John “TIG” Tiegen @TigTiegen: 12 DAYS OF BENGHAZI [Day 5 of the 12 day series]

X.com ^ | September 5, 2026 | John “TIG” Tiegen @TigTiegen

[ransomnote]

ransomnote: The prior posts in the series are here: 

John “TIG” Tiegen @TigTiegen: 12 DAYS OF BENGHAZI [Introduction and Day 1 of the 12 day series]

John “TIG” Tiegen @TigTiegen: 12 DAYS OF BENGHAZI [Day 2 and Day 3 of the 12 day series]

John “TIG” Tiegen @TigTiegen: 12 DAYS OF BENGHAZI [Day 4 of the 12 day series]

 

John “TIG” Tiegen

 

@TigTiegen

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.

#12DaysOfBenghazi #Benghazi #13Hours #NeverForget #HonorTheFallen

 

 

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TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS:

[astounded]

Have you watched the interview with Tig on the Shawn Ryan show? It’s pretty intense.

[GingisK]

That reminds me: I need to order electrodes.

[Bookshelf]

Rarely noted: KARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency General David Petraeus. REUTERS photo

Ankara was tight-lipped concerning a reported unannounced visit to Istanbul by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director David Petraeus, while U.S. officials were little different than their Turkish counterparts in response to questions.

Petraeus arrived in Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport with his private plane, according to an exclusive report by Turkish daily newspaper Akşam. The daily said the agenda of Petraeus’s talks with Turkish officials would be the Syria crisis and the anti-terror fight.

The visit was be the second unannounced visit by the CIA chief to Turkey in last six months. In March, the United States’s top spy paid an unannounced two-day visit to Ankara to discuss the deepening instability in Syria, the joint fight against terrorism, and closer cooperation on pressing regional issues “in the coming months.” On that visit, Petraeus held separate talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Turkish counterpart, MİT chief Hakan Fidan.

Contacted by the Hürriyet Daily News, both Foreign Ministry officials and Prime Ministry officials gave identical answers: “We do not have such information.” Neither denied nor confirmed the visit.

A Turkish diplomat, speaking under customary condition of anonymity, told the Daily News that “no such meeting [with Petraeus] is on our agenda for now,” while an official from the prime minister’s office said “no such meeting is on the agenda of the prime minister, and at the moment he is planning to return to Ankara from Istanbul.” The official from the prime minister’s office noted, however, that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s time in Istanbul might be extended to night time.

Officials from the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) joined the Prime Ministry and Foreign Ministry officials, as an official from MİT neither denied nor confirmed the visit, saying: “We haven’t received information regarding such a visit.”

When approached, U.S. Embassy officials in Ankara referred Hürriyet Daily News to a public affairs officer in Washington DC who was naturally not at the office since it was weekend holiday and due to time difference between Ankara and Washington DC; and Daily News found an answer-recording machine which directed it a public affairs officer on duty. The public affairs officer on duty said: “We are not able share information due to security reasons.”

September/02/2012

[Thank You Rush]

Thanks for this....I’ll get caught up. Names and stories come to us so fast on the news, it’s hard to remember what happened really just a few short years ago...Sean Smith’s mother used to be on the news a lot - poor woman...

I read an excellent book about the guys at the Annex when they were assigned there and looking for housing and I CANNOT remember the name of it - so good....If anyone knows the one I mean, let me know...I read good books over and over...It’s what old age does for/to you - read NEW books - meet NEW people all the time...

[redinIllinois]

.

[Semper Vigilantis]

Thank you for posting these.

[Rummyfan]

Marking.

[ransomnote]

In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled John “TIG” Tiegen @TigTiegen: 12 DAYS OF BENGHAZI [Day 5 of the 12 day series], Bookshelf wrote:

Rarely noted: KARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Director of the Central Intelligence Agency General David Petraeus. REUTERS photo

Ankara was tight-lipped concerning a reported unannounced visit to Istanbul by U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director David Petraeus, while U.S. officials were little different than their Turkish counterparts in response to questions.

Petraeus arrived in Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport with his private plane, according to an exclusive report by Turkish daily newspaper Akşam. The daily said the agenda of Petraeus’s talks with Turkish officials would be the Syria crisis and the anti-terror fight.

The visit was be the second unannounced visit by the CIA chief to Turkey in last six months. In March, the United States’s top spy paid an unannounced two-day visit to Ankara to discuss the deepening instability in Syria, the joint fight against terrorism, and closer cooperation on pressing regional issues “in the coming months.” On that visit, Petraeus held separate talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Turkish counterpart, MİT chief Hakan Fidan.

Contacted by the Hürriyet Daily News, both Foreign Ministry officials and Prime Ministry officials gave identical answers: “We do not have such information.” Neither denied nor confirmed the visit.

A Turkish diplomat, speaking under customary condition of anonymity, told the Daily News that “no such meeting [with Petraeus] is on our agenda for now,” while an official from the prime minister’s office said “no such meeting is on the agenda of the prime minister, and at the moment he is planning to return to Ankara from Istanbul.” The official from the prime minister’s office noted, however, that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s time in Istanbul might be extended to night time.

Officials from the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) joined the Prime Ministry and Foreign Ministry officials, as an official from MİT neither denied nor confirmed the visit, saying: “We haven’t received information regarding such a visit.”

When approached, U.S. Embassy officials in Ankara referred Hürriyet Daily News to a public affairs officer in Washington DC who was naturally not at the office since it was weekend holiday and due to time difference between Ankara and Washington DC; and Daily News found an answer-recording machine which directed it a public affairs officer on duty. The public affairs officer on duty said: “We are not able share information due to security reasons.”

September/02/2012

Good post. Maybe this is the real 'Bob' who has never been named? 

From a prior post:

His anonmity has been protected so far. Here's an excerpt from an article about him.

“Bob” refers to the CIA Chief of Base (also called station chief or base chief) in Benghazi; official sources and congressional reports use this title or the pseudonym without releasing a real name.

Former CIA chief in Benghazi challenges ’13 Hours’ version of 2012 attacks

Written by Adam Goldman and Greg Miller

January 15, 2016

I liked your prior post about a potential name for 'Bob' (here) because of its 'hide in plain sight' cleverness, but later wondered if anyone would actually try that tactic. Patraeus makes more sense. I appreciate your insights.

 

[Honorary Serb]

Worth repeating:

Four Dead In Benghazi - Parody of CSN&Y’s ‘Ohio’ :: Jimmy Z

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvW4_sABQMk

This is one of my very favorite parodies, even though I do NOT like the original Neil Young song, which falsely blames Nixon!

“Al Qaeda and Hillary coming.....”