Posted on 09/15/2012 8:52:28 PM PDT by barryobi
The US consulate in Benghazi, where the US ambassador to Libya died in an attack on Tuesday, was not given the standard security contract offered to many American diplomatic missions in the Middle East, private military contractors have told the BBC.
The consulate's walls were breached in just 15 minutes, guards were outgunned and overwhelmed and four US personnel were killed, including the Ambassador, J Christopher Stevens.
US embassies and consulates in areas of the world where they are deemed liable to attack are usually offered a formal security contract called a Worldwide Protective Services Agreement, known in the industry as a 'Wips'.
The contract, or so-called tasking order, is between the US state department and any one of several major private military contractors such as DynCorp International and Aegis Defence Services.
This was a well-crafted military operation: the attackers would have carried out at least two weeks of surveillance" ”
Under this agreement, extensive security precautions are put in place, including low-profile armoured vehicles, run-flat tyres, sufficient weapons, ammunition and trained personnel, as well as a tried and tested command and control system.
But sources have told the BBC that on the advice of a US diplomatic regional security officer, the mission in Benghazi was not given the full contract despite lobbying by private contractors.
Instead, the US consulate was guarded externally by a force of local Libyan militia, many of whom reportedly put down their weapons and fled once the mission came under concerted attack.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
The path leads straight to HRC and her naive belief that the Libyans would never hurt those who had freed them from Gaddafi.
Total incompetence.......
All American diplomatic missions in Islamic countries do not have enough security. Huge flash mobs with core terrorists determined to kill are difficult to repulse. It would take a lot of shooting with intent by Marines and contractors. The Obama administration does not have the willingness to mount a stout defense. Those two ex Seals who died in Bengazi were probably ordered not to fire. They probably died frustrated and astonished.
Ping
Official: No Marines in Libya at time of Benghazi attack
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2931631/posts
Obama failed, ambassador died.
One of the exSEALs was on security detail. The other was with a group of contractors elsewhere in Libya. He and his cohorts were a part of the rescuers. I have been waiting to find out if he and the rescuers were armed. They were in Libya destroying weapons.
Not really.. This is ‘Fast & Furious II’ resulting in attacking a private film maker in America and freedom of speech in America. Also and perhaps the bigger motive being to GET EVERYONE’S ATTENTION OFF THE ROTTEN ECONOMY AND TO CHANGE THE TOPIC OF THE UPCOMING DEBATES AWAY FROM THE ECONOMY.
Yes they were armed, but when the consulate staff called Tripoli in a panic during the attack, the best Tripoli could do was round up SEVEN private security contractors, one of which was killed as you mention.
Obama outsourced security for the US consulate in Benghazi and Americans died.
No kidding, how did they ever figure that out?
I think we need to supply these middle east embassies with Mini-guns
Do you know EXACTLY how many Libyan security personnel were guarding the perimeter on the night of the attack??? In the beginning, Obama and his minions claimed it was around 30. It was actually EIGHT!!
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/13/168415/no-protest-before-benghazi-attack.html
A Libyan security guard who said he was at the U.S. consulate here when it was attacked Tuesday night has provided new evidence that the assault on the compound that left four Americans dead, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, was a planned attack by armed Islamists and not the outgrowth of a protest over an online video that mocks Islam and its founder, the Prophet Muhammad.
The guard, interviewed Thursday in the hospital where he is being treated for five shrapnel wounds in one leg and two bullet wounds in the other, said that the consulate area was quiet – “there wasn’t a single ant outside,” he said – until about 9:35 p.m., when as many as 125 armed men descended on the compound from all directions.
The guard, who said he’d been hired seven months ago by a British company to protect the compound, said the first explosion knocked him to the ground, and he was unable to fire his weapon. Four other contracted guards and three members of Libya’s 17th of February Brigade, a group formed during the first days of the anti-Gadhafi uprising and now considered part of Libya’s military, were protecting the outside perimeter of the compound.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/09/13/168415/no-protest-before-benghazi-attack.html#storylink=cpy
How embarrassing to have such a worthless press that we must read foreign papers to know what is true! When the Leftist rag, NYT, put stories of the Middle East attacks on Page 4, you know they can never be trusted to be the “paper of record.” Those days are over.
What weapons were used to breach? What devices? HOW did Ambassador Stevens suffocate?
Where’s the footage?
Where’s the celebratory footage of the abuse of the corpse? You’d think the muslim world would be slobbering all over themselves.
When you find more info on how many attackers died, please post. I think I read earlier that 8 attackers were killed, but that number seems very low. Mercenaries such as those contractors do not kill only eight unless only eight were attacking. I guess I can understand the number of real casualties getting out, but I always want to know everything. (maybe you posted that article. I can’t remember after reading so much today and watching college football all afternoon.)
That should have said “the number of casualties Not getting out . . .”
JULY 2012 : () Officials in Nairobi reported on Monday that two Iranian terrorists who were arrested in Kenya last week were planning to attack Israeli, American, British and Saudi targets in the country.
According to the officials, 15 kg of RDX-type explosives, designed to carry out powerful terrorist attacks, were found to be in the possession of the terrorists.
The suspects denied the charges against them, the officials said. One of them said, “We are asking the court to let us go because we are innocent.”
