Benghazi failure caused Algeria hostage crisis and more to come

Algeria hostage crisis: Blood in the sand as al-Qaeda seeks a desert lair from which to strike


Bin Laden: Knew a secure base was vital. Picture: AP​

By CHRIS STEPHEN
Published on Friday 18 January 2013

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Then in September in Benghazi, to the east, they captured the US consulate, killing the ambassador, Chris Stevens, and three officials.

Put together, this is asymmetric warfare at its most challenging. Violence spread across many states, but with a single objective.

The Obama administration has faced criticism for failing to capture those who killed the ambassador, the first to be killed since 1979. But behind the scenes, Washington has been in action: suspects of the Benghazi attack have been targeted in Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey, while intelligence has been provided to the French in Mali.

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Algeria hostage crisis: Blood in the sand as al-Qaeda seeks a desert lair from which to strike - UK - Scotsman.com


Qatar intervening in northern Mali?
Mehdi Lazar 19 December 2012
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The situation in Mali illustrates how the problematic situation in the Sahel arouses considerable concern because of the weakness of states in the region and the presence of AQIM and other jihadist fighters. In addition, the war in Libya in 2011 has worsened the situation, as evidenced by the recent assassination of the US ambassador in Benghazi, Christopher Stevens. In Mali, the fragmentation of the state is not only due to intrinsic factors (Tuareg rebellion, structural weakness of the state, democratic façade, poor development) but also the direct consequence of a poorly controlled Libyan crisis.
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Qatar intervening in northern Mali? | openDemocracy


The Arab Spring Descends into Islamist Winter: Implications for U.S. Policy
By James Phillips
December 20, 2012
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The erosion of state authority has severely undermined border controls in many regions, allowing Islamic militant groups to move men, arms, and money across increasingly porous borders in failed or failing states. Libyan arms seized from the Qadhafi regime’s huge stockpiles have bolstered Islamist insurgents and terrorists in Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Tunisia. Some have turned up in Gaza in the hands of Hamas and other Islamist extremists fighting Israel.
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The September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi underscored the extent to which Islamist extremists have grown stronger, particularly in eastern Libya, a longtime bastion of Islamic fervor. The radical Islamist group that launched the attack, Ansar al-Sharia, has links to AQIM and shares its violent ideology. Ansar al-Sharia and scores of other Islamist militias have flourished in post-Qadhafi Libya because the weak central government has been unable to tame fractious militias, curb tribal clashes, or dampen rising tensions between Arabs and Berbers in the west and between Arabs and the African Toubou tribe in the south. As one Libyan lawyer put it: “We have a government that exists only on paper.”
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Arab Spring into Islamist Winter: Implications for U.S. Policy

 

I don't know that the Benghazi fiasco "caused" the Algerian situation, but it may have provided a blueprint for these types of attacks. The bigger issue is that it revealed the utter failure of our Muslim pacification policy (which was deliberately concealed from the American people prior to the election). It is now time to take off the rose colored glasses and realize that we are in a war with the terrorists.

 

US Claims Link Between Benghazi Attack and Mali ‘Powder Keg’

Sees Result of Last Year's Intervention as Excuse for More Interventions


by Jason Ditz
October 01, 2012
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Indeed, lost in all of this is that the Mali situation, with the northern half of Azawad now under the control of Ansar Dine, is itself a direct result of the 2011 US attack on Libya in the first place. The US attacks left massive weapons caches in Tripoli unguarded, looted by Tuareg mercenaries fighting in Libya. The Tuaregs returned to Mali to launch a secessionist war in Azawad, which eventually left Ansar Dine in charge.

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US Claims Link Between Benghazi Attack and Mali ?Powder Keg? -- News from Antiwar.com

 

Obama has made us look weak with his lack of doing anything to capture those responsible for the Benghazi attack. The administration's flip-flopping on the timeline of that day didn't help either. And then there's treating it like it was a normal crime scene by sending the FBI and not the CIA or the military.

 

Yes, the bengazi fiasco has shown we have no leadership in this president, or we have a true muslim supporter. For days his administration blamed it on a video. Has he called it work place violence yet? Anyway after nothing happening the terrorist know they can attack us, with nothing being done about it.

 

I tend to agree with this.

If we can't defend an Ambassador and a consulate, what can we defend.

 

Then there's the alternate theory.

Obama's been decimating al Qaeda with drone strikes. And al Qaeda terrorists noticed that the attack on the Benghazi consulate ultimately led to Republicans turning on their own president and undermining his leadership. The terrorists figured that they could count on American conservatives to continue to turn on the leader of their own country which will ultimately help them in the process.

 

And now it's breaking that one of those hostages was killed.

 

Alternative theory from an alternative universe.

 

Because conservatives won't try to undermine President Obama's leadership?