The Independent (UK) reported the U.S. Government was warned about the raid in Libya 48 hours before it took place and did nothing. The article contains more disturbing information:
"American officials believe the attack was planned, but Chris Stevens had been back in the country only a short while and the details of his visit to Benghazi, where he and his staff died, were meant to be confidential.
The US administration is now facing a crisis in Libya. Sensitive documents have gone missing from the consulate in Benghazi and the supposedly secret location of the "safe house" in the city, where the staff had retreated, came under sustained mortar attack. Other such refuges across the country are no longer deemed "safe".
Some of the missing papers from the consulate are said to list names of Libyans who are working with Americans, putting them potentially at risk from extremist groups, while some of the other documents are said to relate to oil contracts.
According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and "lockdown", under which movement is severely restricted...
Senior officials are increasingly convinced, however, that the ferocious nature of the Benghazi attack, in which rocket-propelled grenades were used, indicated it was not the result of spontaneous anger due to the video, called Innocence of Muslims. Patrick Kennedy, Under-Secretary at the State Department, said he was convinced the assault was planned due to its extensive nature and the proliferation of weapons.
There is growing belief that the attack was in revenge for the killing in a drone strike in Pakistan of Mohammed Hassan Qaed, an al-Qa'ida operative who was, as his nom-de-guerre Abu Yahya al-Libi suggests, from Libya, and timed for the anniversary of the 11 September attacks....
According to security sources the consulate had been given a "health check" in preparation for any violence connected to the 9/11 anniversary. In the event, the perimeter was breached within 15 minutes of an angry crowd starting to attack it at around 10pm on Tuesday night. There was, according to witnesses, little defence put up by the 30 or more local guards meant to protect the staff. Ali Fetori, a 59-year-old accountant who lives near by, said: "The security people just all ran away and the people in charge were the young men with guns and bombs."
Wissam Buhmeid, the commander of the Tripoli government-sanctioned Libya's Shield Brigade, effectively a police force for Benghazi, maintained that it was anger over the Mohamed video which made the guards abandon their post. "There were definitely people from the security forces who let the attack happen because they were themselves offended by the film; they would absolutely put their loyalty to the Prophet over the consulate. The deaths are all nothing compared to insulting the Prophet."....
An eight-strong American rescue team was sent from Tripoli and taken by troops under Captain Fathi al- Obeidi, of the February 17 Brigade, to the secret safe house to extract around 40 US staff. The building then came under fire from heavy weapons. "I don't know how they found the place to carry out the attack. It was planned, the accuracy with which the mortars hit us was too good for any ordinary revolutionaries," said Captain Obeidi. "It began to rain down on us, about six mortars fell directly on the path to the villa."..." Article
This was not about any film. The U.S. government denies this story is true and it had no warnings about any impending violence or attack. One other thing. There was a story that spread like wildfire across the internet and made it to some media outlets yesterday about the Marines in Egypt were not allowed to carry ammo. ALL of those stories trace back to one story on a website called "The Nightwatch". The post cites "Marine Corps blogs" but never post any links, quotes, screenshots, anything. Nothing is actually cited. Until something else pops up, and given the media interest if its true it will, I'm not buying it until I see some more evidence. It might be true but vague unnamed reports on the internet aren't going to do it for me.
Meanwhile the Jerusalem Post reports on Egyptian warnings:
"Egypt's General Intelligence Service warned that a jihadi group is planning to launch terrorist attacks against the US and Israeli embassies in Cairo, according to a report Tuesday by Egypt Independent, citing a secret letter obtained by Al-Masry Al-Youm.
According to the report, the attack is being planned by Global Jihad, the group suspected of killing 16 Egyptian border guards in Sinai on August 5.
Al-Masry Al-Youm reportedly obtained a copy of the September 4 letter, sent to all Egyptian security sectors, warning that Sinai- and Gaza-based Global Jihad cells were planning attacks on the two embassies.
Egypt's military is engaged in an ongoing campaign to root out Sinai-based terrorists..." Article
Time will tell how true this stories are.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Independent claims government was warned.
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No mention of unarmed Marines which should be our loudest signal regarding our commander in chief.
Interesting if true. The "warning" cited in the Independent sounds pretty vague; I wonder if there was a general "hey, it's 9/11's anniversary, you know how that goes" notice. Maybe more details will come out.
