Daniel Halper
The Weekly Standard
9/16/2012
Libyan president Mohammed el-Megarif is saying the attack Benghazi that killed the American ambassador was planned well beforehand. His statements on this topic firmly contradict the Obama administration’s version of events.
“The idea that this criminal and cowardly act was a spontaneous protest that just spun out of control is completely unfounded and preposterous,” Megarif says in an interview on NPR. “We firmly believe that this was a precalculated, preplanned attack that was carried out specifically to attack the U.S. Consulate.”
The Libyan president added, “The intention was there from the beginning, for it to take this ugly barbaric, criminal form.”
Megarif claims evidence shows that some elements of Ansar al-Sharia, an extremist group in eastern Benghazi, were used as tools by foreign citizens with ties to al-Qaida to attack the consulate and threaten Libya’s stability.
The Libyan account of the horrific events, however, contradicts what American officials are saying.
“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,” the American ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, said this morning on ABC’s This Week.
Listen to the audio at The Weekly Standard.
Update: Intel source challenges Obama’s account of Consulate attack
Update 2: Libya: We gave US three-day warning of Benghazi attack
