Ryan says Obama's foreign policy 'unraveling,' Romney's will be about US 'strength'

Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan on Sunday criticized the Obama administration's response to the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya, saying it is just part of a larger “unraveling” of its foreign policy.

“Their response was slow. It was confused, it was inconsistent,” Ryan said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s part of a bigger picture of the fact that the Obama foreign policy is unraveling literally before our eyes on our TV screens.”

Ryan made his remarks just days before Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney is expected to give a major foreign policy speech.

“What Mitt Romney's going to do is lay out a very different vision for foreign policy -- one that is a policy of American strength versus what I would articulate or claim the president's policy is one of weakness,” Ryan said.

The Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killed a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. The White House initially said the attack was a “spontaneous” response to a anti-Islamic video trailer but has since acknowledged it was a planned terror attack.

The Wisconsin congressman on Sunday also called the recent violence in the Middle East “the ugly fruits of the Obama foreign policy,” arguing that 20,000 people have been killed, Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon and Russia is “thwarting us at every stage.”

Ryan called Iran “the biggest threat we have today” and said the big issue is Obama’s credibility.

“The Ayatollahs in Iran, they have to make a decision to stop pursuing a nuclear weapon and pursue a peaceful resolution,” he said. “I would argue that they're not doing that because the president doesn't have credibility."

Ryan also said he and Romney have repeatedly said the U.S. has to stop Iran’s nuclear weapons capability and that a Romney-Ryan administration would not put “daylight between our allies, especially Israel.”

He also said the president has “moved his rhetoric a bit to look more like ours, and that's good, but the problem is it's built upon a mountain of non-credible actions.”

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Administration doubles down on plea to contractors amid pending layoffs

The Obama administration has doubled down on its plea to defense contractors not to warn employees about possible layoffs due to looming budget cuts --  going so far as to offer to cover legal fees in compensation challenges.

The move drew a stern rebuke Friday from South Dakota Republican Sen. John Thune.

"For the second time, the Obama administration has now encouraged government contractors to ignore the WARN Act and hold off on warning employees about possible layoffs due to the looming sequestration cuts,” Thune, lead author of the Sequestration Transparency Act, said Friday.

The offer to pay the legal fees was included in a memorandum issued by the administration Friday that also restated the Labor Department's position from July that contractors should not issue written notices to employees because of the "uncertainty" over the across-the-board cuts to the defense budget and other federal spending that will occur Jan. 2 unless Congress reaches a new deal.

The notices are required under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and generally require employers with more than 100 employees to provide 60-day notices of "mass layoffs if they are reasonably foreseeable."

The projected $500 billion in Pentagon cuts under the so-called sequestration will occur because Congress failed to agree on a deficit-reduction plan this summer.

The guidance issued by the Labor Department this summer stated "it is neither necessary nor appropriate" for federal contractors to issue the warnings.

The memorandum states the federal government would cover employee compensation under the WARN Act – "irrespective of the outcome" as long as the contractor follows the Labor Department guidelines.

Still, defense contractor Lockheed Martin -- which might have to lay off employees should the cuts kick in -- is still considering whether to send out the notices, according to The Hill newspaper.

Rep. John Kline, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, suggested last week that the Labor Department is trying to conceal the full impact of the cuts. 

"The Labor Department is trying to hide the consequences of sequestration from workers," Kline, R-Minn., said in a letter to Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

The letter was the second in two months by Republican committee leaders in which they asked for an update and more detailed information about the obligations federal contractors have in giving the advanced notice.

On Friday, Republican Sens. John McCain, Ariz.; Lindsey Graham, S.C.; and Kelly Ayotte, N.H., issued a similar statement, saying in part, "The president should insist that companies act in accordance with the clearly stated law and move forward with the layoff notices."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Top intelligence official backtracks on Libya story, says initial assessment premature

The office of the United States' top intelligence official appeared to take the blame Friday for the Obama administration's changing narrative on the U.S. Consulate attack in Libya, saying administration officials who initially claimed the attack was spontaneous did so based on intelligence officials' guidance. 

The statement by Shawn Turner, spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, was put out late Friday -- at the close of a tumultuous week for the Obama administration over the Libya attack. 

The White House has had to steadily backpedal over initial claims that the attack was inspired by protests in Cairo over an anti-Islam film and was not pre-planned. Top officials started last week calling the attack "terrorism." 

Turner's statement marked a complete reversal from the initial claims. 

"As we learned more about the attack, we revised our initial assessment to reflect new information indicating that it was a deliberate and organized terrorist attack carried out by extremists," Turner said. "It remains unclear if any group or person exercised overall command and control of the attack, and if extremist group leaders directed their members to participate. However, we do assess that some of those involved were linked to groups affiliated with or sympathetic to Al Qaeda." 

Turner, though, sought to explain that officials who discussed the attack as spontaneous did so based on intelligence community assessments. 

"In the immediate aftermath, there was information that led us to assess that the attack began spontaneously following protests earlier that day at our embassy in Cairo," he said. "We provided that initial assessment to Executive Branch officials and members of Congress, who used that information to discuss the attack publicly and provide updates as they became available. Throughout our investigation we continued to emphasize that information gathered was preliminary and evolving." 

However, sources have told Fox News that intelligence officials knew within 24 hours the attack that left the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead was terrorism, and that they suspected it was tied to Al Qaeda. 

It's unclear, then, why the intelligence community told Executive Branch officials it was spontaneous. 

In the midst of the changing story, Republicans have complained that they were misled by the administration. They pointed to briefings to lawmakers and comments made by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice on five Sunday shows in which she claimed the attack was spontaneous, not pre-planned, and tied to the anti-Islam film. 

Meanwhile, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are raising questions about security at the compound in Benghazi. All members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee wrote to the State Department on Thursday asking for additional details about security at U.S. diplomatic posts and for a fuller explanation of the attacks on U.S. compounds in Libya, Egypt and Yemen. 

An intelligence source on the ground in Libya told Fox News on Friday that no threat assessment was conducted before U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team began "taking up residence" at the Benghazi compound -- describing the security lapses as a "total failure." 

The source told Fox News that there was no real security equipment installed in the villas on the compound except for a few video cameras. 

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the worst, the intelligence source said the security lapses were a 10 -- a "total failure" because Benghazi was known to be a major area for extremist activity. 

There had been four attacks or attempted attacks on diplomatic and western targets leading up to the Sept. 11 strike on the U.S. Consulate. 

