Obama lied about calling the Benghazi Attack an Act of Terrorism on September 12th. He will have to spend the next few days and quite
possible the next debate accounting for that.
Benghazi Timeline:
Important Timeline of Events:
June 6: Assailants blew a hole in the consulate’s north gate big enough for 40 men to get through.
July: “Innocence of Muslims” video posted on You Tube.
Aug. 14: SST team leaves Libya. Team leader Lt. Col. Andy Wood has testified that Stevens wanted them to stay on.
Sept. 8: The Libyan militia protecting the consulate warns U.S. diplomats that the security situation is “frightening.”
Sept. 10: Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri calls on Libyans to avenge the death of his Libyan deputy, Abu Yahya al Libi, killed in a June drone
strike in Pakistan.
Sept. 11: "Protesters" converge on the U.S. embassy in Cairo, scale its walls and replace the U.S. flag with the Islamist banner. The protests
eventually spread to 20 countries around the world.
Sept. 12: Media outlets report that Stevens and three other Americans have been killed in an attack by well-armed militants. Obama denounces an
“outrageous and shocking attack” without mentioning the video or terrorism. Reuters reports for the first time that some administration officials
believe the assault “bears the hallmarks of an organized attack.”
Sept. 13: White House spokesman Jay Carney says “the protests we’re seeing around the region are in reaction to this movie.”
Sept. 14: Carney says the administration had “no actionable intelligence” about a pending attack.
Sept. 16: Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, does the rounds on the Sunday talk shows and says the video is the “proximate cause” of the
assault in Benghazi. “Our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a
spontaneous — not a premeditated — response to what had transpired in Cairo,” Rice tells ABC. That same day, interim Libyan president Mohamed
Magarief insists on CBS that “it was planned, definitely.”
Sept. 19: National Counterterrorism Center director Matthew Olsen testifies before the Senate Homeland Security Committee that the assault was a
“terrorist attack” but goes on to call it an “opportunistic” attack in which armed militants took advantage of an ongoing "protest."
Sept. 20: CBS reports that witnesses in Benghazi say there was "no protest" prior to the armed assault against the consulate. Magarief tells NBC the
same thing on Sept. 26. Also on Sept. 20, Obama at a town hall meeting says: “What we do know is that the "natural protests" that arose because of
the outrage over the video were used as an excuse by extremists to see if they can also directly harm U.S. interests.” Carney declares it
“self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack.” Clinton, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Deputy
Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter brief members of Congress. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) calls it “the most useless worthless briefing I have
attended in a long time.”
Sept. 21: Clinton says “what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack,” highest official until then to say so.
Sept. 25: In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, Obama doesn’t mention terrorism but makes repeated references to the video. Asked about
Clinton’s statement on ABC’s “The View” show, the president skirts the issue by saying: “We’re still doing an investigation,” blames
“extremist militias.”
Sept. 27: Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta says it’s “clear that there were terrorists who planned that attack.”
Oct. 1: State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says Clinton stands by Rice after House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Pete King (R-N.Y.)
calls for her resignation.
Oct. 3: FBI investigators finally arrive at the crime scene in Benghazi, which has been unsecured for weeks.
Oct. 10: Lt. Col. Andy Wood and Eric Nordstrom testify at a House oversight committee hearing on security lapses in Libya. They say their requests for
more security were denied by their superiors in Washington, testimony confirmed by cables made public by chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
Oct. 11: During the vice presidential debate, Biden says, “We weren’t told they wanted more security there.” He also denies responsibility for
the administration’s shifting explanation: “The intelligence community told us that. As they learned more facts about exactly what happened, they
changed their assessment.”
Timeline of Libya attack reveals administration contradictions By Julian Pecquet - 10/14/12 06:00 AM ET
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