The administration’s response to the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi fractured on Wednesday.
During a morning hearing on Capitol Hill, Matt Olsen, the director of the multi-agency National Counterterrorism Center, said the ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed by a jihadi group.
“Yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy,” Olson told a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat.
“We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al-Qaida or al-Qaida’s affiliates; in particular, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb,” said Olson, according to a report in Foreign Policy magazine.
Although his description of a “terrorist attack” implies that an organized group of jihadis mounted the attack, Olson stopped short of saying the attack was a planned surprise assault of the unfortified and poorly guarded compound.
“What we don’t have, at this point, is specific intelligence that there was a significant advanced planning or coordination for this attack,” he told the senators.
Olsen’s acknowledgement of “terrorism,” however, undermines the White House’s repeated suggestions that the killings were an unplanned result of a protest against a little-known YouTube video produced in California.
During a morning hearing on Capitol Hill, Matt Olsen, the director of the multi-agency National Counterterrorism Center, said the ambassador to Libya and three other Americans were killed by a jihadi group.
“Yes, they were killed in the course of a terrorist attack on our embassy,” Olson told a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat.
“We are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al-Qaida or al-Qaida’s affiliates; in particular, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb,” said Olson, according to a report in Foreign Policy magazine.
Although his description of a “terrorist attack” implies that an organized group of jihadis mounted the attack, Olson stopped short of saying the attack was a planned surprise assault of the unfortified and poorly guarded compound.
“What we don’t have, at this point, is specific intelligence that there was a significant advanced planning or coordination for this attack,” he told the senators.
Olsen’s acknowledgement of “terrorism,” however, undermines the White House’s repeated suggestions that the killings were an unplanned result of a protest against a little-known YouTube video produced in California.
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