| AFP
The CIA’s intelligence targets in unstable Libya included
an Islamist militia that some have blamed for the Sept. 11 attack in the
eastern city of Benghazi and suspected members of al-Qaeda’s North African
affiliate, the paper said.
More than two dozen Americans were rushed out of Libya
after the attack that killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three other
Americans. They included about a dozen CIA operatives and contractors
monitoring a variety of armed groups in the city, the paper reported.
“It is a catastrophic intelligence loss,” it quoted an American
official who has served in Libya as saying. “We got our eyes poked out.”
However, the paper quoted another official as saying the
United States was still collecting information via other techniques such as
informants, intercepting mobile phone conversations and use of satellite
images.
“The United States isn't close to being blind in Benghazi
and eastern Libya,” the second official said.
The paper also said that contrary to initial accounts, a
consulate annex that was also attacked was never meant to be a “safe house” for
the CIA.
Last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced an
official review of security at the U.S. mission in Libya.
President Barack Obama’s administration initially said it
believed extremists had not really planned the attack in Libya but simply taken
advantage of a spontaneous protest over an anti-Islamic trailer to mix in and
attack.
The White House for the first time Thursday described the
assault as a “terrorist attack” and said it could have links to al-Qaeda.
But a Republican lawmaker, Mike Rogers, chairman of the
House Intelligence Committee, cast doubt Sunday over whether the protests even
happened.
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