Posted on 10/18/2012 8:25:30 AM PDT by Qbert
The State Department's decision to hire Blue Mountain Group to guard the ill-fated U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, entrusted security tasks to a little-known British company instead of the large firms it usually uses in overseas danger zones. The contract was largely based on expediency, U.S. officials have said, since no one knew how long the temporary mission would remain in the Libyan city. The cradle of last year's uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi's 42-year rule, Benghazi has been plagued by rising violence in recent months.
Security practices at the diplomatic compound, where Blue Mountain guards patrolled with flashlights and batons instead of guns, have come under U.S. government scrutiny in the wake of the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Federal contract data shows that the Benghazi security contract, worth up to $783,284, was listed as a "miscellaneous" award, not as part of the large master State Department contract that covers protection for overseas embassies.
"Blue Mountain was virtually unknown to the circles that studied private security contractors working for the United States, before the events in Benghazi," said Charles Tiefer, a commissioner at the Commission on Wartime Contracting, which studied U.S. contracting in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
[Snip]
Blue Mountain hired about 20 Libyan men - including some who say they had minimal training - to screen visitors and help patrol the mission at Benghazi, according to Reuters interviews.
Some of the guards sustained injuries and said they were ill-prepared to protect themselves or others when heavily armed militants last month stormed the rented villa that was serving as the mission.
They also described being hired by Blue Mountain after a casual recruiting and screening process.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
This is the man who wants to be the Commander in Chief of our U.S. Armed Forces? U.S. forces armed with what? Spitballs?only we don't even use U.S. forces in the latest RAT incarnation.
So was the strategy to blind the terrorists with the flashlights or to hypnotize them by twirling the batons?
I heard that the barbarians knew the defense plans. One guy in front fired an RPG through the front gate and the rest watched to see which way the Americans left. Then they simply followed them and carjacked them. Simple plan for unrealistic defense.
The new Obama symbol...an empty chair except for a flashlight on the seat.
I never realized that at the movie theaters when the lobby people pass through with a flashlight they are actually in training as high-level U.S. embassy guards! Who would have thought?
Instead of using Blackwater, who never lost a client, they chose a company that never had a client.
Reminds me that they prosecuted Blackwater in a similar situation, but their client survived. Lots of baddies didn’t, though.
I have seen what a skilled martial artist can do with something like a 4 or 6 cell flashlight.
However, having said that, all the flashlights in the WORLD are NO MATCH for a couple of old, beat up AK-47's.
sigh....Maybe soon we will have the adults back in charge again....
It’s mentality of our experienced dem leaders in DC. Remember when Janet Incompetano issued tasters to border guards instead of lethal weapons?
THE REGIME checked with CODE PINK and BLACKWATER was POLITICALLY INCORRECT. Wouldn’t want to get the leftists mad at them would they.
Who in their right mind comes up with such alien thinking? Ergo, is Janet an alien? Seriously, the problem is it's not funny and real Americans have been shot and at least one has died as a result of this policy.
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