The day after the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, military intelligence was spreading the word inside the Pentagon that an al Qaeda-linked group was likely responsible.
A source familiar with intelligence reporting told The Washington Times that the Libyan militant group Ansar al-Sharia was singled out as the likely principal planner and executor of the attack that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on Sept. 11.
U.S. Special Operations Command quickly dispatched its troops to the region, but not into Libya directly, to stand by in case Ansar al-Sharia launched more attacks on Americans or took hostages.
The early assessment that Ansar al-Sharia likely carried out the attack is at odds with the Obama administration’s repeated claims in the days after the bloodshed that the raid was a spontaneous protest against a video clip of a U.S.-produced movie that disparages Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Five days after the attack, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said on CBS‘ “Face the Nation,” “We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.”
The source said some people in military intelligence thought otherwise: that Ansar al-Sharia was involved, that al Qaeda leaders were calling for attacks on the West and that the assault occurred on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks added up to a well-armed, planned operation. The attackers unleashed rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.
A source familiar with intelligence reporting told The Washington Times that the Libyan militant group Ansar al-Sharia was singled out as the likely principal planner and executor of the attack that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on Sept. 11.
U.S. Special Operations Command quickly dispatched its troops to the region, but not into Libya directly, to stand by in case Ansar al-Sharia launched more attacks on Americans or took hostages.
The early assessment that Ansar al-Sharia likely carried out the attack is at odds with the Obama administration’s repeated claims in the days after the bloodshed that the raid was a spontaneous protest against a video clip of a U.S.-produced movie that disparages Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Five days after the attack, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said on CBS‘ “Face the Nation,” “We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned.”
The source said some people in military intelligence thought otherwise: that Ansar al-Sharia was involved, that al Qaeda leaders were calling for attacks on the West and that the assault occurred on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks added up to a well-armed, planned operation. The attackers unleashed rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.
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