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

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/08/us-libya-usa-brennan-idUSBRE8970YN20121008

U.S. counter-terrorism aide due in Libya on Tuesday: source

The top U.S. counter-terrorism adviser will visit Libya on Tuesday to discuss the investigation into the killing of the U.S. ambassador at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi last month, a Libyan protocol official said.

John Brennan, the senior White House adviser on counter-terrorism, will meet with the president of the national congress, Mohammed Magarief, as well as army, intelligence, interior and foreign ministry officials, said the official, who declined to be named.

U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens was killed along with three other Americans on September 11 in an attack on the consulate in Benghazi.

American FBI agents traveled to the Libyan capital Tripoli a few days after the attack to join in the investigation, but domestic political upheavals and disagreement over the terms of the cooperation held up a visit to Benghazi for over two weeks.

[Koala]

Im gonna get killed for saying this, but it has to be said: the person with the most responsibility for ensuring a safe work environment was the ambassador himself. Not Hillary, or Obama.

The only security at the consulate was a lock and key.

Thats an overlook of security of monumental proportions. By accepting such poor securtiy measures, he not only put his own life in danger, but also the lives of anyone that he worked with in danger. He is ultimately in charge of ensuring a safe work environment for himself and his staff. He should have refused to go to work, or allow anyone to staff that location, until they had more security on that place than your average gym locker. Thats really reckless beyond belief. I think he was anxious to get to work, and I have a gut feeling that the ambassador decided to roll the dice while he made arrangements for a more secure location. Well, you play with fire, and we all know how thats gonna end up.

Im not trying to soil the memory of a dead person, he paid the ultimate price for his mistake. Unfortunately, so did three other Americans whom he was responsible for. Blaming Obama doesnt solve the problem. Rather than playing politics with this, the State Department needs a thorough review of its security procedure. Develop a minimum standard of security, train the ambassadors in ensuring this minimum standard of security, and in the meantime, suspend all consulates that do not meet the minimum standards of security. All of them. I worked in a freaking biology lab, with no dangerous pathogens, that had more thorough standards of security than the State Department does for its consulates in foreign countries, that is absolutely unacceptable.

I do blame Obama for the coverup, and I will not be voting for him as a result. Im not sure how anyone can trust him after this.

[twa]

Before you go blaming him you should know he had a protection detail that was withdrawn....despite his request and concerns voiced.

Doing his job, despite the State dept not doing theirs, should not get him thrown under the bus.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/security-team-commander-says-ambassador-stevens-wanted-his-team-to-stay-in-libya-past-august-2/

http://keyetv.com/news/top-stories/stories/exsecurity-team-leader-libya-multiple-pleas-more-not-less-security-staff-4615.shtml?wap=0

Speaking to CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, Wood said when he found out that his own 16-member team and a six-member State Department elite force were being pulled from Tripoli in August - about a month before the assault in Benghazi - he felt, "like we were being asked to play the piano with two fingers. There was concern amongst the entire embassy staff."

He said other staffers approached him with their concerns when the reduction in security personnel was announced.

"They asked if we were safe," he told Attkisson. "They asked... what was going to happen, and I could only answer that what we were being told is that they're working on it - they'll get us more (security personnel), but I never saw that."

Wood insists that senior staff in Libya, including Ambassador Stevens, State Department Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom, and himself, all wanted and had requested enhanced security.

"We felt we needed more, not less," he tells Attkisson.

Asked what response their repeated pleas got from the State Department in Washington, Wood says they were simply told "to do with less. For what reasons, I don't know."

[Koala]

Before you go blaming him you should know he had a protection detail that was withdrawn....despite his request and concerns voiced.

Doing his job, despite the State dept not doing theirs, should not get him thrown under the bus.

1) Than he should have refused to go to work, he is responsible for his staff's lives. Yes, he did make a mistake by going to work (and bringhng his staff with him) when the State Department failed to provide a fundamental level of security, thats my whole point. I know someone who was a project manager for an aid organization, a similar position to the ambassadors in terms of responsibilty. They tried to send him into Iraq to set up an office there ca 2003, with what he thought was poor security. Most gallingly, they asked him to set up the office outside of the greenzone, I guess to save money. He refused, risking being fired. Eventually, his boss relented and allowed him to set up shop in Jordan while more secure locations in Iraq where investigated (they never found one). That decision probably saved the lives of his staff, when a year later the security situation deteriorated and kidnappings of foreign aid personnel became commonplace. Thats what leadership is, thats what the ambassador needed to have done. You dont accept no for an answer when peoples lives are at stake, thats fundamental to leadership.

