The administration's struggle to define Benghazi attack as “terrorism”

12 September — Obama was interviewed in CBS News and was asked whether the attack on the Benghazi compound was a terrorist attack, to which he responded: “Well, it’s too early to tell exactly how this came about.” Obama only would call it “an attack on Americans.”

Two days later, on 14 September, White House press secretary Jay Carney denied reports that the assault on the compound it was a pre-planned attack.

Two days later, on 16 September, U.N. ambassador Susan Rice made her now-famous comments that the attack was the result of a protest ignited as a result of an anti-Muslim video.

On the same day, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland, when asked whether the attack was terrorism, responded: “I don’t think we know enough.”

Obama noted on Monday that three days after Rice’s statements, he sent Olsen to the Hill to clarify the administration’s position on the nature of the attack in Benghazi. In his meetings with lawmakers, Olsen did describe the attack as terrorism.

Obama, referring to the Olsen testimony on 19 September, said: “If this was some effort on our part to try to downplay what had happened or tamp it down, that would be a pretty odd thing that three days later we end up putting out all the information,” Obama said. “Who executes some sort of cover-up or effort to tamp things down for three days? So the whole thing defies logic.”

Fox News notes that Obama’s comments on Monday give the impression that Olsen was dispatched to meet with lawmakers for the purpose of announcing to them that the administration had concluded that the attack was an act of terrorism.

Olsen’s “this was terrorism” remark, however, came only in response to questions by the Senators on the committee. In fact, news reports at the time highlighted the fact that Olsen volunteered the view about terrorism only in response to an explicit question on the issue, and that it was noteworthy because it appeared to contradict what other administration officials were saying.

Moreover, Fox News reports that congressional sources said that the White House reprimanded Olsen for saying what he said, although the White House denied this.

Even though Olsen was the second administration official to use the term “terrorist attack” – Obama himself was the first, on 12 September — other officials were still reluctant to use the term.

On 20 September while being interviewed on Univision, Obama declined to use the word, saying instead: “I don’t want to speak to something until we have all the information.”

The same day, however, Carney did say that it was “self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack.”

From that day on, all other top administration officials began to describe the attack as an act of terrorism.