THREAT MATRIX 2012 #1

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2948614/posts

The Truth Behind the Benghazi Attack
The Daily Beast ^ | 10/22/2012 | Jamie Dettmer

Posted on Monday, October 22, 2012 1:56:42 PM by PhxRising

The blow-by-blow of the killing of Ambassador Stevens.

Diplomatic Security special agent David Ubben waits silently, his M-4 assault rifle at the ready as he hides deep in the dark inside the villa that serves as the United States Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Ubben’s assignment is close protection for U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, which isn’t always easy. Stevens, a former Peace Corps volunteer, likes to get out among the people in the countries where he serves, especially Libya, which he helped to liberate from Muammar Gaddafi during the war last year. But even he has started to believe that al Qaeda is gunning for him, and on this day, the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Stevens has let himself be persuaded to hold all his meetings behind the nine-foot walls and the coils of concertina wire that surround the Benghazi consulate.

That hasn’t been enough. Now groups of armed men swarm through the compound, firing their AK-47s in staccato bursts, and every so often the air shakes with the concussion of a grenade. Behind Ubben, in a specially fortified suite called a safe haven, the ambassador and another diplomat, Sean Smith, should be well protected. There is a large closet, similar to a “panic room,” with supplies of water and food to withstand a siege of hours or even days, and Ubben has radioed the four other American security men holed up in other consulate buildings that he and the ambassador and Smith are OK. This is what the safe haven and the safe room have been built for. And he is there with his M-4 at the ready. He will make sure nobody gets through the steel grilles that protect them.

#904 continued:
snip

The State Department, monitoring the phone calls from the consulate’s operations center, knew virtually from the first minutes, as Ubben, Stevens, and Smith were hiding, that the attack on the consulate was no protest gone astray. And when a major CIA outpost nearby came under attack hours later, there was little doubt about that being an operation by well-trained terrorists.
snip
What follows is a reconstruction of what happened on Sept. 11, 2012, including the first eyewitness account of that critical predawn battle at the secret CIA facility in Benghazi, where two former U.S. Navy SEALs were killed. It is a chronicle of the hunters becoming the hunted in a shadow land of jihadists and revolutionaries, and it shows that even with bin Laden gone, the fight against terrorists is far from over.
snip

The events at the consulate that night have been documented in considerable detail by State Department background briefers. There had been massive anti-American protests in Egypt tied to a provocative film reviling the Prophet Muhammad. Men had scaled the walls of the Cairo embassy unopposed, ripped down Old Glory, and raised the black flag of jihad. But as of 8:30 p.m. in Benghazi, when Ambassador Stevens escorted a Turkish diplomat to the gates of the bucolic six-acre consulate compound, everything was calm. Then at around 9:40, according to the State Department’s records, the sound of gunfire erupted, and an American diplomatic security agent looking at closed-circuit TV screens in the operations center saw armed men swarming through the compound. He hit the alarm and started shouting, “Attack! Attack!” over the loudspeaker.

More at link, but some of the ‘facts’ near the end don’t seem to jibe.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2948992/posts

GAFFNEY: The real reason behind Benghazigate Was Obama gun-walking arms to jihadists?
The Washington Times ^ | October 22, 2012 | Frank Gaffney

Posted on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 11:06:32 AM by penelopesire

President Obama’s once seemingly unstoppable march toward re-election hit what he might call “bumps in the road” in Benghazi, Libya, late on Sept. 11, 2012. It might be more accurate to describe the effect of the well-planned and -executed, military-style attack on a diplomatic facility there as the political equivalent of a devastating improvised explosive device on the myth of the unassailability of the Obama record as commander in chief. Thanks to intrepid investigative reporting — notably by Bret Baier and Catherine Herridge at Fox News, Aaron Klein at WND.com and Clare Lopez at RadicalIslam.org — and information developed by congressional investigators, the mystery is beginning to unravel with regard to what happened that night and the reason for the subsequent, clumsy official cover-up now known as Benghazigate. The evidence suggests that the Obama administration has not simply been engaging, legitimating, enriching and emboldening Islamists who have taken over or are ascendant in much of the Middle East. Starting in March 2011, when American diplomat J. Christopher Stevens was designated the liaison to the “opposition” in Libya, the Obama administration has been arming them, including jihadists like Abdelhakim Belhadj, leader of the al Qaeda franchise known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

Read more: GAFFNEY: The real reason behind Benghazigate - Washington Times http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/22/the-real-reason-behind-benghazigate/#ixzz2A8P6Tk5U Follow us: @washtimes on Twitter

(Excerpt) Read more at
http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/22/the-real-reason-behind-benghazigate/
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2949257/posts

White House told of militant claim two hours after Libya attack: emails
reuters ^

Posted on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 9:40:05 PM by Perdogg

Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show.

