[quote=craptcha][quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=craptcha]
The Benghazi outpost was not an Embassy. And if we are to believe Allan the ambassador was not just a diplomat, but also a facilitator in weapons proliferation scheme.[/quote]
Um, yeah, I don’t report the news, chief. Hence my link to the actual news article reporting on the Libya to Syria heavy weapons program.
Nice try, though.[/quote]
I did not try to imply that you have shared some big secret. You are the resident expert on all things military and geopolitical. To me the article you referenced looks just like the next one. I assumed you can filter out the noise better than most and took your interpretation as more likely to be correct than what others were posting in the thread.[/quote]
My bad, and sorry for the reflexive pissy response there.
I actually have no idea what actually happened and I doubt very much anyone else does, either.
We will never know, but I’d surmise from the responses of the various involved groups and agencies, like CIA and DepState, that there’s a CYA of epic proportions going on.
What I do feel comfortable on opining on is this, though:
– Based on the evidence, it appears the ambassador was attempting to gather intel, along with securing anti-aircraft weapons that might imperil US/NATO aircraft, along with possible civil air targets, as well as providing diplomatic cover for a Libya – Syria heavy weapons pipeline aimed at providing material support for US/UK anti-Assad operations within Syria.
– The situation in Benghazi (and Tripoli) was very fluid and dynamic, with no stable government in place and many different groups jockeying for power and influence, some of them pro-US and others anti-US. Stevens knew he was a target, as he’d been warned previously, and CIA knew that al-Qaeda was now present in Libya and that the US ambassador was a “soft” target (meaning he wasn’t behind embassy walls with a Marine security contingent).
– Stevens did ask for help and this is confirmed by multiple sources and independently confirmed through reportage as well. However, given the large numbers of heavy weapons in the hands of anti-US forces (al-Qaeda and Salafists), Stevens could not decamp the US facilities and attempt to make for Tripoli (approx 400mi and a 14hr ride). None of the available vehicles were capable of withstanding 12.7mm (.50cal) machine gun fire or 23mm cannon fire, let alone a direct hit from an RPG. As various pictures from the area attest, these type weapons were in abundance and safe ingress/egress in/out of Benghazi was very much in doubt.
– A drone was on-station filming the scene and this provides one likely scenario as to why the former SEAL on the roof pointed his laser, in that he believed the drone was armed (it wasn’t). Another likely scenario and one confirmed by CBS News is that there was an AC-130 gunship circling above, but did not receive confirmation/permission to fire. There is no other likely explanation as to why a skilled, combat-trained operator would be using a laser designator, other than that. These lasers are not visible to the human eye, thus they provide no deterrent effect (convincing your enemy that you’re targeting heavy ordnance/fire support when you don’t have any).
– There was a group of Delta shooters at NAS Sigonella, but they never received the “go” call, even though Sigonella is only 480mi away. One can assert, thinly, that the Delta contingent was unaware of the situation on the ground and thus didn’t know what they might be jumping into, but the drone above continuously monitoring the situation through a real-time video/camera feed would tend to give lie to that assertion.
Call it “fog of war” if you want, but it sure looks shitty, given that nearly all of this transpired in real-time and on the Situation Room big screen(s). Does it rise to the level of cover-up? Fuck if I know, but it sure looks shitty, and we have a dead US ambassador for the first time since 1979 and those two former SEALs had their cheese hung out in the breeze. They did wax over 60 bad guys, though, so they went out hard while protecting/saving other Americans.
