White House Informed Within Hours Terrorists Responsible for Attack on Consulate

New emails show that the White House knew Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists were responsible for the 9/11 attacks on our consulate in Libya within hours of the attack.

Reuters reports that the White House, including the Situation Room and the Executive Office of the President, and the State Department received information within two hours of the attack that a radical Islamic terrorist group claimed responsibility for the attack on our consulate in Libya that ultimately resulted in the murder of our ambassador and three other Americans. Fox News reports that this Islamic terrorist group, “Ansar al-Sharia has been declared by the State Department to be an Al Qaeda-affiliated group.”

The series of three emails spanned between about a half hour after the attack began and a little over two hours after it began. CBS News reports:

At 4:05 p.m. Eastern time, on September 11, an alert from the State Department Operations Center was issued to a number government and intelligence agencies. Included were the White House Situation Room, the office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the FBI.

"US Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack" -- "approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well. Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four COM (Chief of Mission/embassy) personnel are in the compound safe haven."

At 4:54 p.m., less than an hour later, another alert: "the firing... in Benghazi...has stopped...A response team is on site attempting to locate COM (embassy) personnel."

Then, at 6:07 p.m., State sent out another alert saying the embassy in Tripoli reported the Islamic military group "Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack"... "on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli."

The bottom line is that the White House knew within two hours that Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorist group Ansar al-Sharia publicly claimed responsibility for the attack. Yet, it continued for days to claim the attack was the result of spontaneous protests over an Internet video.

It is time for President Obama to tell the truth about what he knew and why he misled the American people for weeks about this terrorist attack that killed four Americans. Sign the ACLJ’s petition demanding the truth from President Obama.