David Petraeus, the former director of the CIA, is to tell lawmakers he knew "almost immediately" after the attack on a US mission in Libya that Al-Qaeda linked Ansar al-Sharia was to blame, according to reports.
David Petraeus, the former director of the CIA, is seen with President Barack Obama at the White House. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images
The Telegraph
3:29AM GMT 16 Nov 2012
Mr Petraeus, who stepped down last week amid revelations that he had an affair with his 40-year-old married biographer, is to testify Friday before the House and Senate intelligence committees on the September 11 attack in Benghazi.
Lawmakers are probing the attack on the Benghazi consulate, in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and three more Americans died, including two former Navy SEALs working as paramilitary agents for Petraeus' CIA.
CNN, citing a source close to Mr Petraeus familiar with his thinking on the issue, said the retired four-star general would "set the record straight and tell everything he knows."
The former CIA chief will say while he knew "almost immediately" that Ansar al-Sharia militants were to blame, there was "confusion" about the assault, with 20 intelligence reports linking it to an anti-Islamic video.
"Those reports were disproven, but not until after he had briefed Capitol Hill. All of this took some time to sort out. That's what he wants to lay out tomorrow," said CNN's Pentagon reporter Barbara Starr.
Related Articles
_ Hollywood's great scramble for Petraeus: the movie - 16 Nov 2012
_ David Petraeus: 'I screwed up terribly' - 15 Nov 2012
President Barack Obama's administration is under fire from opposition Republicans over the inadequate security at the consulate and for giving a changing narrative about the assault.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, has come under withering criticism for, five days after the attack, blaming it on a spontaneous demonstration against a film that had set off earlier riots in Cairo.
Ms Rice's comments were based on initial intelligence that later proved incorrect, the deputy CIA director told Congress on Thursday.
In a closed-door session with the House Intelligence committee, Mike Morell said Ms Rice was provided with an unclassified version of events during the attack, according to Democratic Rep Adam Schiff, a member of the panel.
Mr Schiff told reporters that he didn't think the intelligence community had politicized the information. "They gave us the best initial assessments, and those proved inaccurate, but they warned us those assessments were subject to change as they got more information," he said.
When asked how Mr Petraeus might address that issue, CNN said its source suggested Ms Rice may have gotten information from other parts of the administration, not just the intelligence community.
An outraged Mr Obama on Wednesday accused Republicans, including leading Senator John McCain, of besmirching Ms Rice's reputation without cause and said they should go after him on Benghazi rather than just pick on an easy target.
On Thursday, senators got their first look at dramatic video footage of the attack.
"The film is a composite from a number of sources," said Senator Diane Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, after she and her colleagues attended a closed door viewing
"It is real time and it begins before the incident started and it goes through the incident and the exodus," she added.
The deputy chairman of the panel, Senator Saxby Chambliss, said the hearing with US intelligence officials made clear that errors were committed. "We know mistakes were made and we have to learn from that," he told reporters.
He said there would eventually be public hearings and "the American people are going to have the opportunity to see the questions asked and get the answers to questions that they have had since September 11th of this year."
Source: agencies
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
16112012
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
No comments:
Post a Comment