Posted on 10/06/2012 5:31:44 AM PDT by IbJensen
(CNSNews.com) – It took them three weeks to get there, but an FBI team investigating a deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi finally reached the eastern Libyan city on Thursday, spending “a number of hours” there before leaving again.
Pentagon spokesman George Little told a press briefing a small military support mission had accompanied the FBI personnel, providing “logistic and security support,” including transportation, in consultation with the Libyan authorities.
He repeatedly declined to get into specifics about the mission, saying “we may need to replicate it in the future, and I wouldn’t want to tip off the wrong people.”
Little confirmed that the military and FBI personnel were in Benghazi for “a number of hours” before leaving the city where U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed during an armed assault on September 11.
Asked about the three-week delay, he deferred to the FBI and State Department – both of which, he said, “have been anxious to move this process along, to move the investigation forward.”
Pressed on the issue, Little challenged any notion that the government response has been sluggish.
“The U.S. government has been aggressively looking into precisely what happened since September the 11th,” he said. “We’ve not been sitting around waiting, you know, for information to come to us. We’ve been actively chasing leads in various ways. The intelligence community, the State Department, FBI, the full range of capabilities of this government have been used to try to determine what happened in this tragic incident.
“So, I wouldn’t read too much into time delays at this stage. The important thing is that the FBI team has been working in Libya and now has been on the ground in Benghazi.”
Asked whether the need for the security presence suggested Benghazi was too dangerous a place for Stevens to have visited in the first place, Little declined to “get into speculation of what security was like beforehand.”
Given the deaths of the four Americans, he said, “we think it’s only prudent to take measures to protect our personnel who may be investigating what happened there. That's the bottom line.”
On Tuesday two Republican lawmakers in a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton listed a string of attacks and threats in Benghazi in recent months, and claimed that the administration had turned down repeated requests from the U.S. mission in Libya for more security.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) asked Clinton to provide details of those requests, among other information.
Clinton in response pledged to work cooperatively with Congress and get to the bottom of the affair, telling reporters Wednesday “we will not rest until we answer those questions and until we track down the terrorists who killed our people.”
An Accountability Review Board (ARB) has been set up under the retired former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, to investigate. It held its first meeting Thursday.
Little said Thursday that the Pentagon – in a probe “not formally linked” to the ARB process – was carrying out its own internal assessment into its role in evaluating security in Libya in the recent past.
“It’s the responsible thing to do in a situation like this, to see if we played any role at some point in assessing the conditions on the ground in Libya,” he said.
“I would call it an internal look at anything that we may have done with respect to security in Libya,” Little added. “We announced a number of months ago that we had U.S. military service members on the ground in Libya to provide security support at the embassy in Tripoli. And we’re going to take a look at what, if any, role we had to play in assessing security there and elsewhere in the country.”
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Thursday she had no information to relay on the FBI mission in Libya.
Attorney General Eric Holder, under whose department the FBI falls, told reporters in Washington he was satisfied with progress made in the probe thus far.
“You should not assume that all that we could do or have been doing is restricted solely to Benghazi,” he said. “There are a variety of other places – in country and outside the country – where relevant things could be done and have been done.”
“This is a matter that’s been under active investigation almost since the time of the incident, and I’m satisfied with the progress that we have made,” Holder added.
The Obama administration initially insisted that the attack in Benghazi was part of a “spontaneous” demonstration by Muslims protesting an online video clip denigrating Mohammed. Later officials conceded that it was a terrorist attack, possibly linked to al-Qaeda.
The Benghazi incident occurred on the same day as protests erupted in Cairo over the Mohammed video, but also on the 11th anniversary of al-Qaeda’s attack on America. It also took place just one day after al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri issued a statement urging Libyans to avenge the killing in a U.S. drone strike last June of his Libyan-born deputy, Abu Yahya al-Libi.
Zawahiri appealed to Libyans to attack Americans, saying that al-Libi’s “blood is calling, urging and inciting you to fight and kill the Crusaders.”
Of course not. There was no security beforehand and this govenment employee knew this!
Where is the outrage from those newly elected people we sent to DC? Strangely silent on this aren't they? Everyone is so scared because they may present the dreaded race card and accidentally utter the truth. BRING IT ON PLEASE.
Lets get it over once and for all; it an't about your ethnic background; its about your stinking Marxist, Maoist, Socialist agenda and your higher than thou attitude, that you think your are above the law, and the Constitution!
With recent cutbacks, our new policy of using green energy vehicles was utilized. A sail-powered vessel was used to cross the Atlantic, and bicycles with special sand tires to travel to Benghazi. All the time the FBI utilized the Michelle recommended diet of stewed prunes, and bananas w goat milk.
I hope they taped around the crime scene with those yellow police line don’t cross ribbons before they left.
A Washington Post reporter named Birnbaum was able to get into the compound before the FBI showed up. It looks like the FIB must have been delayed while they were writing up the latest unemployment report before they caught a flight to Benghazi.
The FBI was busy trying to blame right wing militias. I expect they’ll raid some hunting group in Michigan and say they were behind the Benghazi attack.
If the FBI investigates and confirms what is already known, that will put a stake in the Obama administration and end the remaining political career of Hillary.
What do we know? Benghazi was dangerous and the State Dept did very little to protect US assets and personnel there. Team Obama has tried to say the former SEALs that were killed we’re part of the ambassadors security. They weren’t.
The idea that Obama killed bin Laden and stopped al Queda, that died when the Libya incident happened, and Team Obama wants to deny it. Obama has not stopped Islamic terrorism. He’s a foreign policy failure too.
The State Dept can keep the FBI out of Libya and will continue to use the cover that it is too dangerous to go. It is against Obama’s re-election efforts to reveal their derelictions of duty.
No, they weren’t “sitting around waiting”. Most likely, they were sitting around playing cards. drinking, carousing and so forth.
Think Columbia... strippers and hookers... and lots of drugs and booze. This is obama’s and holder’s FBI.
LLS
No, you’ve just been sitting around, dutifully, waiting for instructions.
Did your paycheck make instant deposit?
Perhaps Benghazi will prove to be Obama’s political Waterloo.
Perhaps they ought to aggressively look into precisely what happened before September 11th.
They probably booked reservations on either United or American.
Bon mots~ “ Oblamer knew exactly who/what to blame and immediately sought action... The first amendment! “
EXACTLY !!
Prepare now for an attack on the 2nd amendment
The entire Constitution is under attack
The Barbarians are not AT the gate , they are GUARDING the gate !
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