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The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia
Reports of the video were just beginning to spread on Sept. 9 when Mr. McFarland, then the officer normally in charge of politics and economics at the United States Embassy in Tripoli, had his meeting with the Benghazi militia leaders. Among them were some of the same men who had greeted Mr. Stevens when he arrived in Benghazi at the start of the revolt, including Mr. Gharabi, 39, a heavyset former Abu Salim inmate who ran a local sandwich truck before becoming the leader of the Rafallah al-Sehati. Another was Wissam bin Hamid, also 39, a slim and slightly hunched mechanic known for his skill with American cars who by then had become the leader of Libya Shield, considered one of the strongest militias in Libya.
In an interview, Mr. Gharabi said that he had known about the building rage in Egypt over the video, but that, We did not know if it was going to reach us here.
Mr. McFarland seemed most concerned about the big militia leaders. 'How do the revolutionaries feel about having relationships with Western countries? What is your opinion about the United States?' the Americans asked, according to Mr. Gharabi. It was an interrogation, he said.
We told them that we hoped that the countries which helped us during the war would now help us in development, he said. And America was at the top of the pyramid.
But Mr. Gharabi and two other Libyan militia leaders present said separately that they tried to warn Mr. McFarland. We told them, Weapons are everywhere, in every home, and there is no real control,'  Mr. Bin Hamid of Libya Shield said.
Mr. McFarland struggled to make sense of their contradictory signals. The message was, Dont come here because there is no security, but come right away because we need you,'  Mr. McFarland later told colleagues.
The militia leaders seemed unable to get their stories straight, his colleagues said, and the vague warnings amounted to a reminder of what the diplomats already knew: Post-revolutionary Benghazi was a dangerous place.
Around dusk, the Pan-Arab satellite networks began broadcasting footage of protesters breaching the walls of the American Embassy in Cairo, pulling down the American flag and running up the black banner of militant Islam. Young men around Benghazi began calling one another with the news, several said, and many learned of the video for the first time.
There is no doubt that anger over the video motivated many attackers. A Libyan journalist working for The New York Times was blocked from entering by the sentries outside, and he learned of the film from the fighters who stopped him. Other Libyan witnesses, too, said they received lectures from the attackers about the evil of the film and the virtue of defending the prophet.