Based on that information, a former regional security officer for diplomatic security told Fox News, the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi had to have been classified or assessed by the State Department as a "critical threat terrorism or civil unrest posting." 

Fox News was told that State Department standards for diplomatic missions overseas dictate physical security standards for this classification. There are two sets -- classified and unclassified requirements. The unclassified standards include a 100-foot setback for the buildings from the exterior walls which should be three meters high, in addition to reinforced ballistic doors and windows which can withstand an hour of sustained assault. 

Based on the video and photos, none appear present at the consulate. 

The former regional security officer, who has worked in the Middle East, told Fox News that the standards are designed to give an ambassador, his or her team and diplomatic security that "golden hour" to burn classified dockets and call in military help for an emergency evacuation. 

Fox News' Catherine Herridge and Pamela Browne contributed to this report. 

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Republicans crank up pressure on administration to clear up facts on Libya attack

After two weeks of changing stories from the Obama administration regarding the Libya terror attack, Republican lawmakers are putting increasing pressure on the president and his advisers to explain why they made such "implausible" statements in the days following the strike. 

Members of Congress, frustrated over an apparently light-on-details intelligence briefing last week and the initial insistence by officials that the attack was linked to anger over an anti-Islam film, fired off a round of letters this week seeking clear answers. Mitt Romney, after initially laying low over the changing Libya narrative, also has started to hammer the president over the issue. 

Republicans now are openly suggesting that the administration may have covered up details of the attack for political purposes. 

"We are getting close to an election, and all I can think of is they're just trying to keep the facts unknown until after the election," Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told Fox News on Wednesday. "The way they're handling this is so incompetent." 

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday that President Obama considers the strike a "terrorist attack." Though Obama did not refer to it as such in his address Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly, several administration officials, including Carney and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, have used the term since last week. 

The administration, though, still has not publicly rejected comments made two Sundays ago in several TV interviews by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice. Rice claimed on "Fox News Sunday" and other programs that the attack was a spontaneous assault tied to the anti-U.S. protests in Cairo. Rice, like other administration officials, said the attack was not pre-planned. 

Four senators wrote a letter to Rice on Tuesday asking about her "troubling statements that are inconsistent with the facts" and demanding an explanation. 

"By the date of your comments, it was already clear that the attack in Libya was a terrorist attack, and that heavily armed and well trained attackers appeared to have prepared for an opportunity to attack U.S. interests," they wrote. "Yet, you repeatedly asserted the implausible explanation that the attack in Benghazi was a spontaneous reaction to the video despite growing evidence to the contrary. ... We look forward to a timely response that explains how the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations could characterize an attack on a U.S. consulate so inaccurately five days after a terrorist attack that killed four Americans." 

The letter was signed by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.; Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; and Ron Johnson, R-Wis.

Sens. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., wrote a separate letter Wednesday to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking about security measures in Benghazi prior to the consulate attack. 

"Specifically, we are concerned over the apparent lack of security preparations made despite a demonstrable increase in risks to U.S. officials and facilities in Benghazi in the period leading up to the attacks," they wrote, citing attacks earlier this year on the consulate, the British ambassador's convoy and the International Committee of the Red Cross office. 

House Republicans including McKeon meanwhile sent a letter to Obama asking about intelligence leading up to the attack and criticizing the administration's discussion of the strike in its aftermath. 

"We are also disturbed by the public statements made by members of the administration that would lead the American public to believe this attack was a protest gone wrong, rather than what it truly was - a terrorist attack on the United States on the anniversary of 9/11," they wrote. 

Slamming the response to the attack as a "pre-9/11 mindset," they asked the Obama administration what it plans to do to protect other U.S. interests abroad from being targeted. 

Obama advisers, though, have denied any attempt to mislead the public. 

Carney said Wednesday that the administration has provided as much information as possible, stressing that the investigation must be allowed to take its course. 

Carney said the administration will provide more facts to the public as they emerge. 

The Romney campaign, though, pressed Obama to personally condemn the attack as terrorism. 

"This is now the second time the White House press secretary has said something that President Obama has declined to admit. If the president thinks the tragic events in Libya were acts of terrorism, he should say so himself," Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said, echoing Romney's comments in an interview with Fox News a day earlier.   

Libyan President Mohamed Magarief, in an interview with NBC News on Wednesday, reiterated his claim that the anti-Islam film had nothing to do with the attack in Libya.

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Romney: Obama yet to 'level with the American people' about Libyan attack

Mitt Romney, in a joint Fox News interview with running mate Paul Ryan, accused the Obama administration of failing "to level with the American people" about how the U.S. Consulate in Libya was attacked, leaving the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans dead.

"Look, we expect candor from the president and transparency, and he continues to refuse what is said by the other members of his administration: This was a terrorist attack. We were attacked apparently by Al Qaeda and it is a very troubling development," Romney said during a campaign stop in Ohio.

Romney's comments underscored complaints made by Republican lawmakers, who question the administration's shifting explanation, starting with claims that the Sept. 11 strike was "spontaneous" violence tied to protests over an anti-Islam film produced in the U.S. Obama officials gradually walked back that description, and Obama acknowledged Monday that it clearly "wasn't just a mob action" -- though he did not go as far as to call it a terrorist attack.

One of Obama's advisers, National Counterterrorism Center Director Matt Olsen, was more direct last week, testifying to Congress that the four Americans "were killed in the course of a terrorist attack."

"When the director of the Counterterrorism Center comes to Congress and testifies and says that this is a terrorist attack ... I think you would want to ask that question of the president, why he is not on the same page with his own administration officials?" Ryan said.

Obama devoted much of his address Tuesday to the United Nations General Assembly to the attack in Libya and unrest in the Mideast. He paid tribute to Ambassador Chris Stevens, who died in the attack, recalling Stevens' time serving in the Peace Corps as an English instructor in Morocco.

"Chris Stevens embodied the best of America," Obama said.

The president went on to restate his administration's support for the Arab Spring, calling it a "season of progress." But he said the recent violence and unrest is indicative of the difficulties along the way. "True democracy -- real freedom -- is hard work," he said.

The president, however, did not mention terrorism in his U.N. speech, and he has yet to elaborate on how extremists were able to launch what now appears to have been a coordinated attack on the consulate. Obama and others in his administration have been criticized by Republicans for not taking a more definitive stance on the attack.

