after the attack first began, separated by smoke from his security detail. the u.s. initially said the assault was a result of a demonstration that turned violent. >> putting together the best information that we have available to us today, our current assessment is that what happened in benghazi was, in fact, initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just tran entired hours before in cairo, almost a copycat of the facility in cairo, which were prompted by the video. >> reporter: that was not the case. the state department is now saying there was nothing unusual prior to the attack. at 8:30 pm, everything was calm. and just over ap hour later, armed men launched their assault. libyan officials say they warned the americans on many occasions about the growing threat from extremists. the compound had already been attacked in june. and there had been numerous attacks on other western interests in benghazi. and yet it remained a poorly fortified soft target. documents recently obtained...