One of the most prevalent stories
this past week, and mostly likely for several weeks to come, is that concerning
the attack on the American consulate (embassy) in Libya.
Key points:
1. Libyan Deputy Interior
Minister Wanis al-Sharif has told reporters he believes militants used an
anti-US protest as cover for the attack, and may have had help from inside the
country's security services.
- BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-19587068
2. American and European
officials said that while many details about the attack remained unclear, the
assailants seemed organized, well trained and heavily armed, and they appeared
to have at least some level of advance planning.
...a Libyan politician who had
breakfast with Mr. Stevens at the mission the morning before he was killed
described security, mainly four video cameras and as few as four Libyan guards,
as sorely inadequate for an American ambassador in such a tumultuous environment.
Col. Wolfgang Pusztai, who until
early August was Austria’s defense attaché to Libya and visited the country
every month, said in an e-mail that he believed the attack was “deliberately
planned and executed” by about a core group of 30 to 40 assailants who were
“well trained and organized.”
- NY Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/13/world/middleeast/us-envoy-to-libya-is-reported-killed.html?pagewanted=all
3. UN Ambassador Susan Rice
said Sunday she doubts the deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi,
Libya, was a pre-planned Al Qaeda operation that could have been detected.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday,” Ambassador Rice asserted
that the US had no “actionable intelligence” that might have alerted officials
to the attack in Benghazi,...
- The Christian Science
Monitor, http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2012/0916/Libya-attack-US-doubts-that-Al-Qaeda-planned-ahead-video
4. Sources tracking militant
Islamist groups in eastern Libya say that a pro-al Qaeda group responsible for
a previous armed assault on the consulate – called the Imprisoned Omar Abdul
Rahman Brigades - is a chief suspect in the attack.
The sources also note that the
attack immediately followed a call from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri for
revenge for the June death of Abu Yahya al-Libi, a senior Libyan member of the
terror group.
Noman Benotman, president of the counter-extremist group
Quilliam Foundation in London, told CNN, "An attack like this would likely
have required preparation. This would not seem to be merely a protest which
escalated."
"According to our sources, the
attack was the work of roughly 20 militants, prepared for a military assault;
it is rare that an RPG7 is present at a peaceful protest," Benotman said.
The top Republican on the House
Intelligence Committee said Thursday that the strike "has all the
hallmarks of an al Qaeda operation or an al Qaeda affiliate."
"One of the things that we've
noticed over the last six or seven months is that al Qaeda in the Maghreb,
northern Africa, have said they're really eager to strike northeastern targets.
We've seen cells in Libya and Egypt starting to develop," U.S. Rep. Mike
Rogers, R-Michigan, told CNN's "Starting Point."
Libyan Deputy Interior Minister
Wanis al-Sharif said Wednesday that a group of heavily armed militants
"infiltrated the march to start chaos.” Libya’s government blamed remnants
of the Gadhafi regime, which was overthrown last year.
Wednesday night, U.S. officials told
CNN's Suzanne Kelly that there were no actionable intelligence that this attack
was being planned. But there appear to be some conflicting reports on the
matter. Earlier Wednesday, sources said they believed the attack was planned,
and that the protest of an obscure film that mocks Muslim faith was used as a
diversion.
State Department Under Secretary
Patrick Kennedy, during a briefing to Capitol Hill staff, offered his opinion
that the attack was planned because of the extensive nature of the attack and
the "proliferation" of small and medium weapons.
5. Sharef, who was in charge of
the Interior Ministry’s security forces in Benghazi during the attack, has been
critical of the security level at the consulate and of the Americans for
keeping U.S. personnel in Benghazi. A series of attacks in the city over the
last few months have targeted Westerners, in particular the British ambassador.
In addition, Sharef has been the Libyan official most eager to suggest that the
assault on the consulate involved considerable forward planning and was timed
to coincide with 9/11, providing him with a partial defense for why government
security forces were incapable of repelling the attack...
Feeling
like he was “one of the rebels” may have lulled Stevens into a false sense of
safety. A British security expert who advises foreign companies working in
Benghazi says he was surprised that Stevens spent two days in the city. “The
British ambassador was nearly killed a few weeks ago and the U.N. envoy Ian
Martin had a grenade hurled at his car,” the security expert said. “Most
high-profile diplomats spend as little time as possible in Benghazi.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they knew Chris was there and I
wouldn’t discount some kind of al Qaeda involvement,” said Mazin Ramadan, a
former Libyan government adviser and a friend of the slain ambassador. “We know
there were some al Qaeda people before in Derna. And clearly there has been
thinking and planning for attacks. We have had a series of them in Benghazi.”
U.S.
officials have other questions. Why did the consulate have no U.S. Marine
security present, unlike the Tripoli embassy? And why was the consulate, housed
in a villa in an upscale district of the eastern Libyan city, not in compliance
with State Department security rules for foreign missions? When the dust
clears, State Department officials are likely to face the same questions from
congressional panels citing, no doubt, a 2009 General Accounting Office report
warning of a lack of strategic planning on diplomatic security.
- The Daily Beast, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/14/libya-attack-mystery-premeditated-by-al-qaeda-or-spontaneous.html
So what does all this mean? As with
any incident of this nature and magnitude, information flow can be sporadic,
incomplete, inconsistent, and highly speculative. A thorough investigation is
warranted and necessary to expose the truth.
