"[dih-sem-buhl] Show
IPA verb,dis·sem·bled, dis·sem·bling.
verb (used with object)
to give a false or misleading appearance to; conceal the truth or real nature of: to dissemble one's incompetence in business.
to put on the appearance of; feign: to dissemble innocence.
Obsolete . to let pass unnoticed; ignore."
Four Americans were brutally murdered at the US Consulate in Benghazi Libya. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was also sodomized. He is the first Ambassador to be killed since 1979. Information Officer, Sean Smith, died of smoke inhalation. Former Seals and private security contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods died during the battle at the safe house. To this day we do not know when Ambassador Stevens died, or where he was when he died, as he was left behind at the consulate after repeated efforts to locate him in the fiery fire fight failed. (See text of State Department Conference call transcript based on the live feed during the attack.) All were murdered during a terrorist attack at the United States Consulate and the in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012
Reportedly, Ansar Al Islam an affiliate of Al Qaida, waged the heavily armed attack. They are a radical The attack was waged with RPGs by more than 100 radical Islamic terrorists. During the summer of 2012 a determination was made to end Consulate protection by Seals at the Consulate. That decision was made by Charlene Lamb, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State at the State Department. United States Special Forces were replaced with a contracted out force of local private security, The February 17th Brigade, a known radical Islamic Group. The contract to this group is what prompted Eric Allen Nordstrom to say,"The Taliban is in the building" in his testimony to the Committee On Oversight & Government Reform Hearing on Security Failures when he appeared before the committee on October 10, 2012.
The consulate was under siege for 5-6 hours. The attack was waged by groups with many different group names and alliances of Radical Islamist who control western Libya. During that time frame we now know that the Department of State was watching a live feed from the Consulate from consulate security equipment and drones flying over the Consulate.
On September 12, 2012, the morning after America's Consulate in Benghazi was attacked by radical Islamic Extremists the Distortions began.
According to government
officials at the highest tier of American governance and appointees of the
Obama Administration amazingly the riots America witnessed worldwide were caused
“by an offensive YouTube.” The Obama Administration had the audacity to
repeatedly claim and maintain and imply that an out of control crowd of
distressed protesters who sacked and burned the Consulate in Benghazi were not
to blame because the YouTube was so offensive to Muslims it caused this
reaction.
Defying all logic and
reality the Obama Administration went onto repeatedly lie and robotically claim
the uproar witnessed in over 20 Islamic nations that Americans watched on TV
for days worldwide
What high ranking government officials did not report was that the YouTube was aired on Al Jazeera TV. Prompting Mullahs to give fiery speeches inflaming their followers to riot at encouraging violent demonstrations US Embassies. All of this from the "Religion of Peace." The resulting violent protest worldwide, showed Al Qaida flags being raised over our Embassies. United States Embassies throughout Islamic governed nations were burned sacked and damaged worldwide.
Recently Obama has stopped saying Al Qaida is on the run. I wager in light of the September Benghazi attacks that his handlers have indicated that line is not working for him.
There are others that claim that the two specops members of the Embassy Team(Doherty and Woods) were private contractors were CIA agents sent as part of the Ambassador's Team to Libya to buy back munitions given to insurgents in Libya during the overthrow of Gadaffi government: "He and Ambassador Stevens, as well as the two other special operators from Wind Zero, were executing a CIA and State Department mission to track not on Gaddafi's weapons, but to trace any and all weapons trafficking in the regions. Smith was the information officer at the Benghazi mission and was too close to having uncovered intelligence that pinpointed key players both inside and outside of Libya. Intelligence was shared with the CIA, which does not support the drone program, whether inside Libya, stemming from the mission to remove Gadaffi, or in other hot spots in the Middle East" This link and this link give some credence to this story line.
This link is a follow up and second part of the links above, and is must read information. Denise Simon states: "As a result the clear conclusion is President Obama as well as the Secretaries of State and Defense would rather eliminate all visible deterrents of protection and security that offend Muslim sensibilities and have in fact done so, sadly, even with the approval of the Joint Chief, General Martin Dempsey."
John Bolton former US Ambassador to the UN, in his summation at the end of this article says: "Some characterize Obama's line of argument as a cover-up, an accusation the president theatrically denied during the town hall debate. Willful and repeated misrepresentation is certainly consistent with a cover-up, but it is also consistent with a presidential ideology that is so powerful and pervasive that facts and reality that don't conform to the worldview derived from the ideology are simply rejected. Rather than facts changing the worldview, precisely the opposite happens for Obama. The discordant facts are screened from the president's consciousness and rejected.
The Obama storyline is that the "war on terror" is over, al-Qaida has been defeated, and Gaddafi's overthrow and the Arab Spring are bringing democracy to Libya. This worldview is also, coincidentally of course, very helpful to the president politically. In fact, however, the reality is quite different from Obama's ideology on all three of these points, as tragically demonstrated in Benghazi on 11 September, notwithstanding the president's stubborn unwillingness to acknowledge it.
