| White House Walking-Back Account Of 'Spontaneous' Attacks In Libya |
| Sep-18-2012 |
| Keywords: white house, susan rice, obama, libya attack, spontaneous, controversy, change |
Just two days after proclaiming that sources in Benghazi, and the interim Libyan President didn't have their facts straight, the Obama administration opened the door to the possibility that it's intelligence sources may not have all the facts.
"We have provided information about what we believe was the precipitating cause of the protest and violence based on the information that we have had available," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday. "The FBI is investigating, and that investigation will follow the facts wherever they lead."
Carney, contrary to statements by Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, today said "we do not have any indication at this point of premeditation or preplanned attacks," but added, "we're not making declarations ahead of the facts here."
That's a far more modest assessment events the resulted in the assassination of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi a week ago today.
Rice said on "Fox News Sunday," just one of the many talks shows her appeared on Sunday, that the attacks were not premeditated, but rather spontaneous reactions to a 15-minute film that mocked the prophet Muhammad.
However, that account is in direct contradiction with those of eyewitnesses on the ground during the attack on our government outpost and the safe house where staff fled.
Sources, including an intelligence source in Libya who spoke to Fox News, have echoed those claims that the attacks were indeed planned to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
In the face of these conflicting accounts, Carney on Tuesday deferred to the ongoing investigation.
"It is an absolute tragedy that we lost four Americans in Benghazi," he said. "There is an active investigation under way about what happened and why and what the motivations were."
Fox News was told that the assault on the consulate came without warning and included RPGs and mortars -- including at least one round that hit the consulate roof. |
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Posted by Lou Dobbs Staff at 2:00 PM Email to a friend |
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