海角大神

Within hours of last month's attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in聽Benghazi, Libya, President聽Barack Obama's administration聽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聽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聽Obama administration's public messaging about the attack as it seeks to fend off Republican charges that the聽White House聽failed to prevent a terrorist strike that left a U.S. ambassador and three others dead.

"What we're seeing now is the picture starting to develop that it wasn't a problem with the intelligence that was given, it's what they did with the intelligence that they were given," Representative聽Mike Rogers, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said in an interview on Tuesday.

"This picture is still a little fuzzy but it is starting to come into focus and it appears that there were, very early on, some indications that there was jihadist participation in the event," he said.

The聽Obama administration聽has strongly defended its public accounts of what happened in聽Benghazi, and said its understanding has evolved as additional information came in.

"At every step of the way, the administration has based its public statements on the best assessments that were provided by the intelligence community. As the intelligence community learned more information, they updated聽Congress聽and the American people on it," said聽White House聽spokesman聽Jay Carney.

Some officials said U.S. spy agencies tried to avoid drawing premature conclusions about how the violence began and who organized it.

"Unless you have very good reports that strongly suggest who was behind the attack for sure, it is prudent to be careful, because placing emphasis publicly, even tentatively, on any one group or groups too soon can lead everyone down the wrong path," said one official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Republicans have sought to make the shifting stories told by administration officials about the attack, and inadequate security precautions at the U.S. diplomatic site in聽Libya, a major issue in the presidential campaign leading up to the Nov. 6 election.

Two House Republicans said they would hold聽Congress' first hearing on the matter on Oct. 10.

CIA talking points

The stream of intelligence flowing into Washington within hours of the聽Benghazi聽attacks contained data from communications intercepts and U.S. informants, which were then fashioned into polished initial assessments for policymakers.

Officials familiar with them said they contained evidence that members of a militant faction,聽Ansar al-Sharia, as well as al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, were involved in the assaults.

The report did not allege the attacks were a reaction to the anti-Muslim film, but acknowledged it was possible that the attackers sought to use an outbreak of violence in聽Cairo聽over the film, which insulted the Prophet Mohammad, as a pretext for attacks.

One official said initial reporting suggested militants had begun planning attacks on U.S. targets in聽Benghazi聽before Sept. 11, but may well have decided to use the protests as a pretext for moving forward that day.

Reuters reported on Sept. 12, citing聽U.S. government聽officials, that the attacks may have been planned and organized in advance, and that members of聽Ansar al-Sharia and AQIM聽may have been involved.

Yet on Sept. 15, administration officials, relying upon what they said was other information from intelligence agencies, circulated to members of聽Congress聽a set of talking points prepared by the CIA that purported to summarize what U.S. intelligence knew.

The talking points said: "The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in聽Benghazi聽were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. embassy in聽Cairo聽and evolved into a direct assault against the U.S. diplomatic post in聽Benghazi聽and subsequently its annex."

The document then noted that "There are indications that extremists participated in the violent demonstrations." It contained no further elaboration.

The talking points reflected information that聽White House聽officials and聽Congress聽were given in closed-door intelligence briefings in the days immediately after the attacks. In one such session, CIA director聽David Petraeus聽used lines which paralleled the talking points.

"It seems increasingly clear that the briefings provided to聽Congress聽and the public about the聽Benghazi聽attack were at best incomplete and at worst misleading," Senator聽Saxby Chambliss, the Republican vice chair of the聽Senate Intelligence Committee, told Reuters.

"Within hours of the attack, intelligence assessments highlighted the role of al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists, but the administration focused instead on a video that appears to have had little, if anything, to do with the violence in聽Benghazi," Chambliss said.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the聽United Nations, also appeared to use information contained in the talking points on Sunday Sept. 16 when she made five appearances on TV talk shows.

On CBS' "Face the Nation," Rice said the聽Benghazi聽attacks were triggered by a "hateful video," which prompted a "spontaneous protest" that "spun from there into something more violent." Regarding militants, she said only that it was "clear that there were extremist elements that joined in and escalated the violence."

颁辞苍驳谤别蝉蝉尘补苍听Peter King, a New York Republican, has urged Rice to resign over the issue, a call the State Department has rejected.

A role for anti-muslim film?

The Daily Beast website reported last week that in the hours after the attack,聽U.S. intelligence聽agencies monitored communications between members of聽Ansar al-Sharia and AQIM.聽Ansar al-Sharia聽operatives "bragged" about their attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission and acted as if they were "subordinate" to AQIM, it quoted a U.S. official as saying.

It now appears questionable that the anti-Muslim film, which sparked a violent protest against the聽U.S. Embassy in Cairo聽earlier on Sept. 11, played a significant role in the聽Benghazi聽attack. Some U.S. officials have not foreclosed that possibility.

But Rogers, the聽House Intelligence Committee聽chairman, said he had never seen intelligence reporting to support such an assertion.

"I haven't seen anything that shows that the intelligence community said on the day of, or the immediate day following, that this was a spontaneous event," he said.