Unbelievable.
Posted on 10/15/2012 10:09:04 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Time for your daily reminder that State didn’t merely stick Chris Stevens with “average” security despite him living and working in one of the jihadi-est places on earth. The security they provided him was actively, inexplicably, inexcusably bad. And before you read any further, let me remind you that the ominous chat-room message posted by Sean Smith the day he died about a Libyan guard taking photos of the compound still hasn’t been addressed by anyone in the government that I’ve seen. Did Stevens’s security break down to the point that his killers actually had someone on the inside?
More red flags from Reuters:
State Department officials suspected that two Libyan guards hired by its own security contractor were behind an April incident in which a homemade bomb was hurled over the wall of the special mission in Benghazi, according to official emails obtained by Reuters…
The April attack illustrated concerns among some U.S. officials in Libya that hiring local residents for embassy guard duties could in itself raise security issues.
The emails identified one of the suspects in that incident as a former employee of Blue Mountain Group who had been fired four days earlier for vandalism, and said the other was still working for the company. Both were unarmed guards who performed routine security tasks, such as screening visitors.
Both suspects were ultimately released after being interrogated by the local “police,” a.k.a. the February 17 Martyrs Brigade, which was partly responsible for providing security for the consulate and whose members were last seen hiding on the roof during the attack because they weren’t ready for it. No word on whether either of them was still working for Blue Mountain on 9/11, but that brings us to another unanswered question. Why did State hire Blue Mountain, an inexperienced firm, in the first place?
Other firms in the security industry expressed surprise that Blue Mountain had won a large, high profile contract from the US government. One industry executive said the level of service Blue Mountain provided did not appear adequate to the risks presented by a lawless city.
“We have visited the consulate in Benghazi a number of times and have an excellent relationship with the Americans. Our assessment was the unarmed Libyan guards were extremely poor calibre,” said one security source. “The Libyan Ministry of Interior are generally not happy with Blue Mountain and had them on their close observation/target list.”
The New York Times last week reported that major security firms with a track record of guarding US premises elsewhere had made approaches to undertake work in Libya but were rebuffed.
“We went in to make a pitch, and nothing happened,” a security firm official told the newspaper.
Blue Mountain had six employees on the scene, five Libyans and one British supervisor recruited from “the celebrity bodyguard circuit.” Security was sufficiently weak that BM’s local affiliate, Blue Mountain Libya, complained to its parent company this past summer that the resources they were being given weren’t enough. State was asked to intervene in the dispute between the two — but chose to do nothing. So it came to be that the U.S. ambassador ended up on 9/11 at a consulate that was vulnerable even according to its own security detail, and which State had had ample opportunity to fortify. Meanwhile, on the same day, the U.S. embassy in Barbados enjoyed protection from a detail of Marines. “Smart power,” 2012.
Just as O’s interest in an “easy” intervention in Libya made a difficult intervention in Syria more difficult, State’s decision to half-ass security for the Benghazi consulate has created a new, bigger security headache for the White House in Libya. Namely, how hard do they hit the local jihadis in reprisal? The Libyan government doesn’t want to approve an attack lest it be seen as a U.S. stooge at a moment when it’s trying to build legitimacy, and the U.S. doesn’t want to raise the profile of a group like Ansar al-Sharia by making it the Great Satan’s new enemy number one. There is a compromise solution, but of course it’s not ready yet. If only State had thought of this before letting a smile be Chris Steven’s umbrella against the mujahedeen.
More nitty gritty ....
According to what I heard Rudy Gulliani say on Greta tonight, this same embassy had already been attacked 2 times prior to the September attack.
I thought to myself that if this is the case that would rule out any possibility that any security sytem or video link described by Col. Hunt was not yet activated.
Every day a bit more comes out, and every day barack Obama looks more like a dirty rat.
I think this situation has reached critical mass.
Excellent article.
Do you believe, as some here do, that this was a kidnapping scheme which got out of hand?
"We jest had no ideer there was any danger 'round there. Seemed peaceful 'nuf to us." - Hillary and the Statios
Timeline of Libya Consulate attack reveals administration contradictions (Blockbuster)
And I think a drone with camera showed up an hour after the attack started.
Ms Lamb?
She looked absolutely awful at the ISSA hearing.
Major stuff!
You can find that by clicking the libya keyword ...in case you didn't know that.
I’m past the point of starting to believe that.. The FBI delaying their investigation for the purpose of ensuring the scene would be compromised is a huge red flag.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the bucks stops with her when it comes to who is blame for a deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
“I take responsibility” for what happened on September 11, Clinton said in an interview with CNN’s Elise Labott soon after arriving in Lima, Peru for a visit. The interview, one of a series given to U.S. television networks Monday night, were the first she has given about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
Clinton insisted President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are not involved in security decisions, Clinton said.
Look who’s, ahem, wearing the blue dress now?
TXUS on October 15, 2012 at 8:55 PM
Oh man...if that is the case about the drone with a camera showing up...there’s going to be some big geese cooked on this.
And if in fact there is a tape...it begs the question, why was no action taken to save the victims in there?
This goes so far beyond Watergate...this even goes beyond the fiction of Absolute Power. This is HUGE!
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who told susan rice to LIE…that is the question NO ONE has the cajones to ask her or anyone in this administration
cmsinaz on October 15, 2012 at 8:07 PM
…exactly!
KOOLAID2 on October 15, 2012 at 8:57 PM
“I think this situation has reached critical mass.”
You are right.
And, just like “Fast and Furious”, some underlings will be reassigned or resign.
No one at the top will be held accountable for the deaths of the Americans they are responsible for.
The media and Congress will guarantee that travesty of justice.
One of 0bama’s favorite tactics is to pile lies on top of more lies so that no one can figure out what the hell REALLY happened. ‘Fast & Furious’ comes to mind..
“Insisted President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are not involved in security decisions...”
Obama stated “She’s right - I couldn’t care less about their security.”
Biden, when pressed on the point laughed and shouted “That’s malarky - I didn’t even know we had an ambassador in Libya!”
I think some people’s feet are oging to have to be held to the fire by we the people on this.
Our government is playing dangerous and deadly games with enemies of our who are not ****ing around at all.
This is extremly serious, there are bastards in the white house, Mike, I mean real evil, dangerous, deadly, stupid bastards.
She's not being asked because the press doesn't want to know the answer.
“This is extremly serious, there are bastards in the white house, Mike, I mean real evil, dangerous, deadly, stupid bastards.”
I totally agree. The media made sure the white trash in the white house in the 90s skated for their crimes.
A media enabled the holocaust (see my tagline).
After Vince Foster, Whitewater, Waco, Fast & Furious, ect., It’s just not easy to really expect our government to hold itself accountable by legal due process anymore.
Unbelievable.
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