Thus, Tuesday's debate hardly constitutes a rejection of the Romney assessment, which is solidly grounded in facts, and is being constantly reinforced as new facts come to light. Candy Crowley and her media colleagues may have taken a momentary delight in coming to Obama's side in the debate, but the American people will ultimately not be deceived. The citizen questioner in Long Island has a question that remains unanswered, and there are many more like it. And there are still three weeks until the election."
In this article from National Review Online Andrew C. McCarthy closes with: "In Benghazi we see the wages of the disease, The Pathogen was not a video. Want to know why our people were left unprotected and why mounds of intelligence foreshadowing peril were ignored? Don't look to Obama's vice president, look to Obama's policy."
We may
never really know with any conviction the truth of what transpired on that
horrible nightmare night of September the 11th in Benghazi. I am not sure what
to make of the storyline that Ambassador Stevens was to be kidnapped and traded
for the Blind Sheikh in an "October Surprise". Given the
sleaziness of the Obama Administration and his penchant for anarchy and making
his own rules as he careens along I suppose anything is possible.
The weapons issue, sounds more than
plausible. What we do know for certain is that Ambassador Stevens feared for
his life, and that when the Consulate in Libya was under assault the Obama
Administration did nothing. When they Knew factually in real time what
was happening in Benghazi THEY DID NOTHING. My question remains WHY?
“And the suggestion that anybody in my team, whether the secretary of state, our U.N. ambassador, anybody on my team would play politics or mislead when we’ve lost four of our own, governor, is offensive.”
"Admittedly, there is a risk in any course we follow other than this,
but every lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement,
and this is the specter our well meaning liberal friends refuse to face"
~ Ronald Reagan
On September 11, 2012 an attack on the United States Consulate in Libya was made by Radical Islamic Terrorist rabble who have roamed the desert in Libya since the fall of Muamar Quadaffi
Four Americans, were murdered in the attack. Ambassador Christopher Stevens first Ambassador to be killed since 1979, Information Officer, Sean Smith, along with Former Seals and private security contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
The following morning the Obama Administration announced unbelievably to the world that these men were murdered because of an obscure YouTube about the prophet Mohammad.
Ambassador Rice stated on CBS’s Face the Nation:"Based on the best information we have to date … it began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo, where, of course, as you know, there was a violent protest outside of our embassy sparked by this hateful video. But soon after that spontaneous protest began outside of our consulate in Benghazi, we believe that it looks like extremist elements, individuals, joined in that effort with heavy weapons of the sort that are, unfortunately, readily now available in Libya post-revolution. And that it spun from there into something much, much more violent. … We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned."
One month and four days later a very different true story has come to light. This was NEVER a demonstration that went horribly wrong. It was an act of War against United States Sovereign Territory in Libya.
On September the 15th, 2012 Obama and Hillary Clinton at a Ceremony for Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Tyronne Woods bodies were returned home both President Obama and Secretary of State callously lied to grieving family members and America about how these abandoned men died. What a despicable calculated affront.
For nearly a month the Obama Administration held onto their narrative about the YouTube. They repeatedly persisted in claiming that what the United States witnessed in over 20 Arab nations the demonstrations which raged at our Embassies were sparked by the obscure YouTube. I was not alone when I did not believe this. I like many Americans knew instinctively this was an act of terrorism.
Background Conference Call With Senior State Department Officials
Washington, DC
October 9, 2012
OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the
State Department call on Libya. At this time, all participants are in a
listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session.
Instructions will be given at that time. Should you require any assistance
during the call, please press *, then 0.
I’d
now like to turn the conference over to your host, [Moderator]. Please go
ahead.
MODERATOR: Hey,
everybody. Thanks for joining us on such relatively short notice, late on a
Tuesday evening. You know that since the beginning, we’ve been working with Congress
on trying to ascertain the facts and convey the facts of what happened on 9/11
in Benghazi. In the last 24 hours and in the next 24 hours, we’re going to be
engaging with Congress, and we wanted to give you a sense, in the press, of
what we’ve been telling them.
So
joining us tonight are two Senior State Department Officials, and this will be
on background, and they will be Senior State Department Official Number One,
who is [Senior State Department Official Number One]; and Senior State
Department Official Number Two, [Senior State Department Official Number Two].
So
in any case, thank you for joining us, and I’m going to hand it over to Senior
State Department Official Number One. And just a reminder before I do, again,
this is on background. Thank you.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: All right. Let me proceed. I’m going to give
you as much information as possible about the events of that night, but I am
going to start with a scene-setter.
