“. . . the Admin wanted to find out the CIA’s sources in Yemen . . .”
Your conjecture about the narrative problem for Obama makes some sense. It would then dovetail with the motivation for the Benghazi coverup as well. “AQ has been vanquished by Obama thus ending the so-called War on Terror.”
What I then wonder about is who or what forced Machen’s hand to notify the AP that he had grabbed the phone records a year ago.
Obama has been trying to throw both the CIA and the FBI under the bus. I think some of them may not like it.