WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says it's just one piece of the story.
Spokesman Jay Carney is talking about a State Department email that was sent to intelligence officials and the White House situation room -- two hours after the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, came under attack last month. The attack killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.
The email said an Islamist militant group had claimed responsibility for the attack on Facebook and Twitter, while also calling for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.
The Obama administration's account of what led to the attack has become a campaign issue. Republicans say the White House has misled Americans about whether it was a terrorist attack. Five days after it occurred, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. was saying that it appeared to be the result of a protest over an anti-Islamic video.
The president's spokesman says there were "emails about all sorts of information" in the aftermath of the attack.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton makes the same point, and adds that a posting on Facebook isn't evidence of responsibility for the attack.
%@AP Links
177-w-36-(Mark Smith, AP White House correspondent, with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton)--It's emerged that the White House was told almost immediately that a militant group was claiming responsibility for the deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Libya. AP White House Correspondent Mark Smith reports. (24 Oct 2012)
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165-a-10-(Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking to reporters)-"one document there"-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the administration is working hard to understand exactly what transpired in Benghazi. (24 Oct 2012)
<<CUT *165 (10/24/12)>> 00:10 "one document there"
164-a-15-(Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking to reporters)-"time to be"-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the email relaying a claim of responsibility for the Benghazi consulate attack was just one item among many that flowed into Washington afterward. (24 Oct 2012)
<<CUT *164 (10/24/12)>> 00:15 "time to be"
APPHOTO WX106: This is a redacted copy of an email obtained by The Associated Press discusses the attack of the Benghazi, Libya mission. Two hours after the U.S. Consulate came under attack in Benghazi, Libya, the White House was told that a militant group was claiming responsibility for the violence that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. (AP Photo) (24 Oct 2012)
<<APPHOTO WX106 (10/24/12)>>
APPHOTO WX103: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton answers a reporter's question on Libya during a joint news conference with Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonion de Aguiar Patriota, Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, at the State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) (24 Oct 2012)
<<APPHOTO WX103 (10/24/12)>>
