[quote=SK in CV]The additional security was not requested for the consulate facilities in Benghazi. They were requested for the Embassy facility in Tripoli. Extended security was requested this summer by Ambassador Stevens for the facility in Benghazi, maintaining a minimum of 3 security agents. At the time of the attack, there were 5 security agents on duty, more than had been requested for that facility. The two additional were escorts for the ambassador.
What you’ve said makes sense about the mortars. The reports I’ve seen haven’t mentioned mortars, or at least if they did, I missed it.
I’m still more than a bit confused about why whether it was planned or spontaneous is important. Either can fit the definition of a terrorist attack, if that label is preferred. And Obama acknowledged it as such. (The significance of that also escapes me.)[/quote]
I think the larger issue is not the use of the phrase “act of terror”, rather, it was the administration’s continued insistence that the attack was “spontaneous” (it wasn’t) and driven by the YouTube video (it wasn’t).
Separate investigations have been underway and have reached significant conclusions that this was a planned attack, especially given that compound layout was not common knowledge and the accuracy of the mortar strikes.
Also, FYI, both DepState and the USMC requested additional security for multiple embassies and consulates throughout the region, as well as trade missions AND the facility where Stevens was domiciled. These requests were repeatedly either ignored and/or rebuffed, with the administration citing concerns over inflaming anger due to the presence of additional armed Americans, either uniformed US Marines or armed AmEmbassy/DepState security (driving distinctive armored SUVs).
Further, considerable signal traffic was received and analyzed, indicating either a heightened al-Qaeda presence or the arrival of al-Qaeda affiliated insurgents, militia or terrorist elements in various regions. Stevens had been repeatedly warned by US-friendly intel assets in Libya and he passed these warnings back, along with continued requests for additional security, due to these warnings that his life was in danger and that a significant attack was in the offing.
It strains credulity that we were somehow surprised by these attacks, especially given the widespread access to up-to-the-second real-time feeds from either KH satellites or drones on station in the area.
