Quantum Windbag
Gold Member
- May 9, 2010
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The story keeps unraveling.
They still want us to believe it was spontaneous, even though there were 150 attackers in Ansar al-Shariah pick ups with mounted machine guns, rockets, and mortars. They even blocked off streets around the compound, but there is no evidence that it was a terrorist attack.
I thought this part was really interesting.
Libyan witnesses recount organized Benghazi attack
They still want us to believe it was spontaneous, even though there were 150 attackers in Ansar al-Shariah pick ups with mounted machine guns, rockets, and mortars. They even blocked off streets around the compound, but there is no evidence that it was a terrorist attack.
It began around nightfall on Sept. 11 with around 150 bearded gunmen, some wearing the Afghan-style tunics favored by Islamic militants, sealing off the streets leading to the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. They set up roadblocks with pick-up trucks mounted with heavy machine guns, according to witnesses. The trucks bore the logo of Ansar al-Shariah, a powerful local group of Islamist militants who worked with the municipal government to manage security in Benghazi, the main city in eastern Libya and birthplace of the uprising last year that ousted Moammar Gadhafi after a 42-year dictatorship.
There was no sign of a spontaneous protest against an American-made movie denigrating Islam's Prophet Muhammad. But a lawyer passing by the scene said he saw the militants gathering around 20 youths from nearby to chant against the film. Within an hour or so, the assault began, guns blazing as the militants blasted into the compound.
I thought this part was really interesting.
Yasser el-Sirri, a former Egyptian militant who runs the Islamic Observation Center in London closely tracking jihadi groups, said the attack "had nothing to do with the film but it was a coincidence that served the (militants') purpose."
He believes the ambassador was the target and the attackers may have been inspired by an al-Qaida call to avenge the death of a top Libyan jihadist on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001. But he offered no firm evidence that was the motive.
Libyan witnesses recount organized Benghazi attack