AP: Benghazi consulate attack was led by 50 masked men using “military: tacticsUpdate.....

Hotair ^ | 6:36 pm on September 21, 2012 | Allahpundit

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Update: Libyan officials “absolutely convinced” attack was planned

I don’t want to inch too far out on the limb here, but I’m starting to suspect that this was preplanned.

U.S. intelligence indicates that 50 or more people, many of them masked, were responsible for the Sept. 11 assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Gun trucks provided added firepower. The attackers set up a perimeter, controlling access in and out of the compound. A first wave of attacks sent the Americans fleeing to a fallback building, where a second group of extremists beset them with precise mortar fire.

Intelligence reports were still coming in, but officials told The Associated Press that what may have initially seemed like a protest over an anti-Islam movie that had spun out of control now showed the hallmarks of a more sophisticated operation.

In a country coming off a civil war, a level of battlefield savvy does not prove the attack on the compound was planned well in advance. How much planning went into the operation and whether it could have been detected or prevented remain unanswered questions, officials said.

I’ve made this point before, but the debate we’re mired in over how “preplanned” the operation was is so stupid that it’s worth making again. Isn’t it more damning of the administration if the attack was planned in a few hours rather than a few weeks? If your consulate is smack dab in the middle of an area that’s teeming with jihadist groups that are heavily armed, battle-seasoned, and able to operate with impunity thanks to a barely functioning central government, then it’s incumbent upon the State Department to provide strong security at the consulate. You can’t rely on U.S. intelligence to detect and disrupt a plot in advance, since there are too many militias to keep close tabs on and there won’t necessarily be much “advance” time. You need armed troops prepared for the worst already in place. What did we get instead? Ask the Wall Street Journal:

U.S. officials issued alerts and ordered security precautions in neighboring Egypt ahead of protests and violence on Sept. 11, but largely overlooked the possibility of trouble at other diplomatic postings in the region.

The State Department chose to maintain only limited security in Benghazi, Libya, despite months of sporadic attacks there on U.S. and other Western missions. And while the U.S. said it would ask Libya to boost security there, it did so just once, for a one-week period in June, according to Libyan officials.

The U.S. didn’t seriously consider sending in the military during the attack. It summoned rapid-response teams of Marines only after the U.S. ambassador was dead. State Department officials said they doubted the Pentagon could have mobilized a rescue force quickly enough to make a difference during the fighting. The Pentagon waited for guidance from State, which is responsible for diplomatic security, a senior military official said…

The apparent lapses extended to firefighting equipment. Rescue attempts at the main building were thwarted in part by the absence of smoke-protection masks and fire extinguishers, said Libyan guards.

To repeat: Insofar as some sort of sophisticated attack on the consulate was foreseeable from the day the building opened, it was “preplanned” — and yet, presumably to keep a “light footprint” in the area and not antagonize local jihadists with an American “occupation” presence, Chris Stevens was left essentially defenseless. The Libyans who own the villa rented by U.S. diplomats told Reuters they were shocked to see how few precautions were taken, basically nothing beyond the kind of security cameras and barbed wire that middle-class Benghazians already use. There weren’t even concentric rings of security to defend the building if/when the outer wall was first breached.

Here’s House Armed Services Committee chair Buck McKeon tenderly noting, “You hate to think that the president would purposely mislead the American people, but it sure looks like it to me.” Exit question: Has anyone come up with a solid explanation yet for how this militia knew Stevens was at the consulate that night? He wasn’t based in Benghazi, remember; the embassy is in Tripoli. He was there temporarily, and yet somehow the local jihadis caught him at just the right moment. Amazing how they managed to put together a “spontaneous” attack on a night when Stevens just happened to be in town, huh?

About 100 attackers carried out a “coordinated assault” last week on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, intelligence sources tell Fox News, further discrediting earlier Obama administration claims that the deadly attack was a “spontaneous” outburst in response to an anti-Islam film.

Fox News’ sources say the attack came in two waves and involved rocket-propelled grenades, as well as mortar fire, and both the consulate and safe house were attacked seemingly with inside knowledge.

Libyan officials are now “absolutely convinced” the attack was preplanned, sources say, adding to recent indications that Al Qaeda was involved, specifically a former Guantanamo detainee named Sufyan Ben Qumu.

It’s as self-serving for Libyan officials to believe it was preplanned as it is for U.S. intel to believe it was spontaneous, as it slightly mitigates their failure to defend the consulate. But the facts sure are on their side. A hundred attackers, in two separate waves? Sounds like the only thing that was “spontaneous” about this was the tip they got from inside the consulate that Stevens was in the building.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Going thru the details again.....

[ballplayer]

Wonder why Obama wont answer questions of why there were no Marines at the Bengahzi Consulate for security? Remember a short Time ago Michelle Bachman and Other Congressman want the Arab Huma Abeddin investigated for advising Hillary Clinton to be Favorable to the Muslim Brotherhood.Now Read this and you will see why Obama does not want to answer any questions.
http://frontpagemag.com/2012/dgreenfield/us-relied-on-muslim-brotherhood-for-benghazi-consulate-security/

[nhwingut]

Just a bunch of rowdy friends who showed up at the embassy after a night of drinking... with rocket launchers and military garb. Nothing to see here.