Obama, in an interview taped Monday on ABC's "The View," condemned extremist elements in the Muslim world and vowed the U.S. is "not going to shrink back from the world because of this."
"We are going to hunt down those who did this," he said. "We will bring them to justice."

He also said in the interview, which aired Tuesday, that there was "no doubt" that the assault "wasn't just a mob action" but a sign of extremism in nations lacking stability. "What's been interesting, just this past week, there were these massive protests against these extremists militias that are suspected, maybe, of having been involved in this attack."

In interviews and at campaign events Monday, Romney assailed Obama's leadership abroad, leading a chorus of Republicans in criticizing the president for what they said was minimizing the death of the Ambassador Stevens. Obama, in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," said recent violence in the Mideast was due to "bumps in the road" on the way to democracy. Romney on Monday also suggested Obama was leaving American foreign policy at the mercy of events instead of working to shape global politics in America's interest.

Fox News' Carl Cameron contributed to this report.

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Obama urges UN to reject 'violence and intolerance' amid Mideast unrest

President Obama, facing questions at home concerning his administration's handling of the deadly attacks in Libya and growing anti-American violence, plans to tell a gathering of world leaders at the U.N. that unrest in the Middle East and North Africa marks a critical juncture -- a choice in the region between hope and intolerance. 

Obama, in prepared remarks for his U.N. General Assembly address Tuesday morning, said the attacks on U.S. embassies abroad "are not simply an assault on America." 

"They are also an assault on the very ideals upon which the United Nations was founded," the president said. He urged these countries and their citizens to reject those whipping up the furor. 

"If we are serious about those ideals, we must speak honestly about the deeper causes of this crisis. Because we face a choice between the forces that would drive us apart, and the hopes we hold in common," Obama said. "Today, we must affirm that our future will be determined by people like Chris Stevens, and not by his killers. Today, we must declare that this violence and intolerance has no place among our United Nations." 

Stevens is the U.S. ambassador to Libya who was killed along with three other Americans in the attack on the U.S. Consulate earlier this month. 

The address Tuesday morning is a chance for Obama to explain what he views as America's role in the tumultuous Arab Spring aftermath -- and whether this period is one that should cause the U.S. concern. The last time Obama addressed the assembly, there was an air of hope surrounding the Arab Spring. U.S. officials remain optimistic, but some also worry that the latest unrest is perhaps the dark side of the revolution.   

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, previewing the speech Monday, said it "always provides an opportunity for the president to put the international situation in context and to put forward a vision of U.S. leadership, and that's what he will do." 

The relationship between the Libya attack and the protests against an anti-Islam film elsewhere in the region remains unclear. Obama, in an interview on Monday, said the Libya attack was not just a "mob action." 

In his U.N. address, Obama still plans to discuss the film. 

"There are no words that excuse the killing of innocents. There is no video that justifies an attack on an embassy," Obama said. "There is no slander that provides an excuse for people to burn a restaurant in Lebanon, or destroy a school in Tunis, or cause death and destruction in Pakistan." 

The president, at a time when he's being accused by critics of ignoring some of Israel's concerns, also plans to discuss the Iranian nuclear threat. 

"America wants to resolve this issue through diplomacy, and we believe that there is still time and space to do so. But that time is not unlimited," Obama said in prepared remarks. "Make no mistake: a nuclear-armed Iran is not a challenge that can be contained." 

He said "the United States will do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon." 

The speech Tuesday morning will kick off a day heavy on foreign policy for both the president and his Republican opponent Mitt Romney. 

Romney addressed the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City in the morning, and Obama is expected to address the initiative later in the day. 

Republicans leaders are hoping Obama on Tuesday will make clear his position on several foreign policy fronts. 

Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, and other party members have suggested that the president's policy of pulling out of Afghanistan and Iraq while offering less than total support for Israel's effort to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons has left U.S. interests vulnerable. 

They also have questioned his position on the so-called Arab Spring, in which several dictatorships were removed and residents were left with democratic governments potentially susceptible to Islamist and militant influence. 

On Monday, Wyoming GOP Sen. John Barrasso outlined several messages he thinks Americans want to hear during Obama's speech at the United Nations General Assembly, including that the war on terror is not over and the anti-Islamic film alone did not spark the Middle East violence. He also called for an assessment of the real state of  U.S.-Russia relations since leaders pressed to so-called "reset button," as well as a full commitment to Israel. 

"When the president says 'We have your back,' the world needs to know what he actually means," Barrasso told Fox News. 

Carney vehemently defended the country's commitment to Israel and the president's belief that Egypt, Libya and other Middle East countries will eventually achieve democracy. 

"I think the president's views on these matters are very clear and very strong," Carney said. "We have an unshakeable commitment to Israel's security and we have proven that commitment. ... The president, again, has made clear on numerous occasions that Israel is our closest ally in the region."

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Obama continues administration's shift, says Libyan attack not 'just a mob action'

President Obama continued the shift in his administration's language in explaining the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, saying Monday in a taping of "The View" that the assault that killed the U.S. ambassador and three others "wasn't just a mob action."

The comments put further distance between the president and his administration's first description of the attack as a "spontaneous" outburst possibly related to Muslim anger over an anti-Islam video produced in the United States, though questions still remain about the origin of the attack and why the U.S. wasn't able to thwart it.

Even so, Obama condemned extremist elements in the Muslim world and vowed the U.S. is "not going to shrink back from the world because of this."

"We are going to hunt down those who did this," he said. "We will bring them to justice."

Obama and others in his administration have been criticized by Republicans for not taking a more definitive stance against what now appears to have been a coordinated attack on the consulate by extremists with ties to Al Qaeda. His administration only began calling the Sept. 11 strike a "terrorist attack" late last week.

"There's no doubt" that the assault "wasn't just a mob action" but a sign of extremism in nations lacking stability," Obama said in the taping of the ABC show "The View." "What's been interesting, just this past week, there were these massive protests against these extremists militias that are suspected, maybe, of having been involved in this attack."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, meeting with world leaders on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York City, spoke with President Mohammed el-Megaref of Libyam thanking him for the support offered by his government in the aftermath of the attack and praising the Libyan people for overthrowing Muammar Qaddafi last year.

"Courage has been the defining characteristic of the Libyan people over these last two years," she said. "Courage to rise up and overthrow a dictator, courage to choose the hard path of democracy, courage to stand against violence and division in the country and the world."