The emails, obtained by Reuters from government sources not connected with U.S. spy agencies or the State Department and who requested anonymity, specifically mention that the Libyan group called Ansar al-Sharia had asserted responsibility for the attacks.

(Excerpt) Read more at
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/24/us-usa-benghazi-emails-idUSBRE89N02C20121024
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2949277/posts

State Department emails from day of Libya attack show Al Qaeda-tied group on radar
Fox News ^ | 10-23-2012 | Chad Pergram

Posted on Tuesday, October 23, 2012 10:45:40 PM by sheikdetailfeather

A series of internal State Department emails obtained by Fox News shows some some of the initial assessments of last month’s deadly consulate attack in Libya, including one email within hours of the attack that noted that the group Ansar al Sharia had claimed responsibility.

Ansar al Sharia has been declared by the State Department to be a an Al Qaeda-affiliated group. A member of the group suspected of participating in the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi has been arrested and is being held in Tunisia.

The emails obtained by Fox News were sent by the State Department to a variety of national security platforms, whose addresses have been redacted, including the White House Situation Room, the Pentagon, the FBI and the Director of National Intelligence.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2949345/posts

Emails detail unfolding Benghazi attack on Sept. 11 (Obama lied to the Media and American People)
CBS ^ | 10/24/2012 | Sharyl Attkisson

Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 6:28:42 AM by tobyhill

It was six weeks ago on Tuesday that terrorists attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Now, CBS News has obtained email alerts that were put out by the State Department as the attack unfolded. Four Americans were killed in the attack, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.

These emails contain the earliest description so far of what happened at Benghazi the night of the attack.

Read the emails (PDF) Ambassador warned Libya was “volatile and violent” Why no one has been right about Libya CIA saw possible terror ties day after Libya hit: AP

At 4:05 p.m. Eastern time, on September 11, an alert from the State Department Operations Center was issued to a number government and intelligence agencies. Included were the White House Situation Room, the office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the FBI.

“US Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack” — “approximately 20 armed people fired shots; explosions have been heard as well. Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four COM (Chief of Mission/embassy) personnel are in the compound safe haven.”

At 4:54 p.m., less than an hour later, another alert: “the firing... in Benghazi...has stopped...A response team is on site attempting to locate COM (embassy) personnel.”

Then, at 6:07 p.m., State sent out another alert saying the embassy in Tripoli reported the Islamic military group “Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibilty for Benghazi Attack”... “on Facebook and Twitter and has called for an attack on Embassy Tripoli.”

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2949334/posts/

Obama’s Benghazi Investigator: An Iran Sympathizer
Front Page Magazine ^ | October 24, 2012 | Matthew Vadum

Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 4:53:41 AM by Cincinatus’ Wife

The freshly appointed chairman of a federal investigation into the Benghazi massacre is an apologist for Islamic terrorism who has a cozy relationship with Iran, the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

And to add insult to injury, at press time Tuesday evening the chairman of this new State Department panel, former Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering, was poised to participate in a panel discussion at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on “what role the faith community can play in fighting Islamophobia.”

The news comes on the heels of a new report by the Investigative Project on Terrorism that found that “scores” of known radical Islamists met with senior Obama administration officials during hundreds of visits to the White House.

Pickering’s appointment as probe chairman was announced in the Federal Register on October 4. The State Department “Accountability Review Board” headed by Pickering is tasked with examining the circumstances surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012 deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, information management officer Sean Smith, and security personnel Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

The problem is that Pickering has ties to the pro-Iran Islamist front group known as the National Iranian American Council (NIAC). NIAC lost an important defamation case in federal court last month in which it unsuccessfully argued the group was not a tool of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Pickering is a member of the advisory board of NIAC. He was Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from May 1997 through the end of 2000, according to a 2009 report titled “Rise of the Iran Lobby,” by Clare M. Lopez of the Center for Security Policy. He’s also vice chairman of international consultancy, Hills & Co., and co-chairman of the board of directors of the International Crisis Group (whose executive committee includes George Soros).

