Merged State Department admits there was no protest at Benghazi consulate

[Cylinder]

The US State Department admitted today that there were no protests outside the US counsulate in Benghazi, instead the attack that killed US Ambassador Chris Stephens and three other Americans was a coordinated terrorist attack.



According to a senior State Departmment spokesman, instead of being the results of a spontaneous protest of a obscure, amatuer film insulting Islam, the attack was a coordinated and unprecendented attack against a US embassy. This admission comes on the eve of Congressional hearings into the Sept 11, 2012 attacks and refutes the narrative portrayed by Pres. Obama and the State Department that the attacks were the result of spontaneous outrage over the film the potrayed the prophet Mohammed as a pedopile.

 

[A'isha]

So, the Obama Administration revised its statements regarding what happened from what they initially stated during the confused early aftermath, based on new details learned as the investigation into events has progressed?

And this is a bad thing...why, exactly?

 

[comixman]

I thought it was poor form for the US State department to contradict what the Libyan government was saying before the investigation progressed at all. Better to withhold comment saying investigation in progress.

 

[A'isha]

I thought it was poor form for the US State department to contradict what the Libyan government was saying before the investigation progressed at all. Better to withhold comment saying investigation in progress.

Well, an attack like that isn't the kind of situation where an administration can just remain silent (or defer to the statements made by the country where the attack happened). Especially coming, as it did, just hours after the embassy storming in Cairo, which was the result of the film...albeit with plenty of assistance from salafists in Egypt who intentionally whipped things up.

 

[Beerina]

IIRC, the administration did seem adamant it was a protest that got out of control rather than a protest used for cover of an actual, planned attack.


After the Oklahoma bombing, everyone was running around god damn Muslims and Clinton was like, "Hold on, let the investigation proceed, we don't know that yet."

This seems like the opposite.

 

[A'isha]

IIRC, the administration did seem adamant it was a protest that got out of control rather than a protest used for cover of an actual, planned attack.


After the Oklahoma bombing, everyone was running around god damn Muslims and Clinton was like, "Hold on, let the investigation proceed, we don't know that yet."

This seems like the opposite.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...6105782-0826-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_blog.html

This is a pretty good roundup of Administration statements over the days and weeks. I disagree with Kessler that it indicates a deliberate attempt to drive a particular narrative; I personally think those statements he seizes on are merely the result of Administration officials trying to react to the situation as a whole, especially since all these events happened virtually at the same time, rather than separating out the protests directly related to the video from the Benghazi attack, but YMMV.

I will note that Kessler himself says "Officials were also able to dismiss pointed questions by referring to an ongoing investigation." So damned if you do and damned if you don't, I guess.

 

[balrog666]

You mean they deliberately lied for days and days and days even when everyone who watched the news (even CNN, if you can call that news) already knew the truth???

Gosh, oh my, who will ever believe any statements from the administration/Foggy Bottom ever again???

 

[manofthesea]

I'm sure whoever was behind this attack claimed responsibility awhile ago. That's how they roll.

A recent story mentioned that the Egyptian Embassy was evacuated prior to the evening of 9/11/12 due to a perceived threat. Apparently there was no indication that the Benghazi consulate would be the site of a major assault.

 

[Puppycow]

The attack happened at night IIRC. Was there a protest there earlier in the day?

I'm sure whoever was behind this attack claimed responsibility awhile ago. That's how they roll.

Yes, there was a claim of responsibility.
Libya 'arrests' over Benghazi US consulate deaths

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has said in a statement the attack avenged the killing of Abu Yahya al-Libi - a Libyan-born al-Qaeda commander killed in June by a US drone strike in the North Waziristan-Afghan borderlands.

. . .

Ms Rice, meanwhile, told ABC that the the US's "current best assessment" was that "this began as a spontaneous not a pre-meditated response" to the protests in Cairo.

"As that unfolded, it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons, weapons that, as you know, in the wake of the revolution in Libya are quite common and accessible and then it evolved from there," she added.

 

[Puppycow]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...6105782-0826-11e2-afff-d6c7f20a83bf_blog.html

This is a pretty good roundup of Administration statements over the days and weeks. I disagree with Kessler that it indicates a deliberate attempt to drive a particular narrative; I personally think those statements he seizes on are merely the result of Administration officials trying to react to the situation as a whole, especially since all these events happened virtually at the same time, rather than separating out the protests directly related to the video from the Benghazi attack, but YMMV.

I will note that Kessler himself says "Officials were also able to dismiss pointed questions by referring to an ongoing investigation." So damned if you do and damned if you don't, I guess.