So
let me set the stage. On April 5th, 2011, a small Department of State team
headed by Chris Stevens arrives by chartered boat in Benghazi. They set up shop
in a hotel. This is at a time when Benghazi was liberated, Quaddafi was still in
power in Tripoli, the war was going on, our Ambassador had been expelled from
Tripoli by Qaddafi, the Embassy staff had been evacuated because it was unsafe.
So Chris Stevens coming back into Benghazi – coming into Benghazi on April 5th, 2011, is the only U.S. Government people in
Libya at this time.
They
set up shop in a hotel, as I mentioned. A few weeks later in June, a bomb
explodes in the parking lot in front of the hotel. The group in Benghazi makes
a decision to move to a new location. They move to a couple of places, and by
August they settle on a large compound which is where the actual activity on
9/11 took place. So they’re in a large compound, where they remain.
The
compound is roughly 300 yards long – that’s three football fields long – and a
hundred yards wide. We need that much room to provide the best possible setback
against car bombs. Over the next few months, physical security at the compound
is strengthened. The outer wall is upgraded, its height is increased to nine
feet.It is topped by three feet of barbed wire and concertina wire all around
the huge property. External lighting is increased. Jersey barriers, which are
big concrete blocks, are installed outside and inside the gate. Steel drop bars
are added at the gates to control vehicle access and to provide some anti-ram
protection. The buildings on the compound itself were strengthened.
The
compound has four buildings on it, and you guys are going to have to get used
to this, because I refer them to – as Building C, Building B, Tactical
Operations Center, and a barracks. So Building C is a building that is
essentially a large residence. It has numerous bedrooms and it is – it has a
safe haven installed in it, and I’ll talk more about that in a minute. Building
C ultimately is the building that the Ambassador was in, so keep that in your
heads.
Building
B is another residence on the compound. It has bedrooms and it has a cantina.
That’s where the folks dine. The Tactical Operations Center, which is just
across the way from Building B, has offices and a bedroom. That’s where the
security officers had their main setup, that’s where the security cameras are,
a lot of the phones – it’s basically their operations center. So I’ll call it
the TOC from now on.
And
then there was a barracks. The barracks is a small house by the front gate, the
main gate of the compound. In that barracks is a Libyan security force which
I’ll describe in a minute. Security on the compound consists of five Diplomatic
Security special agents and four members of the Libyan Government security
force, which I will henceforth call the 17th February Brigade. It is a militia, a friendly
militia, which has basically been deputized by the Libyan Government to serve
as our security, our host government security. In addition to all those, there
is an additional security force at another U.S. compound two kilometers away.
It serves as a rapid reaction force, a quick reaction security team – a quick
reaction security team, okay?
Now
we’re on the day of, and before I go into this discussion of the day of the
events of 9/11, I’m going to be – I want to be clear to you all. I am giving
you this – you my best shot on this one. I am giving you what I know. I am
giving it to you in as much granularity as I possibly can. This is still,
however, under investigation. There are other facts to be known, but I think
I’m going to be able to give you quite a lot, as far as I know it. I have
talked to the – to almost all the agents that were involved, as well as other
people.
Okay.
The Ambassador has arrived in Benghazi on the 10th of September. He does meetings both on
the compound and off the compound on that day, spends the night. The next day
is 9/11. He has all his – because it is 9/11, out of prudence, he has all his
meetings on the compound. He receives a succession of visitors during the day.
About
7:30 in the evening, he has his last meeting. It is with a Turkish diplomat.
And at – when the meeting is over, at 8:30 – he has all these meetings, by the
way, in what I call Building C – when the meeting is over, he escorts the
Turkish diplomat to the main gate. There is an agent there with them. They say
goodbye. They’re out in a street in front of the compound. Everything is calm
at 8:30 p.m. There’s nothing unusual. There has been nothing unusual during the
day at all outside.
After
he sees the Turkish diplomat off, the Ambassador returns to Building C, where
the information management officer – his name is Sean Smith, and who is one of
the victims – the information management officer – I’ll just call him Sean from
now on, on this call – and four other – four Diplomatic Security agents are all
at Building C. One Diplomatic Security agent is in the TOC, the Tactical
Operations Center. All of these agents have their side arms.
A
few minutes later – we’re talking about 9 o’clock at night – the Ambassador
retires to his room, the others are still at Building C, and the one agent in
the TOC. At 9:40 p.m., the agent in the TOC and the agents in Building C hear
loud noises coming from the front gate. They also hear gunfire and an explosion.
The agent in the TOC looks at his cameras – these are cameras that have
pictures of the perimeter – and the camera on the main gate reveals a large
number of people – a large number of men, armed men, flowing into the compound.
One special agent immediately goes to get the Ambassador in his bedroom and
gets Sean, and the three of them enter the safe haven inside the building.
