needle and way too much holding.

"I had to be disciplined tonight," Khan said. "Collazo's a great fighter. This was my first fight in 13 months. I'm still improving and will sit down with my team and look at the tape."

He will be happy to dwell on the fourth, when he decked his opponent with a peach of a short right for a quick count, and the 10th, when he put Collazo down twice, first with a body shot then a left jab-hook that caught the New Yorker's chin at the end of its extension. Yet he could not finish him. That will be a slight concern because it seems he will be taken into the later rounds at this higher weight by stronger opponents with good chins, and that makes for a lot of hard work.

Nevertheless, he won and did so convincingly on the score cards, with two counts of 119-104 and one of 117-106. There were a lot of competitive rounds, but Khan won most of those with his long right lead through Collazo's static southpaw defence. I had him winning 118-106, with two shared rounds.

PTA clarifies its position on Warid’s 4G ads

PHOTO: WARID TELECOM

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has for the first time clarified its position in response to Warid Telecom’s advertisement of its 4G/LTE services.

The four companies that took part in the 3G/4G auction of the next-generation technologies had expressed concern over Warid advertising 4G services.

PTA Chairperson Dr Ismail Shah briefed The Express Tribune about the complex issue on Sunday.

“The existing Warid license is technology neutral but it does not mean that it is service neutral,” Dr Shah said.

He said that all newly launched services require proper consent from PTA, for which Warid will have to send a proper request to the authority.

PTA will then consider such a request based on the license conditions and on the greater interests of the cellular industry, specially the bidders who had participated in the 3G/4G spectrum auction.

The offer of 4G/LTE services by Warid will have to go through a process as per their license and PTA’s requirements of assurance of proper coverage, quality of service, enhanced monitoring requirements and commencement permissions.

“Warid should provide details about how much spectrum would be carved out from the 8.8 MHz in 1800 band for LTE services and its impact on the existing GSM/GPRS/EDGE customers,” Dr Shah said, adding that not all releases of LTE are 4G.

Specific information about the version of LTE to be deployed have to be provided by Warid Telecom, the PTA chief said. “No plan has been shared with PTA yet.”

Without these details being made available, the claims made in Warid’s advertisement cannot be endorsed in any manner, he added.

The PTA on May 3 had accepted Warid Telecom’s plea that it has no need to obtain a new licence to launch 4G services.

The PTA chairperson had said that Warid Telecom had approached the authority to start 4G service without obtaining any new licence. “However, we have asked the company to share its detailed work-out plan with the PTA,” Shah has said.

Floyd Mayweather weathers Maidana storm to win by majority decision

Floyd Mayweather Jr. punches Marcos Maidana during their WBC/WBA welterweight unification fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on May 3, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photograph: Harry How/Getty Images

Floyd Mayweather saw off a hurricane in Las Vegas, a rough night to end a chaotic week. He was cut early and battered for several of the 12 rounds as Marcos Maidana rolled towards him with little regard for his own safety, but Mayweather did what he always does: he found a way to win.

His self-belief and his unbeaten record remain intact – he had the audacity to have notes bearing the statistic 46-0 scattered over the crowd before the first bell - and he has the Argentinian's WBA welterweight belt to add to the one he already looks after on behalf of the WBC. But the aura has diminished every so slightly, to the point whereAmir Khan – who dropped and outpointed the former world champion Luis Collazo earlier in his welterweight debut and first fight at the MGM – is now a credible opponent. He ought to be, given he beat Maidana in 2010.

“A true champion can make adjustments,” Mayweather said, a hail of Latino boos drowning out his victory speech. “I got cracked early by a headbutt over my eye, and couldn't see properly. If the fans want see it again, we can do it again.”

Maidana, clearly unimpressed, said: “Other fighters gave him too much respect and didn't go toe-to-toe with him. I'll give him a rematch because I won the fight. I'm not scared of him.”

Indeed, so rousing a performance did Maidana produce, a lot of fighters will now fancy their chances against Mayweather – and that makes any of his three remaining fights on his Showtime contract all the more intriguing. He is, at last, beatable.

