White House releases additional documents related to Benghazi response
One hundred pages of emails were passed out by the White House Wednesday as the Obama administration tried to put an end to the long simmering dispute over what took place when the American compound in Benghazi was attacked. NBC’s Peter Alexander reports.
By Michael O’Brien, Political Reporter, NBC News
Under increasing scrutiny from congressional Republicans, the White House on Wednesday released copies of emails and other additional supporting documents related to its response to last fall’s attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.
The White House released the materials in the wake of Republicans’ clamor for more information about how the Obama administration crafted its explanation for the incident, which came at the height of last year’s campaign season, and resulted in the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
The emails convey different parts of the administration — the White House, the State Department, and the CIA — trading drafts of talking points for use not just by representatives of the administration, but also by members of Congress.
From the very first draft, the talking points included references to “Islamic extremists” who might have participated in the attack.
The most significant changes involved removing references to Ansar al-Sharia to not hinder the investigation into the attack, and changing reference to the Benghazi location to a “mission” or “diplomatic post,” rather than a consulate.
Those talking points, though, were subjected to scrutiny and a series of tweaks from different agencies to ensure the talking points did not get out in front of investigators, who did not yet appear to have a full grasp of the underpinnings of the attack at that point.
Did the White House selectively leak e-mail to distort Benghazi timeline story? Update: Axelrod: Release all the Libya e-mails
posted at 9:21 am on May 15, 2013 by Ed Morrissey
In order to understand just how badly the White House may have fumbled this ball, let’s go back to last week. Stephen Hayes at the Weekly Standard reported from Congressional sources on a White House-State Department e-mail string that made clear that the administration wanted the talking points on Benghazi massaged to protect sources and its own political goals. ABCs Jon Karl later reported from the e-mails themselves, showing that the White House and State Department went through 12 versions of talking points before settling on the final version, which CIA Director Davod Petraeus called “useless” and advised against using.
Yesterday, however — not too long before Jay Carney’s press briefing at the White House — Jake Tapper got a leaked version of an e-mail sent by Ben Rhodes that seemed to contradict the reporting from Hayes and Karl:
CNN has obtained an e-mail sent by a top aide to President Barack Obama about White House reaction to the deadly attack last September 11 on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that apparently differs from how sources characterized it to two different media organizations.
The actual e-mail from then-Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes appears to show that whomever leaked it did so in a way that made it appear that the White House was primarily concerned with the State Department’s desire to remove references and warnings about specific terrorist groups so as to not bring criticism to the department.
During the press conference, Carney seized on this report to claim that the Benghazi story was a trumped-up non-story:
Guests n MSNBC’s Now with Alex Wagner were in general agreement that the Benghazi scandal makes the White House look terrible, with one even bringing up the possibility of impeaching Obama.
A song I wrote when I visited the site after 9/11; always thought a little heavy, but it is time to get it out there. All photos taken from the web, if there is any infringement, please contact me, I will include credits. Included on my CD “Renegade of the Light Brigade” during the remix and urging of the late, great Steve Burgh.
Syria says Israel has effectively declared war, after its planes bombed targets in Damascus, the second airstrikes in as many days. Syria’s state media says Israeli rockets targeted a military research centre on the outskirts of the capital. Video footage and eye witness accounts suggest the attacks hit weapons dumps, triggering large explosions.
Syria says a number of people were killed and wounded amid widespread destruction. The Arab League has condemned the strikes and demanded the UN Security Council act to stop any more. The League say there has been a “dangerous violation of an Arab state’s sovereignty”. Article 2 of the United Nations Charter bans the use of force against the territorial integrity of any state. RT’s Gayane Chichakyan in Washington and Polly Boiko in London told RT more about the reaction coming from the UK and the US.
Five weeks ago, the head of the Arab League capped a summit in Qatar with an impassioned appeal to strengthen the rebel fighters trying to bring down Syrian President Bashar Assad. On Sunday, he denounced Israeli’s airstrike into Assad’s territory as a dangerous threat to regional stability.
The contrast reflects a fundamental conundrum for Arab leaders.
Nearly all Arab states have sided with the rebel forces seeking to topple Assad and inflict a blow to his main ally, Iran. And Sunday’s attack by Israeli warplanes in Syria — the second in three days — was the type of punishing response many Arab leaders have urged from the West against Assad after more than two years of civil war.
The fact the fighter jets came from Israel, however, exposes the complications and regional crosscurrents that make Syria the Arab Spring’s most intricate puzzle.
