U.S. had early indications Libya attack tied to organized militants

Reuters ^ | Oct. 3, 2012 | Mark Hosenball and Tabassum Zakaria

[Free ThinkerNY]

Reuters) - Within hours of last month's attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, President Barack Obama's administration received about a dozen intelligence reports suggesting militants connected to al Qaeda were involved, three government sources said.

Despite these reports, in public statements and private meetings, top U.S. officials spent nearly two weeks highlighting intelligence suggesting that the attacks were spontaneous protests against an anti-Muslim film, while playing down the involvement of organized militant groups.

It was not until last Friday that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's office issued an unusual public statement, which described how the picture that intelligence agencies presented to U.S. policymakers had "evolved" into an acknowledgement that the attacks were "deliberate and organized" and "carried out by extremists."

The existence of the early reports appears to raise fresh questions about the Obama administration's public messaging about the attack as it seeks to fend off Republican charges that the White House failed to prevent a terrorist strike that left a U.S. ambassador and three others dead.

[Bon mots]

Oblamer knew immediately who/what to blame and what to do about it.

The First Amendment

Oblamer's solution: Curtail free speech

[andyk]

Gosh, way to catch up Reuters. I don’t think there’s a FReeper alive who didn’t know that video crap was a load of horse hockey, and that it was clearly terrorism. But hey, nobody is paying attention to it any more, now that debates are under way, so go ahead and trickle out the truth.

[Spok]

Maybe Obama should consider arming our embassies instead of Mexican drug cartels.

[arkfreepdom]

Very nice!!