The first statement (chronologically) on that list seems entirely accurate:

“Yesterday, our U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, was attacked. Heavily armed militants assaulted the compound and set fire to our buildings. American and Libyan security personnel battled the attackers together. Four Americans were killed. They included Sean Smith, a Foreign Service information management officer, and our Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. We are still making next of kin notifications for the other two individuals.”

— Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, State Department Treaty room, Sept. 12

The first statement by Obama:

“The United States condemns in the strongest terms this outrageous and shocking attack. We're working with the government of Libya to secure our diplomats. I've also directed my administration to increase our security at diplomatic posts around the world. And make no mistake, we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people.

“Since our founding, the United States has been a nation that respects all faiths. We reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. But there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence. None. The world must stand together to unequivocally reject these brutal acts…No acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation, alter that character, or eclipse the light of the values that we stand for.”

— President Obama, Rose Garden statement, Sept. 12

Again, I see nothing factually misleading there.

The one statement on that list that doesn't seem to have held up is this statement by Susan Rice. However, it comes with a caveat, which I will emphasize:

“Based on the best information we have to date ... it began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo, where, of course, as you know, there was a violent protest outside of our embassy sparked by this hateful video. But soon after that spontaneous protest began outside of our consulate in Benghazi, we believe that it looks like extremist elements, individuals, joined in that effort with heavy weapons of the sort that are, unfortunately, readily now available in Libya post-revolution. And that it spun from there into something much, much more violent.... We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.”

— Susan E. Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Sept. 16

So her statement was wrong, but it was based on the information they (or she) had at the time. Because the attack in Benghazi happened on the same day as protests over the film in Cairo, it was not an entirely unreasonable theory at the time.

 

[Puppycow]

Here's a story for those who don't want to watch a youtube video:
U.S. intelligence now says Benghazi attack "deliberate and organized"

(Reuters) - The top U.S. intelligence authority issued an unusual public statement on Friday declaring it now believed the September 11 attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, was a "deliberate and organized terrorist attack."

The statement by the office of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper acknowledged that it represented a change in the U.S. intelligence assessment of how and why the attack happened. During the attack on two U.S. government compounds in the eastern Libyan city, four U.S. personnel, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed.

The State Department and the president rely on the intelligence community for intelligence. The statements by the State Department and the white house would have reflected what they were being told by the intelligence community at the time, and changed when new information became available.

 

[balrog666]

I'm sure whoever was behind this attack claimed responsibility awhile ago. That's how they roll.

A recent story mentioned that the Egyptian Embassy was evacuated prior to the evening of 9/11/12 due to a perceived threat. Apparently there was no indication that the Benghazi consulate would be the site of a major assault.

Gee, that's not what the (late) ambassador wrote in his diary - maybe he was just lying to himself ...

 

[manofthesea]

"Let me be clear" (quoting the prez), the confusion allowed us so much fun in the earlier thread.

 

[manofthesea]

Gee, that's not what the (late) ambassador wrote in his diary - maybe he was just lying to himself ...

Wasn't that diary picked up by an NBC reporter the next day?

Didn't NBC just interview the man responsible for shooting that Afghan girl?
Well, I'm sure we'll be hunting for him any week now.

 

[manofthesea]

I called it a couple of weeks ago that the reason the FBI wasn't in Benghazi investigating the Embassy was due to the fact Libya was still sorting the legality of the investigation on their side. All the while Hillary was harping on about we need heavy weapons to ensure our agents safety.

 

[jj]

Oh look, words like "admits", obviously chosen to be unethically pejoritive, to criticize the fact that there is such a thing as "fog of war".

 

[Cylinder]

Oh look, words like "admits", obviously chosen to be unethically pejoritive, to criticize the fact that there is such a thing as "fog of war".

So it took the full force of the US government the lion's share of a month to determine if a mass protest occurred in front of one of their consulates (or whatever the post's purpose was) with video and survivors? Was it some stroke of serendipity that they figured this out just in time to call a teleconference on the eve of sworn testimony before Congress?

Someone needs to face the ambassador's family in person. These animals dragged Ambassador Stephens' corpse through the streets of Benghazi and the State Department tried to sell that optic as concerned bystanders rendering aid.

Tell me, is that hope or change?

 

[jj]

It's interesting to see how Omniscient some people think the president is, when they're trying to kick up discontent and rouse the rabble against him.

 

[Silly Green Monkey]

Someone needs to face the ambassador's family in person. These animals dragged Ambassador Stephens' corpse through the streets of Benghazi and the State Department tried to sell that optic as concerned bystanders rendering aid.

What's this?

 

[This is The End]

Another very detailed article here:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-10/ambassador-died-in-smoke-while-agents-searched-for-him.html