While Israel and much of the Arab world share suspicions about Iran, including worries over its nuclear ambitions and expanding military, the perception that they are allied against Assad — even indirectly — is strongly knocked down by many Arab leaders.
The airstrikes also highlight one of the critical side issues of the Syrian conflict: the Iranian-backed Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Israeli warplanes apparently targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made Fateh-110 guided missiles believed to be bound for Hezbollah.
Toppling Assad would cut the arms pipeline that runs from Shiite giant Iran to Hezbollah. But Hezbollah remains deeply popular on the Arab street for its battles with Israel, including a war in 2006 in which Hezbollah fired thousands of rockets into Israel.
No Arab leader wants to be perceived as giving a green light for Israeli attacks.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby warned of serious repercussions from the Israeli attacks and called on the U.N. Security Council to “immediately move to stop the Israeli aggressions on Syria.”
Elaraby described the Israeli airstrikes as a “grave violation of the sovereignty of an Arab state that will further complicate the issue in Syria and expose the region’s security and stability to the most serious threats and consequences.”
(Reuters) – The Arab League condemned Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip as “crimes against humanity” on Wednesday.
Arab foreign ministers said they “strongly condemn the barbaric crimes that the Israeli occupation forces committed in Gaza and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories”.
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Meeting to prepare for an Arab summit in Syria this month that is expected to focus on Gaza and Lebanon, the ministers said in a statement they were “recording these Israeli crimes as crimes of war and crimes against humanity”.
Israel ended a five-day Gaza military offensive on Monday in which more than 120 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed. It has threatened to send troops back to the Hamas-run coastal territory if cross-border rocket attacks continue.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said: “The criminal aggression against Gaza shows that Israeli policy against the Palestinian people is based on genocide and ethnic cleansing.”
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to resume peace talks, but did not specify a date.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who froze negotiations on Sunday in protest at the Gaza attacks, said talks could not get underway until Israel reached a ceasefire with Gaza militants behind the rocket attacks.
In Cairo, the Arab ministers called on Palestinians to end internal divisions. Islamist Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’s Fatah faction in June.
Revealed: Three Benghazi survivors set to go before House committee to testify about 2012 attack identified as career State Department officials as their attorneys claim ‘Obama administration tried to silence them’
Gregory N. Hicks was deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya
Mark I. Thompson is a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for Operations in Counterterrorism Bureau
Eric Nordstrom is a diplomatic security officer who was the regional security officer in Libya
The House Oversight committee will hear their testimony on May 8, forcing the Obama administration’s hand
President Obama has professed ignorance of any effort to prevent whistle-blowers from telling Congress about the night terrorists attacked
PUBLISHED: 13:30 EST, 4 May 2013 | UPDATED: 14:54 EST, 4 May 2013
On Wednesday, the three State Department officials will appear on Capitol Hill before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to talk about the September 11, 2012, assault on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi that resulted in the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Fox News revealed Saturday that the key witnesses are: Gregory N. Hicks, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya at the time of the Benghazi terrorist attacks; Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for Operations in the agency’s Counterterrorism Bureau; and Eric Nordstrom, a diplomatic security officer who was the regional security officer in Libya.
First hearing: Eric Nordstrom, a diplomatic security officer who was the regional security officer in Libya, testifies on Capitol Hill on October 10
Wintess: Gregory N. Hicks, a veteran officer of the Foreign Service – was in Tripoli on the night of the attack when he received a distress call from Ambassador Stevens
For Nordstrom, the upcoming hearing would not be the first time that he was called to testify on the events of last September.
‘For me the Taliban is on the inside of the [State Department] building,’ the former mission deputy chief angrily said while speaking at a hearing chaired by California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa in October 2012.
During his testimony at the time, Nordstrom detailed for lawmakers how he and the late ambassador had repeatedly asked to increase security at the embassy in the months leading up to the attack, but said that their pleas fell on deaf ears as the situation in the country continued deteriorating.
Witness accounts: The three career diplomats who were in Libya during the 2012 attacks will appear before a congressional hearing to testify about the deadly events of last September
The two other State Department officials have never publicly spoken about the attacks.
At the time of the deadly attacks, Hicks was the highest-ranking American diplomat serving in Libya.
Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a Republican and members of the House committee, said that Hicks – a veteran officer of the Foreign Service – was in Tripoli on the night of the attack when he received a distress call from Ambassador Stevens.
‘We’re under attacks! We’re under attacks’ Stevens reportedly yelled into his cell phone.
According to the Utah congressman, Hicks reacted to the news by calling Washington to alert officials and set off an ‘inter-agency response.’
