Why Was the Benghazi Embassy Outpost Left Unprotected?

RISING VIOLENCE WAS DOCUMENTED BY LIBYAN AND UNITED STATES PERSONNEL

by Sharon Rondeau

(Oct. 14, 2012) — The statements made by Barack Hussein Obama, Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice regarding the cause of the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. embassy at Benghazi, Libya have been proven false by sources within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

On October 9, in a conference call with the media which excluded Fox News, the U.S. State Department admitted that “no protest” took place outside of the Benghazi outpost prior to the deaths of four Americans on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11.

The CIA released a statement to commemorate the anniversary prior to the events in Benghazi.

In sworn testimony on October 10, 2012 to the House Oversight & Government Reform Committee, a former U.S. security official for Libya, Eric Nordstrom, stated that he had asked for more security on numerous occasions but that his requests were rebuffed.  Nordstrom had said toward the end of the hearing, “For me, the Taliban is on the inside of the building.”

This morning on Fox & Friends, a commentator interpreted Nordstrom’s statement to mean that “the Taliban” is “inside the State Department.”

Early in 2011, Obama made a decision without consulting Congress to assist Libyan rebels in overthrowing the dictatorship of Muammar Gaddafi.  Gaddafi had called Obama “a son” and “a friend” but was killed as a result of the uprising.

The revolution against Gaddafi’s leadership had begun in Benghazi.

During the vice-presidential debate last Thursday evening, putative Vice President Joe Biden insisted that the regime was “never told” that more security was needed in Benghazi.  Biden instead blamed intelligence-gatherers for faulty information.  On Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that embassy security is the purview of the State Department, not the White House.

Carney praised Biden for his debate performance, claiming that Biden had shown “his passion and his wisdom” during the 90-minute session with vice-presidential contender Rep. Paul Ryan.

Biden was widely criticized by pundits and reporters for smiling, laughing, gesturing, interrupting and for presenting himself as disrespectful of his opponent.  On Friday, former CIA official Wayne Simmons passionately asked a Fox News anchor what Biden found so “funny” about four dead Americans in Benghazi.  “Those are my guys,” Simmons said.

There is ample evidence that Obama sympathizes with Muslims and supports the Palestinians over Israel.

During Wednesday’s testimony to the Oversight Committee, Lt. Col. Andrew Wood, who had worked as a member of a Security Support Team (SST) in Libya through August of this year, stated that it was a well-known fact that Libya was a dangerous place and that violence had been escalating during his time there. On the morning of September 11, 2012, a cable sent from the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, Libya to Washington, DC noted an escalating security concern attributed to “police and security forces” who lacked the capability to defend the interim government and “brigades” charged with security functions having “very fluid relationships and blurry lines” between Al-Qaeda-linked groups and them.  The cable cited “growing problems with security,” particularly in eastern Libya, where Benghazi is located.

Of the city of Derna, also in eastern Libya, the September 11 cable reported:

A growing number of anecdotal reports from residents, NGOs, and USG contractors link the Abu Salim Brigade with a troubling increase in violence and Islamist influence…Complaints against the Abu Salim Brigade range from their efforts to close radio and other media outlets, enforce strict rules against co-mingling of men and women at the local university, and increased criminality, including carjacking, thefts, and murders…

A “state of maximum alert” had been issued in Libya by the Interior Ministry on August 29.  On September 1, a car bomb exploded in Benghazi which killed one and injured another, both formerly members of Gaddafi’s security team.

One of the groups identified as having questionable ties to Al-Qaeda was the February 17 Brigade, which had been responsible for providing security to the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.  Communications between members of the group and “an Al-Qaeda affiliate” were reportedly detected by .  There were no U.S. Marines guarding the embassy as are present at other embassies throughout the world.

Libyan Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, one of the four Americans murdered during the September 11 violence, had been noted to have approved the cable.

An earlier missive dated August 20, 2012 identified security problems as “gunfire between Egyptian forces and smugglers,” resulting in a closure of the border between the two North African nations; a grenade attack on a military member and a “storming” of the office of a local newspaper by “armed men.”

On August 2, 2012, the U.S. embassy in Tripoli “cleared by” Amb. Stevens requested that “11 LES bodyguard positions be added to the current roster of 24 APD members.”  The environment in Libya was described as “unpredictable, volatile and violent.”

The U.S. consulate in Benghazi was attacked on two occasions before September 11, and radical Islamists had posted internet warnings against Western interests and Ambassador Christopher Stevens personally.

If the State Department had kept abreast of the developments in Benghazi “in almost real time,” as it reported, how could it have taken more than two weeks for Obama, Clinton and Rice to admit that the violence had not been sparked by a video which had been available on the internet for several months before?  If one of Clinton’s aides knew the following day that a terrorist attack had occurred, how could Clinton herself not have known?

An explanation provided by The New York Times states that protests in Iraq against private security personnel such as those working for Blackwater were disliked and “banned” by the Libyans.  “The new Libyan government had expressly barred Blackwater-style armed contractors from flooding into the country,” The Times reported.  Blackwater had provided security to the U.S. embassy in Djibouti, Iraq.

The Washington Post had reported on January 29, 2009 that “No American diplomat has been killed during missions secured by Blackwater,” although several security employees were brought up on charges by the U.S. attorney in Washington, DC after 17 Iraqi civilians were killed in 2007 following what was described as an attack against Americans which Blackwater employees had sought to repel.  A federal judge dismissed the charges in December 2009, but the Justice Department appealed the ruling and had the cases reopened.

Blackwater security officers had reportedly worked with the CIA in Iraq to carry out raids in a relationship which reportedly became “enormously profitable” for the private company.

Regarding private security contracting in Libya, The New York Times reported:

The large private security firms that have protected American diplomats in Iraq and Afghanistan sought State Department contracts in Libya, and at least one made a personal pitch to the ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the militants’ attack in Benghazi on Sept. 11, according to a senior official at one firm.

The State Department reportedly asked for bids from private security companies for embassy protection in Libya but “never followed through,” after which the Obama regime “wanted to reduce the American footprint” in Libya.

Stevens’ diary reportedly revealed that he was aware that his security was compromised in the weeks leading up to the attack and his death.  On September 13, Obama called the killings an “act of terror” after claiming to have spoken with “friends and colleagues” of the victims at the State Department.

So why the lying, and why was the U.S. embassy in Libya unprotected?

“I will stand with the Muslims,” Obama said in his book, The Audacity of Hope.