And
I should break for a second and describe what a safe haven is. A safe haven is
a fortified area within a building. This particular safe haven has a very heavy
metal grill on it with several locks on it. It essentially divides the one –
the single floor of that building in half, and half the floor is the safe
haven, the bedroom half. Also in the safe haven is a central sort of closet
area where people can take refuge where there are no windows around. In that
safe haven are medical supplies, water, and such things. All the windows to
that area of the building have all been grilled. A couple of them have grills
that can be open from the inside so people inside can get out, but they can’t
be – obviously can’t be opened from the outside.
The
agent with the Ambassador in the safe haven has – in addition to his side arm,
has his long gun, or I should say – it’s an M4 submachine gun, standard issue.
The other agents who have heard the noise in the – at the front gate run to
Building B or the TOC – they run to both, two of them to Building B, one to the
TOC – to get their long guns and other kit. By kit, I mean body armor, a
helmet, additional munitions, that sort of thing.
They
turn around immediately and head back – or the two of them, from Building B,
turn around immediately with their kit and head back to Villa C, where the
Ambassador and his colleagues are. They encounter a large group of armed men
between them and Building C. I should say that the agent in Building C with the
Ambassador has radioed that they are all in the safe haven and are fine. The
agents that encounter the armed group make a tactical decision to turn around
and go back to their Building B and barricade themselves in there. So we have
people in three locations right now.
And
I neglected to mention – I should have mentioned from the top that the
attackers, when they came through the gate, immediately torched the barracks.
It is aflame, the barracks that was occupied by the 17th February Brigade armed host country
security team. I should also have mentioned that at the very first moment when
the agent in the TOC seized the people flowing through the gate, he immediately
hits an alarm, and so there is a loud alarm. He gets on the public address
system as well, yelling, “Attack, attack.” Having said that, the agents – the
other agents had heard the noise and were already reacting.
Okay.
So we have agents in Building C – or an agent in Building C with the Ambassador
and Sean, we have two agents in Building B, and we have two agents in the TOC.
All – Building C is – attackers penetrate in Building C. They walk around
inside the building into a living area, not the safe haven area. The building
is dark. They look through the grill, they see nothing. They try the grill, the
locks on the grill; they can’t get through. The agent is, in fact, watching
them from the darkness. He has his long gun trained on them and he is ready to shoot
if they come any further. They do not go any further.
They
have jerry cans. They have jerry cans full of diesel fuel that they’ve picked
up at the entrance when they torched the barracks. They have sprinkled the
diesel fuel around. They light the furniture in the living room – this big,
puffy, Middle Eastern furniture. They light it all on fire, and they have also
lit part of the exterior of the building on fire. At the same time, there are
other attackers that have penetrated Building B. The two agents in Building B
are barricaded in an inner room there. The attackers circulate in Building B
but do not get to the agents and eventually leave.
A
third group of attackers tried to break into the TOC. They pound away at the
door, they throw themselves at the door, they kick the door, they really treat
it pretty rough; they are unable to get in, and they withdraw. Back in Building
C, where the Ambassador is, the building is rapidly filling with smoke. The
attackers have exited. The smoke is extremely thick. It’s diesel smoke, and
also, obviously, smoke from – fumes from the furniture that’s burning. And the
building inside is getting more and more black. The Ambassador and the two
others make a decision that it’s getting – it’s starting to get tough to breathe
in there, and so they move to another part of the safe haven, a bathroom that
has a window. They open the window. The window is, of course, grilled. They
open the window trying to get some air in. That doesn’t help. The building is
still very thick in smoke.
And
I am sitting about three feet away from Senior Official Number Two, and the
agent I talked to said he could not see that far away in the smoke and the
darkness. So they’re in the bathroom and they’re now on the floor of the
bathroom because they’re starting to hurt for air. They are breathing in the
bottom two feet or so of the room, and even that is becoming difficult.
So
they make a decision that they’re going to have to leave the safe haven. They
decide that they’re going to go out through an adjacent bedroom which has one
of the window grills that will open. The agent leads the two others into a
hallway in that bedroom. He opens the grill. He’s going first because that is
standard procedure. There is firing going on outside. I should have mentioned
that during all of this, all of these events that I’ve been describing, there
is considerable firing going on outside. There are tracer bullets. There is
smoke. There is – there are explosions. I can’t tell you that they were RPGs,
but I think they were RPGs. So there’s a lot of action going on, and there’s
dozens of armed men on the – there are dozens of armed men on the compound.
Okay.
We’ve got the agent. He’s opening the – he is suffering severely from smoke
inhalation at this point. He can barely breathe. He can barely see. He’s got
the grill open and he flops out of the window onto a little patio that’s been
enclosed by sandbags. He determines that he’s under fire, but he also looks
back and sees he doesn’t have his two companions. He goes back in to get them.
He can’t find them. He goes in and out several times before smoke overcomes him
completely, and he has to stagger up a small ladder to the roof of the building
and collapse. He collapses.
At
that point, he radios the other agents. Again, the other agents are barricaded
in Building C and – Building B, and the TOC. He radios the other agents that
he’s got a problem. He is very difficult to understand. He can barely speak.