The judges gave him a majority win by margins of 114-114, 117-111 and 116-112. I scored it for him 116-114, with the third and the eighth rounds shared, and the latter of those two could have gone to Mayweather.

It was always going to be a collision of the crude and the clever – but nobody outside Argentina could have predicted with confidence that Maidana would give the finest defensive boxer of modern times so much sustained hell.

Maidana and his shrewd trainer Robert Garcia made no secret of his fight plan beforehand: come out swinging that overhand right and hope to knock Mayweather out. Well, he tried. And he tried. Mayweather also promised an unreserved battle and, whether or not he really wanted to do that, he had little choice in a first round as tough as any he has endured in his career.

Showtime announced Maidana's dressing-room weight as 165lbs, with Mayweather on the 148lbs welterweight limit, just as he had been at the weigh-in, which is extraordinary on both counts.

If Mayweather's strategy was to start World War III – he was setting a record for blows to the back of the head after three rounds - Mayweather had said he welcomed an opponent bringing his best as it might force him to finally produce his A game, self-aggrandizement not that far from the truth; he had won all but a couple of his 45 previous bouts in cruise control. In the third, he got a 10-9 under his belt and was back in business.

In the fourth, Maidana still had not found his manners. He was warned for elbowing Mayweather, who now was complaining regularly, and he hit him low out of the referee's line of vision. In between the argy-bargy, he landed enough decent shots to take the round and leave a cut above his rattled opponent's right eye, a rare sight indeed.

Mayweather's renowned defensive skills were under serious assault again in the fifth, and he was getting caught with crude punches that brought a steady roar from the packed arena's loud Latino audience on Cinco de Mayo weekend.

Approaching the half-way stage, Mayweather knew he was in one of the toughest fights of his life, up there with those against Miguel Cotto and Jose Luis Castillo – and he found some championship form, whipping in left hooks and long rights that hurt and bamboozled Maidana.

The boxing lesson continued in the seventh, and those parts of the crowd rendered silent for the first part of the entertainment, encouraged their man with the familiar chants of “USA! USA!”. His confidence restored, Mayweather now looked like the master boxer who schooled Saul Alvarez and Robert Guerrero, dominant, sneering and utterly irresistible.

Maidana still had fire in his eyes, but blood around his left eye and maybe a doubt or two implanted at last in his mind. He bore in regardless and corralled Mayweather on the ropes, letting go a barrage of unpunished blows to the back of the head, and one below the belt. That apart, he earned a share of the points in the eighth.

Having earned Mayweather's respect and full attention, Maidana now discovered what it was like to be on the end of what the great man described as his A game, which did not stop him going forward – and straight into a hail of sharp, hurtful blows to head and body.

The Maidana tank rumbled on in the 10th, and the sniper Mayweather received him with appreciation and interest, rattling his rock-like head time and again with jabs and hooks. He put a full stop to the session with a long right.

With six minutes left, Maidana surely knew he had to do what he said he would do at the start: knock Floyd Mayweather out. And, as everyone else has discovered, that is not only easier said that done, it requires taking awful risks. Tormented and angry, he barrelled Mayweather through the ropes, and gave him a whack in the ribs while he had his back turned and was trying to get to his feet.

Still chasing that knockout, Maidana landed a cracking right at the start of the 12th and Mayweather had to go into survival mode rather than the grandstand finish he most certainly wanted. Ducking, swaying and countering, he back-pedalled to the ropes, his familiar refuge, and retaliated when he saw the inevitable gaps. Both raised their arms, but the victory went the way most sane analysts thought it would.

Mayweather said Maidana was “a true champion, true competitor and a hell of a fighter”. He added, “He was rugged, a tough guy. Everybody used to seeing me dominate. People saying, 'What's wrong with Floyd?' I think tonight we gave everybody the excitement they want. If he feels he won? September. He can get it again. Absolutely. I could have made the fight a lot easier if I wanted to. Did those rights hurt? He's a strong fighter. I came in at 148, he came in at 165.”