El-Megaref called the consulate attack "a very painful, huge tragedy, not only for the American people and the families of the victims, but also for the Libyan people." He noted that thousands of Libyans had marched in the streets to protest the attack and said those demonstrations "embodied the conscience of the Libyan people."

"What happened on (the) 11th of September toward these US citizens does not express in any way the conscience of the Libyan people, their aspirations, their hopes or their sentiments toward the American people," he said.

The White House initially said the storming of the consulate attack was a spontaneous assault tied to ongoing protests over a video that ridiculed the Prophet Muhammad, but has since broadened its answer to say an investigation will show what ultimately happened.

Obama and first lady Michelle Obama taped "The View" -- a clear pitch to women voters -- in New York the day before the president addresses the U.N. General Assembly. The interview, a mix of policy, politics and personal tidbits, will air Tuesday. Obama made a solo appearance on "The View" in July 2010, drawing an estimated 6.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen. The first lady appeared on the show in late May, where she discussed family life and the re-election campaign.

On Monday, in recalling his hardest day of the last four years, Obama cited the August 2011 downing of a Chinook helicopter by a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan that killed 30 American troops. Obama later flew to Dover, Del., to pay tribute to the troops.

"It's very raw in those moments and it reminds you that freedom's not free and these families are taking enormous strain and ours troops are making enormous sacrifices," Obama said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Gibbs defends administration's response to deadly attack, says not ‘misleading’

A top adviser to President Obama on Sunday defended the administration for saying in the aftermath of a deadly assault on a U.S. outpost that it was not a pre-planned terrorist attack.

Campaign adviser Robert Gibbs said the answers given Sept. 16 by Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, were based on “the best information she had” and not intended to mislead the public.

"No one either intentionally or unintentionally misled anyone involved in this," Gibbs said on “Fox News Sunday.” "No one wants to get to the bottom of this more than we do."

Rice gave her responses on five Sunday morning TV talks shows, days after at least 20 attacks on U.S. outposts in the Middle East and North Africa, including one on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, in which U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

She said that attack was “spontaneous” and started with an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt, over an anti-Islamic film.

Gibbs, a former White House spokesman for Obama, also said he expects more information will emerge.

"As we have learned more and as this investigation continues, I would anticipate we will continue to learn more facts about the awful assassination murder of our ambassador," he told Fox.

White House spokesman Jay Carney and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton late last week acknowledged the assault in Libya was a terror attack. However, the administration has stood by its assertion that investigations so far show the attack was not pre-planned.

Gibbs also defended President Obama’s decision so far not to hold one-on-one meetings with world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly this week in New York while making time to appear on ABC’s “The View” daytime talk show.

“So, he has time for Whoopi Goldberg but he doesn’t have time for world leaders?" asked Fox host Chris Wallace.

Gibbs in part replied: “The White House has phones.”

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Federal investigator: White House personnel may have been involved in Colombia prostitution scandal

The lead federal investigator into the Colombia prostitution scandal said for the first time Friday that White House personnel may have been involved -- despite administration claims to the contrary. 

Charles Edwards, the acting inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, wrote in a letter to Sen. Susan Collins that his office's investigation into the April incident found "a hotel registry that suggests that two (non-Secret Service) personnel may have had contact with foreign nationals." 

The letter came two days after a FoxNews.com report revealed possible White House advance team involvement. 

One of those employees, Edwards wrote, was a Defense Department employee "affiliated" with the White House Communication Agency. 

The other, he said, "may have been" affiliated with the White House advance team. 

The White House denied the claims Friday. And Edwards wrote that his office did not pursue those leads "because they are not DHS personnel." 

Edwards wrote that while the allegations that went beyond the Secret Service "were outside the scope of the investigation, one of these employees is a Department of Defense employee affiliated with the White House Communication Agency and the other, whose employment status was not verified, may have been affiliated with the White House advance operation." 

That statement, though, calls into question claims made back in April by White House Press Secretary Jay Carney about the possible involvement of the White House team. Carney said that the White House counsel's office conducted a review and "came to the conclusion that there's no indication that any member of the White House advance team engaged in any improper conduct or behavior." 

The Obama administration stood by its original claims in reaction to Edwards' statements. 

A senior administration official said the member of the advance team was a "volunteer," as opposed to a White House employee. Further, the official said the volunteer was wrongly implicated based on inaccurate hotel records. 

White House spokesman Eric Schultz backed up Carney in standing by the original White House review. 

"As we've said for months, the White House review concluded that no members of the White House advance team, either staff or volunteers, engaged in inappropriate conduct during the president's trip to Colombia," Schultz said. 

Collins said in a statement Friday she was "troubled" by the new revelations, though, citing Carney's original claim. 

"On April 23, the White House spokesman said that the White House counsel's office had conducted its own review and concluded there had been no credible allegations of misconduct by anyone on the White House advance team or the White House staff. The White House explicitly denied any involvement after its own investigation and now the IG is questioning that account. This raises concerns about the credibility of the White House investigation," she said. 

A Secret Service source who was on the April Cartagena trip also questioned Edwards' claim that the leads were not pursued. The source told FoxNews.com that agents on the trip were specifically asked about White House staff, and that those leads were pursued by the DHS investigators. 

"He is lying that (White House) leads weren't pursued. I was asked by ... investigators if I knew about (White House) staff with girls along with many other (Secret Service) types that were interviewed," the source said. 

"He is playing with the truth," the source said of the IG's claim that White House leads weren't followed. "We were questioned specifically about the White House staff. We were all questioned." 

Edwards' letter came in response to an inquiry from Collins about the status of the DHS internal investigation. A spokesman for the DHS inspector general told FoxNews.com earlier this week that the investigation had recently been completed and the report would be submitted to administration officials in a matter of days. 

On Wednesday, FoxNews.com reported exclusively that the probe conducted by Department of Homeland Security investigators into the Cartagena scandal turned up claims that two members of the White House team had checked in prostitutes to the Hilton hotel in Cartagena. 

When Carney was asked Thursday about the forthcoming investigative report on the Colombia prostitution scandal, and the FoxNews.com report, Carney noted that the report was not yet public and that the White House had not seen it. 

"I have no comment on an IG report that nobody has seen," he said. "We'll await the report." 

Carney, though, said the White House stands by its counsel's office report from April concluding no White House staff involvement.    

Edwards, in his letter, asked to schedule a time with Collins to provide "a personal briefing on the scope of the investigation and a summary of our general findings." 

