DRONE:
In addition to the footage from the consulate cameras, the U.S. government is also poring over video taken from an overhead U.S. surveillance drone that arrived for the final hour of the night battle at the consulate compound and nearby annex.
David Petraeus’s first year at the CIA
EXCERPT
Petraeus was well-known as a commander for fastening on “big ideas.” He has just floated to employees a new strategic plan that focuses on ways for the agency to exploit new technology more effectively.
The measure of any CIA director is operations, and Petraeus’s instincts here have reflected his military background. In Yemen, Petraeus improved coordination with the military on drone attacks and other operations. The CIA and the military (not always good partners) have shared intelligence, personnel and even hardware.
Petraeus is also said to have pushed hard in Libya, rushing case officers there to work with the opposition. Making this surge work fell to John Bennett, the head of the operations directorate. A blunt, tough officer who had planned to leave with Panetta, Bennett is said to have complained that he occasionally felt he was in a “hostile work environment.” But Bennett was able to pull officers from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere.
FLASHBACK:
http://dailycaller.com/2010/07/23/john-bennett-cia-appointment-is-a-mistake/
John Bennett CIA appointment (Director of the National Clandestine Services) is a mistake
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(no link)
Violent Anti-American Protests Across the Middle East
FOX News Channel - Friday, September 14, 2012
Show: FOX ON THE RECORD WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN
Author: Greta Van Susteren, John Bolton, Leland Vittert
EXCERPT
VAN SUSTEREN: A day of deep mourning for all of us, for four American, including our ambassador, cruelly murdered in Libya, their bodies arriving home in the United States today. President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton taking part in a somber ceremony for U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and his three colleagues.
Meanwhile, Americans are under attack across the globe, protests against the United States breaking out in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria, Sudan, and moving east to Yemen, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, Qatar, Afghanistan, Pakistan. And the protests continuing further east to India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, and even in London, where protesters burn mesh and Israeli flags. Now, this is getting worse. Today, CIA Director David Petraeus briefing member of the House Intelligence committee on this international crisis. Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger is the ranking Democrat on that committee. He joins us. Nice to see you, sir.
REP. DUTCH RUPPERSBERGER, (D) MARYLAND: Glad to be here, Greta.
VAN SUSTEREN: Let me ask you about the ambassador Stevens in Libya. Do you know if he was targeted, if they were trying to kill him? Or if he was the accidental victim — obviously a murder?
RUPPERSBERGER: There are two issues here. Number one, the actual protest started as a result of the cleric who had the film that attacked the Muslim religion, and then the protests started in Egypt. When it got into Libya, things changed. Libya and Bangladesh, where this occurred is very primitive area.
So we are not sure whether the protest went viral and whether an extremist group like Al Qaeda realized there was a protest and got their guns and weapons and took advantage of the situation, or whether it was preplanned. We haven’t determined the facts, but it could go either way as far as I’m concerned.
VAN SUSTEREN: When talking to director the CIA today, do you have a sense that we — that there is so much information, we don’t know, or is there a sense that we really know what happened and we on the path to get those people?
RUPPERSBERGER: I think number one, first priority by the way is to make sure all Americans, wherever they are, throughout the world are safe. What we are doing is making sure that we contact the heads of all countries that it is part of the international code that when you have an embassy in another country, that they provide protection.
We provide our own protection. We want to protect our Americans. That’s what we are doing. So that’s the first thing. But where we are going with this, at this point, we still have to get the facts and data. It’s been three days.
VAN SUSTEREN: There have been so rumors that the United States has some sort of tipoff or some knowledge that something was happening. Obviously, this happened on 9/11. So it has, you know, added significance for us. Was there any idea, any notification to put us on alert?
RUPPERSBERGER: It is my understanding that information was given to the embassy in Cairo about the film and that there could be a backlash as a result of that. That’s all I know at this time.
VAN SUSTEREN: Let me get back to the question. The film seems a cover for someone to go in and kill our four in Libya. It seems a pretext of some sort.
RUPPERSBERGER: Those of us in the intelligence have been dealing with Al Qaeda for at least since 9/11. And Al Qaeda will take advantage of any situation and they will take credit for many situations. But they are dangerous. They are well organized —
VAN SUSTEREN: They seemed ready for this. I mean, once the protests broke out in Egypt, if this is Al Qaeda in Libya, they were ready to move very quickly.
RUPPERSBERGER: I think they were flowered Libya. Remember, where is Libya? It’s like the Wild West was in the United States years ago. There are people who have open trucks with machine guns and weapons on them all the time. So it would be very easy for people who were — who were fighting the government at one time and Gadhafi and they would — they all have weapons. And that’s part of the concern. It’s a very young government, starting out, and there is not — their police, and they’re not trained. They are not trained to do what they need to do to protect people.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you have a sense that the killers, that let’s go in there and we will kill whoever is there, or did you get the sense, let’s kill the ambassador?
RUPPERSBERGER: I think once they realized the protest was there, that the people were sophisticated enough with the ammunition that they had, that they were going to do damage to whoever was in there. The ambassador died of smoke inhalation because of the fire.
VAN SUSTEREN: He wasn’t tortured?
RUPPERSBERGER: From my understanding, he wasn’t tortured. That’s what we know at this point. But whether or not they knew he was in there, but then we now have to look at why this occurred. Did he have body guards there? We do know that the area there was primitive. It was make-shift because the government had just been set up. This, in my opinion, would not have happened in the embassy Tripoli.
Ah did something happen in Bangladesh? Ok I know it was a misspeak. Whether she was suppose to or not, Charlene Lamb told Congress that Obama's government was aware in real time the destruction and killing in Benghazi was a terrorist attack. From this it does appear that Petraeus was in on the cover-up. WHY? And what is it they need to cover up? The answer sure is not the 'Republicans cut funding', one more big lie.
I want to know if that film maker is an American citizen. Very curious how first reports on him, call him to be not who he apparently really is. What is his real country of origin? I notice that Egypt has not been demanding his return to be prosecuted... and yet Obama's Egyptian allies have been reported to be demanding the return of that blind criminal cleric.