Some officials wanted charges filed earlier

The exact nature of the charges wasn't clear, nor was the number of suspects named in the investigation. Investigators and prosecutors are continuing to pursue the case, and they plan to charge additional suspects, according to the people familiar with the case. http://www.754shop.com/ A Justice Department spokesman, Andrew Ames, said the investigation is continuing. "It has been and remains a top priority," he said, declining to comment further. Earlier this year, Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress investigators were making good progress on the case, but declined to offer specifics. The Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the consulate, which resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, led to accusations from Republicans that the Obama administration had issued public talking points designed to hide the likelihood that the attackers were linked to al Qaeda, and thereby insulate political figures from blame in the months before a presidential election. The White House has long denied those accusations. The question of when to charge individuals in the Benghazi attack—and whether to make such charges public while the FBI engages in a world-wide hunt for suspects—has been the subject of internal debate among counterterrorism officials in the months since the attack, according to the people familiar with the case. Some officials wanted charges filed earlier, and made public earlier, to reflect progress investigators believe they have made in the case, those people said. Others argued for a more cautious approach, in part out of concern that revealing too much about the probe could hurt its chances of gathering more evidence and apprehending potential suspects. The lack of public charges has led critics of the Obama administration, particularly Republicans in Congress, to challenge the administration's handling not just of the immediate response to the attacks, but of the long-term response as well. Some conservatives have accused the administration of covering up its failures on the night of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, and beforehand-accusations the administration has strenuously denied. In May, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released images of three men who were at the compound and who were being sought for questioning. It is unclear if any of those facing criminal charges are the same as the ones in those 754shop images. Ansar al-Sharia has been a focus of the joint U.S.-Libyan investigation after U.S. intelligence officials intercepted phone calls between members of the group and al Qaeda leaders in Northern Africa, made immediately after the consulate attack, bragging about the incident, according to the people familiar with the matter. While Ansar al-Sharia has been linked to al Qaeda, it isn't clear if the storming of the consulate was directed by the global terror group.