What remains: As the investigation into the attack continues, the consulate remains damaged
According to the State Department website, Thompson ‘advises senior leadership on operational counterterrorism matters, and ensures that the United States can rapidly respond to global terrorism crises.’
Victim: U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed during the attack
Hicks and Thompson are believed to be represented pro bono by Joe diGenova, a former US attorney, and his wife, Victoria Toensing, a former chief counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Of the three men, Nordstrom is the only one who does not consider himself a whistle-blower.
According to diGenova and Toensing, their clients’ accounts of the attacks in Benghazi were dismissed by then-Secretary Hillary Clinton’s Accountability Review Board, and the two civil servants have been subjected to an intimidation campaign by their superiors meant to stop them from telling the truth about the tragic events in Libya.
The revelation of the witnesses’ identities comes just days after the Obama administration denied that it was prohibiting any U.S. personnel who survived last year’s attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya from testifying before Congress about what they experienced.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced on Wednesday that it will convene a hearing on May 8 aimed at ‘exposing failure’ in the Obama administration to respond to security threats to that diplomatic mission, and to present to the public and to Congress an accurate version of the attack that left Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans dead.
‘This Administration has offered the American people only a carefully selected and sanitized version of events from before, during, and after the Benghazi terrorist attacks, committee Chairman Issa, a Republican congressman from California, said in a statement. ‘Not surprisingly, this version of events casts senior officials in the most favorable light possible.’
Jay Carney insisted in a press briefing that no administration employees had sought security clearances so they could testify about he Benghazi raid, even after the House Oversight Committee asked for those very clearances
Issa’s committee has already shed public light on the U.S. State Department’s denials of requests for more robust security at the consulate in Benghazi. And in an October 2012 hearing, it produced evidence contradicting the administration’s initial claim that the the Sept. 11, 2012 military-style assault on the diplomatic compound began as a ‘protest’ sparked by a low-budget YouTube video that lampooned the Muslim prophet Muhammad.
‘Next week’s hearing will expose new facts and details that the Obama Administration has tried to suppress,’ Issa said.
At least four surviving witnesses to the Benghazi attack have retained attorneys to help them navigate the process of testifying before Congress about what they saw. They are all employees of the CIA and the State Department, according to a Fox News report.
The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya was attacked and burned on Sept. 11, 2012 in a military-style attack that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans
Former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel called it being “cold-blooded about the self-interests of your nation.”
Obama’s the latest US warrior president. Imperial lawlessness defines his agenda. Out-of-control militarism rages. Humanity’s survival is threatened.
Syria is Obama’s war. Direct intervention looms. Claims about Syria using chemical weapons don’t wash. Syrian officials categorically deny them.
On April 27, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) headlined “Information Minister: Western Sides Are Directly Responsible for Chemical Weapons Use in Khan al-Assal,” saying:
Omran al-Zoubi said chemical weapons likely came from Turkey. “The US-British and Western allegations in general on this issue do not have any credibility.”
A missile targeting Khan al-Assal came from a terrorist-controlled location. Syria requested an investigation. According to SANA:
“Al-Zoubi held the Western sides directly responsible for what happened in Khan al-Assal, saying they want now to hide behind this ‘fabricated and false’ talk to justify their silence on failing the investigation mission requested by Syria and to exonerate the terrorists.”
“The Minister added that the US is already involved in large-scale terrorist operations in the world, and is involved in Syria now because of its support for and silence on the terrorism committed by the terrorist groups.”
The road to Tehran runs through Damascus. Waging full-scale war on Syria looms. It appears prelude to targeting Iran. Spurious Iranian threats continue.
Connect the dots. Post-Boston bombings, expect Obama to take full advantage. Media scoundrels regurgitate official lies. Doing so facilitates America’s war agenda.
Independent nations aren’t tolerated. Washington demands pro-Western ones. Outliers are targeted for regime change. War is America’s option of choice if other methods fail. Syria may be prelude to Iran.
On April 25, the Jerusalem Post headlined ” ‘Red lines’ at the ‘Post’ conference,” saying:
“Red lines” dominate today’s headlines. Israel and Washington repeat them. In late February, former Israeli intelligence head Amos Yadlin’s New York Times op-ed headlined “Israel’s Last Chance to Strike Iran,” saying:
“Today, Israel sees the prospect of a nuclear Iran that calls for our annihilation as an existential threat.”
Iran, of course, threatens no one. It hasn’t attacked another nation in over two centuries.
