[Malveaux:] We are getting new information about warnings that were sent to U.S. Embassies in Egypt and Lebanon. This happened before the attacks. Suzanne Kelly, she is joining us live from Washington with more. What do intelligence officials what did they know before this actually happened?
[Suzanne Kelly, Cnn Intelligence Correspondent:] Well, they're really pushing back on the notion that they had any warning whatsoever that an attack was being planned and, in fact, putting out word now to sort of clarify exactly what they knew and when they knew it. A U.S. official telling me just within the past 30 minutes or so that a cable was sent to the embassy in Cairo, Egypt, 48 hours before the attack in Benghazi, but the cable warned about the existence of the movie and the fact that intelligence officials had noticed that there was an up tick in the people who are clicking on the links on this movie on the internet. So it's really sort of a let everybody know what's out there, let them take their measures that they feel like they need to take. It did not warn of any specific attack in Benghazi. As you know, all of these details, Suzanne, have been so sorted and so different, and there's so much nuance in this story that these distinctions, that they feel are really important in making sure that the intelligence information, what they knew and when they knew it is out there.
[Malveaux:] Do we know why it was sent to the embassies in Libya and Egypt and not, say, Afghanistan or some of the other embassies that is are now under siege?
[Kelly:] I don't even have information that it was sent to the embassy in Libya. It was sent to the embassy in Cairo, which sort of acts like, you know, one of these places in the region where they take the information and they send it out where they feel like it needs to go. So we know that there was a warning that the movie was out there. They knew people had been watching it. There was a seven minute clip or so of the movie that aired on Egyptian TV over the weekend, which obviously highlighted the fact that Egypt might be a place where more people knew about his existence, may protest speculation there. But there was no clear warning in that cable 48 hours before that there was any link to an imminent attack. Or planned attack.
[Malveaux:] Sure. It might be too early to know, too early to tell, but do we know what the intelligence community had any inkling that it was going to spread through social media from being aired on Egyptian television and then spread through social media to other countries so that other communities would actually see this clip?
[Kelly:] I think it's fair to say that they had a very good inkling, which is why they had sent out a cable sort of telling people, hey, you need to be aware that this is out there. They do track this stuff very carefully in social media, especially after last year, the Arab Spring, seeing what happened there. They do kind of keep their finger on the pulse of these things, and when you start to see an increase in traffic and you're looking at where that traffic is coming from, where those people who are clicking on those links are coming from, it kind of gives you an idea of where there might be trouble. But again, you know, it's a guessing game. Intelligence is obviously imperfect.
[Malveaux:] All right. Suzanne Kelly, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. The protests in the Arab world all started with the video that was posted on YouTube, a website owned by Google. Well, in response YouTube said, "What's OK in one country can be offensive elsewhere. This video, which is widely available on the web, is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube." The video has been blocked in both Libya and Egypt. We want to bring in our social media. Of course, it's had a big role in the protests overseas. I want to bring in our expert here. This is Alexis Ohanian and he co-founded the website Reddit back in 2005. He is now working on a book titled "Without Your Permission." Alexis, thank you so much. I mean we've seen how social media can make a huge difference. We saw it in the Arab Spring last year in a very positive way. Now we see social media being used to spread misinformation and even rumor. What's your assessment of what we of what's taken place over the last 48 hours?
[Alexis Ohanian, Reddit Cofounder:] Well, you know, the reality is, we have to be good stewards of this technology. Any communication technology can be used either to spread ideas or real information, as well as misinformation and bad ideas. And so this just happens to be a very powerful medium for spreading things faster and further than ever before. And, you know, given that so many so many here don't have the same level of access that we do in the states where we all carry around our smartphones, a significant portion of the population does at least, you have to still look to things that are very low tech. You know, what an imam says can have a tremendous impact. And good old-fashioned word of mouth spreads ideas very quickly still throughout the entire world. So while the Internet can be a jumping off point, we still see so much the organization happening from and by just people using a lot of low tech means.
[Malveaux:] And, Alexis, what do you think about this? I mean this notion from some folks who say, you know what, we're going to cut off access to YouTube, we're going to cut off access to Twitter because we're afraid that there's a rumor, that there's misinformation that's going to lead to violence.
[Ohanian:] Well, unfortunately, there's no good way. There's no really effective way to monitor this stuff. There's by its own nature, the Internet can't really be effectively censored. And so one of the things that we really need to do is make sure that we have these opportunities for people to be exposed to this to both sides of an issue and to make sure that the best ideas win. Because, unfortunately, you know, sort of as Secretary of State Clinton pointed out, this is reprehensible conduct that got this all started. But the notion of being offended is something that doesn't have to lead to violence. And there are so many Muslims around the world who were offended by this video, but did not resort to violence. And that's the really inexcusable part.
[Malveaux:] And, Alexis, we actually noticed that because there was an outpouring of support for the United States condemning these attacks that were also on social media. And there's also a lot of grief online over the loss of Sean Smith, who was in the consulate in Libya. He was an avid gamer and his friends realized that he was in trouble because he was actually online. He was playing a game at the time this attack happened. Can you tell us a little bit more about it?
[Ohanian:] Yes. He was also actually an avid Redditer, a user of Reddit. And this outpouring of support is something not new really to a lot of us who are active in online communities because the relationships people have online are oftentimes just as strong, in some cases even stronger than some of their offline relationships. But looking at the expressions of support coming from the people of Libya apologizing to the Americans for, you know, our Americans killed, is a sign of what this medium can also do. And the way that we can use it to spread these positive ideas is the kind of thing that we obviously want to see a lot more of. And like I said, you know, whether it was the Arab Spring, something so many of us sort of cheered on, or these sentiments here, we want to try to encourage these things, but know at the end of the day that this is just a technology and it's up to how people use it that really makes the difference.
[Malveaux:] All right, Alexis, good to talk to you. Thank you very much. Really appreciate it. Protests have now spread to Jerusalem. We're going to get a live report next.