Obama administration ignored Ambassador Stevens’ warnings of Islamic extremism before Benghazi attack

If this doesn't sink Obama ….America is sunk.

Photo: Ambassador Stevens being paraded through the streets of Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012

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Ambassador Stevens warned of Islamic extremism before Benghazi attack — Washington Times 

Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, in a diplomatic cable from Libya last June, cited the apparent rise of “Islamic extremism” and the spotting of “the Al Qaeda
flag” over buildings outside the city of Benghazi, where he and three
other Americans were ultimately killed in an attack on Sept. 11.

The previously classified cable is among 166 pages of documents made public Friday by Rep. Darryl E. Issa, the Republican chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, who says they expose an egregious shortage of security around the U.S. diplomatic missions in Libya during the period leading up to last month’s attack.

Mr. Issa sent the documents to the White House
Friday with a letter calling on the administration to explain why
“repeated warnings about a worsening security situation appear to have
been ignored” in Libya. The committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings
of Maryland, described the move as an “undeniably partisan” attempt
to politicize the incident ahead of Monday’s foreign policy debate
between Mitt Romney and President Obama.

The documents include a June 25 cable in which Mr. Stevens cited an uptick in attacks occurring in Libya “targeting international organizations and foreign interests.” He went on to point out a June attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, which involved the explosion of an improvised bomb.

Little
has previously been reported about the incident, which occurred just
three months before the attack that ultimately lead to Mr. Stevens‘ death. In the cable, he said responsibility for June’s attack had been claimed by “an Islamic extremist group, ‘the Imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman Brigade.’ “

The
infamous “Blind Sheikh,” Abdel-Rahman is presently serving a life
sentence in the United States, convicted of plots to blow up the United Nations headquarters along with major bridges and tunnels in New York.

Mr. Stevens made no reference of any American attempt to investigate the June incident.

“Libyan
security officials purport to have launched investigations,” he wrote,
adding that a Libyan security official had “shared his private opinion
that the attacks were the work of extremists who are opposed to western
influence in Libya.”

“A number of local contacts agreed, noting that Islamic extremism appears to be on the rise in eastern Libya and that the Al Qaeda
flag has been spotted several times flying over government buildings
and training facilities” in a small Libyan city about 100 miles east of
Benghazi, Mr. Stevens
wrote. He added, however, that other contacts said the June attack
could also have simply been the work of loyalists to ousted Libyan
leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Other cables cite ongoing concerns about security. In one on Aug. 8, under the title “The Guns of August: Security in eastern Libya,” Mr. Stevens asserted that the “absence of significant deterrence” had “contributed to a security vacuum.”

In another, on Sept. 11, just hours before he was killed, Mr. Stevens
noted a local Libyan commander in Benghazi had “expressed growing
frustration with police and security forces (who were too weak to keep
the country secure) …”

Other documents shed light on ongoing exchanges between State Department personnel over security.

One
from February 2012 features an email in which Foreign Service Officer
Shawn P. Crowley wrote to others, including Eric A. Nordstrom, the
then-chief security officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, about the
“lack of security” at the consulate in Benghazi.

“Apologies
for being a broken record, but beginning tomorrow, Benghazi will be
down two agents,” Mr. Crowley wrote, noting that “we have no drivers and
new local guard contract employees have no experience driving armored
vehicles.”

 

Photo: Bloody fingerprints indicate that at least some Americans were still alive when they were dragged from the embassy building.

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Beagle

11 years ago

Obama was “normalizing” in Libya because al Qaeda was “on the run” or “on its heels” and “on the ropes”.
Fantasy-based policymaking. Another fantasy, of course, being supplanting the First Amendment with Islamic sharia as you’ve been noting here for years.

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Beagle

11 years ago

I should have scare-quoted “al Qaeda,” as there are numerous Sunni Salafi fighting groups which may as well be al Qaeda but perhaps haven’t had a chance to talk to some jihadi on a cork board in Washington DC somewhere. And Shia for that matter. Jihad is something which brings Muslims together, and not the “inner spiritual struggle to be a better Muslim” kind. Though that too applies to violent jihad in many Muslim minds because of the ahadith in which Muhammed talks up violent jihad as the ultimate, greatest, or paramount activity and chastises those who choose not to fight.