2) Okay so Hillary is very much responsible too. Id like to know the reason for refusing, did they just need the security detail elsewhere and not have anyone else available, leaving the decision of whether or not to risk it to the ambassador? Or did they really order him to go back to work without security? If its the latter, Hillary shoulda been fired yesterday.

3) The place itself was unsecure, it goes beyond protection detail. There should have been checkpoints on the road leading to the consulate, spike strips, reinforced walls, concrete barriers, windows with steel bars on them, multiple escape routes, surveillance of all access points. He shoulda pressured the Libyans hard to provide their end of security, and if they refused, o well Libya I guess youll have no official US consulate in your country. Pressuring foreign governments is the whole point of an ambassador's job.

[twa]

Perhaps you are correct that he should have refused to work, I would say the same of some of our military being required to work unarmed (of course they can court marshal them)

[visionary]

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/09/state_department_no_video_protest_at_the_benghazi_consulate

State Department: No video protest at the Benghazi consulate

Prior to the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi late in the evening on Sept. 11, there was no protest outside the compound, a senior State Department official confirmed today, contradicting initial administration statements suggesting that the attack was an opportunistic reaction to unrest caused by an anti-Islam video.

In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, two senior State Department officials gave a detailed accounting of the events that lead to the death of Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans. The officials said that prior to the massive attack on the Benghazi compound by dozens of militants carrying heavy weaponry, there was no unrest outside the walls of the compound and no protest that anyone inside the compound was aware of.

In fact, Stevens hosted a series of meetings on the compound throughout the day, ending with a meeting with a Turkish diplomat that began at 7:30 in the evening, and all was quiet in the area.

"But putting together the best information that we have available to us today, our current assessment is what happened in Benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, prompted by the video," U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said Sept. 16 on NBC's Meet the Press.

"That was not our conclusion," the State Department official said. "We don't necessarily have a conclusion [about that]."

Rice has since attributed those statements to information given to the administration by intelligence officials.

[visionary]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/benghazi-attack-may-mar-clintons-legacy/2012/10/09/b7a8e382-1220-11e2-a16b-2c110031514a_story.html

Benghazi attack may cloud Clinton’s legacy

The fatal attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya last month has become a test of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s leadership and a threat to her much-admired legacy as America’s top diplomat just a few months before she plans to step down.

Clinton was among the first Obama administration officials to publicly condemn the attack and mourn the deaths of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. But as the State Department has weathered Republican-led criticism that it misread warning signs before the Sept. 11 attack, Clinton has been far less visible.

Clinton will not appear at a Wednesday oversight hearing on the Libya attack, where House Republicans have said they will question the State Department’s security preparations and the administration’s account of the attack. The State Department will instead send a trusted career diplomat along with three security officials.

Neither Romney nor congressional Republicans have directly faulted Clinton over security in Libya and do not appear eager to saddle her with the blame. Instead, much of the Republican criticism has been directed at Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who initially said that the attacks were apparently the result of anti-American protests that spun out of control.

Still, Issa sent a stern letter to Clinton last week, asking why additional security had been denied to diplomats at the lightly defended mission in Benghazi where Stevens died. The letter questioned the administration’s early public claim that the attack was part of a spontaneous public protest over an anti-Muslim Internet video.

[88Comrade2000]

I can see this leading to impeachment hearings. No, Obama wouldn't be impeached but I can see Republicans find cause to go through impeachment hearings over this.

[visionary]

https://twitter.com/CNNLive

The first Congressional hearing examining the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya begins at 12pm ET. Watch live: http://CNN.com/live2

11:36 AM

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/cvplive/cvpstream2#/video/cvplive/cvpstream2

CNN.com Live

The first Congressional hearing convenes to review the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

Just started now.

---------- Post added October-10th-2012 at 12:22 PM ----------

Wow, Cummings is going to some lengths to defend the administration and go after the Republicans in the committee.

Bringing up some interesting points too.

[thebluefood]

Yeah, I just saw that, Visionary. He said some rough things about the committee Republicans. Need to check that out

-Not giving Col. Wood's information

-Not telling the Democrats about the Libya trip

[visionary]

Yeah, I just saw that, Visionary. He said some rough things about the committee Republicans. Need to check that out

-Not giving Col. Wood's information

-Not telling the Democrats about the Libya trip

Yeah, he had some info about the number of security that I wasn't sure if I'd heard before either.

I've having some trouble hearing them talk though, even though I have my computer's sound way up.

I hope Republicans don't overplay their hand and do work to get some improvements and not just throw around blame, same for Democrats defending the administration. There are some pretty worriesome things the administration has to explain on this.

