1. If the U.S. government was using the diplomatic personnel in Libya as a front for an operation to ship weapons to the rebels in Syria, he'd need deniability in the event the cover was blown and the administration wanted to hang the State Department and CIA leaders out to dry by treating it as a rogue operation.
2. The guy isn't bright enough to run a lemonade stand, so there's no reason to have him involved in anything more complicated than a scripted TV appearance with a teleprompter.
I do not know what Obama did that night. I would suspect it is exactly what Valerie Jarrett told him to do.
I would love to see her interrogated by Trey Gowdy.