Our Opinion: Questions continue about what happened at Benghazi

News Tribune editorial

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Day by day more and more details of the September 11th attack on our consulate in Benghazi emerge. As more details are revealed, more questions arise. Consider these details, both individually, and taken together.

• Sept. 10th, the day before the attack, the original mastermind of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called on Libyans to attack Americans in revenge for the death of his chief deputy, Abu Yahya al-Libi, in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan in June. This wasn’t any unheardof terrorist who could have been making a boastful claim. This was Ayman al-Zawahiri himself. The AP reported the threat, and the attack took place the next day.

• The U. S. consulate in Benghazi had already been attacked, though unsuccessfully, which clearly should have put us on notice that it was a target.

• Indeed, the British and the Red Cross got the message after earlier attacks, and withdrew their people to safety.

• The consulate had requested additional security from our government, but they never got it.

• Now leaked e-mail messages confirm that two hours after the attack, a radical Islamist group, Ansar al-Sharia, claimed responsibility for the attack. Although it later denied it, our intelligence personnel intercepted phone calls confirming that it was bragging about the attack to another radical group, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb.

Put aside for the moment the attempts to claim that this was something other than a terrorist attack, the claims about its being spontaneous, and the reason for the attack having to do with some anti-Islamic video.

The central question remains: After so many warnings, why did we fail to protect the lives of our ambassador and the other Americans at our consulate? Just as President Obama emphasized during the debates, the most important job for any president — and commander-in-chief — is to protect the lives of Americans.

This is the question that every American should be asking. And should we entrust the safety of Americans serving us abroad to the same administration for another four years.

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connor 7 months, 3 weeks ago

Obama didn't fail to protect those men he refused to protect them.

At 8:30 pm a Turkish Ambassador left the consulate with Stevens escorting him out. There were no protestors outside at that time.

At 9:40 pm the first noise is heard of the attack. The official time for the attack is given as 10:00 PM. By 10:04 the White House situation room was notified. One of Four individuals have to acknowledge the notification (President, VP, Sec of Defense or Deputy SoD) as the National Command Authority.

At this point there were two drones above the Consulate along with an AC-130 Gunship.

The Annex building is approx. one mile away with 30 CIA agents and elements of a Libyan Militia unit hired for Consulate security. A rescue team from this annex found the first casualty Sean Smith but was unable to locate Ambassador Stevens.

At 10:45 the security team from the annex was pushed back while taking heavy fire. By 11:20 they were finally able to retake the consulate because most of the attackers had left. Then at 12:00 AM the annex begins taking heavy fire, including mortars. The ambassador turned up at a local hospital later already dead II believe. No one is sure exactly how yet.

This is when the real act of treason takes place by Obama and his administration. By 12:07 AM the State Department had sent out an email stating that an Al-Qaeda linked group had already claimed credit for the attack on the Consulate and the Annex via facebook and Twitter.

The defenders of the annex, who were taking heavy fire for over two hours, painted the mortar emplacement for support fire from the AC-130. Gave 8 digit grid coordinates for the Mortars and called for rescue/backup.

From the moment of the first notification a series of events to call up support and rescue went into effect. This has been standard and an AUTOMATIC response since 1979 and the only way the sequence can not happen is one of the above mentioned four members of the National Command Authority to give the order to stand down. PERIOD.

In other words President Obama, VP Biden, Panetta or Carter would have had to given the order to stand down personally for local assets which were in position to not engage the terrorist while American personnel were under attack. Otherwise these assets were under orders to engage automatically.

The other two Americans - Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed during the 2 hour attack on the Annex.

It is now believed that General Ham (AFRICOM Commander) was going to ignore the order to stand down and was almost immediately removed of his command before he could give the order for local assets to engage.

This is Treason of the highest order by one of Four individuals and someone needs to be held accountable.

tonto_goldberg 7 months, 3 weeks ago

You will notice that I don't use the eight letter word for your post but I have seen this version of the story in other places. You need to stop getting all your news from milblogs.That building was CIA headquarters for the region, if the thirty CIA staff one mile away were caught off guard, there is a more serious problem. Those people are supposed to know what they are doing.

Any act of treason arising from the "official" response in the situation is purely imaginary.

asb 7 months, 3 weeks ago

This teabagger fairydust is usually found under various web titles "they watched them die," or "they murdered these boys." Treason? This is sick. This is Willie Horton, Swift Boat and every other facist-funded load of manure devised over the last 40 years to make a sitting president, or candidate, look like a dangerous foriegn agent bent on destroying America. This is Glen Beck, done by professionals. This is filth spread by a mindless fly in a small town news forum, and is being repeated throughout the country. It is disgusting. Benghazi went quite wrong, the WhiteHouse has made that very clear, and we'll be quite awhile finding out what actually happened, but this contagion-as-fact sewage is the actual treason, and should be prosecuted as such.

Russ_Long 7 months, 3 weeks ago

We don't need to find out, we know what actually happened. Just like with everything, Obama will not take the blame. And this time the blood of four Americans is on his hands. You can stop with the superfluous imagery and arresting alliteration. Facts are facts. And the Obama administration, as well as the media, are trying to cover up those facts.

spelchek 7 months, 2 weeks ago

"This is filth spread by a mindless fly in a small town news forum" - Yeah, NYT, WSJ, and the Washington Post are known to spread filth. Get a grip.

asb 7 months, 2 weeks ago

What I'm describing isn't coming from any of those sources, it's coming from the PACs and other unidentified sources under the umbrella of The Tea Party. I have a grip thanks.