WASHINGTON — U.S. and Libyan officials are giving significantly different accounts of the gunfire and rocket-propelled-grenade attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans last week.
The Obama administration says the assault was a spontaneous local reaction inspired by a demonstration that was taking place at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo against a video made in the United States slurring the Prophet Muhammad, founder of the Islamic faith. It also contends that the attack grew out of a small protest.
But a senior Libyan official says the attack was organized and planned by foreigners, some with links to al-Qaeda; involved a local Islamic militia; and was timed for the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Moreover, the Libyan official appeared to question whether there was a protest beforehand.
“The way these perpetrators acted and moved, and their choosing a specific date for this so-called demonstration, I think that this leaves us with no doubt that this was pre-planned, predetermined,” Mohammad Magarief, head of the Libyan National Congress, the recently elected interim government, said Sunday.
Different agendas
Both governments would have good reason to promote their version of the incident.
Libya’s factionalized and weak interim government is confronting growing violence by militias and Islamic extremist groups that refused to disarm after overthrowing the late dictator Moammar Gadhafi last year. The interim government would appear less ineffectual and feckless if the attack were a deep-rooted conspiracy by the world’s most feared terrorist network.
President Barack Obama’s claims that he has kept Americans safe from terrorism and dealt debilitating blows to the remnants of al-Qaeda have been centerpieces of his appeal for re-election in November. Those claims could be questioned by challenger Mitt Romney and other Republicans if al-Qaeda is found to have planned a well-coordinated attack on such a significant date without being detected by U.S. intelligence.
The drastically different versions come as the investigation into the assault still is in its preliminary stages. FBI agents who are to assist their Libyan counterparts have yet to arrive in the North African country, and the Libyan Interior Ministry official who was in charge of the investigation was fired Monday.
Killed were U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, who was visiting Benghazi from the capital of Tripoli; Sean Smith, an information-technology specialist; and security men Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, both former Navy SEALs.
Scores of attackers firing assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades charged the walled compound from two directions, swarmed inside and attacked the main building, setting it afire, witnesses have told McClatchy Newspapers. Stevens and Smith apparently died from smoke inhalation. Woods and Doherty were shot dead protecting up to 30 U.S. staffers who had taken refuge in a nearby annex.
Witnesses: no protest
The consulate compound’s landlord, Mohammed al Bishari, and a 27-year-old guard, who was wounded and asked to remain anonymous, told McClatchy Newspapers last week that no protest was taking place when the attack was launched at 9:35 p.m. local time. They described the assault as sudden and well-coordinated.
The assailants were carrying the black flag of a local Islamic extremist group, Ansar al Shariah, Bishari said.
Al-Qaeda is suspected of playing a role because a video posted on the Internet the evening before featured Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden’s successor, calling for revenge for the death of his second in command, Abu Yahya al Libi, a Libyan cleric who was killed in a June 4 CIA drone strike in Pakistan’s tribal region.
Two senior Republican lawmakers questioned the administration’s version of the attack, with Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., saying it “defies common sense.” He called for a congressional investigation.
Aaron Zelin, an expert on Islamic extremist groups at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said he agreed that the attack was likely planned because the assailants launched a second attack on the consulate’s safe house, which U.S. officials have been referring to as the annex.
“Not only was there the attack on the consulate, but they knew where that safe house was,” he said. “They had to have some kind of reconnaissance ahead of time.
“I think that has more to do with the anniversary of 9/11 than anything else.”
He noted that Ansar al Shariah leaders have denied ordering the attack. But they didn’t condemn it, either, he said, adding that it appeared that group members were present “in their individual capacities.”
Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said in an e-mail that the administration’s version is “our assessment based on the information available.”
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, laid out the administration’s version on Sunday talk shows.
“Our current best assessment, based on the information we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was spontaneous — not a premeditated — response to what had transpired in Cairo,” she said on ABC News’ “This Week.” “We believe … that a small number of people came to the … consulate … to replicate the sort of challenge that was posed in Cairo. And then as that unfolded, it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons.”
