According to veteran reporter Eli Lake, unnamed sources within America’s intelligence community confirm that they knew that the 9/11/12 attacks on America’s embassy in Libya were pre-planned and executed by members of Al Qaeda within 24-hours of the event. This information directly contradicts Obama administration officials, notably United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice who appeared on several Sunday news programs on September 16 insisting that the attack resulted from spontaneous protests relating to an anti-Islamic internet video. Lake published this report in the Daily Beast at 4:45 a.m. EDT and it has since been linked to Drudge Report and Real Clear Politics – however, as of this writing, the cable news network host that has mentioned the story is Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly.

Advertising

Speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not cleared to comment on the matter officially, three intelligence sources told Lake that, not only are they aware of the attackers and could track them, they knew this information within one day of the attacks.

“There was very good information on this in the

first 24 hours. These guys have a return address. There are camps of people and a wide variety of things we could do,” said one official.

“I can’t get into specific numbers but soon after the attack we had a pretty good bead on some individuals involved in the attack,” another official told Lake.

With the exception of Kelly and Fox News, this story which directly contradicts the Obama administration’s first two weeks of their response to the origins of this attack, seems to have generated little interest in the media. The same cannot be said of Congressional Republicans who are demanding clarification from the Obama administration about the details of the attack that resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his colleagues.

“We are also disturbed by the public statements made by members of the Administration that would lead the American public to believe this attack was a protest gone wrong, rather than what it truly was – a terrorist attack on the United States on the anniversary of 9/11,” read the letter from eight Republican House panel chairmen. “Decades after al Qaeda attacked our embassies in East Africa, which catalyzed a series of events that led to the attacks on 9/11, it appears they executed a highly coordinated and well-planned attacked against us again.”

The signers of the letter include Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Mike Rogers (R-MI), Lamar Smith (R-TX), Hal Rogers (R-KY), Bill Young

(R-FL), Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Kay Granger (R-TX).

Their concerns are echoed by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Lindsay Graham (R-SC), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) in a separate a letter to Ambassador Rice asking her to explain the “troubling statements that are inconsistent with the facts and require explanation.” (CNN broadcast a 60-second report on this letter on Wednesday morning).

Some allege that the Obama administration has actively attempted to cover up the details of this attack because it would damage the election year claim that the president has effectively neutralized Al Qaeda during his first term in office. The evidence does not back up that assertion. Furthermore, that is far too strong a claim to make without rock-solid supporting evidence.

However, there are real and deeply troubling implications to the increasing appearance that the administration had information which contradicts their early and consistent insistence that the Libya attack was spontaneous. The media has a responsibility to investigate the claims made by Lake’s sources and attempt to independently determine their veracity.

Read Lake’s full report via The Daily Beast

> >Follow Noah Rothman (@Noah_C_Rothman) on Twitter

Tags: 911, Barack Obama, Chris Stevens, embassy attacks, Libya, Megyn Kelly, Republican, Terrorism