He said he objected to the type of gloves Maidana wanted to use because he did not think they were safe. “When it's all said and done, we already fought. But I'm in this to protect the boxers. A lot of them finish their careers without any money because they can't articulate or even count anymore.

“I'm a mentally strong person, though. I've never done anything but box. That's the difference between me and any other fighter – I can make adjustments.”

Referring to the one score of 114-114, he said, “I'm not going to complain about how the judges judge the fight. They're not always right.”

He turned to Maidana and said, “You're a great fighter, great champion. You have a beautiful family. But next time, don't hit me in the dick.”

As for next time, Mayweather said, “I don't know what I'm going to do for my next fight yet. But I always find a way to win. There's no way to break the May-Vinci code.”

The night ended badly for some spectators. Advised that a crowd crush outside the press conference had injured several people, Richard Schaefer, the chief executive of Golden Boy Promotions, said: “If anything happened, the MGM will investigate, and their security. They are well equipped to handle big fights, so I am surprised to hear that.

Coca-Cola removing controversial ingredient from Powerade drink

Powerade sports drink is now being made without brominated vegetable oil. Photograph: Jon Elswick/AP

A controversial ingredient is being removed from some Powerade sports drinks, after the chemical was also taken out of rival Gatorade last year.

The ingredient, brominated vegetable oil, had been the target of a petition by a US teenager, who questioned why it was being used in a drink marketed toward health-conscious athletes. The petition on Change.org noted that the ingredient is linked to a flame retardant and is not approved for use in Japan or the European Union.

In response to customer feedback, PepsiCo said last year it would drop the ingredient from Gatorade. At the time, Coca-Cola declined to say whether it would remove the ingredient from the two flavours of Powerade that contain it as well.

But this week, bottles of Powerade in fruit punch and strawberry lemonade flavours being sold in the Detroit, Omaha, New York and Washington DC areas no longer list the ingredient. Other bottles still list it, however, suggesting Coca-Cola may have started phasing it out recently. Representatives for the Atlanta-based company were not immediately available to provide details on the change.

The Food and Drug Administration says brominated vegetable oil is used as a stabiliser for flavouring oils in fruit-flavoured drinks. Coca-Cola has said in the past that it uses the ingredient to "improve stability and prevent certain ingredients from separating".
The decision by Coca-Cola to remove brominated vegetable oil from Powerade is just the latest evidence that food makers are coming under pressure for the ingredients they use. While companies stand by the safety of their products, some are making changes in response to the movement toward foods that people believe are natural.

Earlier this year, for instance, Subway said it would remove an ingredient dubbed the "yoga mat chemical" from its breads. The ingredient, azodicarbonamide, is approved for use by the FDA and can be found in a wide variety of breads. The petitioner, Vani Hari of FoodBabe.com, said she targeted Subway because of its image for serving healthy food.

Likewise, brominated vegetable oil can also be found in several other drinks. But the Mississippi teenager, Sarah Kavanagh, said she targeted Gatorade and Powerade in petitions because they are designed for athletes, who are probably more concerned about what they are putting into their bodies.

As Americans cut back on soda, sports drinks have become more important for Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, which is based in Purchase, New York.

Although Coca-Cola has long dominated rival PepsiCo on the soda front, it lags the company in the growing sports drink category. According to the industry tracker Beverage Digest, Gatorade has 64% of the sports drink market.

Democrats criticise 'bogus' new congressional Benghazi inquiry

The US consulate in Benghazi on the night of 11 September 2012. Photograph: Esam Omran Al-Fetori/Reuters

Allies of President Barack Obama on Sunday sharply criticised the latest Republican inquiry into his response to the deadly 2012 attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, describing it as a “bogus” scheme to score political points that was fuelled by conservative media.

David Plouffe, a former senior White House adviser to Obama, said: “What is happening here, and it’s stoked by the talk-radio personalities and Fox News, is an alternative reality.”

“This has been politicised like we’ve never seen before,” Plouffe added, on ABC's This Week. “There’s a very loud, delusional minority that’s driving our politics, that’s in control of the Republican party. There is no conspiracy here at all.”

