In the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attacks on the US Embassy in Cairo, the US Intelligence authorities declared that a group of protestors spontaneously reacted against a short film posted on YouTube that degraded the Prophet Mohammad. Four US personnel were killed, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens. After reviewing the attack for two weeks, the US Intelligence Agency is concluding that they now believe the September 11 attack on US diplomatic facilities was not random (Hosenball). .
"We revised our initial assessment to reflect new information indicating that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists," said Shawn Turner, spokesman for James Clapper's office, who is the Director of National Intelligence. However, they cannot name a certain group of people who are responsible, although they believe that they were "linked to groups affiliated with, or sympathetic to al-Qaeda" (Hosenball). .
Turner explained that intelligence agencies made an initial assessment and then immediately passed it on "to Executive Branch officials and members of Congress, who used that information to discuss the attack publicly and provide updates as they became available." Some government sources suspected and acknowledged that members from two militant factions, Ansar al Shariah and al-Qaeda's North Africa-based group, were most likely involved, but other top administration officials neglected this information and released contradictory statements to the public (Hosenball). .
Matthew Olsen, Director of the US National Counterterrorism Centre, released a statement following the attack, saying, "What we don't have at this point is specific intelligence that there was significant advanced planning or coordination for this attack. Again, we're still developing facts and still looking for any indications of substantial advanced planning. We just haven't seen that at this point.