I doubt very much that the Benghazi terrorists were on the State Department's radar 48 hours in advance.
... Btw, two of the American dead were ex-SEALs who evidently were bodyguards for the ambassador. I'd been wondering what his security detail was like.
You beat me to it, KF. Was heading over here this morning to be sure you knew about the article. Heard about it last night. Still don't have a cleaned up version of what I'd like to say.
Signed,
Seething with anger
Our government fails us when our assets abroad cannot (will not) be afforded protection when we have knowledge of possible attacks. This goes back to the lack of leadership in the White House, regardless of whether the White House knew of the threats or not. The entire region is unstable . . . need I say any more about necessary security measures?
I posted that link in another thread here yesterday. The link was on Drudge.
And now there's a big cloud of black smoke over our embassy in Tunis, where a mob has breached the walls.
The Vienna Convention is pretty much a dead letter in Arab countries, it seems.
well now peeps! Your muslim president and his buds bill ayers and the duh, ah-ruh most reverend wright must be real pleased about now....and what is sick is that he will most probably be re-elected again...
Polls this morning showing 'bounce' in Obama numbers. Holy Shit! Are we in the terlet too deep for extrication?
Can anyone say, "Wag the Dog?"
From Reuters: Africa.. http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E8KCMYB20120912?sp=true
Dont trust the polls. Gallup did one back in mid April, had Romney ahead of obama, white house had a fit, said Gallup did the poll wrong, and somehow theres now a lawsuit involving Gallup and white house.
The polls are designed to give you a defeated outlook if you are voting for anyone other that the sob currently sleeping at the white house.
Vote that sob out of office. Then clean out the trash he brought in.
in re: POLLS
Rasmussen reports Romney: 48, Obama 45, but Obama up by 1 or 2 in two swing states.
11:28, the Real Clear Politics site (which tilts a bit red-state) keeps an average of all different polls. Check it out.
You can also read DOJ's press release about the Gallup suit (which was filed by a former Gallup employee and then joined by the feds). Can't speak to the merit, but it's not obvious to me how supposedly aiding Obama to get re-elected is a clever tactic when Obama's DOJ has sued you. Wouldn't it be smarter to get a new AG in place?
See also Ed Morrissey at HotAir (who also has my same thought that Gallup would try to get Romney elected if this were valid): "This just looks like an effort to connect dots that simply aren’t connectable."
Does anyone have evidence of any other Axelrod complaints re: Gallup besides this tweet?
... Okay, KF, your recognition thing is taunting me: "Godems"?
we're going to have to fall back into the free republic of texas in about 20 years. the US in crumbling. from within
It's hilarious watching you nutcakes cracking up about the impending re-election of our President. The prognosticator who came the closest to correctly predicting the last election - Nate Silver - gives Romney an 8.2% chance of winning the election at this point.
Romney is toast. Deal with it.
Who is the nutcake?
Nate Silver weighs in as an analyst on on ONE election closest and suddenly he is the only credible voice?
Oh, and you failed to mention that Silver doesn't conduct any actual polling himself.
Silver didn't predict the wave of 2010 until the last 48-72 hours then suddenly claimed to have seen it all along.
LMAO. Go post over at a place like the JFP where there are some abecedarians who will believe your BS without questioning it.
It also helps when the Obama campaign is feeding you their internal polls and the underlying data, something EVERY pollster would have loved to get their hands on. I'd look pretty damn good too if I had access to that data.
Anderson,
Let's round out your understanding.
I worked for Gallup in Princeton some time back and I can say they are very serious about their methodology and their removal of bias from their polling.
I find it hard to believe a political supporter was hired, then fired, then brings a whistleblower suit with the support of Axelrod and the ante is upped by Holder and there is no political agenda.
I would hope even you can see through this bs.
Leaving aside that you're citing the Daily Caller - which breathlessly reported the Social Security admininstration's plan to shoot everyone in America - I missed the part in the Caller story you linked that says the guy "brings a whistleblower suit with the support of Axelrod."
Regardless, the inanity of this story can be illustrated easily. Suppose DOJ were *not* joining this qui tam suit. What would the storyline be then? "Corrupt Obama administration lets thieving Gallup off hook in effort to buy favorable poll results!!! MUST CREDIT" etc.
When everything proves you right, you're lost in your own ideology. It's like arguing with a Marxist.
