Yahoo.com : US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens killed in consulate attack in Benghazi

[Thiebear]

I brought this up in a couple days based on international investigative reporting.
It's always the coverup vs admitted bad communication and embassy mgmt.

[visionary]

Annoying as hell when representatives surround some good questions with political bull****.

[thebluefood]

Here's the Post's recap of today's hearing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z1

The State Department acknowledged Wednesday that it rejected appeals for more security at its diplomatic posts in Libya in the months before a fatal terrorist attack in Benghazi as Republicans suggested that lapses contributed to the deaths of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.

Republicans also tried to use a congressional hearing to blow holes in the Obama administration’s public explanations for what happened in Benghazi on Sept. 11, accusing the White House of playing down the possibility that the attack was a successful al-Qaeda assault.

[zoony]

This keeps getting worse for the Obama Administration. As usual, everyone involved plays the duck and run game rather than meeting it head on. Pensions are at stake.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Politicians lying and covering things up? No way! Who ever would have thought.

[visionary]

Here's the Post's recap of today's hearing.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...y.html?hpid=z1

I still can't get over how stupid the statement Rice made was.
Kennedy said that he would have made the same statement based on the intelligence.
Either he is full of ****, or whoever was giving them that intelligence is an incompetant buffoon.
Even assuming he's right, It makes me wonder if Rice or Kennedy for that matter have a mind of their own or just say whatever they're told to regardless of how ridiculous or nonsensical it is.

[thebluefood]

A few things I took away from the article:
-Congressmen are petty. Not that I didn't already know that, but it was confirmed by the rhetoric seen from both Democrats and Republicans
-The right-wing pundits were right. The movie was nothing more than a convenient excuse.
-Obviously, the State Department knew there was trouble in River City and didn't do anything to keep our soldiers, as well as one of our most vital ambassadors, safe. I want to know exactly how much President Obama knew. It looks like Clinton is going to talk on Friday, so that should be interesting.
-Republicans will surely feel smug about this tomorrow, but this part stuck out to me.

Democrats on the committee defended the administration, saying Republicans had voted to cut some of the very funding for security that they suggest was lacking in Libya. The Democrats also accused the Republicans of running a secretive and overly partisan investigation leading up to the hearing.

Gonna have to check that out.

[twa]

While you are checking, check out what they are spending it on instead of basic security there.

[visionary]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...632,full.story

Libya guards speak out on attack that killed U.S. ambassador

Face down on a roof inside the besieged American diplomatic compound, gunfire and flames crackling around them, the two young Libyan guards watched as several bearded men crept toward the ambassador's residence with semiautomatic weapons and grenades strapped to their chests.

"We are finished," one of the guards says he remembers thinking.

Both are veterans of the ragtag revolutionary forces that toppled Moammar Kadafi. Over the last year, while assigned by their militia to help protect the U.S. mission in Benghazi, the pair had been drilled by American security personnel in using their weapons, securing entrances, climbing walls and waging hand-to-hand combat.

They were the "quick reaction force" for a compound that was also protected by about five armed Americans and five Libyan civilians hired through a British firm and equipped only with electric batons and handcuffs.

But nothing, they say, had prepared them for this. They had practiced for an attack by 10 or 15 people; now there were scores of professional-looking militants who moved methodically and used well-practiced hand signals. To make matters worse on the night of Sept. 11, instead of four militiamen who were supposed to be on guard, there were only two inside the compound.

The militiamen say they initially fought back, but when one attacker lobbed a grenade into their bungalow near the compound's entrance, they fled to the roof without their radios and with only one magazine of ammunition between them. The American security officers were nowhere in sight.

As the raid continued — eventually killing Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and another American inside the facility, and two other Americans at a separate location hours later — the two Libyans say that they survived by lying on the roof silently for about an hour, too stunned, scared and overmatched to fight back.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...2a7_story.html

Letting us in on a secret

When House Republicans called a hearing in the middle of their long recess, you knew it would be something big, and indeed it was: They accidentally blew the CIA’s cover.

