Obama administration knew right away that Libya attack was terrorism

Fox News confirms that, as Eli Lake first reported, U.S. intelligence officials knew within 24 hours of the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that it was a terrorist attack and suspected Al Qaeda-tied elements were involved. In fact, two senior U.S. officials told Fox that the Obama administration internally designated the attack terrorism from the first, and that officials were looking for one specific suspect.

As Fox News reminds us, Obama himself referred to “acts of terror” in his first public remarks about the attack. But then, the administration switched gears. Most notably, it claimed, through U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, that the administration believed the strike was a “spontaneous” event triggered by protests in Egypt over an anti-Islam film.

The administration has finally moved away from this willfully false line. Two weeks after the fact, Hillary Clinton called the Libya attack terrorism, and Jay Carney says that Obama now believes it was terrorism as well.

But, as we see, Obama knew or should have known it was terrorism from the beginning. Instead, though designating the attack as terrorism for internal purposes, the administration peddled a very different theory on the Sunday talk shows. And when it briefed Congress, the administration provided what Sen. Bob Corker has described as “the most useless, worthless briefing I have attended in a long time.”

Corker and Jim DeMint have introduced legislation to require the Obama
 Administration to conduct an official investigation and issue a report 
on the attacks on United States missions in
 Libya, Egypt, and Yemen within 30 days. I won’t hold my breath for an investigation by the White House in that time frame. However, at least one chamber of Congress may decide to investigate next term.

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