“Ambassador Pickering’s positions on Iran include calls for bilateral talks without preconditions and a plan for a multinational uranium enrichment consortium in Iran,” Lopez writes. “Iran has proposed a similar plan to the UN Security Council. Ambassador Pickering advocates a process leading to mutual diplomatic relations between Iran and the United States.”

“U.S. national security policy is being successfully targeted by Jihadist entities hostile to American interests,” she writes. One of these groups, NIAC, is involved in “a de facto partnership” with its better known but more notorious jihadist ally “the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and other organizations serving as mouthpieces for the mullahs’ party line.”

This network “includes well-known American diplomats, congressional representatives, figures from academia and the think tank world.” NIAC and its predecessor group, the American-Iranian Council, have long “functioned openly as apologists for the Iranian regime.”

CAIR is an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood and was named by the Department of Justice as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 and 2008 Holy Land Foundation trials.

The panel discussion featured Pickering, Arab American Institute president James J. Zogby, American Association for Muslim Advancement executive director Daisy Khan, and her husband, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, chairman of the Cordoba Initiative.

Khan and Rauf are prime movers behind the proposal to build a mosque near Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

Khan is known for her over-the-top attacks on those who question the wisdom of building a Muslim holy site so close to the place where nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in an Islamist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

Asked in 2010 if America was “Islamophobic,” Khan replied that “It’s not even Islamophobia, it’s beyond Islamophobia — it’s hate of Muslims,” she said.

Of course use of the word “Islamophobia” is a tool of intimidation, calculated to silence the so-called Islamophobe.

If one fears Islamist ideology as an irredentist, imperialist, totalitarian force, one is rational. “Phobia” implies that one who fears or is skeptical of the intentions of Muslims is mentally unbalanced. The term is used the same way American leftists use the word “racist” to shut down debate.

While two George Soros-funded nonprofits, the Center for American Progress and Media Matters for America, are working overtime to try to convince Americans that this make-believe mental illness of Islamophobia is a threat to American democracy and pluralism, the embattled Obama administration has been in damage control mode for weeks as the president’s foreign policy aimed at appeasing totalitarian Islamic theocrats collapses. The administration has been sucking up to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, a 57-state (56 sovereign states and the Palestinian Authority) group that considers itself the Caliphate reborn.

Americans’ civil rights and political correctness are weapons of infiltration used by our Islamofascist enemies. Just like our Soviet Communist enemies during the Cold War, Islamists are using Americans’ goodness and their sense of fair play, including an aversion to being accused of racial stereotyping, against America.

Hard data do not support claims that Islamophobia exists in the United States.

As Jonathan S. Tobin wrote in Commentary last year: “the notion of a rising wave of hatred against Muslims is unsupported by any statistical research.”

“When you consider that Muslims claim to have about the same number of adherents in this country as Jews and that anti-Jewish crimes have always far outnumbered those committed against Muslims, the media hysteria about Islamophobia is exposed as a big lie. But even if there are fewer Muslims here than their groups claim, the conclusion is unchanged.”

And there is credible evidence that Obama, who told the UN last month that “the future does not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam,” is sympathetic to Islamists’ increasingly vocal demands for Saudi-style anti-blasphemy laws.

So, apparently, is Ambassador Pickering, which makes him unfit to head any probe of what happened last month in Benghazi, Libya.

http://frontpagemag.com/2012/matthew-vadum/obamas-benghazi-investigator-an-iran-sympathizer/

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2949606/posts

WH: ‘We Decline to Comment’ on When Obama Learned of E-Mails, Met With NSC on Benghazi
CNSNews ^

Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 4:49:27 PM by Sub-Driver

WH: ‘We Decline to Comment’ on When Obama Learned of E-Mails, Met With NSC on Benghazi By Fred Lucas October 24, 2012

(CNSNews.com) - The White House is declining to say when President Barack Obama first learned of three e-mails that the State Department sent to the White House on Sept. 11, 2012, directly notifying the Executive Office of the President that the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was under attack, that U.S. Amb. Chris Stevens was at the Benghazi mission at the time of the attack, and that the group Ansar al-Sharia had taken credit for the attack.

The White House also declined to say when the president first met with the National Security Council after the Benghazi attack.

“I have been asked by one of our spokespeople to relay ‘that we decline to comment,’” said White House National Security Staff aide Debbie Bird in a written response to CNSNews.com.

