John “TIG” Tiegen
12 DAYS OF BENGHAZI:
DAY 5
By the summer of 2012, Benghazi was trying to look like a city moving toward democracy.
Libya was having its first national election in more than 40 years on July 7, and on paper that looked like progress. But what was happening on the ground told a different story. Election offices were being stormed, ballot material were being destroyed, even a helicopter carrying election materials was shot at and one election worker was killed. Public offices and security facilities were being attacked, and police, military officers and judges were being targeted.
That was the environment Benghazi was operating in. I would say the Armed groups had the influence, the government didn’t. Militias could challenge police and security forces. People were be kidnapped in the middle of the city and nobody seemed to know who had them or where they were.
On July 31, 7 members of an Iranian Red Crescent delegation was kidnapped in Benghazi while returning to their hotel after meeting with the Libyan Red Crescent. That is what the public record says. They were “humanitarian workers” invited into Libya and were grabbed by armed men at around 1 a.m.
What I remember hearing at the time was that there were questions about whether those guys were really just humanitarian workers or whether some of them had connections to Iranian intelligence or security services. I have never seen it publicly confirmed.
There was also a large shootout while I was there between what I remember was a militia and the police over impounded vehicles.
But here is another part people miss when they hear all of this.
Most of the regular Libyans I dealt with were still polite, respectful and grateful. Benghazi being dangerous did not mean every Libyan walking down the street hated Americans. That wasn’t my experience.
Hell, sometimes the problem was us. We had one female case officer who just would not listen to us and seemed determined to be Jason Bourne everywhere she went. There were several times we had to step in and de-escalate situations in hotels and restaurants because she had pushed something farther than it needed to go.
That was part of operating there too. You had to understand the culture, read the room, know when something was actually a threat and know when somebody was creating a problem that didn’t need to exist.
So when I talk about Benghazi becoming more dangerous, understand what I mean. The average person on the street wasn’t necessarily the threat. The problem was that government control was weak, armed groups had power, extremist activity was growing, officials and security personnel were being targeted, and nobody really seemed capable of controlling all of it.
Benghazi was changing right in front of us.
And we were getting closer to September 11.
