Wed October 24, 2012 CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/24/us/libya-benghazi-e-mails/index.html
Read the rest at the bottom of this blog!
The State Department on Friday for the first time blamed specific groups and militants for the 2012 Benghazi attack, designating them as terrorists -- a move that further undermines initial claims the attack was spontaneous.
The department announced that it was labeling Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi and Ansar al-Sharia in Darnah as terror organizations, in part over their role in the Benghazi attack. It applied the same label to Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia, over a separate attack on Americans in Tunis
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In an e-mail obtained by CNN, State Department officials notify that the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is under attack.
In an e-mail obtained by CNN, State Department officials notify that the attack is over.
In an e-mail obtained by CNN, State Department officials notify that the Ansar al-Sharia -- identified in the subject line of the email -- has taken responsibility for the attack.
State Department e-mail on Benghazi
State Department e-mail on Benghazi
State Department e-mail on Benghazi
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says don't "cherry pick" documents
- The White House says it received conflicting information about the attack
- A government email on the day of the attack says an Islamist group claimed credit
- The attack left U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead
Washington (CNN) -- Two hours after first being notified of an attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, a government e-mail to the White House, the State Department and the FBI said an Islamist group had claimed credit, according to a copy obtained by CNN.
An initial e-mail was sent while the attack was still underway, and another that arrived two hours later -- sent from a State Department address to various government agencies including the executive office of the president -- identified Ansar al-Sharia as claiming responsibility for the attack on its Facebook page and on Twitter.
The group denied responsibility the next day.
However, the e-mails raise further questions about the seeming confusion on the part of the Obama administration to determine the nature of the September 11 attack that left U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead.
Two White House officials, speaking on condition of not being identified on Wednesday, said the government e-mails about the attack were not an intelligence assessment. They also noted that there was conflicting information about Ansar al-Sharia denying responsibility.
Attackers set the U.S. Consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya, on fire on September 11, 2012. The U.S. ambassador and three other U.S. nationals were killed during the attack. The Obama administration initially blamed a mob inflamed by a U.S.-produced movie that mocked Islam and its Prophet Mohammed, but later said the storming of the consulate appears to have been a terrorist attack. View photos of protesters storming the U.S. Embassy buildings in 2012.
A desk inside the burnt U.S. Consulate building in Benghazi, Libya, on September 13, two days after the attack.
The damage inside the burnt U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on September 13.
A lounge chair and umbrella float in the swimming pool of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on September 13.
Demonstrators on September 12 gather in Libya to condemn the killers and voice support for the victims in the attack on the U.S. Consulate.
U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement about the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Rose Garden at the White House on September 12 in Washington.
A burnt vehicle is seen at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 12.
People inspect the damage at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 12.
A small American flag is seen in the rubble at the U.S. Consulate on September 12.
President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stand at Andrews Air Force Base as the bodies of the four Americans killed at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi are returned on September 14.
A man stands in part of the burned-out compound on September 12.
Smoke and fire damage is evident in this consulate building on September 12.
Half-burnt debris and ash cover the floor of one of the consulate buildings on September 12.
The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is seen in flames on September 11.
A protester reacts as the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi burns on September 11.
A vehicle and the surrounding area are engulfed in flames after it was set on fire inside the compound on September 11.
Flames erupt outside of a building in the U.S. consulate compound on September 11.
A vehicle burns during the attack Tuesday on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on September 11.
Onlookers record the damage from the attack on September 11.
Onlookers walk past a burning truck and building in the compound on September 11.
A vehicle sits smoldering in flames on September 11.
People duck flames outside a consulate building on September 11.
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
Attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya
HIDE CAPTION
Photos: Attack on U.S. Consulate in Libya
Benghazi attack: Who knew what when?
Libya attack suspect speaks to reporter
New Benghazi documents emerge
"They were a part of the many different reports we were receiving that day," one of the White House officials said of the e-mails. "There are always multiple and conflicting reports in the initial hours of an attack. That's why you have an investigation."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton advised reporters to wait until a review panel she appointed to investigate what happened completed its work.
"The Independent Accountability Review Board is already hard at work looking at everything, not cherry picking one story here or one document there but looking at everything, which I highly recommend as the appropriate approach to something as complex an attack like this," Clinton said Wednesday.
"You know, posting something on Facebook is not in and of itself evidence. I think it just underscores how fluid the reporting was at the time and continued for some time to be," Clinton said.
She repeated her earlier pledge to "take whatever measures are necessary to fix anything that needs to be fixed, and we will bring those to justice who committed these murders."
