Graham said the fact that the administration was still publicly declaring more than five days later that the attack may have arisen as a spontaneous protest indicated that either "they are misleading or incredibly incompetent." "Well, the facts are there was never a riot," Graham told Bob Schieffer of CBS News. "The night in question, September 11, Ambassador [Chris] Stevens was being visited by the Turkish ambassador. There wasn't a soul around the compound. And the coordinated attack lasted for hours with al Qaeda-associated militia.
"My belief is that that was known by the administration within 24 hours," said Graham. "And, quite frankly, [U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations] Susan Rice, on your show on September 16, the president on the 18th, and the 25th, kept talking about an attack inspired by a video. They`re trying to sell a narrative, quite frankly, that the Mid-East, the wars are receding and al Qaeda's been dismantled, and to admit that our embassy was attacked by al Qaeda operatives and Libya leading from behind didn't work. I think undercuts that narrative. They never believed the media would investigate. Congress was out of session, and this caught up with them. "I think they have been misleading us," said Graham, "but it finally caught up with them."
Schieffer then told Graham: "Well, that is a very serious charge you just leveled, Senator Graham. "Are you saying the administration deliberately misled the American people to make it look as if terrorism is not as much of a threat as apparently it is?" "Either they are misleading the American people or incredibly incompetent," Graham said. "There was no way with anybody looking at all that you could believe five days after the attack it was based on a riot that never occurred. There was no riot at all. So to say that, you`re either very incompetent or misleading."
Schieffer challenged Graham to explain where he go the information to challenge the credibility of the administration's statements about what happened in Libya. "Where did you get this information that led you to this conclusion?" asked Schieffer. "Did you talk to officials there? Did you talk to people in the CIA? Did you talk to people in the administration? How are you so convinced of what you have just stated?" Graham said that the U.S. intelligence commmunity in Libya had told both him and Sen. Bob Corker (R.-Tenn.) that they had informed Washington within 24 hours that the attack in was a terrorist attack.
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