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 ...
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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