WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. security officer twice asked his State Department superiors for more security agents for the American mission in Benghazi months before an attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, but he got no response.

The officer, Eric Nordstrom, who was based in Tripoli until about two months before the September attack, said a State Department official, Charlene Lamb, wanted to keep the number of U.S. security personnel in Benghazi “artificially low,” according to a memo summarizing his comments that was obtained by Reuters.

WASHINGTON, Oct 5 (Reuters) – The British government’s
imminent move to extradite five prominent Islamic militants to
the United States for trial could trigger security and political
headaches for President Barack Obama and his administration.

After years of appeals, two British judges gave final legal
sanction on Friday to the extradition of the militants, who
include a one-time U.K.-based spokesman for late al Qaeda leader
Osama bin Laden and a notorious hook-handed imam who once
preached at a big London mosque.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Justice Department said on Wednesday it had broken up an elaborate network aimed at illegally acquiring U.S.-made microelectronic components for Russian military and spy agencies.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York unsealed an indictment charging 11 alleged participants in the network, as well as companies based in Houston, Texas, and Moscow, with illegally exporting high-tech components from the United States to Russian security agencies. U.S. officials did not identify the American companies from whom the components were bought.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Within hours of last month’s attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, President Barack Obama’s administration received about a dozen intelligence reports suggesting militants connected to al Qaeda were involved, three government sources said.

Despite these reports, in public statements and private meetings, top U.S. officials spent nearly two weeks highlighting intelligence suggesting that the attacks were spontaneous protests against an anti-Muslim film, while playing down the involvement of organized militant groups.

WASHINGTON, Sept 28 (Reuters) – The top U.S. intelligence
authority issued an unusual public statement on Friday declaring
it now believed the Sept. 11 attack on U.S. diplomatic
facilities in Benghazi, Libya, was a “deliberate and organized
terrorist attack.”

The statement by the office of Director of National
Intelligence James Clapper acknowledged that it represented a
change in the U.S. intelligence assessment of how and why the
attack happened. During the attack on two U.S. government
compounds in the eastern Libyan city, four U.S. personnel,
including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An American Coptic Christian activist whose California TV facility was used to make an anti-Islamic film that touched off protests across the Muslim world said he was deceived by the film’s producer about its inflammatory content.

In a statement posted on the blog of a prominent American anti-Islamic activist, Joseph Nassralla, founder of a Duarte, California-based group called Media for Christ, said he was a victim of “disinformation and smear” and the film’s principal producer had altered its content without his knowledge.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – An American Coptic Christian activist whose California TV facility was used to make an anti-Islamic film that touched off protests across the Muslim world said he was deceived by the film’s producer about its inflammatory content.

In a statement posted on the blog of a prominent American anti-Islamic activist, Joseph Nassralla, founder of a Duarte, California-based group called Media for Christ, said he was a victim of “disinformation and smear” and the film’s principal producer had altered its content without his knowledge.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. intelligence cable warned the American Embassy in Cairo of possible violence in response to Arabic-language broadcasts of clips from an anti-Muslim film, U.S. government sources said on Monday.

The cable, dispatched from Washington on September 10, the day before protests erupted, advised the embassy the broadcasts could provoke violence. It did not direct specific measures to upgrade security, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) – A spokesman for President
Barack Obama said on Friday officials had no evidence the attack
that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya was pre-planned, an
assertion which added to confusion over the incident.

Immediately after the attack on the U.S. consulate in
Benghazi, Libya, on Tuesday night, U.S. officials, speaking on
condition of anonymity, were quoted widely in the media saying
they believed the attack was well-planned and organized.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. officials say they believe an Arabic talk show last Saturday showing parts of an anti-Muslim video made in the United States was the spark that set off violent attacks on U.S. missions in Libya and Egypt, but acknowledge the broadcast did not prompt a major upgrade in security precautions.

On Tuesday, four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were killed in an attack on the American Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that U.S. officials said may have been planned by one or more militant factions. On the same day, protesters in Cairo breached the U.S. Embassy’s walls, and the protests have since spread to other countries, including Yemen, Bangladesh and Kuwait.