They were not allowed to have loaded weapons or carry live ammo because no one trusts a grunt upstairs with something that could have world changing ramifications. However it was right there in case they needed it, and would have been issued at the command of the CO if certain events happened whether or not word came down from On High is what I was told.
I was speaking to an old friend yesterday who was a former marine about this, he told me that one time a petition was circulated asking if they could be issued baseball bats instead of their weapons in these cases, also if they could fix bayonets as a deterrent.
Nope.
Marines with no ammunition? What did she think they were there for, collecting Toys for Tots?
Even Barney was allowed one bullet.
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.”
I have no doubt that what happened in Liberia happened for the same reason. No ammo and they couldn't defend anyone.
Marines who were sent in [at the last minute] were *set-up*.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/12/libya-ambassador-battle-idAFL5E8KCMYB20120912?sp=true
Washington DC = Mordor = FUBAR
Un-freakin-believable...
No..wait!
Throughout the world, United States Marines are known for their fighting ability. Everyone in the world knows that you don’t try to take on US Marines with a wet towel. To take away the ammunition from Marines in a foreign country and in a dangerous situation is to take American warriors and reduce them to nothing but targets. This Ambassador should immediately be fired. Our chairman of the joint chiefs of staff will call a Pastor about his thoughts on a movie, but he doesn’t have the guts to tell the Secretary of State that an Ambassador is an idiot? They must cut off their testicles when they make them a general.
I kept skipping over this article because I couldn’t bring myself to believe that our ambassador could be so naive and foolish.
Reminds me of my friend who was in the Army under Carter. He was supposed to guard a communications facility in Germany, during the time of the Baader/Meinhoff gang/Red Brigade era. He was issued three bullets and had to go out on a patrol of four people, if I recall. He gave the bullets to the other soldiers and he went without. While they were patrolling, a car drove up to the fence and people got out with tools and appeared to be ready to go through the fence and sabotage the communications facility. He and the other soldiers approached, and the people in the car saw them and quickly left. My friend looked at his guys and one of the soldiers immediately apologized for not firing, saying he blew it because he was just surprised and scared. Then he said, “but why didn’t you fire?” My friend had to tell him it was because his gun was empty.
A few weeks later, Reagan became president. There was never a lack of bullets again.
>:-(
Will the 50 members of Fleet Anti terrorism Security Team that are being sent to guard the consulate be allowed to have ammunition and to open fire under attack or are they being sent to be sodomized, murdered and dragged through the streets as it was done with our ambassador?
IMHO, the SoS and any ambassador who prohibits use of arms by those who are charged with the responsibility to protect life and property and those individuals are killed during discharge of their duty, the Sos and ambassador should be charged with murder or accessory to murder.
Rage Monkey needs to read this post.
I think Rage Monkey would be enraged by the fact that the GubMint just ordered 1.2 Billion rounds of hollow point .357 Sig for DHS, TSA, The Social Security Administration and the National Weather Service while leaving Marines overseas with no bullets.
(A rifle without ammo - It’s just a fancy stick.)
If true, this might be the reason the embassy had no marine protection. You can’t go into a violent mob without a loaded gun unless you are suicidal. This is more than shocking.
So what good are marines without bullets? Maybe they used the marines to serve them drinks?
Unacceptable. How many Marines would stay on the job if they were denied a weapon to defend their objective or themselves?
It would be an honorable awol for any Marine to walk away from that BS.
This doesn’t surprise me in the least and has a long history. On many deployments embassy procedures seem to be: “No guns.” My CA team was deployed to the Comoros in east Africa with no weapons.
A friend who was deployed to Liberia for civil affairs was even forbidden to carry a weapon. In Liberia. In a country where every 12 year old had an AK. The level of stupidity is mind-blowing.
You should see the pictures of the US Consulate in Benghazi. It’s just an building or an upscale house that can be easily attacked and breached. Usually US embassies and consulates are built like fortresses in that part of the world.
The DUmb Obama administration, by ignoring proper security requirements, was inviting the terrorists to attack that US consulate.
That is Obama, Hillary and our Congress fault.