(The mystery behind Gallup's uptick? Convention bounce. What a surprise.)
... KF, where are you getting that about Silver's getting fed internal polls?
... 12:16 exaggerates. Silver gives Romney a 21.4% chance of winning the election. Whatever that means. (So if Romney wins, was he just lucky, or was Silver wrong?)
You are conveniently leaving out the email discussion. Ignore it and it will go away huh?
I left it out because it doesn't prove the point you asserted.
In response to that suggestion, another senior Gallup official wrote — in an email chain titled “Axelrod vs. Gallup” — that the White House “has asked” a senior Gallup staffer “to come over and explain our methodology too."
"The White House has asked" - who at the White House?
(Btw, as with any news story, ask yourself: how did the Caller get these e-mails? Who's feeding them this story, and why? I mean, we're going to suspect Gallup of faking poll results, but not wonder who's supplying an openly partisan outlet with what one would think are confidential documents? Use your head, KK.)
With Anderson everybody else's sources are circumspect while the ones he provides are beyond reproach. Anderson can be a tolerable alternative voice except when he insists on being a snob.
" except when he insists on being a snob"
Yes, I resemble that remark.
But (1) Tucker Carlson and the Caller really *are* pathetic, do some googling; and (2) I didn't just go "oh, the Caller" and dismiss it; I looked at the assertions in the article and found them lacking.
As did Morissey at HotAir, who is nobody's idea of a liberal.
Really, is there nothing *legit* to criticize about Obama, to where you have to resort to conspiracy theories? I hardly think that's the case! But all this focus on bogus issues distracts from his real faults. Which may be the GOP problem in a nutshell, this year.
Anderson, put down the koolaid.
Anderson, setting up links to Media Matters is a hilarious thing to do. Oooohhhh, they are such a trusted ‘source’. hahahahahaha If you don’t know that they, along with their ‘american bridge’ pac, are a liberal activist group, then you’ve been living in China. Paging Soros, Paging George Soros….
Good job, Kapt. A few more things to note:
-poll was in April 2012.
-Axelrod said that the poll was “saddled with some methodological problems”. Ever heard him say than when a poll has little O in the lead?
-The email chain shows O asked Gallup staffer to ‘come over and explain our methodology’. A Gallup official said he thought Axelrod’s pressure ‘sounds a little like a Godfather situation.'
-when Gallup declined to change its polling methodology, the Obama administration’s Justice Department revived a 2009 whistle-blower lawsuit against Gallup by joining the suit.
A 2009 lawsuit, revived in 2012, after Axelrod and White House got pissed because Gallup didn't have little O in the lead.
O is going down in November. Too many people without jobs, lost their home, saw their savings go into the crapper, watched as he apologized for America, plays golf and has wet dreams about being on tv, insulted everyone in the military by his 'tribute' that had russian ships in the backdrop, and has financially trashed the future for at least 2 generations.
And Anderson, we're.pissed.off.
You see, little O just doesn't have enough money to buy out the media around the world. He only purchased the 5 that he has now.
And if you haven't seen Dishonorable Disclosure (https://www.youtube.com/user/OPSECTeam?feature=watch) you need to.
A sovereign piece of the United States was attacked.
The current administration stood united and said it was disgusting, reprehensible. Unfortunately, when you look at the words, they weren't talking about the US being attacked. They were talking about someone doing something to piss off the Islamists.
This is your current white house response to the US being attacked.
You are going to cite David Brock? Hmm....Tucker Carlson or David Brock? One is a mama's boy, the other one is just plain nuts and make no mistake, Brock is off his rocker. You want to play this game, pick someone better than Brock.
Are we going to talk foreign policy ? The CIA should have their back in Banghazi or we should not have been there. 'Wag the dog' is possible. If the President admits the error and resolves to strengthen our embassies, he continues to have my respect. On the domestic side the Michael Horowitz report on the DOJ, FBI, ATF, & c fiasco in AZ is due out next week and will indicate our domestic law enforcement failure in great detail. The DNC bounce will not survive.
Lemme' think. 21 embassies attacked. And we are discussing polls? I have deeper concerns at this point.
And yeah, Tucker is a momma's boy, but the joker has a sharp mind.
Regardless of your political stance the fact remains that Americans lost their lives when it apparently could have been prevented.
It's a failure of leadership..period.
