Former Guantanamo inmate accused of attack on US ambassador to Libya

White House calls Libya assault "terrorist attack"

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The White House's latest comments on the attack come as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton formed an "accountability review board" to investigate the brutal assault that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. Clinton named former U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering to chair the panel, the Reuters news agency reports....Carney didn't clarify whether the Obama administration thought the attack was planned in advance, Reuters reports...On Wednesday, Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told senators that the United States doesn't have specific intelligence that the attack was planned in advance, Reuters reports.

"The best information we have now, the facts that we have now, indicate that this was an opportunistic attack" on the consulate, Olsen said, according to Reuters. "The attack began and evolved and escalated over several hours."

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Sufyan bin Qumu was released from Guantanamo in 2007 to the Libyan regime headed by Muammar Qaddafi. Qaddafi jailed him, but he was then set free on a promise to renounce violence. When the Arab Spring uprising began in Libya, Qumu became part of the rebel movement which eventually toppled Qaddafi...Miller said. "There is some intel about him but it's way too early to verify these reports we've seen that he is the prime suspect or the prime mover. Way too early."

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"Whether it was pre-planned or not is tough because in this environment, in Libya," says Miller. "In a normal place when people show up with weapons and cars and an effective assault, you say that requires pre-operational planning. Libya's a place that went through 13 months of this. There's all kinds of weapons and militias with cars and weapons, so it's the one kind of place this could happen spontaneously."

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57517093/white-house-calls-libya-assault-terrorist-attack/