Benghazi open questions : Putting aside the failures to provide security beforehand and decision to deny assistance during a 7 hour fire fight , what's the excuse for not securing valuable cables / confidential documents for WEEKS after the fact ? How involved were Libyan authorities - and do we ( the US Government ) care to find out ? Why did State drop the ball regarding security - and why hasn't a soul been fired to date ? WE knew the CIA decided not to fall on the sword offered by the White House and Sec of Defense Panetta - has the Department of Defense also decided to decline to be the fall chumps - note the finger being pointed squarely at State by the Defense Department . Who has decided to do triage ?

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/11/01/documents-found-in-benghazi-consulate-claimed-troubling-surveillance-by-libyan-guards/

Documents found in Benghazi consulate claimed “troubling” surveillance by Libyan guards;Update: Obama not participating in investigation;Report: State never requested military back-up during attack

POSTED AT 4:41 PM ON NOVEMBER 1, 2012 BY ALLAHPUNDIT

 

If you follow only one link on the site today, make sure it’s this one. And don’t quit before the end or you’ll miss some vivid details, like the very special swastika graffiti left by looters.

Threshold question: Why were these documents still lying on the floor of what’s left of the consulate on October 26th, three weeks after the FBI finally swung by for a visit?

The two unsigned draft letters are both dated Sept. 11 and express strong fears about the security situation at the compound on what would turn out to be a tragic day. They also indicate that Stevens and his team had officially requested additional security at the Benghazi compound for his visit — and that they apparently did not feel it was being provided.

One letter, written on Sept. 11 and addressed to Mohamed Obeidi, the head of the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ office in Benghazi, reads:

“Finally, early this morning at 0643, September 11, 2012, one of our diligent guards made a troubling report. Near our main gate, a member of the police force was seen in the upper level of a building across from our compound. It is reported that this person was photographing the inside of the U.S. special mission and furthermore that this person was part of the police unit sent to protect the mission. The police car stationed where this event occurred was number 322.”

I’ve been begging for follow-up on Sean Smith’s now famous chat-room message, sent on the morning of 9/11, claiming that a Libyan guard had been seen taking photos of the compound. “Assuming we don’t die tonight,” he said glibly at the time. Until today that was the only hard evidence of an inside job by the skeleton Libyan security staff that State forced Stevens to make do with. Had Smith overreacted to something he saw, maybe, or were others at the compound also concerned? Now we know.

They were so concerned, in fact, that they alerted not only the Ministry of Foreign Affairs but the local police chief too. Funny thing: According to Foreign Policy, the chief was fired just one week later — but refused to step down and is technically still on the job, albeit on “sick leave.” And what about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs? The head of the local office claims that he never got any letter from the consulate — but the local police office says that it was, in fact, the Ministry that notified them of the consulate’s request for more police during Stevens’s upcoming visit. Here’s how that went:

“On Sunday, September 9, 2012, the U.S. mission requested additional police support at our compound for the duration of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens’ visit. We requested daily, twenty-four hour police protection at the front and rear of the U.S. mission as well as a roving patrol. In addition we requested the services of a police explosive detection dog,” the letter reads.

“We were given assurances from the highest authorities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that all due support would be provided for Ambassador Stevens’ visit to Benghazi. However, we are saddened to report that we have only received an occasional police presence at our main gate. Many hours pass when we have no police support at all.”

Normally I’d chalk up the lying to simple ass-covering after a gigantic security embarrassment, but given the element of an inside job introduced by the documents, I don’t know. In a city under the thumb of militias, how unlikely is it that people at the Ministry or inside the local police bureau were warned to keep security low at the consulate that night? Foreign Policy notes too that this new info contradicts a briefing given by the State Department on October 9 in which they claimed that there had been no security incidents at the consulate that day. A guard taking photos of the compound does, I trust, normally qualify as a “security incident,” so now we have a new question for the White House. Did State know about the guard snapping pics? If it did, why didn’t they rush some of the security assets in place in Tripoli and Italy to the consulate out of an abundance of caution on the anniversary of 9/11? If they didn’t, why wasn’t basic security at the consulate increased beforehand anyway as the consulate had been requesting for months?

Via RCP, here’s Catherine Herridge from Fox last night reminding you what State did, indisputably, know and what they chose not to do about it. Look out for the words “smoking gun.” Al Qaeda had training camps in the city and the consulate had next to no protection, and that’s somehow not enough to warrant sending extra security?

Update: If you knew nothing else about Obama except the way he’s stonewalled on this to protect his own sweet ass before election day, that’d be reason enough to vote against him. Disgrace:

Today, the White House press secretary let it slip during a press gaggle aboard Air Force One that President Obama’s inaction on the Benghazi situation now extends to inaction on the supposed investigation taking place. The administration has still not made clear what exactly is being investigated, or the extent of the investigation. And President Obama doesn’t much care. Said Carney:

“He has not participated in the investigation. He is anticipating results that show us exactly what happened and who is responsible and what lessons we can learn from it and ensure it never happens again. He expects the investigation to be rigorous.”

That’s from Ben Shapiro, who rightly notes that the investigation into what happened when the consulate requested help likely extends not much further than Obama’s own desk. He could tell us what he knew and what he did after the attack began, but he won’t because he cares about the election more than answering the public.

