Ambassador had asked for continued support from SST
Jake Tapper at ABC News reports that Ambassador Stevens ad requested that the Security Support Team stay past their August deadline to leave Libya.
The embassy staff’s “first choice was for us to stay,” Lt. Col. Andrew Wood, 55, told ABC News in an interview. “That would have been the choice of the embassy people in Tripoli.”
But a senior State Department official told ABC News that the embassy’s Regional Security Officer never specifically requested that the SST’s tour be extended past August, and the official maintained there was no net loss of security personnel. The Regional Security Officer “asked for a number of U.S. shooters because of the pending SST redeployment and he was at that number,” said the senior State Department official, who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing internal investigation.
The State Department claims that those SST members were replaced by an equal number of agents of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, but it appears to me that none of them were with the ambassador when he was murdered.
The February draft report from the embassy in Tripoli to the State Department paints a picture of the Security Support Team as far more vital to security than the senior State Department official portrayed the group.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure that everyone would feel better if they were protected by members of the military in the Thunderdome that is currently Libya rather than Diplomatic Security.
Category: Politics
You have to ask:
What was the ambassador doing in Benghazi instead of the Embassy proper in Tripoli?
Especially on 9/11?
Who was being met and for what purpose?
Cue Gen Dempsey to publically upbraid another O-5 who has embarrassed the regime…
I saw some asshat from the DNC trying to sell this as “disinformation”… not sure what the purpose would be, but when he failed miserably trying to get it out of his mouth he went on a tirade of how Obama got Bin laden and AQ was on the decline and in hell….
How bad do things have to be, how bold faced do the lies have to be before Americans wake the hell up and take notice??
@3
Many Americans don’t want to wake up. They don’t want to take notice. They know there are bad things out there that go bump in the night and just want to pull the covers up over their heads and for someone to make it go away.
Should we expect the resignation of the SoS over this debacle?
Probably not.
At best some low-mid level functionary will be sacrificed. At best.
More like, it’ll be ignored.
OWB, I think Hilary will stick it out until the elections. I’ve gotten the impression she doesn’t particularly like Bo.
GEN Allen stated on ’60 Minutes’ last night, for all the US to hear, that al Qaeda and the Taliban are stronger than ever, and that al Qaeda come and go as they please and do whatever they want to, and have free rein in Pakistan, so how much twaddle does the WH think people are going to swallow?
Maybe the White House is now measuring Gen. Allen for the size of the sword he’ll be expected to fall on.
I was thinking that, too, while I watched that interview last night.
For me it comes down to… Do you believe Lt Col Andrew Wood, the head of the security team and honorable member of our military, or the lying liar State Department? I’ll take the good colonel, thanks.
As for him being thrown under the bus, is he supposed to lie to Congress? I don’t think so. In his head, he was probably saying “Come on, subpoena me already!”
OWB, I think Hilary will stick it out until the elections. I’ve gotten the impression she doesn’t particularly like Bo.
IIRC, I believe she’s said whether Obumbles (PBUH) wins or loses (hopefully loses) she’s gone regardless. She wants to run in 2016 (God only knows why, she’ll be 69 then) but the last few years sure haven’t been kind to her.
And if this whole fiasco blows up before the elections, that pretty much blows her chances then as well.
As far as the actions of the administration, some have said either the administration is covering up something or absolutely mind-bogglingly incompetent. For my .02, I say why either/or? Can’t it be both?