President Obama hears about the attack
President Obama was informed about the attack at roughly 5pm by his National Security Adviser Tom Donilon while he was attending a regularly schedukled meeting with [[Leon Panetta]] and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey. At that meeting, senior administration officials say, the President ordered that the U.S. begin moving military assets into the region to prepare for a range of contingencies.
By that evening Panetta had consulted with General Dempsey and General Ham and had ordered a number of American military forces in the region to move closer to Libya. Defense officials say they did not receive a request for military support from the State Department as the attack unfolded.