ambassador burns, you just heard what david kirkpatrick was reporting, the access he had to this supposed ring lead eeleade two of them were sipping a frappe. there were plenty of witnesses who spoke with david swearing he was one of the ring leaders. how on earth is he not in custody? >> that's the responsibility of the libyan authorities. the united states does not have any capacity to arrest people or act as a police force. the libyan force is sovereign. the problem is libya after gadhafi does not have a strong national police force or army. it's replete with militias. that's the environment in which our diplomats have to work and protect themselves in tripoli as well other places. >> mr. ambassador, are you telling me these new libyans in control are akin to keystone cops or are you telling me these libyans don't give a damn what we want? >> i didn't say either of those things. the libyan authorities are quite friendly with the united states. they had free and fair elections last summer, a moderate group of people were elected. the problem is in libya, as well as egypt and tunisia, th

joining me, david kirkpatrick, bob baer on the phone, fran townsend. fran now serves on the cia external advisory committee and recently visited libya with her employer, mcandrews and forbes. fran, every white house relies on information from the intelligence community, getting the experts to help with what to say publicly. you also say there are times when mistakes happen, but you say you don't think this is a mistake. you think they knew more than they were publicly letting on. >> john, look, what we know is in that first 24 hours as americans were waking to this tragic news, that senior intelligence officials were in hourly contact updating the white house. as you pointed out, we don't know what was said in those conversations but i can tell you from having lived through these crises, you're getting a constant feed of what the intelligence community understands about what is currently going on and what has happened on the ground. they will caveat the information because of course in those first hours, there will be all sorts of information, some of

david kirkpatrick this in fact was related to a video. you have a "washington post" reporter a c.i.a. briefing that said it was having to do with the video. there was conflicting information. condoleezza rice said the other day, you have to wait until all the information is out. so is this part of the left wing media? why hasn't the media reported on these particular points. the points i just mentioned have been rarely reported. >> 40 years, probably before you were born, 1972 election, gaut watergate was starting to break. they signed woodward and bernstein to dig things out. nixon administration was stonewalling. nixon won a landslide against the late george mcgovern. if this were republican in the white house the media would have attached the suffix, gate to it. with the exception of fox and the superior reporting of jennifer griffin and catherine harris. major newspapers and networks are not going after this cover-up a as the watergate people. who knew what and when. why didn't they send a rescue operation in. who made the decision, n

david kirkpatrick of the "new york times" talked to people on the ground said it was about the video. that was one of the components that it was about. >> bill: are you kidding me. >> no. i'm not kidding you. >> bill: did you not hear the sworn testimony in front of congress? >> how would you explain the cia report. >> bill: i don't have to explain anything. the president's national security advisor testified in front of congress that it was a terror act and had nothing to do with the video. and one day after the cia briefing report that the president read said the same thing are you kidding me. >> the cia said the video played a part of it. >> bill: on the 12th he was handed a document, the president, that he read that said it was an outright terror attack, and that's the consensus that everybody believes right now. >> bill: talking points prepared by the cia. >> bill: you have got a guy on national tv says it's all about the video and you are supporting that? hey, the "the washington post" reporter doesn't mean jack. >> talking points prepared by the cia on september 15th same day t

>> chris, based on the reporting from my great colleague david kirkpatrick, we seem to line up very welle're hearing from u.s. intelligence sources is that this was motivated some by the video but that the group that did it were militants and they were looking for an excuse. now, you can ask the question, would they have done something on september 11th even absent the video and i don't think that i've got at least right now sufficient clarity on that question. but we do know there was no demonstration that then turned into a bigger militant attack. in fact, it began as a militant attack. but it may have been motivated in part by word of the video, which, of course, was spreading from egypt and other places. the protests in egypt had been just a few hours before. >> well, how did ambassador rice get the idea that sunday that it began as a demonstration, kind of protest demonstration we've seen so many places around the world those days? where did that come from? >> the company we've heard so far is that she was relying on the intelligence reports that they had gotten up to the saturday b

and, for example, let me tell you the david kirkpatrick reported in "the new york times" earlier thisk he said the libyans who witnessed the assault and know the attackers there is little doubt what occurred he said. a well-known group of local islamist militants struck without any warning protesting and in retaliation for the video. that was one piece of information. megyn: the president of libya was on the sunday shows the same day susan rice was there saying this was a ter terrorist attack. and she said he doesn't have the same information we do. >> because there were conflicting pieces of information. intelligence doesn't come from one source. we have different intelligence groups and a number of different pieces of information came out simultaneously and people are using this like my friend here for political purposes, which is outrageous. >> why not present the conflict, alan. >> they did. >> why only present one side. megyn: let mike finish his point. >> please, the trouble is you can take the obama tack alan that this is just being political. >> it is. >> this is all politics.