Anita Dunn, Obama's first White House communications director, dismissed Republican claims that a newly disclosed email, sent after the incident in Libya by a White House spokesman, contained explosive proof that aides knew it had been a terrorist attack, and tried to hide the fact.

“It's been called a smoking gun – I think, if you look at this email, it's a lot more like a leaking water pistol,” Dunn said on NBC's Meet the Press, adding: “There's nothing in there that's inconsistent with the emails that have been released before, and there's nothing in there that is inconsistent with what the CIA had written.”

Their remarks followed the announcement by the House Speaker, John Boehner, on Friday that he will convene a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack, which killed the US ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans, as well as its aftermath.

The work of the committee is likely to refocus attention on the Obama administration's handling of the attack in the months approaching November's midterm congressional elections, in which the Republican party, which controls the House, hopes to seize control of the Senate.

Boehner's announcement came soon after the release, to a freedom of information request, of the email from Ben Rhodes, then deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. It was sent three days after the 11 September 2012 attack in Benghazi, which occurred amid protests elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa against a controversial online video clip about Islam that was made in America.

The email was not handed over with other materials subpoenaed by a congressional committee last year. During a discussion about the “talking points” administration officials should use in public remarks, Rhodes urged that regarding Benghazi, it should be stressed “that these protests are rooted in an internet video, and not a broader policy failure”.

The documents given to Congress last year showed that a list of talking points circulated by the CIA hours before Rhodes sent his email stated: “We believe based on currently available information that the attacks in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US embassy in Cairo.”

Susan Rice, then the US ambassador to the United Nations, characterised the attack as such on several Sunday morning political TV shows that weekend.

The administration later said the attack in Benghazi had, in fact, been a planned terrorist strike. But senior Republicans have continued to allege that the White House orchestrated a cover-up of that fact, possibly in an attempt to shield Obama politically in the weeks approaching the 2012 presidential election, in which he eventually defeated Mitt Romney.

“They put out a narrative that was not supported by the evidence and that they knew was false,” Rick Santorum, the runner-up to Romney in the Republican presidential primary contest, said on ABC.

“From the very beginning they knew this was a terrorist incident, the CIA knew it was a terrorist incident, it's very clear, the State Department knew. And they put out something that they knew, or at least a lot of people knew, was wrong.”

Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican who sits on the House oversight committee, which has aggressively investigated the Benghazi attack, added: “We want the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”

“The White House has long denied any personal involvement in manipulation of those talking points,” said Chaffetz. “The reality is, you have the CIA, you have the military, you have the State Department themselves, that said it was not a video. That was a false narrative perpetuated at the time; to my mind it became a lie.”

Dunn insisted the Obama administration had handled the crisis “transparently and [by] telling the truth”, adding: “The reality of this is when something like this happens, in the first 48 to 72 hours, you don't know, and you have to go with what your intelligence agencies tell you.”

Ambassador Chris Stevens, centre, died in Benghazi. Photograph: Ben Curtis/AP

Plouffe attacked Republicans in Congress for refusing to allow the US to spend more money on embassy security, as had been recommended in an inquiry by Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, following the Benghazi attack. Plouffe suggested the Republicans “start there instead of bogus committee investigations”.

“This was happening in real time. As soon as information was identified, it was released. That's why over the course of those weeks, we knew exactly what happened. There was no politicisation of this at all,” said Plouffe.

“There's been 31 investigations, over 25,000 documents. What ought to be done here is not another bogus committee but real work to protect our embassies.”

Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, reacted furiously to claims his party was attempting to benefit politically from the saga.

“Anybody who believes this is just about politics should go tell that to the family members,” Graham told CBS’s Face the Nation. “Go explain to the family members how it's OK for the White House to withhold information from the Congress and the American people.

“Anybody who plays politics with Benghazi is going to get burned, so if we're playing politics with Benghazi then we'll get burned. If our Democratic friends are shielding the administration, to protect themselves and their re-election because they couldn't stand the truth about Benghazi, then they'll get burned.