The
other agents, at this time, can see that there is some smoke, or at least the
agents in the TOC – this is the first they become aware that Building C is on
fire. They don’t have direct line of sight. They’re seeing smoke and now
they’ve heard from the agent. So they make a determination to go to Building C
to try to find their colleagues.
The
agent in the TOC, who is in full gear, opens the door, throws a smoke grenade,
which lands between the two buildings, to obscure what he is doing, and he
moves to Building B, enters Building B. He un-barricades the two agents that
are in there, and the three of them emerge and head for Building C. There are,
however, plenty of bad guys and plenty of firing still on the compound, and
they decide that the safest way for them to move is to go into an armored
vehicle, which is parked right there. They get into the armored vehicle and
they drive to Building C.
They
drive to the part of the building where the agent had emerged. He’s on the
roof. They make contact with the agent. Two of them set up as best a perimeter
as they can, and the third one, third agent, goes into the building. This goes
on for many minutes. Goes into the building, into the choking smoke. When that
agent can’t proceed, another agent goes in, and so on. And they take turns
going into the building on their hands and knees, feeling their way through the
building to try to find their two colleagues. They find Sean. They pull him out
of the building. He is deceased. They are unable to find the Ambassador.
At
this point, the special security team, the quick reaction security team from
the other compound, arrive on this compound. They came from what we call the
annex. With them – there are six of them –with them are about 16 members of
the Libyan February 17th Brigade, the
same militia that was – whose – some members of which were on our compound to
begin with in the barracks.
As
those guys attempt to secure a perimeter around Building C, they also move to
the TOC, where one agent has been manning the phone. I neglected to mention
from the top that that agent from the top of this incident, or the very
beginning of this incident, has been on the phone. He had called the quick
reaction security team, he had called the Libyan authorities, he had called the
Embassy in Tripoli, and he had called Washington. He had them all going to ask
for help. And he remained in the TOC.
So
at this point in the evening, the members of the quick reaction team, some
parts of it, go to the TOC with the Libyan 17th Brigade – 17th February Brigade. They get him out of
the TOC. He moves with them to join their colleagues outside of Building C. All
the agents at this point are suffering from smoke inhalation. The agent that
had been in the building originally with the Ambassador is very, very severely
impacted, the others somewhat less so, but they can’t go back in. The remaining
agent, the one that had come from the TOC, freshest set of lungs, goes into the
building himself, though he is advised not to. He goes into the building
himself, as do some members of the quick reaction security team.
The
agent makes a couple of attempts, cannot proceed. He’s back outside of the
building. He takes his shirt off. There’s a swimming pool nearby. He dips his
shirt in the swimming pool and wraps it around his head, goes in one last time.
Still can’t find the Ambassador. Nobody is able to find the Ambassador.
At
this point, the quick reaction security team and the Libyans, especially the
Libyan forces, are saying, “We cannot stay here. It’s time to leave. We’ve got
to leave. We can’t hold the perimeter.” So at that point, they make the
decision to evacuate the compound and to head for the annex. The annex is about
two kilometers away. My agents pile into an armored vehicle with the body of
Sean, and they exit the main gate.
Here
it’s a little harder to understand because I don’t have a diagram that you can
show – that I can show you. But in a nutshell, they take fire almost as soon as
they emerge from the compound. They go a couple of – they go in one direction
toward the annex. They don’t like what they’re seeing ahead of them. There are
crowds. There are groups of men. They turn around and go the other direction.
They don’t like what they’re seeing in that direction either. They make another
u-turn. They’re going at a steady pace. There is traffic in the roads around
there. This is in Benghazi, after all. Now, they’re going at a steady pace and
they’re trying not to attract too much attention, so they’re going maybe 15
miles an hour down the street.
They
come up to a knot of men in an adjacent compound, and one of the men signals them
to turn into that compound. They agents at that point smell a rat, and they
step on it. They have taken some fire already. At this point, they take very
heavy fire as they go by this group of men. They take direct fire from AK-47s
from about two feet away. The men also throw hand grenades or gelignite bombs
under – at the vehicle and under it. At this point, the armored vehicle is
extremely heavily impacted, but it’s still holding. There are two flat tires,
but they’re still rolling. And they continue far down the block toward the
crowds and far down several blocks to the crowd – to another crowd where this
road t-bones into a main road. There is a crowd there. They pass through the
crowd and on – turn right onto this main road. This main road is completely
choked with traffic, enormous traffic jam typical for, I think, that time of
night in that part of town. There are shops along the road there and so on.
Rather
than get stuck in the traffic, the agents careen their car over the median –
there is a median, a grassy median – and into the opposing traffic, and they go
counter-flow until they emerge into a more lightly trafficked area and
ultimately make their way to the annex.