CNSNews.com had asked Bird: 1) “When did the President first meet with the National Security Council after the Benghazi attack on 9/11/12?” 2) “When did White House staff first discuss the substance of the e-mails that went to the White House with the President or with the National Security Advisor?”

Carney also took a question about the e-mails today during a press gaggle held aboard Air Force One at 9:34 a.m. A reporter asked: “Jay, there are some emails that have emerged, which suggest that the White House and other areas of the government were told within hours of the Benghazi attack that an extremist group had claimed responsibility. How is that compatible with the idea that it was a spontaneous attack?”

Carney downplayed the significance of the State Department emails.

(Excerpt) Read more at
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/wh-we-decline-comment-when-obama-learned-e-mails-met-nsc-benghazi
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2949639/posts

White House Dismisses Benghazi Emails As Spam
http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/rightwing216.html ^

Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 6:11:28 PM by navysealdad

The White House pushed back against reports in Fox, CBS, Reuters and CNN that they knew immediately that the attack in Benghazi was the work of terrorists.

“There was a variety of miss information coming in,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said Wednesday on Air Force One. “The whole point of our intelligence community is to take facts and refigure them to prove our point. We assess strands of information and make judgments to make the President look good.”

“This is an open source, unclassified email about a posting on a Facebook site,” Carney said. “I would also note that within a few hours we determined it was just spam.

News outlets obtained emails from administration officials showing that a State Department report identified

(Excerpt) Read more at
http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/rightwing216.html
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2949623/posts

E-mails Show Obama Knew What Happened in Benghazi as It Happened, ...
Rush Limbaugh.com ^ | October 24, 2012 | Rush Limbaugh

Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 5:37:08 PM by Kaslin

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: It’s so devastating you can’t find it anywhere. You can’t find it outside of a little blurb on CBS. You can’t find it anywhere after Reuters publishes it. Fox has got it. I’ve got it. Fox had it last night. This whole Benghazi thing is blown wide open, and nobody’s talking about it.

Let me give you the overview of this, and then we’ll set it aside for just a second. I want to do a couple things first and we’ll come back to it. But the latest shoe to drop in the Benghazi disaster — and this, to me, is huge. It is overwhelmingly huge. This dwarfs Watergate, weapons of mass destruction, whatever. I mean, that wasn’t even a controversy or a scandal. This dwarfs Iran-Contra, about which the media spent three solid years trying to take out Ronald Reagan. The latest shoe to drop in the Benghazi disaster is the news that the State Department was e-mailing about the attack on the consulate and the terrorists who they thought were behind it within two hours, and the e-mails went to the Situation Room of the White House.

Obama knew.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2949841/posts

Obama’s Fog of War
The American Thinker ^ | October 25, 2012 | Randall Hoven

Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2012 3:15:40 AM by Cincinatus’ Wife

......How many times do we have to hear that some attack by jihadis is a reaction to something we did?

....If you buy the view that the only real enemy in the so-called War on Terror is AQ,a tiny group of crazies in the AfPak mountains who follow some nut named Osama,Obama’s policies make total sense.

(1)We should not have been in Iraq;instead,we should have gone after Osama bin Laden and AQ in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

(2)The only problem is AQ and not Saddam,the Taliban,Hamas, Hezb’allah,the Muslim Brotherhood, or anyone not explicitly in AQ.

(3)Killing Osama was all-important,since he was the leader of AQ, our only threat.

(4)We have nothing to fear from the “Arab Spring” because those Muslims are not AQ—just people who want freedom and democracy.

....In short,the “it’s all about AQ” theory was a convenient excuse to do nothing other than the occasional drone-kill or SEAL-kill of an identifiable AQ operative and then “Disneyfy” all other Muslim movements as people who yearn only for freedom and democracy—even people who killed Gaddafi by “bayonet stab to the anus”or sexually assaulted Lara Logan.

And here is how much the “it’s all about AQ” crowd wanted that worldview to be true. They claimed that killing Osama turned the corner on terrorism.

....In what universe does an increase of attacks indicate “a path of decline”? In the same universe where an attack on a U.S. embassy in a Muslim country on September 11 was motivated by a YouTubevideo that no one saw.

