Libyan president: 50 arrests in Consulate assault

Last Updated 10:03 a.m. ET

(CBS News) About 50 arrests have been made in connection with the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in which the American Ambassador and three other consulate employees were killed, and some of the suspects involved are from outside the country, Libya's president told CBS News.

In an interview for "Face the Nation" Sunday, President Mohamed Magariaf also said that evidence "leaves us with no doubt" that the attack was pre-planned.

"It was planned, definitely, it was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago, and they were planning this criminal act since their arrival," he told Bob Schieffer.

On the same program, however, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said the U.S. has no evidence proving that the attacks in Benghazi were premeditated.

"We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned," Rice told Schiefffer. She added that the U.S. will "want to see the results of that investigation to draw any definitive conclusions.

"Based on the best information we have to date," Rice said, "spontaneous protests" began outside the Benghazi consulate after demonstrations erupted in Cairo about a anti-Islam movie trailer.

"It looks like extremists elements joined in that effort with heavy weapons... and it spun from there into something much, much more violent," Rice said.

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President Magariaf said the suspects are connected to al Qaeda, or are affiliates and sympathizers. "We don't know what are the real intentions of these perpetrators," he said.

"They entered Libya from different directions," he said. "Some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria."

Magariaf also said that the "ugly deeds, criminal deeds" directed against the late Ambassador Chris Stevens and his colleagues "do not resemble any way, in any sense, the aspirations, the feelings of Libyans towards the United States and its citizens."

Amb. Rice said it is unclear if the "extremist elements" are from Libya or from outside the country. "Whether they were al Qaeda affiliates, whether they were Libyan-based extremists or al Qaeda itself, that is something we'll have to determine," she said. (Watch Amb. Rice in video on the left.)

The Libyan president also said that while the security situation in Libya is "difficult" - for Libyans as well as for foreign nationals - there is no specific danger to Americans or other foreigners in his country at present.

But when asked whether it is safe enough for FBI agents to come to Libya to pursue their investigation of the assault, Magariaf replied, "Maybe it is better for them to stay for a little while, for a little while . . . until we do what we have to do ourselves."

He added that U.S. teams would be needed to help in the investigation.

[Aerostar700]

The REAL INVESTIGATION should be conducted by the Media instead of trying valiantly to sweep the mess under the rug for THE ONE.

LOOK AT THESE EXPLOSIVE STATEMENTS BY BY THE LIBYAN PRESIDENT.

HE INDICATES THAT OBAMA KNEW OF THE IMPENDING ATTACKS YET TOOK NO ACTION !

...and the Libyan President even cites intercepted communications from the US government to prove it.

http://patdollard.com/2012/09/cover-up-libyan-president-proves-obama-knew-date-and-time-of-libya-embassy-attack-in-advance/

This is a story that the American people deserve to hear, yet the major news organizations have chosen to withhold that information.

The information was most certainly contained in the daily security briefings on the mornings of September 9th and 10th. Yet the president
chose to skip those daily security briefings. We are told by his administration that he read the synopsis of those security briefings.
And we are also told by his administration that the attack on the Libyan compound was spontaneous. The way the jury system of the American
democratic republic works is that the free press gets the information out to the public and lets the public decide.

Issues of national security transcend politics. Yet the main stream media chooses to influence the election process by selectively withholding
information.

FELLOW PATRIOTS - HAMMER THIS STORY. POST IT ON EVERY NEWSPAPER ACROSS THE NATION. SEND IT AS A LETTER TO THE EDITOR UNTIL WE SHAME THEM INTO RUNNING
THIS STORY !

[walkthetalk]

Turn those Nuns loose, they didn't do it.

[Deej83]

Libyan pres says it was probably pre-planned. The attack was coordinated for 9/11 and for both the embassy and the safe house, which was to be guarded by Libyans, at the same time, knowing protocol to evacuate the Ambassador to the safe house.
I've also read that the safe-house from which the Ambassador was abducted was a intermediate safe-house on the way to the main one, making it seem all the more that these people knew how to best kidnap him because they had it planned in advance.

What is extremely ridiculous is that the marines guarding the place didn't even have real bullets, which is absurd, let alone they were unarmed on 9/11. Also, it appears that the Libyan gov tried to warn the U.S. that there was a terrorist attack being planned; it must have been in one of those briefings 0bama skipped to raise money. Not that it would have mattered seeing as our marines were unarmed.

The best part is now the rest of the world knows we are too stupid to arm our marines at US Embassies. I know people will argue that the few marines would have been overwhelmed, but now our enemies know they can attack our embassies without fear of return fire from our people. Talk about emboldening terrorist? "This one's a freebie, murderers! You won't get shot at when you come to kill Americans!"

[walkthetalk]

I'm a Democrat for Mr. Rommey, I been clean now for 13 months and it feels great. Kicking such a terrible habit, removes the fog of confussion. In November i can right the wrong, i made 4 years ago.

[wfw3536]

Maybe the media will begin to figure out that the excuse of the film was just that, and for the Obama administration to leave our foreign workers without any troops protecting them on 9/11 is incompetence. What a shame these 4 brave Americans had to die because the Obama administration dropped the ball. And what does Obama do the day after this terrible loss of American life, what he does best campaigns in Las Vegas.

[qyeteye]

10 died in defense of the ambassador and his staff. You ignore and say nothing of those who gave their all to protect them and by extension the values as you call freedom & liberty as to comfortably write and throw stones. What a shame.

[Underdogus2011]

"Libyan president: 50 arrests in Consulate assault"
Just pure propaganda folks all 50 most likely are AMERICAN SYMPATHIZERS.

[IBBuckshot]

We need to listen to the president of Libya as he seems to be expressing what he believes to be true. There were too many strong arm weapons used to have been spur of the moment. The you tube video may have been a plant to get the people ticked off so the criminals could get in. Granted it was stupid on our part to have unarmed guards but would that have helped anyway? How would these militants have known about the location of the safe house? This was a planned attack and someone working with the embassy had to be in on it to let the militants know about the safe house. It seems the militants are using old ways to communicate plans as this wasn't picked up on internet or phone lines. They are getting more cunning.
Another curiosity is why Egyptian Christians (Coptic Christians) want to stir up trouble in Libya? The film maker is saying that he made the film because of worries that his family in Egypt, who are Christians, are in danger or treated poorly that makes no sense. The Muslims took over Christian Egypt around 650AD so why create problems for the remaining Christians living there now. This film maker is a story teller, con man and criminal. So much going on in the middle east for centuries but someone is trying hard to get the US in the middle.

[komodo55]

If I was the President of Libya, I would want to blame it on terrorists as well....instead of my own demented, fanatical citizens. Just sounds better...particularly, when you're hungry for those $$$.

[MickKegeon]

Libyan President says attack was preplanned. Obama Administration says they were not. Guess who I believe.

[monstrous_ethicist]

You apparently do not believe the article. According to it, the Obama administration says they haven't seen evidence of a preplanned attack and have drawn no definitive conclusions.

Personally, I think it's more likely to have been a preplanned attack. But I don't mind if the White House investigates first.

[SkylarkWY]

Save America.... on November 6th FIRE Obama, FIRE Biden, FIRE Geitner, FIRE Holder, FIRE Clinton, FIRE Rice.