On Wednesday, October 2nd, the Russian embassy in Tripoli was attacked. No Russians were killed but two of the attackers were. Less than twenty-four hours later, we had some details and the accounts of both the Russians and the Libyans seemed to match up, despite them being uncomfortable for both.

Russian Embassy after attack.

Via the L.A. Times:

No Russian personnel were hurt when a group of gunmen attacked the embassy Wednesday night with hand grenades and machine guns. An embassy car was burned and some property damaged before embassy guards and Libyan security forces repelled the attack. One of the assailants was killed and four were injured, the Russia-24 television news network reported.

According to Lukashevich, the attack was provoked by the killing of a Libyan air force officer by a Russian citizen, identified as Yekaterina Ustyuzhaninova, who also injured the officer’s mother with a knife. Ustyuzhaninova remains in custody in Libya, he added.

“The incident provoked relatives and friends of the slain Libyan to decide to avenge his death by attacking the Russian diplomatic mission,” Lukashevich said. “The armed attackers succeeded in breaking through into the embassy grounds, but the personnel and their family members hid in the protected premises.”

Details of what happened may change but we’ve got the general idea. A Russian woman killed a Libyan military officer. A Libyan mob stormed the embassy and an attack ensued. This basic presumption of fact is shared by both the Russians and the Libyans. The stories matched, save for minor details.

American Consulate after attack.

Conversely, the U.S. Consulate (compound) in Benghazi was attacked on 9/11 and five days later, then U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice insisted the attack was in response to a video, contradicting the Libyan president, who moments earlier, said it was a terror attack that involved terrorists from outside of Libya.

Here is Libyan President Mohamed Yousef El-Magariaf telling Face the Nation’s Bob Schieffer that the attack in Benghazi was “preplanned” and that it involved “foreigners” who had entered Libya months earlier:

Here is Susan Rice, contradicting El-Magariaf moments later:

Here is Ambassador Christopher Stevens’ Deputy in Libya – Gregory Hicks – on May 8, 2013 in Congressional testimony during which he said that El-Magariaf was furious about what Susan Rice said moments after him to Schieffer (after the now infamous Hillary rant):

One month after Rice lied and two weeks after the Obama administration had to concede that the attack had nothing to do with a video, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed a ‘fog of war’ for getting it wrong and blaming a video:

The intelligence community knew Benghazi was a terror attack within hours. So too, did the Russians know what happened in Tripoli soon after its embassy was attacked. The difference is that the Obama administration lied… for two weeks. To this day, more than one year later, it continues to cover-up the truth.

This is why credibility matters and this is why on matters like Syria, for example, Russia has more of it.