Update: Defense officials have decided that they’re not going to be the fall guys for the Barack and Hillary Show. New from Eli Lake:

It’s unlikely any outside military team could have arrived in Benghazi quickly enough to save Ambassador Chris Stevens or his colleague Sean Smith, both of whom died from smoke inhalation after a band of more than 100 men overran the U.S. mission at around 9:30 p.m. that evening and set the buildings inside ablaze.

But military backup may have made a difference at around five the following morning, when a second wave of attackers assaulted the CIA annex where embassy personnel had taken refuge. It was during this second wave of attacks that two ex-SEALs working for the CIA’s security teams—Glenn Dougherty and Tyrone Woods—were killed in a mortar strike…

“The State Department is responsible for assessing security at its diplomatic installations and for requesting support from other government agencies if they need it,” a senior U.S. Defense official said. “There was no request from the Department of State to intervene militarily on the night of the attack.”

The president, however, would have the final say as to whether or not to send in the military.

Typically it’s the ambassador who’s responsible for calling in the military, says Lake, but since Stevens was out of contact (and likely dead) early on, it was State’s call. Why didn’t they make it? Bear in mind that they likely had no firm idea about Stevens’s fate until the attack was over; for all they knew, he was holed up in the consulate somewhere waiting for the cavalry. Did Hillary ask Obama to do something? If she didn’t, why didn’t he do something anyway?

and......

http://hotair.com/archives/2012/11/01/report-obama-never-convened-counterterrorism-task-force-during-benghazi-attack/

Report: Obama never convened counterterrorism task force during Benghazi attack

POSTED AT 8:54 PM ON NOVEMBER 1, 2012 BY ALLAHPUNDIT

  

This piece is as noteworthy for its sourcing as it is for its substance. The dam’s starting to break.

“The [Counterterrorism Security Group] is the one group that’s supposed to know what resources every agency has. They know of multiple options and have the ability to coordinate counterterrorism assets across all the agencies,” a high-ranking government official told CBS News. “They were not allowed to do their job. They were not called upon.”…

Counterterrorism sources and internal emails reviewed by CBS News express frustration that key responders were ready to deploy, but were not called upon to help in the attack…

Another senior counter terrorism official says a hostage rescue team was alternately asked to get ready and then stand down throughout the night, as officials seemed unable to make up their minds.

A third potential responder from a counter-terror force stationed in Europe says components of AFICOM — the military’s Africa Command based in Stuttgart, Germany — were working on course of action during the assault. But no plan was put to use…

“The response process was isolated at the most senior level,” says an official referring to top officials in the executive branch. “My fellow counterterrorism professionals and I (were) not consulted.”

Inexplicably, they also didn’t call on their rapid-reaction counterterrorism coordination squad, the Foreign Emergency Support Team, even though the consulate attack was, um, (a) foreign and (b) an emergency that (c) required support. So confused was the administration response, in fact, that CBS claims the FBI got a call from someone in Hillary’s office during the attack asking that agents be sent in, even though the compound hadn’t been secured yet and nothing by way of coordination with Defense and State had been arranged. And before you ask: No, I don’t know either why State would have thought to call the FBI while CSG and FEST were standing by waiting to be consulted. Logically, you’d ask for the FBI only after the attack was over, to go in and find out what happened. In a situation where the ambassador’s under fire and out of contact, your top priority should be rescue. Why wasn’t it? They couldn’t have known for sure until much later in the attack what had happened to Stevens and the other Americans at the consulate. Why weren’t troops deployed to retake the compound, search for survivors, and clear the way for FEST? Doherty and Woods, at least, might have been saved.

Read the rest of the CBS piece to find out how counterterror officials knew the attack was terrorism from the beginning, not some “spontaneous” assault put together by amateurs in a rage. Amateurs typically don’t know how to dial in with mortars and hit a target on the roof of a nearby building. Then go read David Ignatius on the new timeline that the AP released tonight of the attack and its aftermath. Says Ignatius, “While there were multiple errors that led to the final tragedy, there’s no evidence that the White House or CIA leadership deliberately delayed or impeded rescue efforts.” I have no idea how he knows that based on the limited details given; the CBS piece quoted above explicitly says that a hostage rescue team was asked to get ready and then stand down. And we already knew that the CIA deployed a small team to try to take back the compound; Doherty and Woods were part of it. The question raised by last week’s Fox News bombshellis whether the CIA team on the scene had requested military support during the second wave of the attack and whether it was denied. Here’s all Ignatius has to say about that:

●5:15 a.m.: A new Libyan assault begins, this time with mortars. Two rounds miss and the next three hit the roof. The rooftop defenders never “laser the mortars,” as has been reported. They don’t know the weapons are in place until the indirect fire begins, nor are they observed by the drone overhead. The defenders have focused their laser sights earlier on several Libyan attackers, as warnings not to fire. At 5:26 the attack is over. Woods and Doherty are dead and two others are wounded.

Okay, got it — no lasering of the mortars. What about the request for a Spectre gunship? What about the Special Ops teams in Italy who were on stand by all night but were never told to go? Why did the CIA bother sending in a team as small as Doherty’s and Woods’s against 150 jihadis if the White House wasn’t prepared to send reinforcements to support them? Might have been nice to have input from the Counterterrorism Security Group through all of this, huh?