The letter to Collins was also sent to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who fired off a letter of his own on Thursday to White House Counsel Kathryn Ruemmler demanding answers about the alleged White House personnel involvement. 

Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, cited the earlier FoxNews.com report and asked a string of pointed questions -- namely, he noted the White House never got back to him with more information about its counsel review and asked about the forthcoming investigative report. 

"Now more allegations have arisen regarding White House personnel procuring prostitutes during the President's trip to Colombia," Grassley wrote. 

He asked whether the White House has been in contact with the inspector general's office, whether the White House had any input in drafting the report and if the Secret Service was aware of alleged involvement of White House personnel. "If the report includes the findings that are being reported how did your initial review fail to uncover the involvement of these staffers?" Grassley wrote. 

The letter from Edwards also provided additional details about the original investigation into the Secret Service. 

Edwards wrote that investigators interviewed 251 Secret Service personnel, as well as reviewed travel records and hotel registries. 

"Based on these interviews and the review of these records, we identified thirteen individuals who were then employed by the USSS (Secret Service) who had personal encounters with female Colombian nationals consistent with the misconduct reported around the time of advance activities for the President's visit to Cartagena," he wrote. 

He said the encounters took place at the Hotel Caribe, the Hilton Cartagena and at a private residence. "Our investigation determined that twelve of these thirteen USSS employees met the female Colombia nationals at bars or clubs and returned with them to their rooms at the Hotel Caribe or the Hilton Cartagena Hotel. In addition, one USSS employee met a female Colombian national at private residence," he wrote. 

Three of the women left without asking money, five asked for money and were paid and four asked for money and were not paid, Edwards wrote. Police arrived on the scene when one of those women complained. 

"Although we found that these agents engaged in misconduct, our investigation developed no evidence to suggest that the actions of USSS personnel in Cartagena compromised the safety and security of the President or any sensitive information during this trip," he wrote. 

A voicemail left for a spokesman for the DHS inspector general requesting comment on the letter was not immediately returned. 

Contact Jana Winter at jana.winter@foxnews.com

FoxNews.com's Judson Berger contributed to this report. 

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Lawmakers to Obama: Get your story straight on Libya attack

Frustrated lawmakers are calling on the Obama administration to get its story straight on what happened in last week's deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, with President Obama coming under pressure to address the American people about the evolving narrative. 

"You hate to think that the president would purposely mislead the American people, but it sure looks like it to me," House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, R-Calif., said. 

McKeon was among several top-ranking lawmakers who expressed frustration following a briefing with administration officials late Thursday. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he learned "nothing" from it, claiming the administration is still blaming an anti-Islam film on YouTube for the attack that killed four Americans including the U.S. ambassador. 

The White House has been sending mixed signals. Press Secretary Jay Carney for the first time Thursday called the strike terrorism. Obama, though, continued to cite the anti-Islam film when asked about the attack during a voter forum hosted by Univision. 

"There are going to be different circumstances in different countries. And so I don't want to speak to something until we have all the information. What we do know is that the natural protests that arose because of the outrage over the video were used as an excuse by extremists to see if they can also directly harm U.S. interests," he said. 

But McCain retorted: "It's not the video. It's the Islamists who are pushing this video." 

He and other lawmakers claim the attack was clearly pre-planned and could lead back to Al Qaeda or an affiliate. Obama, in his interview with Univision, did not say whether Al Qaeda might be involved, saying the matter is still under investigation.

'You hate to think that the president would purposely mislead the American people, but it sure looks like it to me'

- Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif.

McKeon told Fox News that it's time for Obama to address the American people about what's happening. 

"If he'd spend some time in Washington ... rather than traveling around ... to raise money and campaign for four more years of what -- yeah, I think it would be good if he did a little bit of what he's being paid to do," he said. 

Several concerns have been raised about the version of events being pushed by administration officials. 

Foremost, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice's claims that the attack was a "spontaneous" event triggered by protests in Cairo were challenged by claims out of Libya and intelligence sources that the strike was premeditated and possibly tied to a former Guantanamo inmate. Sources also said there was no major protest in Benghazi before the strike, which further challenged assertions that the strike was part of a demonstration spun out of control. 

Furthermore, Fox News has confirmed that the two former Navy SEALs killed in the attack were not working security for the State Department but were in Benghazi for a separate agency. And they were not initially at the consulate -- but a separate facility -- when the main building came under fire last Tuesday night. 

These details also appear to conflict with the account given by Rice on ABC's "This Week." 

She said: "We had a substantial security presence with our personnel. ... Tragically, two of the four Americans who were killed were there providing security. That was their function. And indeed, there were many other colleagues who were doing the same with them." 

Some lawmakers have called for an independent investigation, expressing concern about whether the administration is handling it appropriately.   

Following Thursday's briefing with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., reportedly slammed the meeting as "the most useless, worthless briefing that I have attended in a long time." 

"It was like a one-hour filibuster with absolutely not one single bit of new information being brought forth," he said, according to Foreign Policy magazine. The briefing "if anything, built far greater distrust about what's happening than just answering questions. It was pretty unbelievable."

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Obama, Romney campaigns ease off Libya debate as administration's story changes

As the Obama administration's initial explanation of last week's deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya appears to unravel, both presidential campaigns were curiously quiet Thursday -- with the Obama campaign deferring to testimony from a day earlier and the Romney campaign declining to criticize the president. 

The White House on Thursday called the assault a terrorist attack, after officials initially declined to use that term for more than a week. And the administration's claim that the strike was not pre-planned continued to be called into serious question as new evidence emerged of possible Al Qaeda ties. 

But Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt, in an interview with Fox News, gave no indication that President Obama would address the American public anytime soon about the issue and deferred to remarks a day earlier by a top counterterrorism official. 

And Mitt Romney's campaign has said little about this other than to stress the importance of bringing the killers to justice. 

Asked Thursday about the evolving version of events in Libya, Romney spokesman Ryan Williams said: "Governor Romney believes our immediate priority in Libya is to track down and bring to justice those terrorists who brutally murdered our diplomats. The attack is a clear reminder that terrorists, particularly those linked to Al Qaeda, remain a grave threat and one that is growing in North Africa."

The Romney campaign appears to have dialed back on Libya since the candidate first criticized the U.S. Embassy in Cairo last Tuesday for a statement that allegedly sympathized with those protesting over an anti-Islam film. 

"I think they're gun shy," Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said. 

