INTEL OFFICIALS SEE NORTH AFRICA TERROR 'COVER-UP'

by: Bill Gertz
Friday, October 5, 2012


President Obama, accompanied by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House on Sept. 12 about the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya.Photo Credit:

Weeks before the presidential election, President Barack Obama’s administration faces mounting opposition from within the ranks of U.S. intelligence agencies over what career officers say is a “cover up” of intelligence information about terrorism in North Africa.

Intelligence held back from senior officials and the public includes numerous classified reports revealing clear Iranian support for jihadists throughout the tumultuous North Africa and Middle East region, as well as notably widespread al Qaeda penetration into Egypt and Libya in the months before the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.

“The Iranian strategy is two-fold: upping the ante for the Obama administration’s economic sanctions against Iran and perceived cyber operations against Iran’s nuclear weapons program by conducting terror attacks on soft U.S. targets and cyber attacks against U.S. financial interests,” said one official, speaking confidentially.
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