The Obama Administration knew that American Embassies in the Middle East were under threat of attack, 48 hours before it happened.
Independent.co.uk has the story:
The killings of the US ambassador to Libya and three of his staff were likely to have been the result of a serious and continuing security breach, The Independent can reveal.
American officials believe the attack was planned, but Chris Stevens had been back in the country only a short while and the details of his visit to Benghazi, where he and his staff died, were meant to be confidential.
The US administration is now facing a crisis in Libya. Sensitive documents have gone missing from the consulate in Benghazi and the supposedly secret location of the “safe house” in the city, where the staff had retreated, came under sustained mortar attack. Other such refuges across the country are no longer deemed “safe”.
Some of the missing papers from the consulate are said to list names of Libyans who are working with Americans, putting them potentially at risk from extremist groups, while some of the other documents are said to relate to oil contracts.
According to senior diplomatic sources, the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and “lockdown”, under which movement is severely restricted.
Mr Stevens had been on a visit to Germany, Austria and Sweden and had just returned to Libya when the Benghazi trip took place with the US embassy’s security staff deciding that the trip could be undertaken safely.
Eight Americans, some from the military, were wounded in the attack which claimed the lives of Mr Stevens, Sean Smith, an information officer, and two US Marines. All staff from Benghazi have now been moved to the capital, Tripoli, and those whose work is deemed to be non-essential may be flown out of Libya.
And now, “Arab Spring” continues to rage out of control…
As the anti-U.S. demonstrations spread, the administration acted on a variety of fronts to convey two messages: that it had nothing to do with the offending video and that violence was not an acceptable response to the material.
Anti-American protests break out in the Middle East: U.S. diplomatic compounds came under attack Tuesday in Egypt and Libya, where State Department employees were killed.
The report alleges that local authorities failed to prevent the violence.
The impact of the administration’s message remained in question. In Sanaa, Yemen, the U.S. Embassy was overrun Thursday by protesters who stormed a wall, set fire to a building inside the compound, broke windows and carried away office supplies and other souvenirs before being dispersed by local security forces.
“We want to expel the American ambassador,” Abdelwadood al-Mutawa said as he and other protesters left the compound. He said he was motivated by reports of the movie mocking the prophet Muhammad. “We cannot accept any insult to our prophet,” Mutawa said. “It’s a red line.”
In Cairo, clouds of tear gas floated through the fortified area around the U.S. Embassy as security forces clashed with protesters for the third straight day. Smaller demonstrations were reported throughout the region, as well as in Iran and Bangladesh.
In Pakistan, where anti-American demonstrations are frequent, the government said it had “banned” the American-made video and blocked access to it online. Although Afghanistan reportedly did the same, “Innocence of Muslims” was easily available there on the Internet on Thursday night.
Two days after the deaths of J. Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans in an outbreak of violence in the Libyan city of Benghazi, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton took the lead in trying to distance the U.S. government from the movie, calling the film “disgusting and reprehensible” and condemning the violent response to it.
“The U.S. government had absolutely nothing to do with this video,” Clinton said at a meeting in Washington with a delegation from Morocco. “We absolutely reject its content and messages. But there is no justification — none at all — for responding to this video with violence.”
The message went out from Washington throughout the day, in White House briefings, in speeches in Arab capitals and through official Web sites, e-mails and Twitter feeds from the State Department and its embassies around the globe.
Some governments responded to U.S. calls for strong statements against violence. After days of relative silence, Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, speaking during a visit to Brussels, condemned the attacks on the embassy in Cairo and vowed to defend the security of U.S. diplomatic buildings.
But Morsi also denounced the film and called on “the American people” to “declare their rejection” of such provocations. His Muslim Brotherhood movement joined other groups in calling for major but peaceful anti-U.S. demonstrations Friday, the traditional day of protest in the Muslim world and a time when appeals for tolerance will be tested.
During his misbegotten Presidency, Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), beginning with his speech at the University of Cairo, has made it his mission to be seen as a friend of the Muslim World, up to and including having the Godfather Group of Islamic Terrorists, the Muslim Brotherhood, visit the White House. Heck, as I’ve reported, Secretary of State Clinton, has one of the Brotherhood’s relatives working on her staff.
This whole sorry, dangerous spectacle, unfolding before our deja vu-filled eyes, is reminiscent of the story/pop song of the woman who is seduced by a beautiful but venomous snake into taking it home with her. The snake eventually bites and kills the woman, because it cannot help it’s predatory nature.
Obama’s re-election bid has just been killed through his befriending an ideological den of snakes.
I want to think you’re right that Zero’s re-election bid is toast. But somehow I’ve learned never to underestimate the stupidity of the American people. He never could have been elected the first time except for that.
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Egypt is said to have warned us on Sept. 4th of an attack. 48 hours before the attacks in Egypt and Libya, another warning was recieved. By order of Washington, there were no bullets for the Marine guards to use in defense of the Egyptian embassy. And by order of Washington, there were NO Marines to even guard the American Ambassador in the Libyian attack.
Smart power indeed…
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