Libya Prez: Consulate Attack 'Planned' By Foreigners

Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif took to the US airwaves this morning, Politico reports, telling Face the Nation that his nation has made 50 arrests in the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi. "The way these perpetrators acted and moved—and they're choosing the specific date for this so-called demonstration—this leaves us with no doubt that this was pre-planned, determined," he said. "It was planned by foreigners, by people who entered the country a few months ago." Some, he said, were "definitely" from neighboring Algeria and Mali.

Asked by host Bob Schieffer whether Libya would allow the FBI in to investigate, el-Megarif demurred: "Maybe it is better for them to stay for a little while, for a little while. But until we, we do what we have to do ourselves. Any hasty action I think is not welcome." But the attacks in no way represent Libya's attitude toward the US, he said. "These ugly deeds, criminal deeds, were directed against the late Ambassador Chris Stevens and his colleagues do not resemble (in) any way, in any sense, the aspirations, the feelings of Libyans towards the United States and its citizens." (More Libya stories.)