15 Days In, US Still Can’t Get Its Facts Straight on Benghazi

Impatient Congress Presses Obama for Actual Details

It has now been 15 days since the attack on the Benghazi consular compound, which led to the death of the US Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans. The Obama Administration insists it was “a terrorist attack.”

At least today. Over the past two weeks the administration has kept changing its story every few days, jumping from announcing it to be a “complex attack” and an “act of terror” to later claiming it was just spontaneous, then going back and denouncing it again as terror and blaming al-Qaeda, or maybe someone else.

The shifts have Congress wondering what the truth actually is, and Sen. John Kerry (D – MA) is said to be pushing a letter signed by a number of Congressmen calling for the administration to provide them some actual details of the incident.

But it isn’t clear if the administration actually has any. Each of its story changes has included an admission that it doesn’t have “facts” to back up its claims, and the FBI says that they still haven’t been granted access to Benghazi, let alone the scene of the crime. The Obama Administration’s changes in public comments may not reflect any actual progress in the investigation, as it isn’t clear that there is any.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.