U.S. description of Benghazi attacks, at first cautious, changed after 3 days

[Draggingtree]

McClatchy:

 

 

 

Posted on Thursday, October 18, 2012

 

U.S. description of Benghazi attacks, at first cautious, changed after 3 days

 

 

By Hannah Allam and Jonathan S. Landay | McClatchy Newspapers

 

 

By Hannah Allam and Jonathan S. Landay McClatchy Newspapers

 

WASHINGTON — In the first 48 hours after the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. diplomatic outposts in Libya, senior Obama administration officials strongly alluded to a terrorist assault and repeatedly declined to link it to an anti-Muslim video that drew protests elsewhere in the region, transcripts of briefings show.

 

The administration’s initial accounts, however, changed dramatically in the following days, according to a review of briefing transcripts and administration statements, with a new narrative emerging Sept. 16 when U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice asserted in a series of TV appearances that the best information available indicated that the attack had spun off from a protest over the video.

 

What prompted that pivot remains a mystery amid a closely contested presidential election and Republican allegations that President Barack Obama intentionally used outrage over the video to mask