NY Times report blames Benghazi on YouTube video, called article a ‘lie’ by witnesses as GOP dismisses article
The Benghazi attack in 2012 continue to be a point of controversy and debate as a new NY Times report denies terrorist connections and blame the attack on the YouTube video which insulted Islam.
Other sources, who continue to face threats of losing their jobs, sharply challenged the Times’ findings calling it a “lie.”
“It was a coordinated attack. It is completely false to say anything else. … It is completely a lie,” one witness to the attack told Fox News.
The Times articles blames local militia, not al-Qaeda or other terrorist factions.
Ambassador Chris Stevens and four other Americans were murdered in the attack and Times reporter David Kirkpatrick defended the evidence.
“There’s just no chance that this was an al-Qaeda attack if, by al-Qaeda, you mean the organization founded by Osama bin Laden,” he said. “If you’re using the term al-Qaeda to describe even a local group of Islamist militants who may dislike democracy or have a grudge against the United States, if you’re going to call anybody like that al-Qaeda, then O.K.”
Fox News has learned that the attack on the consulate started with fighters assembling to conduct an assault.
“Guys were coming into the compound, moving left, moving right…and using IMT (individual movement techniques). … That’s not a spontaneous attack,” one special operator said.
“One guy was shooting, one guy was running. There are guys watching the gates. … The bosses on the ground were pointing, commanding and coordinating — that is a direct action planned attack.”
The GOP suggests the administration removed specific terror references and stuck to the explanation advanced by Susan Rice — later proved untrue — that the attack was the result of spontaneous demonstrations over the U.S.-produced film “Innocence of Muslims,” which contained scenes some Muslims considered blasphemous.
Fire burns in the U.S. consulate in Benghazi after the attack there on September 11, 2012. VOA employee public domain