The chain broke and the weak link needs to be removed and replaced.
Retaliation should be swift.
Retaliation is all the people that did this understand.
On this matter, the loss of life, the result of an election will matter not to the people that did this.
It is time for America to "man up" and do what needs to be done.
Thank you, carry on.
Aside from from the fact that the State Dept. denied the " old" story that Marines at embassies are not armed and aside from the fact that Tony Blair called The Independent " a viewspaper not a newspaper",and aside from the fact a mob did not attack the Libyan Embassy,and aside from the fact that where we have embassies, the host government is suppose to protect them on the exterior which is still their soil,and aside from it being unlikely that a newsreporter isn't going to be able to know what was or wasn't in diplomatic communications or the nature of the " warning" and aside from the fact that 48 hours isn't a long time logistically and our ships got there awfully damn quick, it's a great " story".
Excuse me, but isn't this exactly what the crazy mobs in Egypt are about? Reacting without finding out understanding the context of events? There's a bad film and they assume the US government approved it? The crazy Egyotians mobs think Obama is Jewish and approved a film insulting their Prophet so this would be funny if it weren't tragic.
No embassy of any country has enough defensive force on site to defend against an attack from within the country in which they exist.
Embassies depend on the help of the host country.
48 hours is an insufficient amount of time for any country to beef up security and barely enough time to destroy documents in the event of a breach.
Our response is either a force from Ft. Bragg or a ship. While there are bases nearer by, the fact is the men on those bases are not trained or equipped to respond, that function exists at Ft Bragg and has for over a decade.
You might want to discuss current military logistics with someone at the Major level or above and find someone who has served in the foreign service.
Let us know the date and place of your sale Anderson so we can collaborate with as we forward the cause together.
Benghazi, Libya (CNN)
Three days before the deadly assault on the United States consulate in Libya, a local security official says he met with American diplomats in the city and warned them about deteriorating security.
Jamal Mabrouk, a member of the February 17th Brigade, told CNN that he and a battalion commander had a meeting about the economy and security.
He said they told the diplomats that the security situation wasn't good for international business.
"The situation is frightening, it scares us," Mabrouk said they told the U.S. officials. He did not say how they responded.
Mabrouk said it was not the first time he has warned foreigners about the worsening security situation in the face of the growing presence of armed jihadist groups in the Benghazi area.
.....
According to one of the Libyan security guards who was stationed at one of the gates armed with only a radio, the assault began simultaneously from three directions.
Heavy machine guns and rocket -propelled grenades were used, according to the guard. He said masked men threatened to kill him at gunpoint for 'protecting the infidels. He declined to appear on camera for fear of repercussions.
One Libyan guard who was wounded in the attack did appear in an interview from his hospital bed.
It's clear it was a well armed, well planned attack.
But, I think it's also clear that some escape plan was also in place as many embassy personnel were able to get to the safe house. Sadly, not everyone made it out and we don't yet know for certain how our ambassador and his protection team died.
It is also clear the Libyan government is responding as some arrests have already been made. It's clear they are cooperating with our government.
It's not clear whether those who attacked the Libyan embassy were motivated by the film or a drone attack on Al Quaeda or did it just because they hate our presence anyway in the Middle East, particularly a well received presence.
But, we do know that at least one of those involved in the film making is a felon on parole and self described " Coptic Egyptian Christian" who felt the need to completely cover his face. We know he and others misrepresented the film. It seems we should be a tad suspicious that the film was designed to get exactly the reaction it got.
Politicizing this tragedy before the facts are in is not wise. It is the sort of thing best suited to general policy statements in a debate, not to stump speeches or blog reactions which can be used by our enemies to further inflame the crazies.
With freedom of speech comes a choice to be crude and disrespectful and inflammatory or to be civilized , respectful and wise in one's choice of words. Rules of conduct and of law is what keeps us from being feral animals and it seems to me we are becoming more feral every day.
Politicizing this tragedy before the facts are in is not wise.
Which is exactly what you have done.
Well, look a here. Media Matters in the news again. Seems Freedom of Information act got a reporter some emails. emails between Media Matters and top spokeswoman at the U.S. Justice Department, working together on how to step on any coverage that slams BHO.
Oops, DOJ official resigning? And the report on fast and furious has been released?
Just cant wait for BHO to be kicked out of the whitehouse. Can't come soon enough. 100% failure.
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