Once
at the annex, the annex has its own security – a security force there. There
are people at the annex. The guys in the car join the defense at the annex.
They take up firing positions on the roof – some of them do – and other firing
positions around the annex. The annex is, at this time, also taking fire and
does take fire intermittently, on and off, for the next several hours. The fire
consists of AK-47s but also RPGs, and it’s, at times, quite intense.
As
the night goes on, a team of reinforcements from Embassy Tripoli arrives by
chartered aircraft at Benghazi airport and makes its way to the compound – to
the annex, I should say. And I should have mentioned that the quick reaction –
the quick reaction security team that was at the compound has also, in addition
to my five agents, has also returned to the annex safely. The reinforcements
from Tripoli are at the compound – at the annex. They take up their positions.
And somewhere around 5:45 in the morning – sorry, somewhere around 4 o'clock in
the morning – I have my timeline wrong – somewhere around 4 o'clock in the
morning the annex takes mortar fire. It is precise and some of the mortar fire
lands on the roof of the annex. It immediately killed two security personnel
that are there, severely wounds one of the agents that’s come from the
compound.
At
that point, a decision is made at the annex that they are going to have to
evacuate the whole enterprise. And the next hours are spent, one, securing the
annex, and then two, moving in a significant and large convoy of vehicles
everybody to the airport, where they are evacuated on two flights.
So
that’s the end of my tick-tock.
MODERATOR: Great.
Thank you so much. Given the length of that tick-tock, I would just ask before
we turn it over to questions that you keep your questions very concise. And
again, a reminder that this is an on-background briefing.
So,
Operator, go ahead and open it up for questions.
OPERATOR: Certainly. Ladies and gentlemen, if you would like to ask a
question, please press * then 1. You’ll hear a tone indicating you’ve been
placed in queue, and you may remove yourself at any time by pressing the # key.
If you are using a speakerphone, please pick up the handset before pressing the
numbers. Once again, if you have a question, press * 1 at this time. And we
will limit you to one question, and you may re-queue after that. It’ll be just
one moment.
First
question is from the line of Anne Gearan with the Washington Post.
Please go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi. You said a moment ago that there was nothing unusual
outside, on the street, or outside the gates of the main compound. When did the
agents inside – what – excuse me, what did the agents inside think was
happening when the first group of men gathered there and they first heard those
explosions? Did they think it was a protest, or did they think it was something
else?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TWO: The agent in the TOC heard the noise, heard
the firing. Firing is not unusual in Benghazi at 9:40 at night, but he
immediately reacted and looked at his cameras and saw people coming in, hit the
alarm. And the rest is as I described it. Does that help?
MODERATOR: Great. Next question?
OPERATOR: The question is from Andrea Mitchell, NBC News. Please, go
ahead.
QUESTION: Hi. When did you finally find Ambassador Stevens? And do you
know now how he got to the hospital? Was it definitely Libyans? Were they the
militia, the February 17th militia? What
can you tell us about it?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TWO: We do not know exactly how the Ambassador got
to the hospital. That is one of the issues that we are – that we hope to
resolve in the ongoing reviews and the information we are still seeking. We
know he got to the hospital at some point. The hospital picked a cell phone out
of his pocket, and we believe just started calling numbers that were on the
cell phone that had received calls, and that is how we got the information that
he was there
MODERATOR: Okay, next question.
OPERATOR: The next question is from the line of Michael Gordon with the New
York Times. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Yes. Could you tell me, please – and I know you mentioned this –
when was the Tripoli reinforcements requested? How long did it take them to get
to Benghazi, how many of them were there, and did it represent all of the
available security personnel from Tripoli?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL NUMBER TWO: The calls were made to Tripoli at the moment
that the – at the same time the agent in the TOC sounded the alarm and then
proceeded to make calls. I’m not going to go into any details about the number
of security personnel who moved.
MODERATOR: Okay. Next question, please.
OPERATOR: The question is from the line of Eli Lake, with Newsweek’s Daily
Beast. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, thanks so much for doing this. Do you have any response from
the charge from Erik Nordstrom, the Regional Security Officer who left this
summer, who is set to testify tomorrow to say that it was a mistake to begin to
normalize security operations and reduce security resources in accordance with
an artificial timetable? That’s from a letter he sent earlier this month to the
oversight committee.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TWO: I don’t know what Erik is going to fully
testify on tomorrow. That’s something that will come out in the hearing. We
could have a different discussion about all the security measures we had taken,
but that’s a different question.
MODERATOR: Okay, next question, please.
OPERATOR: The next question is from the line of Margaret Brennan, CBS
News. Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, thanks for doing this. The timeline here begins around 8:30
p.m., but we had heard in response to some reports where reporters had found
paperwork documents on the grounds of the compound that secure materials, that
confidential paperwork had actually been secured earlier in the day, therefore
there wasn’t any compromised material found at the compound. When did that
occur? At 8:30 at night? When were those documents secured or shredded or
burned or whatever?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TWO: Because of the – this was a post and not a –
and we – this post held no classified documents. They had computer
communications with Washington, but the material would arrive on the screen and
you would read it on the screen, and then that was it. There was no classified
paper, so there was no paper to burn.