The Prime Minister’s Office said in response to the report that “Iranian terrorism knows no borders.” The PMO’s statement added, “After Iran sent its men to assassinate the Saudi ambassador on U.S. soil and carry out attacks in Azerbaijan, Bangkok, Tbilisi and New Delhi, its intention to carry out terrorist attacks on African soil has now been exposed. The international community must fight the world’s largest exporter of terror.”(Excerpt) Read more at israelnationalnews.com ...———Kenya Arrests Iranian Terrorists
Arutz Sheva ^ | 2/7/12 | Elad Benari
Bookmark.
Britain then closed down its permanent presence there that month, moving staff back to the capital Tripoli.
Pretty damning. The WP actually reported almost all of this earlier
Exactly. The delusion that some how some way it will be different NEXT TIME is a sign of insanity. Our government is rife with it.
ping
And the MSM is continually running this story /s
I assume you've read about one of those 'local police/guards" taking pictures of the compound not long before the attacks began that night?
Diplomat Killed in Libya Told Fellow Gamers: Hope I ‘Don’t Die Tonight’
On Tuesday, Sean Smith, a Foreign Service Information Management Officer assigned to the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, typed a message to the director of his online gaming guild: ”Assuming we don’t die tonight. We saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures.” The consulate was under siege, and within hours, a mob would attack, killing Smith along with three others, including the U.S. ambassador.
The list, Ping
Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list
nicmarlo~ “... On Tuesday, Sean Smith, a Foreign Service Information Management Officer assigned to the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya, typed a message to the director of his online gaming guild: ”Assuming we don’t die tonight. We saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures.” The consulate was under siege, and within hours, a mob would attack, killing Smith along with three others, including the U.S. ambassador.”
AGAIN :”We saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures.”
That says it all,.. even the ‘protectors’ knew that something was up !!
It’s gross negligence bordering on insanity not to have security beefed up at these embassies around the date of 9/11.
There need to be congressional hearings on this - pronto.
Yeah, it sure seems that way, doesn’t it?
The Obama Administration was warned three days before the 9-11 attack about the deteriorating security in Benghazi.
CNN reported:
Three days before the deadly assault on the United States consulate in Libya, a local security official says he met with American diplomats in the city and warned them about deteriorating security.
Jamal Mabrouk, a member of the February 17th Brigade, told CNN that he and a battalion commander had a meeting about the economy and security.
He said they told the diplomats that the security situation wasn’t good for international business.
“The situation is frightening, it scares us,” Mabrouk said they told the U.S. officials. He did not say how they responded.
Benghazi, Libya -The United States consulate in Benghazi, Libya was an easy target in a region flowing with heavy weapons and a history of extremist violence, top Libyan officials told Al Jazeera.
Fawzi Abd al-’Aali, the interior ministry’s representative for eastern Libya, told Al Jazeera that the American diplomats should have heeded the advice of Libyan officials and evacuated the building as soon as the protest began.
“We expected something might happen, and we thought they would evacuate the American consulate sooner, while they still had a good chance,” he said.
During the first two hours of the protest, he said, the crowd was small enough that they would probably have been able to escape. Al-’Aali said that Stevens had gravely miscalculated, and had believed the protest would soon die down.
Paul Mirengoff at Powerline reported that the Marine Corps issued a statement on Thursday confirming that prior to the September 11 murder of Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, no Marines were stationed in Libya, either at the United States mission in Benghazi or the United States embassy in Tripoli.
The Marine Corps has issued a statement regarding its involvement in the recent actions in Egypt and Libya. ..
In Libya, the Corps says that no Marines are stationed at the Embassy in Tripoli or the Consulate in Benghazi. Security in Libya, such as it existed, apparently was provided by contractors. The Rules of Engagement under which they operated are unclear.
Decisions regarding whether to have Marines at particular U.S. embassies and consulates fall to the State Department, according to the Marine Corps statement. In the case of Tripoli, the Corps says there were discussions with the State Department about establishing a detachment at the embasssy in Tripoli, a new embassy, some time in the next five years. That may seem like a long time, but for bureaucrats it is often considered ASAP.
The security contingent in Egypt proved to be adequate on the day.
According to the Marine Corps, only six of the 2,000 protesters entered the embassy grounds compound, and they were all seized and turned over to local authorities (for better or for worse).
Libya, of course, is another matter. Perhaps the State Department will follow the example of the Marines and issue a statement explaining those security arrangements and their breakdown.
Breitbart News received this via email from Marine Corps spokesman Captain Kendra Motz:
While the Marine Corps did not “issue a statement,” we did respond to queries with the following information: . . .
Regarding no Marines at the embassy/consulate in Libya:
Embassy security in Tripoli and the consulate in Benghazi fall under the Regional Security Officer with the State Department.
The villa, Poehlitz said, was probably a leased property, lacking security measures such as bulletproof windows and metal doors that prevent forced entry.
“It was relatively small,” said Poehlitz, the former regional security officer for embassies in Yemen, Colombia and Belgium. “It was obviously not designed or built to be a consulate. It lacked the normal security infrastructure.”
Most U.S. consulates and embassies have small security forces of about half a dozen people, Poehlitz said. Embassies in Egypt, Iran and Iraq have sprawling embassies with dozens of security officers, he said.
These embassies – and smaller ones in politically unstable countries – also have Marine guards, but “there’s not enough Marines to go around,” Poehlitz said.
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