FoxNews — The White House, after insisting for more than a week that the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was a “spontaneous” act, conceded Thursday that it was “self evident” that it was an act of terror — an admission that took eight days for any administration official to make.
Earlier in the week, a top State Department spokeswoman declined to label the attack terrorism.
Carney’s comment, though, comes after the director of the National Counterterrorism Center testified on Capitol Hill that the strike was indeed a “terrorist attack.” Intelligence sources also told Fox News on Wednesday they are convinced the deadly attack was directly tied to Al Qaeda, with a former Guantanamo detainee involved.
The administration is still sticking by its claim that they don’t have evidence the assault was pre-planned. But Carney for the first time Thursday called it terrorism — while downplaying the fact that he was doing so.
“It is, I think, self evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack,” Carney said. “Our embassy was attacked violently and the result was four deaths of American officials. That is self evident.”
On Monday, though, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland would not go so far when asked whether the attack was terrorism. To that point, administration officials had said publicly they believed the “spontaneous” attack was triggered or inspired by protests in Egypt over an anti-Islam film.
“I don’t think we know enough. I don’t think we know enough,” Nuland said. “And we’re going to continue to assess. She gave our preliminary assessment. We’re going to have a full investigation now, and then we’ll be in a better position to put labels on things, okay?”
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