Published September 17, 2012

FoxNews.com





http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/09/17/obama-administration-libyan-president-clash-over-explanation-on-consulate/



An intelligence source on the ground in Libya told Fox News that
there was no demonstration outside the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi prior
to last week's attack -- challenging the Obama administration's claims
that the assault grew out of a "spontaneous" protest against an
anti-Islam film.

"There was no protest and the attacks were not spontaneous," the
source said, adding the attack "was planned and had nothing to do with
the movie."

The source said the assault came with no warning at about 9:35 p.m.
local time, and included fire from more than two locations. The assault
included RPG's and mortar fire, the source said, and consisted of two
waves.

The account that the attack started suddenly backs up claims by a
purported Libyan security guard who told McClatchy Newspapers late last
week that the area was quiet before the attack.

"There wasn't a single ant outside," the unnamed guard, who was being treated in a hospital, said in the interview.



These details appear to conflict with accounts from the Obama
administration that the attack spawned from an out-of-control protest.
The Libyan president also said Sunday that the strike was planned in
advance.

U.S. officials, in response to the claim that there was no
demonstration at the time of the attack, told Fox News there was a small
protest earlier in the day -- but they did not dispute that there was
no significant or sizeable demonstration at the time.

But a senior Obama administration official told Fox News on Monday
morning that the Libyan president's comments are not consistent with
"the consensus view of the U.S. intelligence community," which has been
investigating the incident, and are accordingly not credible.

"He doesn't have the information we have," the U.S. official said of
Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif. ""He doesn't have the (data)
collection potential that we have."

The Libyan leader told CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday that the
government in Tripoli harbors "no doubt" that the Sept. 11 attack that
killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was
"preplanned, predetermined." That assessment conflicted directly with
the preliminary conclusion offered on Sunday by U.N. Ambassador Susan
Rice, who appeared on all five Sunday morning talk shows.

There, Rice maintained that the Benghazi incident "was a spontaneous
reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo, as a consequence of the
video," and that after the protest outside the U.S. consulate gathered
steam, "those with extremist ties joined the fray and came with heavy
weapons."

Asked if the timing of the Benghazi incident - the eleventh
anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks -- was simply a coincidence, the
senior U.S. official said on Monday: "It is coincidental. All evidence
we have points to this video being the spark of these events. In all of
the intel and traffic, there was no one out there saying, 'Oh, it's
September 11th, we must avenge...'"

The senior U.S. official added that this is "the consensus view of
the U.S. intelligence community at this point," and that Rice "was not
out there volunteering her own opinions."

The official also discounted as "not accurate" reports that staff at
U.S. embassy in Egypt warned the State Department -- in a cable
purportedly sent on the afternoon of Sept. 10 -- about the effect the
anti-Islam video was having, and the likelihood of violent protests in
Cairo, but received no response from Washington.

"There was cable traffic, involving discussion of the video and the
potential for protests, the Embassy was aware," the U.S. official told
Fox News. "There were discussions about protests between the relevant
agencies -- intel and State -- but the idea that there was no response
from State is false."

Officials at the State Department and the White House continue to
express satisfaction with the cooperation they are receiving from
foreign governments in the protection of American diplomats and their
families. This is said to be especially the case in those instances
where President Obama has reached out to foreign heads of state, namely
Egypt, Yemen and Libya.

Still, the State Department over the weekend -- in a shift of plans
that occurred sometime after Friday evening -- announced the evacuation
of diplomats' family members and "non-essential" personnel from U.S.
Embassies in Tunisia and Sudan, sites of some of the most violent scenes
on Friday.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge, James Rosen and Pamela Browne contributed to this report.