Meanwhile, White House spokesman Jay Carney noted the e-mail about the claim of responsiblity "was an open-source, unclassified e-mail referring to an assertion made on a social media site that everyone in this room had access to and knew about instantaneously."
Carney added that "the whole point of an intelligence community and what they do is to assess strands of information and make judgments about what happened and who was responsible."
The day after the attack took place, President Barack Obama referred to it as an "act of terror."
But in the following days, Carney maintained there was no evidence suggesting the attack was "planned or imminent."
The administration also suggested that an anti-Muslim video produced in the United States likely fueled a spontaneous demonstration in Benghazi as it had in Cairo, where the U.S. Embassy also was attacked.
Clinton, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland and Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, all cited the video as a motivating factor in the attack.
On September 13 -- two days after the attack -- a senior U.S. official told CNN that the violence in Libya was not the work of "an innocent mob."
"The video or 9/11 made a handy excuse and could be fortuitous from their perspective, but this was a clearly planned military-type attack," the official said.
However, it wasn't until September 19 that Matthew Olsen, the nation's counterterrorism chief, told senators that it was a terrorist attack. The next day, Carney also said it was "self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack."
The e-mails obtained by CNN provide additional insight into the Benghazi attack.
The first one, sent at 4:05 p.m. ET, or 10:05 p.m. in Libya, described a diplomatic mission under attack.
"Approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well," the e-mail said. Stevens and four other mission staff were in the compound safe haven, it added.
Less than an hour later, at 4:54 p.m. ET, another e-mail reported "firing at the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi has stopped and the compound has been cleared." It said a search was underway for consulate personnel.
The final e-mail, at 6:07 p.m., noted the claim of responsibility for the attack. The subject line said: "Update 2: Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack."
"Embassy Tripoli reports the group claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli," the e-mail said.
The Facebook claim of involvement was subsequently denied by the group at a news conference in the following days, but not very convincingly.
"We are saluting our people for this zeal in protecting their religion, to grant victory to the prophet," a spokesman for Ansar al-Sharia said at the time. "The response has to be firm."
It is common for one or more claims of responsibility to follow high-profile attacks on U.S. targets, and intelligence officials analyze them for validity before declaring any legitimate. For example, groups make false claims to seek publicity and raise their profile
.
Analysts examine a group's history, whether it made previous claims that were legitimate, whether it has the capacity to carry out such an attack, and whether known members of the group participated in the attack in assessing the validity of claims of responsibility.
Fox News previously reported that the two were suspected of playing a role in the attack. And despite State Department claims that Al Qaeda leadership was not involved and a recent news report echoing that assessment, Fox News has learned that bin Qumu has Al Qaeda ties.
According to his Guantanamo file, he has historic ties to the Al Qaeda network, including training at one point at "Usama bin Laden's Torkham camp.
"
The State Department, in its announcement Friday, specifically discussed allegations against the Ansar al-Sharia branches.
"Ansar al-Shari'a in Benghazi and Ansar al-Shari'a in Darnah have been involved in terrorist attacks against civilian targets, frequent assassinations, and attempted assassinations of security officials and political actors in eastern Libya, and the September 11, 2012 attacks against the U.S. Special Mission and Annex in Benghazi, Libya," the department said. "Members of both organizations continue to pose a threat to U.S. interests in Libya."
Shortly after the attack, administration officials indicated it was related to protests over an anti-Islam film that were raging elsewhere in Africa and the Middle East, describing it as spontaneous. They have since backed off that explanation, though have not ruled out the film as having played some role. Many lawmakers, though, have claimed the film was not a factor and the attack was planned by terrorists.
The department on Friday cited Khattalah and bin Qumu over their leadership roles in the al-Sharia organizations. Khattalah, though, told Fox News in October 2012 that while he was at the U.S. consulate that night, he was not responsible for the attack. He claimed he was helping Libyan security workers defending the compound.
The new terror designation bars anyone from providing or trying to provide "material support or resources" to those organizations and individuals, and freezes any assets they have in the U.S. The State Department announced that it has also updated its Rewards for Justice website to include a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of anyone involved in the Benghazi attack.
The department had faced criticism for not including that reward on the website, though officials claimed reward offers had nevertheless been made.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/01/10/state-department-names-groups-behind-benghazi-strike/
Four Americans died in the 2012 attack, and so far nobody has been brought to justice in connection with the killings.
"The U.S. government is committed to taking all appropriate actions against the organizations and individuals responsible for the attacks against the U.S. diplomatic facilities in Libya and Tunisia," the State Department said, also referring to a 2012 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tunis.
Fox News' Catherine Herridge and Greg Palkot contributed to this report.
