Everyone knew attacks were coming
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interventionism has it's drawbacks
On Sep 17, 4:23 pm, Travis <baconl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/16/obamas-intelligence-f...
> ****
>
> ** **
> Obama's intelligence failure**** Everyone knew attacks were coming but the
> White House****
>
> U.S. Ambassador to the United
> Nations<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/united-nations/>Susan
> Rice is gamely trying to toe the administration line on the attacks
> on U.S. diplomats in Benghazi and Cairo that left four dead including U.S.
> Ambassador to Libya Christopher
> Stevens<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/christopher-stevens/>.
> On Sunday, she said the attacks were "spontaneous – not a premeditated" and
> "in reaction to this very offensive video that was disseminated." White
> House <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/white-house/> spokesman Jay
> Carney <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/jay-carney/> earlier claimed
> the attacks were not directed at the United States and cannot be read as an
> indictment of Obama
> administration<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/barack-obama/>policies.
> ****
>
> In fact, the attacks in Benghazi and Cairo were the result of massive
> intelligence failure at the top levels of government. There were many
> indications that extremists were targeting U.S. diplomats in
> Libya<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/>and
> Egypt <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/egypt/> months before this
> year's Sept. 11 attacks. These deadly plans had nothing to do with a
> low-budget, anti-Islamic film. The Obama
> administration<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/barack-obama/>simply
> failed to connect the dots.
> ****
>
> Ambassador Christopher
> Stevens<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/christopher-stevens/>had
> been targeted in Benghazi before. On June 6, a jihadist group called
> the "Brigades of the Imprisoned Sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman" set off a bomb on
> the consulate perimeter, wounding one. The attack coincided with Mr.
> Stevens<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/christopher-stevens/>'
> first trip to the country as ambassador – he had arrived May 26 – and he
> was the likely target of the attack, though when the bomb went off he was
> not nearby. According to the SITE monitoring group, the Rahman Brigades
> said they were "targeting a group of 'Christian overseers' who were
> preparing to receive one of the 'heads of instigation' from the State
> Department <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/>."
> They were seeking to avenge the death of senior
> Al-Qaeda<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/nasser-al-qaeda/>leader
> Abu
> Yahya al-Libi <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/abu-yahya-al-libi/>,
> who was killed in a U.S. drone strike. Even though the attack failed, the
> jihadists knew the ambassador was coming.****
>
> The Rahman Brigades is named for the "Blind Sheikh," mastermind of the
> 1993 World
> Trade Center <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/world-trade-center/>bombing,
> who is currently serving a life sentence in the United States. His
> name runs like a current through both the events in
> Libya<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/>and
> Egypt <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/egypt/>, and his imprisonment
> is a much more important instigating factor in the violence than the
> scape-goat video the Obama
> administration<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/barack-obama/>has
> fixated on.
> ****
>
> In Benghazi five days after the initial June bombing, the same group
> attacked a car carrying British Ambassador to Libya Dominic
> Asquith<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/dominic-asquith/>with
> rocket-propelled grenades, injuring two. The United
> Nations <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/united-nations/> special
> envoy to Libya <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/> was also
> targeted. These strikes were clearly pre-planned. The Rahman Brigades also
> mounted several attacks on the offices of the International Committee of
> the Red Cross<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/international-committee-of-the-...>,
> forcing the ICRC<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/international-committee-of-the-...>to
> suspend its operations in eastern
> Libya <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/>. On Aug. 11,
> General Mohammed
> Hadia <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/mohammed-hadia/>, a senior
> military official in the new Libyan
> government<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libyan-government/>,
> was gunned down in the city. On Sept. 2, a Libyan
> intelligence<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libyan-intelligence/>officer
> was killed and another wounded in a car-bombing attack in Benghazi.
> Three days before last week's attack that took four American lives,
> Benghazi security official Jamal Mabrouk warned U.S. diplomats that the
> situation there was not safe.****
>
> These are only a few of the numerous violent acts that were being carried
> out in Benghazi prior to the Sept. 11, 2012 uprising. All are based on
> open-source information, and presumably the U.S. intelligence community had
> even more details. Mrs. Rice said the level of security afforded an
> ambassador "depends on the circumstances," but in Benghazi the
> circumstances were dire. Any reasonable person would conclude that city was
> a dangerous place, that U.S. interests were being targeted, that extremists
> groups affiliated with al
> Qaeda<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/nasser-al-qaeda/>were
> involved and they knew exactly what they were doing.
> ****
>
> In Cairo, there were also reasons to believe there were endemic threats
> unrelated to the film. Again, the name that keeps popping up is Sheikh Omar
> Abdul Rahman. There had been a sit-in in support of the "Blind Sheikh"
> outside the embassy for 18 months. On July 27, the sheikh's son Abdallah
> Abdel Rahman threatened to organize a blockade of the embassy and to detain
> the Americans inside unless his father was released. Two days later,
> then-president-elect Mohammed Morsi vowed publicly to work to free the
> sheikh, and it will be at the top of his agenda in future meetings with
> President Obama.****
>
> The build-up to the embassy breach ran like clockwork. On Aug. 30, Jamaa
> Islamiya, the terrorist group formerly led by the Blind Sheikh, announced
> that the embassy sit-in was being turned into an active protest. On Sept.
> 4, the Egyptian General Intelligence Service warned all Egyptian security
> agencies of planned attacks against the embassy by a group called Global
> Jihad, which has been active in the Sinai.****
>
> On Sept. 7, an Islamist named Nasser
> Al-Qaeda<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/al-qaeda/>posted a
> statement on the Jihadi chat group Shumoukh Al-Islam that the U.S.
> embassy in Cairo should be burned down and everyone inside killed or taken
> hostage in order to bring pressure to bear to release the Blind Sheikh. On
> the day before the embassy assault, several other jihadist groups with ties
> to al Qaeda <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/nasser-al-qaeda/> –
> including Islamic Jihad, the Sunni Group and Jamaa Islamiya – echoed this
> threat and called for the release of the Blind Sheikh and all detainees in
> all U.S. detention facilities including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. None of these
> groups made mention of the allegedly offending film.****
>
> The takeaway from this timeline is that the Obama
> administration<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/barack-obama/>was
> blind to the growing threats. The State
> Department <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/> has
> admitted as much. On Sept. 6, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security Overseas
> Security Advisory Council (OSAC) website announced it had "no credible
> information to suggest that al
> Qaeda<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/nasser-al-qaeda/>or any
> other terrorist group is plotting any kind of attack overseas to
> coincide with the upcoming anniversary of Sept. 11." This announcement was
> taken down after the recent attacks took place. Secretary of State Hillary
> Rodham Clinton must explain why this part of the historical record was
> removed and what other incriminating documents have been deleted or
> destroyed.****
>
> The White House <http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/white-house/> and
> the liberal media want to keep attention focused on the film as a pretext
> for the violence to argue that the protests were spontaneous and not
> directed at administration policy. Yet substantial evidence exists to
> fatally compromise this self-serving narrative. The crisis was building all
> along, but the White
> House<http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/white-house/>simply
> refused to see it. Mr. Obama's soft spot for Islam became a blind
> spot for American security.****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
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