It was just in July that the State Department said that AQ was on “a path of decline.” By September,protesters would be flying AQ’s flag over our own embassies in Tunisia,Egypt,Kuwait,and Libya while chanting,”Obama, we are all Osama.” And four Americans...would be killed in Libya, after which CNN ran this headline:”Pro-al Qaeda group seen behind deadly Benghazi attack.”....

(Excerpt) Read more at
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/obamas_fog_of_war.html
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Also on thread:
Extremely informative article. If you are at all interested in the spread of al qaeda, (a8ded and abetted by US,) it’s a must read.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/benghazi_from_see_no_sharia_to_ansar_al-sharia.html

Link in article:

Who is Ansar al-Sharia? “AL-QAEDA IN LIBYA: A PROFILE”

http://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/LOC-AQ-Libya.pdf

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2949876/posts

Alive and Deadly - The workings of al Qaeda’s expanding franchise
The American Spectator ^ | October 25, 2012 | George H. Wittman

Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2012 6:46:25 AM by Cincinatus’ Wife

It has become accepted to use the term al Qaeda when referring to any violent Islamic grouping that appears to have a broader organizational connection. To refine that definition there has been added the recognition of at least three so-called “franchises” with a national or regional orientation: al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). All have an outreach beyond their immediate geographical area. The mistake that is made, however, is to characterize al Qaeda as the overall operational director of the movement.

The theoretical central control organization, al Qaeda, itself – with Ayman al Zawahiri as its post- bin Laden leader – is nonetheless viewed by most Western observers in a headquarters context for broad planning, propaganda, and sometime coordination among the several franchises. To a certain extent, central al Qaeda reportedly has informal elements circulating as mentors among various local popular groups......

Benghazi has been a key jihadist recruiting ground going back even before the American military presence in Afghanistan beginning October 2001. As the center of Cyrenican (eastern province of Libya) resistance against Gaddafi’s central government, local insurgent groups eventually formed into varying-sized militias with clan ties. Before that, however, the legends of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda had encouraged the growth of a development pool of Afghanistan-bound young men. This movement later evolved into several anti-Gaddafi underground nets. One of these assumed the name Ansar al Shariah, which had surfaced originally in Yemen as part of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)........

(Excerpt) Read more at
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/10/25/alive-and-deadly
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2949789/posts

This Is What Benghazi ‘Consulate’ Really Was
KleinOnline ^ | Oct. 17, 2012 | Aaron Klein

Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2012 11:10:59 PM by Dajjal

The U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, actually served as a meeting place to coordinate aid for the rebel-led insurgencies in the Middle East, according to Middle Eastern security officials.

Among the tasks performed inside the building was collaborating with Arab countries on the recruitment of fighters – including jihadists – to target Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

The distinction may help explain why there was no major public security presence at what has been described as a “consulate.” Such a presence would draw attention to the shabby, nondescript building that was allegedly used for such sensitive purposes.

[snip]

The security officials divulged the building was routinely used by Stevens and others to coordinate with the Turkish, Saudi and Qatari governments on supporting the insurgencies in the Middle East, most prominently the rebels opposing Assad’s regime in Syria.

[snip]

Stevens served as a key contact with the Saudis to coordinate the recruitment by Saudi Arabia of Islamic fighters from North Africa and Libya. The jihadists were sent to Syria via Turkey to attack Assad’s forces, said the security officials.

[snip]

In August, KleinOnline quoted a senior Syrian source claiming at least 500 hardcore mujahedeen from Afghanistan, many of whom were spearheading efforts to fight the U.S. there, were killed in clashes with Syrian forces last month.

Also last month, KleinOnline reported Jihadiya Salafia in the Gaza Strip, a group that represents al-Qaida in the coastal territory, had declared three days of mourning for its own jihadists who died in Syria in recent weeks.

[snip]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2950034/posts

The Real Reason Behind Benghazigate?
Townhall.com ^ | 10/25/2012 | Frank Gaffney

Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2012 11:42:58 AM by RoosterRedux

The evidence suggests that the Obama administration has not simply been engaging, legitimating, enriching and emboldening Islamists who have now taken over or are ascendant in much of the Middle East. Starting in March 2011, when American diplomat Christopher Stevens was designated the liaison to the “opposition” in Libya, the Obama administration has been arming them, including jihadists like Abdelhakim Belhadj, the leader of the al Qaeda franchise known as the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.

