Incompetence and hubris. The muslims were supposed to love us because Obama lived in a muslim country as a boy. Yeah right.
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Murdered ambassador sent cable warning of threats on day of Benghazi attack
POSTED AT 8:41 AM ON OCTOBER 8, 2012 BY ED MORRISSEY
The State Department responded this morning by claiming that Stevens had requested a specific level of security which matched what he already had. However, Eli Lakes report from the Daily Beast today underscores just how fragile those security arrangements were. Thanks to Obama administration efforts in Libya, Stevens sent a cable the morning of the attack warning State that their support of a Libyan candidate for Prime Minister threatened to alienate the militias that protected the Benghazi consulate:
Just two days before the 9/11 anniversary attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, two leaders of the Libyan militias responsible for keeping order in the city threatened to withdraw their men.
The brinksmanship is detailed in a cable approved by Ambassador Chris Stevens and sent on the day he died in the attack, the worst assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission since the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran. The dispatch, which was marked sensitive but not classified, contained a number of other updates on the chaotic situation on the ground in post-Gaddafi Libya.
The cable, reviewed by The Daily Beast, recounts how the two militia leaders, Wissam bin Ahmed and Muhammad al-Gharabi, accused the United States of supporting Mahmoud Jibril, the head of the Libyan transitional government, to be the countrys first elected prime minister. Jibrils centrist National Forces Alliance won the popular vote in Libyan elections in July, but he lost the prime minister vote in the countrys Parliament on Sept. 12 by 94 to 92. Had he won, bin Ahmed and al-Gharabi warned they would not continue to guarantee security in Benghazi, a critical function they asserted they were currently providing, the cable reads. The man who beat Jibril, Mustafa Abushagur, lost a vote of no-confidence Sunday, throwing Libyan politics back into further uncertainty.
The threat from the militias underscores the dangers of relying on local Libyan forces for security in the run-up to the 9/11 military-style assault. The U.S. consulate in Benghazi employed a militia called the February 17 Martyrs Brigade for security of the four-building compound. In addition, there were five Americans serving as diplomatic security and a group of former special operations forces that acted as a quick reaction force on the day of the 9/11 attack. Members of the militias led by bin-Ahmed and al-Gharabi overlapped with the February 17 militia, the cable says.
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Murdered ambassador sent cable warning of threats on day of Benghazi attack
POSTED AT 8:41 AM ON OCTOBER 8, 2012 BY ED MORRISSEY
The State Department responded this morning by claiming that Stevens had requested a specific level of security which matched what he already had. However, Eli Lakes report from the Daily Beast today underscores just how fragile those security arrangements were. Thanks to Obama administration efforts in Libya, Stevens sent a cable the morning of the attack warning State that their support of a Libyan candidate for Prime Minister threatened to alienate the militias that protected the Benghazi consulate:
Just two days before the 9/11 anniversary attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, two leaders of the Libyan militias responsible for keeping order in the city threatened to withdraw their men.
The brinksmanship is detailed in a cable approved by Ambassador Chris Stevens and sent on the day he died in the attack, the worst assault on a U.S. diplomatic mission since the 1979 hostage crisis in Iran. The dispatch, which was marked sensitive but not classified, contained a number of other updates on the chaotic situation on the ground in post-Gaddafi Libya.
The cable, reviewed by The Daily Beast, recounts how the two militia leaders, Wissam bin Ahmed and Muhammad al-Gharabi, accused the United States of supporting Mahmoud Jibril, the head of the Libyan transitional government, to be the countrys first elected prime minister. Jibrils centrist National Forces Alliance won the popular vote in Libyan elections in July, but he lost the prime minister vote in the countrys Parliament on Sept. 12 by 94 to 92. Had he won, bin Ahmed and al-Gharabi warned they would not continue to guarantee security in Benghazi, a critical function they asserted they were currently providing, the cable reads. The man who beat Jibril, Mustafa Abushagur, lost a vote of no-confidence Sunday, throwing Libyan politics back into further uncertainty.
The threat from the militias underscores the dangers of relying on local Libyan forces for security in the run-up to the 9/11 military-style assault. The U.S. consulate in Benghazi employed a militia called the February 17 Martyrs Brigade for security of the four-building compound. In addition, there were five Americans serving as diplomatic security and a group of former special operations forces that acted as a quick reaction force on the day of the 9/11 attack. Members of the militias led by bin-Ahmed and al-Gharabi overlapped with the February 17 militia, the cable says.
