US intelligence officials knew from Day One that the assault on the US Consulate in Libya was a terrorist attack and suspected Al Qaeda-tied elements were involved, sources told Fox News -- though it took the administration a week to acknowledge it.

The account conflicts with claims on the Sunday after the attack by US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice that the administration believed the strike was a "spontaneous" event triggered by protests in Egypt over an anti-Islam film.

Sources said the administration internally labeled the attack terrorism from the first day to enable a certain type of policy response, and that officials were looking for one specific suspect.

In addition, sources confirm that FBI agents have not yet arrived in Benghazi in the aftermath of the attack, nor has the "crime scene" been secured.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton suggested the deadly consulate attack in Libya involved the Al Qaeda affiliate in North Africa, going further than any other Obama administration official in acknowledging the assault was the work of hardened terrorists.

Clinton was speaking Wednesday to foreign leaders gathered at a meeting convened by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to address the threat of extremism in the region.

“Now with a larger safe haven and increased freedom to maneuver, terrorists are seeking to extend their reach and their networks in multiple directions,” Clinton told the group, according to a New York Times report. “And they are working with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions under way in North Africa, as we tragically saw in Benghazi.”

It wasn't the first time Clinton had referred to the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as a terrorist attack. But her reference to the group Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb was notable, especially as President Obama still has yet to publicly refer to the attack as terrorism.

Republicans have pounced on the administration's shifting explanation for the Sept. 11 attack, which left US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead. Administration officials initially described it as "spontaneous" violence, possibly related to protests against an anti-Islam film produced in the US, but the administration has gradually walked that explanation back while acknowledging the attack was an act of terror.

The White House said Wednesday that Obama, too, considers the deadly assault an act of terror. Press Secretary Jay Carney said it is "certainly the case that it is our view as an administration, and the president's view, that it was a terrorist attack."

Carney's comments came after Mitt Romney accused Obama of failing to "level with the American people" about the nature of the attack.

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Editor's Note: Blatant dishonesty....and almost half the nation is inclined to vote to keep this dishonest status quo???


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