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Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show. The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks. The brief emails also show how U.S. diplomats described the attack, even as it was still under way, to Washington. U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens...

"But I tell you these emails say to me that if anybody at the White House thought they could cover this story up by referring to the Muhammad video with this documentary evidence in real time, then it wasn’t just a cover up. It was an incredibly stupid cover up."

Officials at the White House and State Department were alerted two hours after attackers stormed the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the assault, emails show. The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks. The brief missives also show how U.S. diplomats described the attack, even as it was still under way, to Washington.

Not just on the day he died, mind you. Multiple times before, too. I’m near the point now where I want to abandon the whole “pre-planned attack versus spontaneous protest” line of inquiry just because it’s steering us away from the more important topic of State’s negligence on his security. Besides, we already know, more or less, why Carney and Rice pushed the “spontaneous protest” theory. Ask Saxby Chambliss: “Talking points distributed by the administration [in the immediate aftermath] are nearly identical to intelligence assessments within hours of the attack, except in one important way: the intelligence judgment that the...

Across 166 pages of internal State Department documents -- released Friday by a pair of Republican congressmen pressing the Obama administration for more answers on the Benghazi terrorist attack -- slain U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and the security officers assigned to protect him repeatedly sounded alarms to their superiors in Washington about the intensifying lawlessness and violence in Eastern Libya, where Stevens ultimately died. On Sept. 11 -- the day Stevens and three other Americans were killed -- the ambassador signed a three-page cable, labeled "sensitive," in which he noted "growing problems with security" in Benghazi and "growing...

Stewart told the president, in regard to the administration's performance in the aftermath of the attacks, that "I would say and even you would admit it was not the optimal response - at least to the American people as far as all of us being on the same page." "Here is what I will say, if four Americans get killed it is not optimal," the president responded. "And we are going to fix it, all of it. And what happens during the course of a presidency, you know the government is a big operation at any given time, something screws...

This thread is to consolidate all information on the Benghazi fiasco.

Via Power Line and NRO’s Eliana Johnson and our own QOTD, Fox News’ Chris Wallace asks the question everyone except the media has been asking since the terrorist attack on our Benghazi consulate and the assassination of our Ambassador by al-Qaeda and/or its affiliates in eastern Libya.  Wallace doesn’t get to ask Barack Obama whether or not he bothered to hold a national-security meeting in the aftermath of the attack to determine whether the story the White House used for the next week was on the level — our President is much too busy weighing in on celebrity feuds to answer questions like these....

A confusing array of contradictions concerning the murders of four Americans, one of which was a U.S. ambassador, was made worse by Vice President Joe Biden’s remarks during the debate with Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan Thursday evening. Today the confusion only worsened yet again when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that her agency was not the source of misinformation concerning the attacks, charging instead that the White House was the source of the false mantra that the murders were spurred by an anti-Muslim film made in the  United States. Clinton told reporters that when Susan Rice,...

(TheBlaze/AP) — A senior Republican senator Sunday accused President Barack Obama’s aides of deliberately covering up the details of the Sept. 11 attack in Libya that killed a U.S. ambassador so voters wouldn’t question Obama’s handling of the war on terror. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a long-time point man for the GOP on national security issues, said he believes the administration knew within 24 hours of the assault that it was a coordinated militia attack and was not tied to other anti-U.S. protests across the Middle East. According to Graham– who is investigating the attack– the administration suggested...

The Associated Press reports: Administration officials say the White House has put special operations strike forces on standby and moved drones into the skies above Africa, ready to hit militant targets from Libya to Mali, if U.S. investigators can find the al-Qaida-linked group responsible for the death of the U.S. ambassador in Libya. But the officials say the administration also is weighing whether the short-term payoff of being able to claim retribution against al-Qaida is worth the risk that such strikes would be ineffective and rile governments in the region. Details were provided by three current and one former administration...

White House, Obama Campaign, Won’t Answer When President Met with NSC After Benghazi By Fred Lucas October 15, 2012 (CNSNews.com) – Neither the White House nor the Obama re-election campaign will answer when President Barack Obama first met with his National Security Council after the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens. On Monday, neither responded to CNSNews.com, which asked, “‘At what hour on what day did President Obama first meet with the National Security Council to discuss what had happened in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012?” The NSC is chaired by the...

By Scott Wilson and Al Kamen Washington Post Staff Writers Wednesday, March 25, 2009 The Obama administration appears to be backing away from the phrase "global war on terror," a signature rhetorical legacy of its predecessor. In a memo e-mailed this week to Pentagon staff members, the Defense Department's office of security review noted that "this administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' [GWOT.] Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.' " The memo said the direction came from the Office of Management and Budget, the executive-branch agency that reviews the public testimony of administration...

LAURA INGRAHAM: I think about Susan Rice going out there on this show and four other shows on Sunday and I'd like to know, did Susan Rice have any direct or indirect contact with anyone from the Obama campaign? David Axelrod? Plouffe? Maybe Valerie Jarrett, she still works in the White House, but obviously very close to the President. Tom Donilon. I would like to know that. I'd like Mr. Axelrod to answer that question. I would hope that the New York Times, as they camped outside of Scooter Libby's house during the whole Valerie Plame thing -- are you...

As the administration’s false narrative about the events leading up to the sacking of our consulate in Benghazi and the killing of our ambassador continues to unravel, a sordid detail has come to light. The leader of the the attack is believed to be an alumnus of Guantanamo Bay who was released from custody via an anti-American left wing group headed by an Obama donor. First, the terrorist: Abu Sufian bin Qumu. Bin Qumu, according to his Guantanamo file, was picked up in Pakistan in early 2002 after being identified by the Libyan government (that would be the same government...

Col. Hunt Interview

WASHINGTON — The lethal attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya last month has created an unexpected casualty: White House hopes that President Barack Obama would remain relatively unscathed on foreign policy issues in the presidential race. Questions about whether the Obama administration ignored requests for beefed-up security in Libya and why a sizable CIA presence in Benghazi failed to foresee an attack by dozens of armed extremists have become a distraction — if not a problem — for the president's re-election campaign. With less than four weeks until Election Day, the White House is being asked regularly whether...

Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Blames Libya Controversy on Romney/Ryan By Matt Cover October 11, 2012 (CNSNews.com) – Obama for America Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter said that the only reason the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya had become a controversy was because of Republican candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.). “The entire reason that this has become the political topic it is, is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan. It’s a big part of their stump speech,” Cutter said in an appearance on CNN Thursday. “It is reckless and...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Folks, we have more on the hearings yesterday involving Libya. Cybercast News Service has a story. We learned yesterday that we didn't have professional security for the ambassadorial team in Benghazi. We had bodyguards, Libyan bodyguards, maybe a bodyguard. Cybercast News Service, I just printed the story. I haven't had a chance to really digest it. It just came in three minutes before we went live here, and I gave it a quick glance. But apparently in the notice, they had the job opening listed for a bodyguard, and they solicited for same-sex couples. They said that...

When House Republicans called a hearing in the middle of their long recess, you knew it would be something big, and indeed it was: They accidentally blew the CIA’s cover.