[thebluefood]

Look at that destruction. Chaffetz is pissed. Called out Cummings, too.

[visionary]

LT. Col. Wood is speaking now about his work and the situation in Libya leading up to the event.

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/cvplive/cvpstream2#/video/cvplive/cvpstream2

---------- Post added October-10th-2012 at 01:04 PM ----------

Chafetz stops the hearing because he thinks the pictures and info being used are classified, state department say they aren't and Cummings tries to defend them.

whoa, things are getting intense.

Chafetz says that he was told in Libya that it was all listed as classified there.

Cummings asked if he can see the pictures on google and is overuled.

[sacase]

Chaffetz is worried about a satellite photo? LOL What a tool!

This is commercial satellite imagery. LOL Love it.

[visionary]

Took a break to watch a video about something else and come back to find Issa arguing over some documents that Issa says were given to him by a whistleblower?

Not quite sure what's going on now. Is this how these hearings usually go? lol

[sacase]

Damn, Issa is slick about setting someone up. Dude is smooth I will give him that. I am going to have to watch these hearings more.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/10/us-libya-usa-idUSBRE89919Z20121010

U.S. security in Libya drawn down before attack: testimony

Diplomatic security in Libya was drawn down ahead of last month's fatal attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi and U.S. officials did not have enough protection, the former head of a U.S. security team in Libya told lawmakers on Wednesday.

"The security in Benghazi was a struggle and remained a struggle throughout my time there ... Diplomatic security remained weak," Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Wood told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in written testimony.

"The RSO (regional security officer) struggled to obtain additional personnel there (in Benghazi), but was never able to attain the numbers he felt comfortable with," Wood said.

Cummings is back on again.

I think he's a bit mad.

---------- Post added October-10th-2012 at 01:42 PM ----------

I don't care what excuses are used, there's no reason that ridiculous statement blaming the attack on the video and a protest should have been made.

Whoever's fault it was should be embarassed and ashamed.

---------- Post added October-10th-2012 at 01:43 PM ----------

Democrats now complaining that Cummings didn't get equal time to question as Burton did.

Objections abound.

https://twitter.com/joshrogin

Current count of Congressmen at Benghazi hearing: 14 Republicans, 7 Democrats #oversight

1:43 PM

Uh oh, Kucinich is there too...didn't realize he was.

Could make things interesting.

(not sure I can listen to him without getting pissed off)

[sacase]

Lamb is getting thrown under the bus. Might be time to retire.

Interesting LTC Wood saying that AQ is more established in Libya now than before and more established than we are.

[visionary]

And after Kuchinich's rather disengenuous tantrum, Chaffetz gets another shot at being an *******.

[DjTj]

Damn, Issa is slick about setting someone up. Dude is smooth I will give him that. I am going to have to watch these hearings more.

Issa hearings have to be among the best entertainment in politics. He is probably the richest member of Congress, making his money on the Viper car alarm system (and recorded his own voice to say "please step away from the car"). He personally financed the California governor recall election, and since he became chairman of this committee in 2010, has been an unrelenting attack dog against the Obama administration. Issa vs. Cummings is good theater.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/18/AR2010121803396.html

[sacase]

Issa hearings have to be among the best entertainment in politics. He is probably the richest member of Congress, making his money on the Viper car alarm system (and recorded his own voice to say "please step away from the car"). He personally financed the California governor recall election, and since he became chairman of this committee in 2010, has been an unrelenting attack dog against the Obama administration. Issa vs. Cummings is good theater.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/18/AR2010121803396.html

I actually liked Cummings, he seems to be a pretty level thinker, at least at this hearing. I can see him and Issa getting into it.

[Jumbo]

My own Dark Passenger (figuratively speaking :paranoid:) really favors psychopathic partisans. Lord, our elected officials (like Jar-Jar Issa) are so disappointing. I guess in that sens, they are truly representative of the electorate? Or is that an elitist question? And if I'm an elitist, why doe my orthodontist have a bigger house? But I digress.

[visionary]

So far, the Republicans want to blame everything on the administration, and will use whatever methods they want to get the results they want.

The Democrats take any chance they can to turn it back on the Republicans and excuse the administration of any blame.

Not to mention the constant claims of confidentiality by Chaffetz and yelling between members at each other.

What a mess.

---------- Post added October-10th-2012 at 02:23 PM ----------

Ok, now Issa and Cummings are cracking me up.

[visionary]

Things are getting testy in the hearing.

How long is the hearing supposed to go on for? Anyone know?

[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.