Follow-up to: “WEAPONS HUNTING: The Reason for the 9-11 Murders in Libya,” by Denise Simon, covering the topics of MANPAD missile recovery and the operative relationship between the Obama administration and Gitmo-released al Qaeda leader in Libya, Bin Qumu.
Get out the PAM cooking spray so nothing sticks to anyone involved in the murders and failed diplomatic operations in Benghazi. Yet, there is no one more responsible than the handful at the White House and the State Department. Remember that oath, to protect and defend against all enemies foreign and domestic. The date sadly was 9-11 but in this case it was 9-11, #11, an anniversary that historically brought out elevated states of alert and a position of readiness was always invoked, globally.
Such was not the case at not only Benghazi, but at all U.S. foreign government locations worldwide. This anniversary witnessed a vastly elevated number of major demonstrations at embassy locations on all continents against the United States and NATO partners however the White House and the State Department were in party mode.
Prior to the 11th anniversary, there was a long trail of detailed threats published for Libya just weeks earlier. In August 2012, intelligence reports spelled out in clear terms, the names and locations of jihadist activities. These came from the counter-terrorism professionals and Intelligence Community (IC) professionals as they provided to critical personnel and decision makers within the Obama administration. What is worse, not one person in this administration asked a pro-active single question framed as, “Is there enough security personnel in any of the diplomatic posts in Libya and should we review the safety of our people there?” This administration has proven a higher concern for a ‘green energy’ agenda, ensuring Chevy Volts were celebrated for the vehicle pool, and yet the U.S. embassy in Barbados even had an SST Marine division on security duty.
In Benghazi, the United States was the “last flag standing” after many months of assassination attempts, bombings, attacks, and protests since the fall of Qaddafi. All other nations had vacated the area earlier. Perhaps it is prudent for our purposes here to count all the attacks on U.S. embassies or those of our allies in the last several years. We should then question the need to have diplomatic posts in areas of such volatile and proven possibilities. If the need is great as determined by foreign policy stances, then shouldn’t we also question the level of security? When posts in safer places have such large Marine contingents and dangerous places do not, does this not place that foreign policy stance into question?
Marines currently serve at 148 US embassies and consulates; however Libya wasn’t one of them. The MSGs’ primary mission is to provide internal security services at designated U.S. Diplomatic and Consular facilities to prevent the compromise of classified information and equipment that is vital to national security of the United States of America. The secondary mission of the MSG is to provide protection for U.S. citizens and U.S. Government property located within designated U.S. Diplomatic and Consular premises/facilities during exigent circumstances that require immediate aid or action. It is important to mention here however, that President Obama has said publicly and mandated throughout this administration that he and all within government will stand on the side of the Muslims.
As a result the clear conclusion is President Obama as well as the Secretaries of State and Defense would rather eliminate all visible deterrents of protection and security that offend Muslim sensibilities and have in fact done so, sadly, even with the approval of the Joint Chief, General Martin Dempsey.
In the case of Benghazi, it is an established hotbed of jihad activity even while Qaddafi ruled the nation and even more so after he was captured and killed. Today, Libya is completely unstable and has no real government in place, certainly not one that can be embraced by any Western culture or leadership, except that of the Obama administration. Since the fall of Qaddafi, the United States had several clandestine objectives underway as posted by SUA here on September 20th. As a follow up to that article, the work by covert contractors and the CIA in Libya, is now wasted and remains not only unfinished but, all of the weapons and terror factions now go unchecked while unknown quantities of Qaddafi’s weapons are making their way to even Syria today.
Yes, all of Libya is dangerous, but it begs the question on how CNN was able to keep journalists safe even in Benghazi as the US FBI was having trouble gaining access. So the examination remains, why the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, an information officer, the two former SEALs, the RSO’s and the FBI were so unprotected and felt unsafe and called many times for more armed security. Could it be that the administration placed its faith in a set of Islamist networks to protect and defend our national security and sovereignty in Libya or other countries where there are continued attacks and killings against the West?