Once Qaddafi was overthrown, Chris Stevens was appointed as the ambassador to the new Libya run by Belhadj and his friends. Not surprisingly, one of the most important priorities for someone in that position would be to try to find and secure the immense amounts of armaments that had been cached by the dictator around the country and systematically looted during and after the revolution.

One of the places in Libya most awash with such weapons in the most dangerous of hands is Benghazi. It now appears that Amb. Stevens was there - on a particularly risky day, with no security to speak of and despite now-copiously-documented concerns about his own safety and that of his subordinates - for another priority mission: sending arms recovered from the former regime’s stocks to the “opposition” in Syria. As in Libya, the insurgents are known to include al Qaeda and other shariah-supremacist groups, including none other than Abdelhakim Belhadj.

(Excerpt) Read more at
http://townhall.com/columnists/frankgaffney/2012/10/25/the_real_reason_behind_benghazigate
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Gunrunning. Now where have we seen that before?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2950443/posts?q=1&;page=1#1

(CNN) Panetta on Benghazi attack: ‘Could not put forces at risk’
CNN ^ | October 26, 2012 | Chris Lawrence

Posted on Friday, October 26, 2012 7:20:01 AM by maggief

The U.S. military did not get involved during the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, last month because officials did not have enough information about what was going on before the attack was over, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said Thursday.

At a Pentagon news briefing, Panetta said there was no “real-time information” to be able to act on, even though the U.S. military was prepared to do so.

“You don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on,” Panetta said. “(We) felt we could not put forces at risk in that situation.”

A defense official provided more context on Panetta’s comments about the decision-making involved in not sending U.S. troops to the consulate being attacked in Benghazi.

He said there was a drone aloft but not directly over the area at the time the attack began.

He said the drone was redirected and arrived in time to record some of the attack. But he described what the drone saw as “looking down, seeing a bunch of buildings and fires, a lot of chaos on the ground.”

He said it was not enough to discern exactly what was happening.

“We didn’t have good eyes on the situation. There were security forces there on the ground, but they’re in the middle of a firefight - not sending a Sitrep (Situational Report).

(Excerpt) Read more at

(CNN) Panetta on Benghazi attack: ‘Could not put forces at risk’
CNN ^ | October 26, 2012 | Chris Lawrence

Posted on Friday, October 26, 2012 7:20:01 AM by maggief

At a Pentagon news briefing, Panetta said there was no “real-time information” to be able to act on, even though the U.S. military was prepared to do so.

“You don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on,” Panetta said. “(We) felt we could not put forces at risk in that situation.”

A defense official provided more context on Panetta’s comments about the decision-making involved in not sending U.S. troops to the consulate being attacked in Benghazi.

He said there was a drone aloft but not directly over the area at the time the attack began.

He said it was not enough to discern exactly what was happening.

“We didn’t have good eyes on the situation. There were security forces there on the ground, but they’re in the middle of a firefight - not sending a Sitrep (Situational Report).

(Excerpt) Read more at

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/26/panetta-on-benghazi-attack-could-not-put-forces-at-risk/
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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/26/cia-operators-were-denied-request-for-help-during-benghazi-attack-sources-say/

EXCERPT:
EXCLUSIVE: CIA operators were denied request for help during Benghazi attack, sources say

Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. Consulate and subsequent attack several hours later was denied by officials in the CIA chain of command — who also told the CIA operators twice to “stand down” rather than help the ambassador’s team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.

Former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were part of a small team who were at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. Consulate where Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When they heard the shots fired, they radioed to inform their higher-ups to tell them what they were hearing and requested permission to go to the consulate and help out. They were told to “stand down,” according to sources familiar with the exchange. An hour later, they called again to headquarters and were again told to “stand down.”

Woods, Doherty and at least two others ignored those orders and made their way to the Consulate which at that point was on fire. Shots were exchanged. The quick reaction force from the CIA annex evacuated those who remained at the Consulate and Sean Smith, who had been killed in the initial attack. They could not find the ambassador and returned to the CIA annex at about midnight.

At that point, they called again for military support and help because they were taking fire at the CIA safe house, or annex. The request was denied. There were no communications problems at the annex, according those present at the compound. The team was in constant radio contact with their headquarters. In fact, at least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortars were fired at the CIA compound. The security officer had a laser on the target that was firing and repeatedly requested back-up support from a Specter gunship, which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations forces to provide support to Special Operations teams on the ground involved in intense firefights. The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours — enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators.

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