| Intelligence Offiice Falling On The Sword For Obama Administration's Libya Debacle |
| Sep-28-2012 |
| Keywords: obama, libya, benghazi, intelligence, 24 hours, terrorist attack |
The office of National Intelligence today is taking the blame for the Obama administration's week-long assertions that the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was a spontaneous protest.
The statement release Friday by Shawn Turner, spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, claims the administration's narrative regarding the events in Benghazi were based on intelligence official's guidance.
"In the immediate aftermath, there was information that led us to assess that the attack began spontaneously following protests earlier that day at our embassy in Cairo," he said. "We provided that initial assessment to Executive Branch officials and members of Congress, who used that information to discuss the attack publicly and provide updates as they became available. Throughout our investigation we continued to emphasize that information gathered was preliminary and evolving."
The statement went on to describe how the assessment of the situation and circumstances evolved within the intelligence community.
"As we learned more about the attack, we revised our initial assessment to reflect new information indicating that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists," Turner said. "It remains unclear if any group or person exercised overall command and control of the attack, and if extremist group leaders directed their members to participate. However, we do assess that some of those involved were linked to groups affiliated with or sympathetic to Al Qaeda."
However, sources told Fox News that intelligence officials knew within 24 hours the attack that left the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead was terrorism, and that they suspected it was tied to Al Qaeda.
It's unclear, then, why the intelligence community told Executive Branch officials it was spontaneous, even five days after the attack when U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, pushed the spontaneous theme on five separate Sunday news programs.
Meanwhile, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are raising questions about security at the compound in Benghazi. All members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote to the State Department on Thursday asking for additional details about security at U.S. diplomatic posts and for a fuller explanation of the attacks on U.S. compounds in Libya, Egypt and Yemen.
An intelligence source on the ground in Libya told Fox News on Friday that no threat assessment was conducted before U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team began "taking up residence" at the Benghazi compound -- describing the security lapses as a "total failure."
The source told Fox News that there was no real security equipment installed in the villas on the compound except for a few video cameras.
On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst, the intelligence source said the security lapses were a 10 -- a "total failure" because Benghazi was known to be a major area for extremist activity.
There had been four attacks or attempted attacks on diplomatic and western targets leading up to the Sept. 11 strike on the U.S. Consulate. |
|
|
Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 7:00 PM Email to a friend |
| < Back to Today's Issues |
|
 |
|
|
|
