- Announcement of State Department dissent from rest of Obama administration could help protect Clinton during 2016 presidential run
- Obama administration originally said assault stemmed from protests against anti-Islam video but then backtracked saying terrorists responsible
- Officials tell how ambassador Chris Stevens was trapped in safe-room as assailants burnt the compound down
- AK-47s, grenade attacks, and a smoke-filled safe-room - chilling account of the death of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens revealed
- Ambassador's whereabouts after attack not known until officials rang his cell phone - and found doctors trying unsuccessfully to save his life in hospital
- Most serious attack on U.S. diplomatic compound since al-Qaeda bombed the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania 14 years ago
By trying to distance her department from the inept and deceptive handling of the Benghazi attack, which left U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officials dead, Hillary Clinton could help herself politically for a 2016 presidential run.
A dramatic new account by the State Department reveals that Stevens was locked inside a 'safe room' choking to death from diesel-heavy smoke as the building around him burned to the ground.
Alongside him was a security guard, tasked with the impossible choice between staying in the deadly room - or facing the rocket-propelled grenades and machine-guns outside.
Eventually the guard slipped through the window - and was cut down by the grenades.
No-one saw the ambassador alive again - another agent tried desperately to enter the safe-room, but could not find him anywhere.
The
State Department's insistence it never bought the story - expressed by
the White House and Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -
that a crude anti-Islam film made in California triggered the attack
gives ammunition against Obama both to the Romney campaign and
congressional Republicans.
State
Department sources have said that Clinton has never forgotten that
Rice, who served in her husband Bill's administration, was an early
supporter of Obama. Rice has ambitions to take over from Clinton if
Obama is re-elected but the Benghazi debacle could scupper her chances.
In a briefing on
Tuesday, State Department officials
said 'others' in the executive branch concluded initially that the
attack was part of a protest against the film, which ridiculed the
Prophet Muhammad. That was never the State Department's conclusion,
reporters were told.