With these questions in mind, let’s look at some of the people in and around Libya that our State Department approved for interaction, security, and partners in country.
Mohamed Yousef el Magariaf is a Libyan politician who has been President of the General National Congress of Libya since August 2012. He was the first leader of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, which was created in the early 1980?s and was funded by the CIA and a Saudi financed group. The mission was to either remove and/or assassinate Qaddafi but it failed.
Qaddafi put out orders to kill el Magariaf, but he escaped to the United States and spent thirty years in exile here. el Magariaf is a member and fellow at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales. Curious that Wales is the home base for Blue Mountain, the security contractor for the Benghazi mission.
Fawzi Bukatef was head of the “February 17th Brigade” along with Rafallah al Sahati’s Ismail al Salabi and they were later replaced by Magarief along with other Colonels. al Salabi also heads a group of Islamists fighters. Magarief early on supported the militias and in September of this year, ordered them to leave the state, which were at one point under state control.
Fawzi Bukatef was/is head of the Libyan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood and the U.S. State Department put its reliance on him to provide protection at the diplomatic post in Benghazi. Bukatef himself received one of the desperate calls for help during the 9-11 terror attack, but Bukatef told his fighters to stand down. Additionally, the “February 17th Brigade” is also assigned to Libyan border protection.
Blue Mountain is a security firm out of Wales, UK that was formed by former British SAS members. Blue Mountain is a Private Military Company that is hired mostly to escort businessmen and diplomats including even those that belong to the IMF, that may travel to Afghanistan, Yemen, and Iraq, etc. The U.S. State Department signed a contract with Blue Mountain an estimated 4 months before the attack in Benghazi for $380,000 for moderate security and transportation services. Employees at Blue Mountain were paid less than $5.00 an hour. The contract did include an option for expansion with a financial cap of $780,000 but it is important to know that the contract was a ‘no bullet’ contract, which is to say there are they as unarmed sentinels.
Mahmoud Jibril was the Justice Minister under the Qaddafi regime and defected during the revolution. He was also the chairman of the National Transitional Council transferring authority to Mohammed Ali Salim after failing to ensure to make all Islamist and rebels a cohesive unit and to establish a new parliament. Hillary Clinton approved his early agenda. During this time the Red Cross had been attacked five times and soon left the country. Jabril too left Libya and found his way to the United States and became a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, in a think tank paid for by Qaddafi’s son Saif al Islam. He is a high proponent of ‘Sharia’ law.
Omar Abdul Rahman Brigade took responsibility for the previous attacks on the Red Cross office in Benghazi. Rahman, better known to the Intelligence community as the Blind Sheik, now in a U.S. imprison for the 1993 WTC bombing, and the al Qaeda faction(s) in Libya operate on his behalf. The Rahman Brigade likely has more than one name or associates with splinter groups that have connections to the targeted attempt to kill the British Ambassador on June 11 of this year. Up to this point, there are countless terror threats and bombing events that as a collective demonstrate that not only Benghazi but all of Libya is a lawless nation of full anti-West terror networks. It is unconscionable that the Obama administration can deny knowledge of actionable intelligence in Libya further adding gasoline to the fire that soon killed four Americans.
The full timeline of what led to the murders in Benghazi can be read here. We are fed a new fabricated story each day from top personnel in this administration about what happened and who is, or rather who is not responsible for the deaths of four Americans. In the end, there is no mistake, the intelligence community was well aware of the events that led to 9-11 – #11. Each day, Presidential Daily Briefings (PDB) are provided to top security advisers and Cabinet personnel in the White House, the Department of Defense, the State Department and the Ambassador to the United Nations. Sadly, no one bothered to embrace or analyze the threats including the President and Vice President himself.
