This is my synopsis of the Libyan Consulate fiasco gathered from on-line reports.
Would y’all look it over and tell me what I have wrong (or add to it)? Trying to get a handle on what is actually true, or known.
The Benghazi, Libya Consulate (with no Marine contingent or reinforced building protection) is warned on Sept. 4th that a mob protest will be held on Sept. 11th at its location. No additional Marine personnel are moved to the location from Tripoli. However, for reasons unknown, the Ambassador is on-site with 1 USAF Communications Specialist, 2 lightly armed Marines, and an undetermined number of Libyan security personnel.
The mob protest was actually a cover for a well-planned and organized assassination attempt by a team of 15-20 AQL (Al Qaeda Libya) fighters who were there to kill the Amb. in revenge for our killing an Al Qaeda leader in June.
At 10PM, AQL opened fire and attacked in two waves. A running gunfight ensues and it lasts until 2:30AM. For reasons not explained, no attempt is made to reinforce the Marines during this 4.5 hour battle. For me, that seems like mis-reporting because it does not make any sense.
The fight began when a volley of RPG is fired at the Consulate from the crowd and either those rounds set fire to the building, or the building is set on fire. After the volley, one team of AQL moves to breach the Consulate, but comes into contact with Libyan security and is supposedly repelled. During the fight, the Amb. becomes separated in the dense smoke and dies of smoke inhalation, however, for some reason the post-mortem report confirms that the Amb. was sodomized shortly before his death.
The USAF Coms. spec., and 2 Marines move to a Consulate car to link up for extraction at the safe house, but come under close small arms fire. The 2 Marines are killed on site after volunteering to form a rear guard to protect the car in its escape. The remaining USAF Coms. Spec. attempts to drive away, but is ambushed by a blocking AQL force that was waiting for him and was assuming that the Amb. was in the car.
No mention of what happened to the on-site Libyan Sec. Force, but it’s suspected that at least one of them handed the address of the safe house over to AQL.
As this is happening a 6-man ex-fil team from Tripoli is helicoptered to the safe house. Upon landing they take heavy weapons fire from a neighboring farm house.
A Marine(?) sniper moves to the roof, but is hit by an RPG round and falls to the street. One soldier is killed on the ground after landing. (That makes 6 casualties. The media refers to only 4.)
As this fight is on-going at the safe house, Libyan security forces are arranging several unarmed pick-up trucks to get the Consulate staff from the safe house to the airport, but the on-site commanding Libyan officer was told that there would be only 10 people. There were close to 37. At some point the safe house catches fire.
In the confusion, more trucks are gathered up from what has been referred to as “friendly Libyan forces” and all of the remaining staff, Marines, and the casualties are moved to the airport. One report noted 15-17 casualties at the safe house (+2 KIA), but I do not know where that came from.
Somewhere in all of this some friendly Libyans take the dead Ambassador to the hospital, but first parade his dead body around.
There has been no mention of the names (or where the bodies are) of the 2 Marines and the USAF Coms. Spec. killed at the Consulate.
It has been reported, but not confirmed, that Obama was informed that the Consulate was being attacked and he then went to sleep. He does not appear to ask about the outcome until the next morning which left him unprepared to make a statement. Romney beat him to that statement and condemned Obama. The Media at Romney’s press conference realized how badly Obama had messed up and co-ordinated their questions to put Romney in a bad light and put their story on him and not on the actual story. Obama makes a statement in the afternoon and then flies to Las Vegas for a fund raiser.
Also, on Sept. 11th, the Egyptian Embassy was breached by a mob and no effort was made by the Marines on duty to stop or remove them from the Embassy walls. As it turns out, the Marines at the Egyptian Embassy are not permitted to carry live ammo. Oops.
“U.S. Marines defending the American embassy in Egypt were not permitted by the State Department to carry live ammunition, limiting their ability to respond to attacks like those this week on the U.S. consulate in Cairo. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson “did not permit U.S. Marine guards to carry live ammunition,” according to multiple reports on U.S. Marine Corps blogs. “She neutralized any U.S. military capability that was dedicated to preserve her life and protect the US Embassy.” If true, the reports indicate that Patterson shirked her obligation to protect U.S. interests.”
Sounds pretty good to me. Mind if I barrow it? With full credit given to you of course.
Romney beat him to that statement and condemned Obama.
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Romney should have condemned the attacks but he should not have mentioned Obama in that first statement...
That made it political...
Since he is so close to maybe becoming president himself I think it would have been OK for Willard to condemn the attacks, and say what should be done immediately ...arrange for American citizens to evacuate safely..send troops to shore up security, send the Navy, call out the Marines, etc...
But by mentioning Obama he lost the opportunity to let America know how he would react in the times of emergency events...
There was time for either others blaming Obama immediately or Willard himself saying something a few days later...
His timing was bad...
I dont want to hear “its Bush’s fault”
I want to hear what the president is going to do to protect and defend our country when something like this happens...
and that we wont accept it but will fight back..
I also want to know that our Marines will be armed to the teeth like they used to be...
which probably wouold have stopped the Islamic terrorists from getting on the walls...