This part of the CIA timeline released by the agency on Thursday suggests that the night of the attack, the CIA's Global Response Staff, or GRS, agents knew that an Al Qaeda-linked group was at the hospital where the ambassador's body had been taken -- and yet days later the CIA provided talking points to the administration before U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice went on five separate Sunday talk shows and made no mention of terrorism.
Fox News has learned that U.S. military intelligence was informing senior commanders as early as 7 p.m. ET -- less than four hours after the attack began -- that Ansar al-Sharia carried out the attack. The intelligence was relayed to the military with no caveats, according to a source familiar with the intelligence.
Further, Fox News has been shown two independent State Department cables, which have now been published by Foreign Policy magazine, that show that on the day of the attack Stevens' team sent cables expressing concern that the consulate was under surveillance. At least one of the cables says the Libyan police themselves -- the security force provided to the U.S. consulate by the Minister of Foreign Affairs -- was photographing the Consulate at 6:43 a.m. on the morning of the attack.
U.S. intelligence officials tell Fox News there were reports from eyewitnesses in Benghazi on Sept. 11 that an armed militia was gathering three hours before the attack on the consulate began at 9:47 p.m.