The purpose of Wednesday’s hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee was to examine security lapses that led to the killing in Benghazi last month of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others. But in doing so, the lawmakers reminded us why “congressional intelligence” is an oxymoron.

Through their outbursts, cryptic language and boneheaded questioning of State Department officials, the committee members left little doubt that one of the two compounds at which the Americans were killed, described by the administration as a “consulate” and a nearby “annex,” was a CIA base. They did this, helpfully, in a televised public hearing.

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was the first to unmask the spooks. “Point of order! Point of order!” he called out as a State Department security official, seated in front of an aerial photo of the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, described the chaotic night of the attack. “We’re getting into classified issues that deal with sources and methods that would be totally inappropriate in an open forum such as this.”

I think I heard this claim about it maybe being a CIA base a few days ago or earlier.
Actually it might have been weeks ago.

[DjTj]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...632,full.story

That makes it sound like a huge attack - not just a few terrorists but an entire trained militia.

That is also consistent with Nordstrom's statement, cited in the Washington Post article.

But in his written statement, he acknowledged that the “ferocity and intensity of the attack was nothing that we had seen in Libya, or that I had seen in my time in the Diplomatic Security Service. Having an extra foot of wall, or an extra-half dozen guards or agents would not have enabled us to respond to that kind of assault.”

This was a carefully planned military assault. Somehow, the phrase "terrorist attack" doesn't seem to really capture the scale of it.

[Thiebear]

Yemen Embassy official killed 1 month later?
Any Chance we can get back to firing Hillary like I asked on Day 3 I think it was about the lack of security and the non-chalant manner in which we seem to be protecting the people that have volunteered enough already just by being there for us?

How many have to die before we fix a problem we know exists as the people over there couldn't care less who denied what memorandum in February.
It's now October 11th and we are not doing well.

just incase anyone is confused as to why i asked immediately and again:

http://www.state.gov/secretary/115194.htm
The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President’s chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department and the Foreign Service of the United States.

Created in 1789 by the Congress as the successor to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of State is the senior executive Department of the U.S. Government. The Secretary of State’s duties relating to foreign affairs have not changed significantly since then, but they have become far more complex as international commitments multiplied. These duties -- the activities and responsibilities of the State Department -- include the following:

Advises the President on the appointment of U.S. ambassadors, ministers, consuls, and other diplomatic representatives;

Advises the President regarding the acceptance, recall, and dismissal of the representatives of foreign governments;

Personally participates in or directs U.S. representatives to international conferences, organizations, and agencies;

Negotiates, interprets, and terminates treaties and agreements;

Ensures the protection of the U.S. Government to American citizens, property, and interests in foreign countries;

Supervises the administration of U.S. immigration laws abroad;

Provides information to American citizens regarding the political, economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian conditions in foreign countries;

Informs the Congress and American citizens on the conduct of U.S. foreign relations;

Promotes beneficial economic intercourse between the United States and other countries;

Administers the Department of State;

Supervises the Foreign Service of the United States.

1. Basic building security not even up to par with a normal building let alone a basic buildout of an Embassy.
2. Security personnel denied several times leading up to a massacre
3. Cover-up by the Secretary of State during the review ... (This topic knew day 1 on Page1 in this topic by all.)
3a. The Ambassador was taken and horribly treated in life and death before given back.
3b. CNN found evidence 3 days later (Still great security at the Embassy) and had to break the story everyone knew...
4. Another Embassy official in Yemen killed one month to the day of the last killing.

Someone has to pay for the Gross mismanagement of this and She is charged with the duties...

[visionary]

http://www.bnowire.com/inbox/?id=1172

Retired U.S. Ambassador Laurence Pope appointed Chargé d’ Affairs to Libya

STATEMENT BY VICTORIA NULAND, SPOKESPERSON
U.S. Chargé d’ Affairs to Libya

Laurence Pope has arrived in Tripoli as U.S. Chargé d’ Affairs to Libya. Mr. Pope’s selection as Chargé d’ Affairs emphasizes the commitment of the United States to the relationship between our two countries and to the people of Libya as they move forward in their transition to a democratic government. We will continue to assist as Libya builds democratic institutions and broad respect for the rule of law - the goals that Ambassador Stevens worked hard to achieve.