Has anyone actually challenged Hillary Clinton or the members of the White House National Security Council or Valerie Jarrett? No one bothered to ask questions but mostly, no one bothered to order increased security to all diplomatic posts of the United States across the most threatened regions globally. If for nothing else, President Carter blew it on his agenda regarding Iran which led the embassy in Tehran to be attacked in 1979. Let it be said however, Carter did not ignore the threat or the captive Americans, he thought of nothing else and in the end they were rescued with the assistance of Canada and eventually released after 444 days, pathetically this is not the case with President Obama and the State Department.
There is no denial that intelligence was provided and what is worse, since the United States has had operational drones in Libya, where one such drone recorded and flashed all events into the CIA and the NSC. These video and intelligence points totally negate the story that a pathetic YouTube video was the cause. This was a lie that was fabricated by the entire Obama administration to cover what, creepy new friends and allies?
What is more, there is a video feed that is monitored full time of events inside all embassies and the post in Benghazi was no exception. Hence there are two sets of audio/video feeds that prove blood is on the hand of countless members of the Obama administration for the deaths of four Americans. The words in the oath have escaped all involved and each should be held in contempt of murder, accessories of four Americans. One should also ask, what happened to the employees working at the Benghazi compound that were on the payroll of Blue Mountain?
Not only did the United States not consider the loyalties of who would take control of Libya and a post Qaddafi government that would be in the best interest of the West as well as stabilizing some part of the Middle East, we can now legitimately claim that Libya is a failed state and will soon be under the full control of the Muslim Brotherhood and/or al Qaeda. One cannot dismiss the riches to be gained for the Muslim Brotherhood from Libyan oil. During this administration, we witnessed the fall of Egypt to the Muslim Brotherhood, Yemen is feeble at best and Jordan is much the same. North Africa has come under a siege by Iran of this there is no doubt. This also begs the question perhaps that due to the sensitivities of Obama to Islam was this in fact part of the taller objective? More still, is this part of an appeasement request to the Muslim Brotherhood which has also made large gains in Syria in addition to other Gulf States? We can say that the Mullahs and other tribal militia factions win yet another country without even firing a single shot. This too may explain why the Obama administration assigned Thomas Pickering, an Iranian lobbyist to investigate this terror event.
Obama has been soft on Iran and their nuclear program, so it no shock that assigning Pickering to the Benghazi case delivers a silent win to Iran’s nuclear ambitions. We cannot just yet tie Iran into the Libya/Benghazi affair at this juncture; however we would be remiss not to include Iran in the whole equation. This failed foreign policy approved by all the Obama placeholders puts even more focus on Syria still, as this administration and their detached and deferred policy for Syria has been out-sourced to the United Nations. Expect Syria to fall the way of other ‘Arab Spring’ countries – an event that will trump previous conflicts.
The work of the CIA, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the FBI and all associated agencies are angered by the blame and worse by the loss of work opportunities due to this administration. There should also be a State Department warning to all U.S. personnel that work in locations around the world that your government has no intentions to ensure your full protection and safety, certainly so if you are in a country where Sunni’s, Shi’ites or other radical Islamists prevail. It would be prudent to look deeply at security contracts and video feeds for any voids in your personal safety.
In closing, while drafting this researched piece, a stellar thinker and policy intellect, Andrew McCarthy wrote his own summation at nationalreview.com on Benghazi. In what appears to have some of the very same target points with this article both summaries echo many same conclusions while one is directed at the fallout of Benghazi and the other provides a deeper look and likely a hidden agenda for what the Middle East will look like at the end of four more years under Obama. Here is a handshake to McCarthy; it is gratifying to know we concur on several key points.
For more see Gulag Bound tag, Benghazi.
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Denise Simon is Senior Research Analyst on Domestic and Foreign Policy for Stand Up America; also 3rd Officer for Watchmen of America, Public Affairs Officer, and an Intel Officer for Watchmen of Florida. Denise is a member of the International Association of Counterterrorism and Security Professionals and is a First Observer, in addition to an executive career in national and international telecommunications, and non-profit organization.
These murders in Libya are something the White House must surely feel bad about…