Bonjean was referring to the wall of criticism the Romney campaign faced -- from the media and the Obama campaign -- after the initial statement criticizing the embassy in Cairo. Romney defended those comments and went on to criticize Obama's foreign policy strategy in the aftermath of the Libya attack. 

But Romney and Obama on the campaign trail have since turned almost exclusively back to the economy. 

The latest back and forth pertains to two online videos. In one, Romney seems to dismiss the "47 percent" of people who don't pay federal income taxes, saying they see themselves as "victims" and will only support Obama. The other online clip features audio of a young Obama appearing to embrace "redistribution." 

The Twitter pages for both Romney and his campaign show little to no activity on Libya since last week. 

Bonjean said he thinks Romney is "letting the situation develop" before he speaks in any definitive terms on it again. That's not necessarily a bad move, he suggested. 

"I think what they're doing is not taking the shovel away from the Obama administration on the Middle East while they're still digging a hole," he said.

Bonjean said Romney might eventually make hay out of the changing story -- particularly at next month's presidential debate on foreign policy -- but until then, he said it would be best for surrogates to do the attacking. Still, he said it might be appropriate for Romney to say something on Libya in the near future about the importance of the American public knowing the facts about what happened. 

Republicans on the Hill are far less "gun shy" about criticizing the administration. 

Rep. Peter King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told Fox News it was "irresponsible" for the administration to send U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice for a round of Sunday show interviews in which she called the attack "spontaneous."

"They had to know at that time that there was terrorist elements involved," King said. "The Obama administration wants us to think that the war against terrorism is over, that the president's policies have worked, that we have nothing to worry about from Al Qaeda. That is dangerous, irresponsible and it was wrong." 

And the Republican National Committee has been flagging the administration's changing statements. In an email Thursday, the RNC asked whether the administration was "deliberately lying" about the facts of the attack.

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Administration walks tightrope, in carefully worded accounts of Libya violence

The Obama administration is walking a tightrope on its explanation over what led to the deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya -- sticking to its claim that the attack was "spontaneous" while allowing that the situation may have been exploited by militants. 

The latest clarification from the administration came in response to an intelligence source on the ground in Libya telling Fox News there was no significant or sizeable demonstration when the attacks unfolded sometime after 9:30 p.m. in Benghazi last Tuesday. That appeared to challenge the view, espoused by the Obama administration, that ongoing demonstrations over an anti-Islam film had simply spun out of control. 

"There was no protest, and the attacks were not spontaneous," the intelligence source said. "The Libyan attack was planned and had nothing to do with the movie." 

Responding to the account, a U.S. official did not dispute that no major protest was taking place right before the strike. The U.S. official said a small group had gathered outside the consulate between 9 and 10 p.m. local time, but the investigation has yet to determine whether they were demonstrators or armed militants. 

However, the official emphasized there had been a small demonstration, of about two dozen people, at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi earlier in the day. Asked how many hours separated the small demonstration from the attack later in the evening, the U.S. official could not say but added it was also under investigation. 

"Right now, this points to a plan that was hatched opportunistically that day. Of course, if credible new information suggests otherwise, the investigation will pursue those leads," the official said. 

The working theory based on conversations known to the intelligence community, according to the same U.S. official, is that attackers in Benghazi took their "inspiration" from the demonstrations in Cairo. 

"Spontaneous does not mean a 'bang, bang' connection," the U.S. official said emphasizing that a Cairo connection could not be discounted at this early stage of the investigation. 

At first blush, it appears Libyan and Obama administration officials are offering two completely different accounts. The Libyans, including the Libyan president, say the attack was pre-planned. The Obama administration says it was spontaneous. Both sides are sticking to their version of events. 

But Obama administration officials may be easing off just a little, in acknowledging that the protest in Libya before the attack was a relatively tiny one and that perhaps agenda-driven extremists took their cue from protests in Cairo and seized the opportunity to strike. 

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said as much when she told ABC News' "This Week" that "as that unfolded, it seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons." 

This, by itself, is not so far off from what the Libyans are saying. The administration just won't go so far as to call this a coordinated terrorist attack. To the contrary, they still describe the whole situation as spontaneous. 

To that, the Libyans say "preposterous."   

Fox News was told that the assault on the consulate came without warning, and, to strengthen the view that it was pre-meditated, the assault included RPGs and mortars -- including at least one round that hit the consulate roof. 

There were two waves to the assault, Fox News was told. According to the intelligence source, in the first wave, the attackers were heard to say "we got him" -- a reference to Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the attack. Word spread, the attackers regrouped and the second wave went after the motorcade and support personnel. 

The account relayed by the intelligence source on the ground in Libya is consistent with statements by the Libyan president that the attack was pre-mediated and the work of foreign fighters, which is code for Islamist extremists, including the Al Qaeda affiliate in North Africa. It is also consistent with an interview by McClatchy Newspapers with a purported Libyan security guard who was injured in the assault. The guard said the consulate area was quiet and "there wasn't a single ant outside" until dozens of armed men descended on the compound.   

These accounts stand in contrast to some statements made by Ambassador Rice on the Sunday talk shows. In several separate appearances, Rice said the assault on the U.S. Consulate began as an ongoing demonstration that spiraled out of control. 

On "Fox News Sunday," she said: "The best information and the best assessment we have today is that in fact this was not a preplanned, premeditated attack, that what happened initially was that it was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video. People gathered outside the embassy and then it grew very violent and those with extremist ties joined the fray and came with heavy weapons, which unfortunately are quite common in post-revolutionary Libya and that then spun out of control. But we don't see at this point signs this was a coordinated plan, premeditated attack."

Even before Ambassador Stevens' murder, U.S. officials say the CIA determined the security situation in eastern Libya was deteriorating based on four attacks, beginning in June, on diplomatic and Western targets in Benghazi, including the U.S. consulate. That said, U.S. officials insist there was no specific warning of an armed assault, like the one that killed the four Americans. 

While the Obama administration maintains there was no "actionable intelligence" or specific warning about time, place or method of attack before the armed assault, Fox News asked the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and a spokesman for the National Security Council if the four attacks were briefed to the president as part of the highly classified daily briefing. There was no immediate response from either office.   

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Obama administration, Libyan president clash over explanation on consulate strike

The Obama administration is doubling down on its theory that the attack a week ago on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was a "spontaneous" act, despite the Libyan president calling that idea "preposterous." 