[visionary]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-con...be-138175.html

Cummings rips Issa over Libya probe

The firestorm over this week's House hearing on the Benghazi attacks stretched into a second day, with a top Democrat ripping House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa for staging an “absurd spectacle.”

In a letter to Issa Thursday, Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings criticized the California Republican’s handling of the probe into the September attacks that killed Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three diplomatic aides.

Specifically, Cummings complained that no classified briefing was held for lawmakers on the Oversight panel – giving them no guidance as to what information was classified and what was not. He also repeated an accusation that Issa withheld key documents from Democrats on the panel before Wednesday’s hearing – which Cummings called “premature, counter-productive and potentially damaging.”

“I have grave concerns about the way [Wednesday’s] hearing devolved into a disorganized, partisan, and absurd spectacle when it should have been a serious and responsible investigation of the attack in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans,” Cummings wrote to Issa.

[visionary]

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-...se-138206.html

Romney hits Obama administration on Libya response

Mitt Romney had some harsh words for President Barack Obama's response to the terrorist attacks in Benghazi Thursday night in Asheville, N.C.

Speaking before more than 7,000 people, Romney attacked the Obama administration's reaction as another example of how he "fail[s] to grasp the seriousness of the challenges that we face here in America."

"They said this, and I quote, 'The entire reason this has become the political topic it is is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan,'" Romney recounted, to which the crowd booed. "No, President Obama, it's an issue because this is the first time in 33 years that a United States ambassador has been assassinated. Mr. President, this is an issue because we were attacked successfully by terrorists on the anniversary of 9-11. President Obama, this is an issue because Americans wonder why it was it took so long for you and your administration to admit this was a terrorist attack."

He followed up by telling the crowd that "this is a very serious issue. These are very serious questions the American people deserve serious answers and I hope they come soon."

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/...te-138203.html

Krauthammer: 'Nobody died in Watergate'

Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer on Thursday said that much like the Watergate scandal, the Benghazi attack fallout is going to be “about who knew up high and when,” adding, “I’ll remind you that nobody died in Watergate.”

The conservative columnist said that the “ultimate question” about the violence in Libya is who told U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to say the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi came after a protest related to an anti-Islam film trailer. Krauthammer then likened the situation to the Watergate scandal.

And this isn’t the first time the violence in Libya has been compared to the infamous scandal that brought down Nixon.

“Richard Nixon was forced out of office because he lied and because he covered some stuff up,” former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said on Sept. 28 on Fox News. “ I’m going to be blunt and tell you this — nobody died in Watergate. We have some people who are dead because of this. There are some questions to be answered and Americans ought to demand to get answers and it doesn’t matter what the politics are.”

I don't think the administration did anything illegal here....

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/13/wo...eid=auto&_r=1&

Cables Show Requests to State Dept. for Security in Libya Were Focused on Tripoli

In the weeks leading up to the attack last month on the American diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, diplomats on the ground sounded increasingly urgent alarms. In a stream of diplomatic cables, embassy security officers warned their superiors at the State Department of a worsening threat from Islamic extremists, and requested that the teams of military personnel and State Department security guards who were already on duty be kept in service.

The requests were denied, but they were largely focused on extending the tours of security guards at the American Embassy in Tripoli — not at the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, 400 miles away. And State Department officials testified this week during a hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that extending the tour of additional guards — a 16-member military security team — through mid-September would not have changed the bloody outcome because it was based in Tripoli, not Benghazi.

The handling of these requests has now been caught up in a sharply partisan debate over whether the Obama administration underestimated the terrorist threat in Libya. In a debate with Representative Paul D. Ryan on Thursday night, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said White House officials were not told about requests for any additional security. “We weren’t told they wanted more security again,” Mr. Biden said.