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Rep. Peter King, the New York Republican who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said on CNN that Rice's explanation on the talk shows was "such a failure of foreign policy message and leadership" and "such a misstatement of facts" that "I believe she should resign."
In response, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement he was "deeply disturbed by efforts to find the politics instead of finding the facts in this debate." He called Rice "an enormously capable person."
GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney accused the administration of being dishonest.
"I think it's pretty clear that they haven't wanted to level with the American people. We expect candor from the president and transparency," Romney told Fox News this week.
Recent intelligence reports indicated a force of more than 50 heavily armed extremists attacked the consulate, using gun trucks for added firepower, and establishing a perimeter to limit access to the compound and catch any Americans who might try to escape. A first wave of attacks set fire to the main building, forcing the Americans to flee to a fallback building a half mile away, where a second group of extremists attacked with mortar fire. Stevens died of apparent smoke inhalation when he was caught inside the main consulate building, becoming separated from the other fleeing diplomats.
Intelligence officials have focused their attention on Ansar al-Shariah, a Libyan militant group led by a former detainee at the U.S. military-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that there has been a "thread of intelligence reporting" about groups in eastern Libya trying to coalesce but no specific threat to the consulate.
[Associated
Press;
Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Pete Yost contributed to this report from Washington.
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