the benghazi attack

The investigation and events leading up to the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, and Information Management Officer Sean Smith.

• On April 5, 2011,Chris Stevens arrived in Libya to form ties after the death of Gadhafi. Obama appoints him to ambassador in May of 2012

• February, 2012: The U.S. embassy requests — and is granted — a four-month extension, until August, of a Tripoli-based “site security team” composed of 16 special forces soldiers.

• March: State Department Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom sends a cable to Washington asking for additional diplomatic security agents for Benghazi, later says he received no response. He does so again in July, with the same result.

• April 6: Two fired Libyan security guards throw an IED over the consulate fence.

• May 22: An Islamist attack on the Red Cross office in Benghazi is followed by a Facebook post that warns “now we are preparing a message for the Americans.” Another Facebook posting a month later highlights Stevens’ daily runs in Tripoli in an apparent threat.

Timeline leading up to events:

• June 6: Unknown assailants blow a hole in the consulate’s north gate described by a witness as “big enough for 40 men to go through.” Military officials now say that the attack was designed to measure the security team’s response time.

Timeline Continued

• Four days later, the British ambassador’s car is ambushed by militants with a rocket-propelled grenade.

Timeline Continued

• June 25: A cable sent to Washington which Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens cited an uptick in attacks in Libya “targeting international organizations and foreign interests.” He noted an attack that month on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, where a homemade bomb ripped a hole in a security wall. He also said: “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”

• Aug. 8: Stevens asserted in a cable titled “The Guns of August; security in eastern Libya” that the “absence of significant deterrence” had “contributed to a security vacuum.”

Timeline Continued

• July: Anti-Islam video “Innocence of Muslims” posted on You Tube.

• In the weeks before Sept. 11, Libyan security guards are reportedly warned by family members of an impending attack. On Sept. 8, the Libyan militia tasked with protecting the consulate warns U.S. diplomats that the security situation is “frightening.”

• Back in June: Abu Yahya al Libi was killed by a drone strike in Pakistan.

Timeline Continued

Importance: HighAffiliation: Al-QaedaRole: RecruiterNationality: Libyan

• Sept. 10: Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahiri called on Libyans to avenge the death of his Libyan deputy, Abu Yahya al Libi.

Timeline Continued

Importance: HighestAffiliation: Al-QaedaRole: Commander Affiliation: Egyptian Islamic JihadAffiliation: Al-Qaeda majlis al shuraAffiliation: Al-Qaeda Fatwah Committee

Sept. 11: Just hours before he was killed, Stevens noted that a local Libyan commander in Benghazi had “expressed growing frustration with police and security forces (who were too weak to keep the country secure)“

September 11, 2012

September 11th, 2012 in Benghazi


Around 8:30 p.m. Stevens walks out Turkish Consul General to the main gate. No signs of protests.

8:30-9:40 Chris Stevens and Sean Smith are in the Main Residence building with 4 security agents with them and one in the TOC building. All armed with pistols.


9:40 p.m. a mob of armed gunman carrying an Islamic militant flag breach the main gate of the consulate. According to eye witnesses these man are well armed and organized and some with foreign accents. Suggesting that they’re not locals.


• The security agent in the TOC building immediately activated the Imminent Danger Notification System. He also alerted the Quick Reaction Security team stationed at the Annex, the embassy in Tripoli and the diplomatic security command center in Washington D.C. who all monitored the attacks in real time.

• Around 10 p.m., after the mob couldn’t get to Stevens due to a security room in the Main Residence, they poor diesel fuel all around the compound in an attempt to “smoke them out.”

• The two security agents in the Main Residence manage to escape through a window but couldn’t find Stevens or Smith. They regroup, get it an armored car and drive back to the Main Residence and attempt to find them. They only find Smith, who is dead. They put him in the car and leave.


• With the initial Security Agents gone, there’s another team of reinforcements from the Annex on their way.


• The security team from the Annex were made up of 6 Americans and 16 from the Libyan militia. They’re unable to find Ambassador Stevens body

• By 11:00 p.m. the Libyan militia say they’re unable to hold the perimeter. So they leave and head toward the Annex.


• About half way to the Annex they’re hit with two grenades and take direct fire from AK-47’s.

• They manage to make it the Annex.

• Around 12 a.m. at the Consulate, looters find Ambassador Stevens’ body. They find him breathing and rush him to the hospital, where he dies of smoke inhalation.

• At the Annex, the fight continued. It was hit RPG’s and AK-47’s


• At the Annex, the fight continued. It was hit with RPG’s and AK-47’s forcing those who were there to retreat to a building in the back of the compound.

• Around 1:30 reinforcements from Tripoli arrive and head toward the Annex. They were told they were going into an ambush.


• Around 4 a.m. the Annex is hit with another wave attacks described as “planned and precise” with mortar fire targeting the roofs of the buildings.

• Former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty are killed.


• The fighters were eventually repelled and The Annex was secured. A decision was made to evacuate the whole enterprise.


• Later that day, protests spread to 20 countries around the world. Late that night, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says in a statement that “some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet.”

September 11th, 2012

• Sept. 13: White House spokesman Jay Carney says “the protests we’re seeing around the region are in reaction to this movie.” He also said the administration had “no actionable intelligence” about a pending attack.

• Sept. 16: Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said the video is the “proximate cause” . “Our current best assessment, based on the information that we have at present, is that, in fact, what this began as, it was a spontaneous — not a premeditated — response to what had transpired in Cairo,”

• Sept. 16 that same day, Mohamed Magarief, President of the General National Congress of Libya, insists on CBS that “it was planned, definitely.”

• Sept. 21: Clinton says “what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack,” highest official until then to say so.

In Washington

This is going to be something that’s talked about for years. This is the first time an Ambassador was killed since 1979. Why it was continuously blamed on a YouTube video, is unknown. The CIA has confirmed that it knew it was a terrorist attack within 24 hours. Some are referring this incident as “Benghazi-Gate,” a reference to the Nixon administration’s Watergate scandal.

The facts are that the State Department knew about the multiple requested for security.

Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary for international programs, went under oath during the congressional hearing Oct. 10, and admitted she denied requests for security because she thought the Libyan government could protect them.

So when this is ever brought up, I hope you all take something from this presentation.

Conclusion

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/oct/20/ambassador-stevens-warned-islamic-extremism-bengha/?page=1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Yousef_el-Magariaf

http://www.globalsecurity.org/security/profiles/abu_yahya_al-libi.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/timeline-of-events-comments-surrounding-attack-that-killed-4-americans-in-benghazi-libya/2012/10/20/ef5addbe-1a89-11e2-ad4a-e5a958b60a1e_story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/18/us/politics/questions-and-answers-on-the-benghazi-attack.html?_r=0

http://abcnews.go.com/International/attack-benghazi-consulate-unprecedented-state-department-official/story?id=17438780

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/special-report-bret-baier/blog/2012/10/19/special-report-investigatesdeath-and-deceit-benghazi

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/19/new-documents-show-security-concerns-in-benghazi/

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the benghazi attack

Documents