PS - Did you hear that Mitt Romney overpaid taxes on purpose?

[phockthis]

sfl

[exit82]

Dear AP: Welcome to the party. We knew this by September 12th.

Now that no one can any longer defend the lying POS known as Barack Obama, or his equally complicit and deviant Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, or their tall tales of this incident, you finally reveal the truth to us.

Go pound Libyan sand.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Ernest_at_the_Beach~ “ The U.S. didn’t seriously consider sending in the military during the attack. It summoned rapid-response teams of Marines only after the U.S. ambassador was dead. “

Enough said !
That ,.. and the fact that the commander-in-chief went to bed in preparation for Letterman and Vegas for re-election fund raising.

Do you want the current commander-in-chief to receive a call about you at 3 A.M . ?
Clint Eastwood’s monologue at the Convention was right on (!)... an empty chair !

[Batman11]

So Bozo and PIAPS are responsible for the assassination of a US Ambassador and all the SRM want to discuss is Romney’s taxes! IMO, not enough bad things can happen to these people!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Looking at Google search:

Mob sets fire to US consulate in Benghazi, staffer dies********************************EXCERPT*******************************

An armed mob protesting over a film they said offended Islam, attacked the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi

The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is seen in flames during a protest by an armed group said to have been protesting a film being produced in the United States September 11, 2012.(Photo: Reuters)

An American staff member of the U.S. consulate in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi has died following fierce clashes at the compound, Libyan security sources said on Wednesday.

"One American staff member has died and a number have been injured in the clashes," Abdel-Monem Al-Hurr, spokesman for Libya's Supreme Security Committee, said, adding that he did not know the exact number of injured and could not say what the cause of death was.

An armed mob protesting over a film they said offended Islam, attacked the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi on Tuesday and set fire to the building, witnesses reported.

The attack happened on the same day as a similar group of hardliners waving black banners attacked the US embassy in Cairo and tore down the US flag, but it was not immediately clear if the two incidents were coordinated.

The protests came on the eleventh anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001, when US cities were targeted by hijacked planes.

"Demonstrators attacked the US consulate in Benghazi. They fired shots in the air before entering the building," Libya's deputy interior minister, Wanis al-Sharif Sharif, who is in charge of the country's eastern region, told AFP.

"Dozens of demonstrators attacked the consulate and set fire to it," said a Benghazi resident, who only gave his name as Omar, adding that he had seen the flames and heard shots in the vicinity.

Contacted by AFP, a US State Department official in Washington said US officials were still seeking information about the situation in Benghazi.

[jettester]

So, is it possible that we have different take on the same process (letting guns walk) to achieve a political end? In this case, letting an “Ambassador walk” (be expendable) to further a radical change in political direction?

[dalebert]

how do we know any of this is true..yesterday it was 100

[sport]

And they are probably the ones who gave the location of the safe house.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Damn....that needs it's own thread....has that been posted on FR?

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Ernest_at_the_Beach~ “ Here’s House Armed Services Committee chair Buck McKeon tenderly noting, “You hate to think that the president would purposely mislead the American people, but it sure looks like it to me.”

More than eleven days after the attack , and this administration is only now beginning to think that it might not be about “the movie” , which almost nobody has seen.

Huma Abedin Weiner ( the second in command at the State Dept.) is a trusted source of our State Dept. intelligence . Enough said .
She has a family and personal history which shows that she is well connected to(Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaida) those who attacked . We should learn from her counsel , and apologize accordingly. /s

[ballplayer]

Thats where I got it from

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

We do have a thread:

US Relied on Muslim Brotherhood for Benghazi Consulate Security

[Ozymandias Ghost]

“Isn’t it more damning of the administration if the attack was planned in a few hours rather than a few weeks?”
_________________

From a security standpoint, yes; however, what the author is missing here is the political strategy; which is primary to the administration. Lengthy planning would indicate a political strategy equivalent to a well organized terrorist group such as AQ or one of their “affiliates.”

Remember, the administration is in “damage control” mode at this point. They would rather admit a security failure at the local level than admit their entire foreign policy is a fraud. They want to be able to maintain their position that AQ has been defeated and the GWOT is over.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

more.....see #15.

[TomGuy]

Fox&Friends have been running ‘mixed messages from the White House’ stories/video this morning. They are showing that, even this morning, the various factions of The Administration are not on the same page, regarding the ME uprising.

On Friday, Obama was still blaming a noxious video that few had even seen or heard of. By this morning, F&F showed a video of HClinton finally admitting that the Libyian attacks were terrorism.

Mixed messages. Muddled messages.

Just more examples of Obama leading from behind. They tried and tried to get the events to fit their narrative. But, even with overt and obvious media help, the narrative did not fit. Facts kept trumping the desired narrative.

[Tilted Irish Kilt]

I agree !!
This needs its own headline

Read this and you will see why Obama does not want to answer any questions. See comment #2 from ballplayer

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See #15.