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ChrisLA

11 years ago

Libya is controlled by several groups of armed militias loyal to nobody but themselves. There is no permanent government or constitution. The United States wants a presence there to help shape a stable government. However, to bring in our own “militia” to protect the Consulate would have been seen as an invasion which would have to be resisted by the Libyan militias. The normal rules of diplomacy and diplomatic missions go out the door when there is anarchy.

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RCCA

11 years ago

I came to the same conclusion as ChrisLA, that it was politically incorrect to provide an adequate security force for Ambassador Stevens. The Muslim militias might have taken that as a provocation so our policy was to hope for the best.
Part of Obama’s lies about the events in Benghazi serve to create the sense that we didn’t really know what was going on there, even though the consulate had already been attacked and breached, and was under heavy military attack for about seven hours on 9-11. They are still trying to spin a story, the latest is that it was a terrorist attack but unplanned. The terrorists just happened to notice the calendar and decided to attack on an impulse, not knowing that Stevens was there, is what our government wants us to believe.
To know our people were under attack and surrounded by a population who offered no support and our own government did not send our forces who were at the most an hour away, because our government didn’t want to offend the Muslims, is incredibly disturbing.
If the goal of the attack was to kidnap Stevens as ransom for the Blind Sheik then we owe Stevens and his fellow patriots even greater respect for refusing to surrender.

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lllni

11 years ago

Look at the bright side: US foreign policy has been successfully executed.
Libya was overthrown by the US and CIA heavy arms are flowing from Libya to CIA/FSA/AQ in Syria via Turkey.
Libyan Strelas against the IDF? It’s all good!
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=288108
Need details? http://www.businessinsider.com/us-syria-heavy-weapons-jihadists-2012-10
Israel: the noose is closing and the US is NOT your friend. Do not count on US for jack shit.

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aprilnovember811

11 years ago

To those traitors in the media, the next threat ignored might be the one that lands on you, or your loved one. Oh, please let it be.

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suzpenn

11 years ago

It still remains unknown why Stevens was in Benghazi on 9/11, given that he knew he was a target and security was poor. What was so important that he(Stevens) had to be there, then. Did someone from the State Department ‘order’ him to that location . . . and why? This whole thing just smells. Like Norstrom said, “It’s the Taliban on the inside.”

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dad

11 years ago

I don’t understand. It is well known muslim brotherhood sets the US foreign policy. If you have a problem with that call Obama. I am sure he would explain to you he is an anti-colonialist, and he is backing anyone trying to overthrow colonialists like the USA.
He could further tell you he is taking the US, a major Colonial power down to the status of Bangladesh.
He will reduce our military size to near zero, and a nuclear deterrent missiles from 5,000 to less than 300, then hopefully zero. Then Islam will not attack us, when we are so weak. That part is amazing to me!
He provides billions to the muslims as they burn our consulates, which have the goal of bringing Sharia law to the entire west. He has allowed the devaluing of the US dollar to about half its value 2 years ago.
If he cannot destroy America as a world power, I do not know who could.
Amazingly, there are still Americans who support this destruction.

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Logic Retardant

11 years ago

And so, the word, “TRAITOR” lay dormant and unused for ever after — because no member of congress had the loyalty or allegiance to their country required to decipher the actual meaning of the lost word; nor did they have the stones to try to revive the word and put to use the actions connected to it by way of past patriotic circumstance.
And all free men became slaves.

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Bohemond_1096

11 years ago

Remember Saul Alinsky’s mantra quoted by Obama’s right hand man Rahm Emanuel: “Never let a good crisis go to waste – and if you don’t have a crisis, CREATE ONE!”. Obama wanted ambassador Stevens to be attacked and kidnapped. That way Obama could step in, negotiate with his Muslim Brotherhood contacts and save the day, swooping in like Superman to save the day and deal Romney and the Republicans a death blow. By being a hero he would virtually be assured of winning the election. Everything the narcissist stealth muslim in chief has done, from appearing on every liberal talk show to posturing about what he should have said to Romney in the first debate has been geared towards getting him reelected.

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Thomas Wells

11 years ago

The Caliph-in-Chief needs to be impeached for treason.

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