The sharply divergent views on what led to the deadly strike in eastern Libya played out across the airwaves Sunday and are sure to generate more questions this week. In two interviews over the weekend, Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif joined other members of his government in declaring the attack a planned assault, possibly by an Al Qaeda-tied group. 

"The idea that this criminal and cowardly act was a spontaneous protest that just spun out of control is completely unfounded and preposterous," Megarif told NPR. 

But U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, in a string of interviews, stood by the administration's position that the Libya attack was just part of the wave of protests over the anti-Islam video circulating on the Internet. 

"What sparked the violence was a very hateful video on the Internet," Rice said on "Fox News Sunday." "It was a reaction to a video that had nothing to do with the United States." 

She also repeated the administration's message that the attacks, which started Tuesday in Egypt and spread to more the 20 U.S. posts in the region, were "spontaneous," not planned or timed for the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. 

"The best information and the best assessment we have today is that this was not a pre-planned, pre-meditated attack," Rice also told Fox News. "What happened initially was that it was a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired in Cairo as a consequence of the video. People gathered outside the embassy and then it grew very violent. And those with extremist ties joined the fray and came with heavy weapons, which unfortunately are quite common in post-revolutionary Libya, and that then spun out of control." 

It was a message that Rice would recite nearly verbatim on the other network shows. 

She said the FBI is investigating the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, and that more attacks are possible. 

Her comments were in sharp contrast to those Sunday of Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif, who in separate interviews with NPR Radio and CBS' "Face the Nation" dismissed the notion that the attacks, at least in his country, were spontaneous. 

Megarif, president of the Libyan National Congress, also said the violence, including the timing, bears the markings of an Al Qaeda attack. 

He said the attacks were carried out by foreigners who have been infiltrating his country since the uprising ended the dictatorship of the late Muammar al-Qaddafi and that they used the Cairo protests as a cover to attack the U.S. Consulate. 

In addition, Arizona Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, and Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, House Intelligence Committee chairman, said Sunday the administration's foreign policy of "disengagement" in the Middle East created the vacuum for the attacks. 

"The Middle East believes there is a disengagement policy with the U.S.," Rogers said on "Fox News Sunday." 

The campaign for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney responded in part to Rice's efforts within hours. 

"Today, the Obama administration found itself facing serious questions about its record of leadership in the world, America's waning influence abroad, and the failure of its outreach efforts in the Middle East and North Africa," campaign spokesman Ryan Williams said.

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McCain, Rogers: Obama’s policy of 'disengagement' led to attack on U.S. posts

Capitol Hill Republican leaders said Sunday the Obama administration’s foreign policy of “disengagement” in the Middle East led to the attacks on U.S. posts in the region.

Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers and Arizona Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, suggested President Obama pulling troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq, while offering less than total support for Israel’s effort to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, has left an exploitable void in the region.

“The Middle East believes there is a disengagement policy with the U.S.,” Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday."

He argued Obama has made no significant foreign policy speech since the one in Cairo, Egypt, in 2009 and acknowledged the region poses “difficult” problems -- including the absence of stabilized, democratic governments to replace the recently deposed dictatorships.

“But you cannot solve (the problems) by stepping back,” Rogers said. “It has to be a combination of showing strength and showing up.”

He also questioned why the United States appears to be in an “open fight” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about how far the country will go to help stop Iran from achieving nuclear capability.

“Shouldn't we be telling Iranians that there are lines they can't cross?” he asked.

The campaign for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said the administration faced serious questions Sunday about its record of leadership in the world.

Campaign spokesman Ryan Williams said those questions include concerns about "America’s waning influence abroad, and the failure of its outreach efforts in the Middle East and North Africa."

McCain said he had "no doubt" the attacks last week on roughly 20 U.S. Middle East posts -- including the fatal one Libya -- were the result of America's shift in foreign policy to one of "disengagement."

"Prior to 9/11, we had a policy of containment,” McCain said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”  “Then after 9/11, it was a confrontation with the terrorists and Al Qaeda. Now it's disengagement. We're leaving Iraq. We're leaving Afghanistan. We're leaving the area. The people in the area are having to adjust. And they believe the United States is weak, and they are taking appropriate action."

McCain argued members of the Obama administration and others who right now think the attacks were sparked by an anti-Muslim video on the Internet are “ignoring the facts.”

"Most people don't bring rocket-propelled grenades and heavy weapons to a demonstration,” he said. “That was an act of terror. And for anyone to disagree with that fundamental fact, I think, is really ignoring the facts. … And they used pretty good tactics: indirect fire, direct fire, and obviously they were successful."

McCain said the real underlying cause is the struggle within the Arab world between the Islamists and the forces of moderation.

“And they want America disengaged," he said.

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Diplomatic, western posts targeted repeatedly in Benghazi in run-up to deadly assault

While the Obama administration says there was no actionable intelligence that could have prevented the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Libya, there was a heightened threat in the region due to at least four attacks on diplomatic and western targets leading up to the murder of the U.S. ambassador.

"This (the U.S. Consulate) was a place that was targeted months before with an IED (improvised explosive device)," Congressman Mike Rogers, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who has been briefed on the attack and investigation, told Fox News. "It's clearly a target that they wanted to hit and they wanted to cause casualties. I find it -- a little the glaring question of a 9/11 date. It's just too many coincidences here."

On June 6, an IED was thrown at the perimeter of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. On June 11, the British ambassador's motorcade came under attack by a rocket propelled grenade or RPG. Two security personnel were injured. Seven days later, on June 18, armed gunmen attacked the Tunisian consulate and burned its flag. And on August 5, five weeks before the assault on the U.S. Consulate, the International Committee of the Red Cross building in Benghazi was also struck by RPGs.   

On Friday, the chair and ranking members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Joe Lieberman and Susan Collins sent a letter to the State Department Inspector General requesting an investigation into the U.S. Consulate's security posture at the time of the attack. The letter specifically references the previous attacks in June on the Consulate and the British ambassador's convoy, adding:

"Does the risk assessment process consider the capacity or lack thereof of the host country to provide security? Did the Libyan government request or suggest that security could be improved at the Benghazi facility prior to September 12, 2010?"

A spokesman for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the nation's top intelligence official, said  "actionable intelligence would have meant that we either saw or heard something, through intelligence collection, that told us that a specific act was being planned or was imminent. As I have said, we are not aware of any actionable intelligence related to the attack in Benghazi."