MODERATOR: All right, thank you. Next question, please.
OPERATOR: The next question is from the line of Brad Klapper with AP.
Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi, yes. You described several incidents you had with groups of
men, armed men. What in all of these events that you’ve described led officials
to believe for the first several days that this was prompted by protests
against the video?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TWO: That is a question that you would have to ask
others. That was not our conclusion. I’m not saying that we had a conclusion,
but we outlined what happened. The Ambassador walked guests out around 8:30 or
so, there was no one on the street at approximately 9:40, then there was the
noise and then we saw on the cameras the – a large number of armed men
assaulting the compound.
MODERATOR: Okay, thank you. We’re ready for the next question, please.
OPERATOR: The next question is from the line of Toby Zakaria with Reuters.
Please, go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi. Do you know what the threat level for Benghazi was the day
before the attack? And also, did anyone suggest to the Ambassador that it might
not be prudent to go to Benghazi on 9/11?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL TWO: Taking your questions in reverse order,
ambassadors travel, ambassadors must travel, ambassadors must get out and meet
with a variety of individuals, especially in countries that have multiple
centers of energy or power. That’s just – it just must happen.
But
secondly, as Official Number One said earlier, the Ambassador did events in the
city on the 10th. He had plans to do
events in the city later in the week. But on the 11th, he remained in the compound.
As
in terms of the – of any kind of security threat, the – both ODNI spokesman and
the DNI have been correctly quoted as saying that there was no actionable
intelligence of any planned or imminent attack.
MODERATOR: Okay.
Thank you. Next question, please.
OPERATOR: The
next question comes from the line of David Lerman with Bloomberg News. Please
go ahead.
QUESTION: Hi.
Did the Ambassador – before the attack, did the Ambassador request that
security be increased in Benghazi? And if so, did anything ever come of it?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL NUMBER TWO:The – when the Ambassador traveled to
Benghazi, he traveled with two additional security agents over and above the
complement of three who were assigned to post. So there were five agents with
him there rather than the two who are normally assigned there – the three who
are normally assigned. So they were up two.
MODERATOR: Okay.
Thank you. Next question, please.
OPERATOR: The
next question comes from the line of Jo Biddle with AFP. Please go ahead.
QUESTION: Thank
you very much. The two people who died in the compound – in the annex, excuse
me – were they part of the five security agents you’ve mentioned, or were they
separate to that? And how many people did you have to evacuate that night from
the annex?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL NUMBER TWO: Because – since unfortunately we
couldn’t fit everything on one compound, we had two – the principle compound
and the annex. We had – therefore, had our security professionals divided
between the two compounds.
MODERATOR: Okay.
Thank you. Time for just a few more questions.
OPERATOR: The
next question comes from the line of Jonathan Karl with ABC News. Please go
ahead.
QUESTION: Yeah,
hi. Just two quick follow-ups – I want to be clear on one thing. You said as
soon as they heard the noises outside, they went to look and saw armed men
assaulting the compound. That was the very first thing that they saw after
hearing the noise outside?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE:They heard noises, firing, and an
explosion. The agent in the TOC looked at his camera and saw people coming
through the front gate.
QUESTION: Okay.
So there was --
MODERATOR: Okay.
Thank you. Next question, please.
OPERATOR: The
next question --
MODERATOR: Sorry,
we’re trying to keep it moving along here.
OPERATOR: --
from the line of Kim Ghattas with BBC. Please go ahead.
QUESTION: Yes,
thank you for taking the call. I just wanted to clarify a little bit whether –
with the rundown that you just gave us, whether it is possible to now say
clearly that this was very much a preplanned attack, and if so, whether you can
explain why there was no actionable intelligence.
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL NUMBER TWO: This – that subject is now under review
by both the FBI and potentially the Accountability Review Board based on
whatever information the FBI or the intelligence community collects.
MODERATOR: Right,
okay. Thank you. Just a couple more questions.
OPERATOR: The
next question is from the line of Shaun Waterman, Washington Times.
Please go ahead.
MODERATOR: Shaun?
Let’s go to the next question, and maybe Shaun can go next. Maybe he’s not off
mute.
OPERATOR: The
next question is from Dion Nissenbaum with Wall Street
Journal. Please go ahead.
QUESTION: Thanks
for taking the call. I was – just wanted to get a little more clarity about the
annex attack and when the attack started on the annex. Was it before the convoy
arrived or as they arrived or --
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE:It started after they arrived and went
on intermittently for several hours.
MODERATOR: Okay.
Thanks. I think we have one more question, then. Time for one more question.
