The September 11 attack in Libya that killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues wasn’t coordinated in advance, according to Matthew Olsen, director of the US National Counterterrorism Center.
US and Libyan officials differ publicly on whether the attack on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya, was planned in advance by radical Islamists or whether extremists took advantage of a peaceful protest to attack the US consulate in the country’s second-largest city.
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Olsen said the US is “looking at indications” that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al-Qaida or its North African affiliate, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
“The best information we have now indicates that this was an opportunistic attack,” Olsen, who cautioned that the investigation isn’t finished, said at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing today in Washington.
“What we don’t have at this point is specific intelligence that there was significant advance planning or coordination for this attack,” he said.
Attorney General Eric Holder said last week the Federal Bureau of Investigation had opened an investigation into the September 11 attack.
FBI officials are due to arrive in Benghazi by September 21 to work alongside Libyan officials, Benghazi’s chief prosecutor, Saleh Adem Mohammad, said today in the eastern Libyan city.
Four Men detained
Mohammad declined to comment on details of the Libyan investigation so far or on whether four detained men -- who the Interior Minister Fawzi Abdulal said are being held in Benghazi -- are members of a radical Islamist brigade, Ansar al-Sharia.
The alleged role of Ansar al-Sharia brigade members in the attack on the US compound was stated this week by Libya’s head of state, Mohammed Magariaf, and the chief of the Benghazi branch of the Supreme Security Committee.
Magariaf, the recently elected head of the General National Congress, said the attack was “a deliberate, calculated action by a group working in collaboration with non-Libya extremists.”
Magariaf said in a September 15 interview in Benghazi that communications intercepted by the US at some point before the attack linked al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb to the Ansar al-Sharia brigade.
Protest ‘hijacked’
In the interview, Magariaf described the attack as “preplanned,” in contrast to US officials such as US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who said September 16 that a spontaneous demonstration was “hijacked” by extremists.
“We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned,” she said, speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Today, Olsen said individuals who were “certainly well-armed seized on the opportunity” of the growing protests over an anti-Islam film that also sparked protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan and Yemen.
Olsen and Kevin Perkins, the FBI’s associate deputy director, testified as Republican lawmakers called for their own investigation into the attack in Libya and a group of House Republicans considered legislation to cut foreign aid to the country.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the committee, told Olsen she that after her briefings she had come to “the opposite conclusion” from the administration. She said she agrees with the Libyan leader that the attack was preplanned, noting the attackers’ use of heavy weapons including rocket-propelled grenades.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to lead a classified briefing for lawmakers tomorrow on the events of the past week, according to a notice sent to lawmakers. Clinton said yesterday the US had no “actionable intelligence” that indicated an attack on the US mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent.
Tomorrow, top Libyan government officials plan to participate in a memorial service for the four Americans in the capital, Tripoli.
US and Libyan officials differ publicly on whether the attack on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya, was planned in advance by radical Islamists or whether extremists took advantage of a peaceful protest to attack the US consulate in the country’s second-largest city.
Related:
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- Syrians fear Libyan assault will cost US support
Olsen said the US is “looking at indications” that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al-Qaida or its North African affiliate, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.
“The best information we have now indicates that this was an opportunistic attack,” Olsen, who cautioned that the investigation isn’t finished, said at a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing today in Washington.
“What we don’t have at this point is specific intelligence that there was significant advance planning or coordination for this attack,” he said.
Attorney General Eric Holder said last week the Federal Bureau of Investigation had opened an investigation into the September 11 attack.
FBI officials are due to arrive in Benghazi by September 21 to work alongside Libyan officials, Benghazi’s chief prosecutor, Saleh Adem Mohammad, said today in the eastern Libyan city.
Four Men detained
Mohammad declined to comment on details of the Libyan investigation so far or on whether four detained men -- who the Interior Minister Fawzi Abdulal said are being held in Benghazi -- are members of a radical Islamist brigade, Ansar al-Sharia.
The alleged role of Ansar al-Sharia brigade members in the attack on the US compound was stated this week by Libya’s head of state, Mohammed Magariaf, and the chief of the Benghazi branch of the Supreme Security Committee.
Magariaf, the recently elected head of the General National Congress, said the attack was “a deliberate, calculated action by a group working in collaboration with non-Libya extremists.”
Magariaf said in a September 15 interview in Benghazi that communications intercepted by the US at some point before the attack linked al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb to the Ansar al-Sharia brigade.
Protest ‘hijacked’
In the interview, Magariaf described the attack as “preplanned,” in contrast to US officials such as US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, who said September 16 that a spontaneous demonstration was “hijacked” by extremists.
“We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned,” she said, speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
Today, Olsen said individuals who were “certainly well-armed seized on the opportunity” of the growing protests over an anti-Islam film that also sparked protests in Egypt, Tunisia, Sudan and Yemen.
Olsen and Kevin Perkins, the FBI’s associate deputy director, testified as Republican lawmakers called for their own investigation into the attack in Libya and a group of House Republicans considered legislation to cut foreign aid to the country.
Senator Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the committee, told Olsen she that after her briefings she had come to “the opposite conclusion” from the administration. She said she agrees with the Libyan leader that the attack was preplanned, noting the attackers’ use of heavy weapons including rocket-propelled grenades.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to lead a classified briefing for lawmakers tomorrow on the events of the past week, according to a notice sent to lawmakers. Clinton said yesterday the US had no “actionable intelligence” that indicated an attack on the US mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent.
Tomorrow, top Libyan government officials plan to participate in a memorial service for the four Americans in the capital, Tripoli.