Obama administration officials claimed the 2012 Benghazi terror attack was a spontaneous act fueled by the release of a U.S.-made film mocking the Prophet Muhammad, even though then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had been informed by an ex-aide that the attack was the work of a terrorist group with ties to al-Qaida, planned months ahead of time.
Ex-Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal initially sent an email memo to Clinton's private email address the day after the Benghazi attack, claiming the demonstrators "were inspired by what many devout Libyan viewed as a sacrilegious Internet video on the prophet Mohammed originating in America," according to The New York Times.
The very next day, on Sept. 13, Blumenthal sent another memo, saying "sensitive sources" inside Libya told him the attack was planned for a month by Ansar al-Shariah, a Libyan terrorist group with ties to al-Qaida. Blumenthal told Clinton the group had used a nearby protest as cover for the assault.
Clinton forwarded both memos to her foreign policy adviser Jake Sullivan with instructions to "get this around asap," according to the Times.
Despite this guidance, then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on several television programs on Sept. 16, claiming the attacks were "spontaneous" rather than premeditated and that they were linked to the protests over the anti-Islam video.
"The emails also show that Mrs. Clinton was circulating information about the attacks in Benghazi that contradicted the Obama administration's initial narrative of what occurred, and that she was concerned about how Republicans could use the incidents to undermine President Obama," the Times reported.
Before Rice's television appearances on Sept. 16, she was told by top administration advisers to "underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy," The Washington Post reported.
Officials later admitted that no protests had occurred on the ground in Benghazi that day, while the role the video played continues to be debated.
A Defense Intelligence Agency report from Sept. 12, released this week, said there were strong indicators that the attack was planned at least a week in advance, and was retaliation for a drone strike that killed an al-Qaida strategist, according to The Washington Times.
The Clinton-Blumenthal emails were part of a batch of Clinton's private emails given to the House congressional committee currently investigating how the administration handled the Benghazi attacks.