But a former official with the Bush administration said the Obama White House appeared to be dodging the real issue. "This definition relies on the notion that action is only taken to prevent a specific plot where we know the time, place and even method of attack. Action can be, and is taken, to increase security when more general threats, like what we saw this summer in Benghzai, are known."

Asked if the four attacks prior to the ambassador's murder were briefed to the president as part of the highly classified PDB or president's daily brief which details threats against the U.S. homeland and U.S. interests, there was no immediate response from the ODNI nor the spokesman for the National Security Council.  

Given the heightened threat picture, the former Bush administration official questioned whether more aggressive precautionary measures should have been taken at diplomatic missions even though the intelligence was apparently not specific. "President Bush was criticized for being disengaged before 9/11, but given what we all know now about the terrorist threat, there is no excuse for lacking engagement or focus on the persistent threats to U.S. personnel in North Africa."

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Marines arrive in Yemen after embassy attack, protests spread

U.S. Marines are on the ground in Yemen to deal with the aftermath of an attack on the U.S. Embassy in the capital city of Sanaa, as the Obama administration warns of sustained protests outside diplomatic posts across the Middle East and North Africa. 

Pentagon spokesman George Little told Fox News the team is in Yemen as a "precautionary measure." 

The move comes as Reuters reports that protesters jumped over U.S. Embassy walls in both Sudan and Tunisia. Reuters reports that protesters also set fire to trees and broke windows inside the U.S. Embassy compound in Tunis. 

A senior U.S. official, without explaining the extent of the breach in the latter attack, told Fox News that Tunisian security forces "have responded effectively" so far to the incident. 

"We're keeping a close eye on events there, but for the moment, the Tunisians are doing precisely what they should do in the face of such events," the official said. 

One official also reportedly claimed that protesters in Sudan have been expelled. Witnesses said Sudanese police opened fire on those trying to climb the walls. 

That is just a snapshot of the violent unrest playing out Friday, in the widest protests yet across the Muslim world. 

One protester was killed in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli in clashes with security forces, after a crowd of protesters set fire to a KFC and an Arby's restaurant. Protesters hurled stones and glass at police in a furious melee that left 25 people wounded, 18 of them police. 

Security forces in Egypt and Yemen fired tear gas and clashed with protesters to keep them away from U.S. embassies. And Germany's Foreign Minister says the country's embassy in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum has been stormed by protesters and set partially on fire. 

The intense demonstrations, purportedly by people upset over an anti-Islam film, follow warnings by the State Department that the protests could spread across the region. The department, on its Twitter account, cautioned Thursday of sustained protests in Egypt, Oman and Jordan, among other places. 

The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI also issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning that the violent outrage aimed at U.S. embassies could be spread to America by extremist groups.   

In a statement to Fox News, a DHS official said that there is no specific, credible information at this time to indicate that the attacks have increased the threat of violent reaction in the U.S., but it will continue to identify potential threats and take appropriate measures. 

Four Americans were killed in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Tuesday. A Marine unit was dispatched earlier in the week to Tripoli, to help fortify the U.S. Embassy there in the wake of the attack in the eastern part of the country. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Violence spreads across Middle East over anti-Islam film

The Obama administration is bracing for the possibility of more violent anti-American protests after Friday's weekly prayers, traditionally a time of protest in the Middle East and North Africa, following  protests outside of several U.S. embassies and a Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that left four, including the U.S. ambassador to the country, dead. 

All of the U.S.' diplomatic missions overseas were on high alert Friday, and Secretary of State Clinton issued a statement strongly denouncing the anti-Islam video that is purportedly the cause of the violence as the administration sought to pre-empt further turmoil at its embassies and consulates.

"The United States government had absolutely nothing to do with this video," Clinton said before a meeting with the foreign minister of Morocco at the State Department. "We absolutely reject its content and message."

In Indonesia, the largest Muslim majority nation in the world, leaders and a prominent cleric urged citizens to remain calm despite anger over the film. Meanwhile, Jakarta police spokesman Col. Rikwanto tells The Associated Press the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta did not request any increased security, but 250 riot police have been put on alert ahead of expected demonstrations.

The embassy issued an email to American citizens saying a demonstration with an estimated 300 people was expected after Friday prayers.

The Obama administration was caught by surprise by the ferocity of the Sept. 11 storming of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed the American ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three other embassy staff members. 

Libyan officials said Thursday they believe the attack in Benghazi was a planned operation by heavily armed militants that may have been timed to mark the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S., and that the militants used civilian protesters as cover for their action.

In Egypt, protests continued into the night Thursday for a third day. Police used tear gas to disperse the protesters and the two sides pelted each other with rocks. But unlike Tuesday, when protesters climbed the embassy's walls and several of them breached its grounds, police kept the protesters away from the compound.

The Health Ministry said 224 people, including policemen, were wounded, but they mostly suffered minor injuries. Twelve protesters have been arrested.

In Yemen's capital of Sanaa, hundreds of protesters chanting "death to America" and "death to Israel" stormed the U.S. Embassy compound and burned the American flag on Thursday.

Yemen's president, Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, quickly apologized to the U.S. and vowed to track down the culprits, just as Libya's president did. Egypt's Islamist President Mohammad Morsi, who had been slow to speak out on Tuesday's assault on the embassy in Cairo, promised Thursday that his government would not allow attacks on diplomatic missions.

In Iraq, several hundred Shiite hardliners protested Thursday in Baghdad's Shiite stronghold of Sadr City, and the leader of an Iranian-backed Shiite militia, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, threatened anti-U.S. attacks.

In Iran, about 50 protesters shouted, "Death to America" outside the Swiss Embassy, which looks after U.S. interests there. Riot police kept the crowd at bay.

The State Department said on Twitter that U.S. diplomatic posts in Kuwait, Jordan, and Oman would be also on alert for possible protests going into Friday. 

The Obama administration sent two warships to the Libyan coast and 50 Marines were sent to the Libyan capital of Tripoli to help with security. Obama told voters campaigning Thursday in Colorado that the Benghazi Consulate killers will be brought to justice and that protecting  Americans serving abroad is one of his highest priorities.

The spreading violence comes as outrage grows over a movie called "Innocence of Muslims" that was produced by anti-Islam campaigners in the U.S. and mocks Islam's Prophet Muhammad. 

The amateur-like video was produced in the U.S. and excerpted on YouTube. It depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a madman in an overtly ridiculing way, showing him having sex and calling for massacres.

Click for the latest updates from the State Department on Twitter.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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