OPERATOR: Certainly.
Our next question is from the line of Chuck Todd, NBC News. Please go ahead.
QUESTION: Can
you at least explain the process by which if a request for more security comes
in, how that’s – how you go about determining resources, so in the instance of
the reports that more security was requested by the folks in Libya, can you
sort of walk through how that process works?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL NUMBER TWO: Certainly. The – this is sort of an
iterative process, a discussion between the field and Washington, back and
forth; the field identifying what their needs are, Washington working very,
very closely with them. We always attempt to mitigate our risk. We cannot
eliminate them. Sometimes the post – any post in the world might come in and
say, “We need A, B, and C,” there would be a dialogue, and instead of sending
them A, B, and C, we would send them B, C, and D because in this discussion
process, we go to functionality, and when we determine the functionality that
gets us the maximum – a maximum possible security, then we – that is what we
deliver to the post.
MODERATOR: Okay.
Thank you. I feel like I just ignored Shaun. I know you dropped off. If you’re
still on, you get last chance here, buddy.
OPERATOR: And
our last question does come from Shaun Waterman, Washington Times.
QUESTION: Hello?
MODERATOR: Yes,
Shaun. Go ahead, buddy.
QUESTION: Oh,
hey. Okay. Thanks, man. So could – I mean, just in view of what you are now
saying about the attack and the intensity of it and the numbers of people
involved, what – can you say what kind of security presence might have been
needed to repel an attack like that? I mean, what – I mean, if the criticism is
there wasn’t enough security, how much would you have needed to protect the
compound from this attack?
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL NUMBER TWO:It is difficult to answer hypothetical
questions, but let me just put it this way. The lethality and the number of
armed people is unprecedented. There had been no attacks like that anywhere in
Libya – Tripoli, Benghazi, or elsewhere – in the time that we had been there.
And so it is unprecedented. In fact, it would be very, very hard to find a
precedent for an attack like that in recent diplomatic history.
MODERATOR: Okay.
Thank you, and glad we got that question in. Thanks to all of you for joining
us so late this evening. We do appreciate it, and we will keep in touch with
all of you as we move forward. Again, thank you.
10/15/2012 6:30 CST Hillary Clinton just took blame for Benghazi Deaths. "I'm responsible for the State Department, for the more than 60,000 people around the world," she said. "The decisions about security are made by security professionals. But we're going to review everything to be sure we're doing what needs to be done in an increasingly risky environment."
She also addressed the question of a June explosion at the consulate in Benghazi that some have argued should have raised a red flag about security.
"I can't speak to who knew what," she said. "We knew there were security breaches and problems throughout Libya. That's something that came about as the aftermath of the revolution to topple Qaddafi, with so many militias formed, so many weapons loose. ... It was taken into account by security professionals as they made their assessments."
It is all fine and good for Hillary to take responsibilities at State. She should be calling on Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb's resignation and the resignation of Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy a result of their bad judgement that was exposed during their Testimony in front of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Lost in all the blur of all of this disinformation is what was going on with the NSC which is charged to insure that the Whitehouse and President are not caught off guard by happenings at the Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Defense. How is it exactly, and when was Obama reportedly awakened told and when did he go back to bed. The next day he headed to Las Vegas for a fundraiser.
I also am more than curious to know what rocket scientist in the bowels of the Whitehouse with a brain smaller than an amoeba devised the storyline of an obscure YouTube made by a Coptic Christian that no one watched. And why this man was blamed or the protests worldwide and jailed for exercising free speech.
During the 5-6 hour attack not one guided munition was fired at the Consulate. Our guided weapon munitions are deadly accurate nearly to the point of being capable of striking a hair on a tic turds back side. The question remains at least for this voter, is why was the US relying on the February 17th Brigade of Radical Muslims who were part of the force that overturned Quadhafi.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" ~Edmund Burke
This article by Stephen F. Hayes at the Weekly Standard raises many of the questions this voter would like answered. He closes with these comments: "After all, is it conceivable that White House officials at the highest levels were not actively engaged in inter-agency meetings to determine what happened in Benghazi? Is it conceivable that intelligence officials, knowing there was no evidence at all of a link between the film and Benghazi, would fail to tell the president and his colleagues that their claims were unfounded? Is it conceivable that somehow the latest intelligence on the 9/11 attacks was left out of Obama’s intelligence briefings in the days after 9/11? It would have been a priority for every professional at the CIA, the State Department, and the National Security Council to discover exactly what happened in Benghazi as soon as possible. Is it conceivable that the information wasn’t passed to the most senior figures in the administration?
No, it’s really not. And therefore, the fact that these senior figures misled us—and still mislead us—is a scandal of the first order."
There are many questions that need answering, which is not particularly this Administration's strong suit. This Administration is like having your washer set on a permanent spin cycle with the top locked down, nothing ever comes out clean.
Posts
