Al Qaeda had elements in Bebghazi attack

Washington Post:

U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that the attack on the U.S. mission in Libya involved a small number of militants with ties to al-Qaeda in North Africa but see no indication that the terrorist group directed the assault, U.S. officials said Thursday.

The determination reflects an emerging consensus among analysts at the CIA and other agencies that has contributed to a shift among senior Obama administration officials toward describing the siege of U.S. facilities in Benghazi as a terrorist attack.

U.S. intelligence officials said the composition of the militant forces involved in the assault has become clearer over the past week and that analysts now think that two or three fighters affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb were involved.

“There are people who at least have some association with AQIM,” said a senior U.S. intelligence official who added that “it’s not so direct that you would say AQIM as an organization planned and carried this out.”

Instead, U.S. officials said a ­lesser-known Islamist group, ­Ansar al-Sharia, played a much larger role in sending fighters and providing weapons for the attack, which killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. U.S. officials have previously cited suspicion of al-Qaeda connections to the attack.

The intelligence picture assembled so far indicates that militants had been preparing an assault on the U.S. compound in Benghazi for weeks but were so disorganized that, after the battle started, they had to send fighters to retrieve heavier weapons.

 “There’s never been any intelligence, nor any I’m aware of now, that indicated this was a plot planned months in advance to get turned on on 9/11,” said an Obama administration official.

The emerging scenario, the official said, “is that extremists in the region had cased out and hoped to target U.S. facilities in Benghazi for some time. When they saw what was happening in Cairo, that influenced their timing.”

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The story does not indicate how they learned that the Cairo attack influenced the Libya attack.  This story also seems inconsistent with early descriptions of the attack which suggested a well planned and coordinated attack from three sides and using diesel burn out those who remained.  The three sided attack left an avenue of escape to the safe house which was then attacked with mortars, RPGs and  and automatic weapons.

The attack has several elements of a complex coordinated attack which would take some planning. The administration has been accused of a cover up on these attacks and they may be accused of trying to cover up the cover up with this latest explanation of events.

It is not unusual for al Qaeda to work with other local jihadis al Ansar al-Sharia.  They are both composed of Islamic religious bigots who want to kill anyone who does not agree with their weird beliefs.