“An Israeli strike against Iran would be a last resort, if all else failed to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear weapons program,” Yadlin added.
Now he’s warning that Israel’s on “a collision course (with Iran) by the end of the year.”
He’ll speak at the Jerusalem Post’s second annual conference. It’s theme is “Fighting for the Zionist Dream.” It’s scheduled for April 28 in New York.
Two panels will discuss Syrian and Iranian red lines. Yadlin will participate along with former and current key Israeli officials.
Yadlin heads Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies. He spoke at its recent Tel Aviv conference. He claims Iran may cross Netanyahu’s red line by summer.
If uranium enrichment continues “at its current rate, toward the end of the year (Tehran) will cross the red line in a clear manner,” he claimed.
Earlier he said, “Despite all of the attempts made to stop the nuclear program, no one is able to stop the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.”
“By summer, Iran will be a month or two away from a decision about the bomb,” he added. He claims Tehran has enough low-enriched uranium for six bombs.
“They have no problem converting back what they allegedly turned to nuclear fuel. Within a week, it could be turned into nuclear material for a bomb,” he said.
He urged military action. America’s credibility is on the line, he stressed. “This credibility will be achieved if the US aims a precise strike to stop the Iranian nuclear program and shows that it can deal with the escalation that would follow this strike.”
He’s not alone. Jerusalem Post deputy managing editor Caroline Glick headlined “Time to confront Obama,” saying:
Iran “crossed the threshold. Iran will be a nuclear power unless its uranium enrichment installations and other nuclear sites are destroyed or crippled. Now.”
“Iran has threatened to use it nuclear arsenal to destroy Israel.”
“(E)ither Israel must launch an attack without delay, or if we can’t, then Netanyahu has to publicly state that the time for diplomacy is over. Either Iran is attacked or it gets the bomb.”
It bears repeating. Iran threatens no one. No evidence suggests an Iranian nuclear weapons program. Annually, US intelligence says so. Israeli, American, and other Western officials know what they won’t admit publicly.
This 2007 booking photo released by Warwick, R.I., police shows Katherine Russell, arrested on shoplifting charges there. Charges were later dismissed. Russell is the widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings.
By Pete Williams and Erin McClam, NBC News
DNA found on a fragment of one of the Boston Marathon bombs does not match DNA taken earlier this week from Katherine Russell, the widow of the dead suspect in the attack, but she remains under scrutiny, investigators told NBC News.
Investigators said they still have many questions for Russell because they believe the bombs were assembled at the home she shared with her husband, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in a firefight with suburban Boston police April 19.
Russell converted to Islam in 2009, after meeting Tsarnaev in a nightclub, and married him in 2010. She said through her lawyer that his alleged involvement in the attack came as an “absolute shock.”
Investigators said earlier this week that a piece of one of the pressure-cooker bombs set off by the brothers had a woman’s DNA on it, and that they wanted to determine who else might have handled the bombs.
Federal agents with bomb-sniffing dogs searched in Dartmouth, Mass., on Friday after people living there said they heard loud booms a month ago. The surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was a student at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.
Ever since Boston police identified the Boston Marathon bombing suspects as Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, authorities have been digging into the brothers’ pasts to learn why they wanted to hurt people at the finish line of the marathon. In addition to finding out that over $100,000 in government assistance has gone to the Tsarnaev family, authorities found female DNA on bomb parts recovered at the scene of the bombings.
Now, The New York Times is reporting that Dzhokhar has revealed some of the bombing plot to the F.B.I. From his hospital bed, the alleged bomber told police that he and Tamerlan had originally planned to plant their bombs on the Fourth of July. Their bomb-making proceeded more quickly than planned, and the Boston Marathon was chosen as the target. Dzhokhar also reportedly stated that the bombings were partly motivated by the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that he and his brother had viewed online sermons from Anwar al-Awlaki, an American cleric.
WASHINGTON — The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings told F.B.I. interrogators that he and his brother considered suicide attacks and striking on the Fourth of July as they plotted their deadly assault, according to two law enforcement officials.
Stew Milne/Associated Press
Katherine Russell, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife.
But the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, told investigators that he and his brother,Tamerlan, 26, who was killed in a shootout with the police, ultimately decided to use pressure-cooker bombs and other homemade explosive devices, the officials said.
The brothers finished building the bombs in Tamerlan’s apartment in Cambridge, Mass., faster than they had anticipated, and so decided to accelerate their attack to the Boston Marathon on April 15, Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts, according to the account that Dzhokhar provided to authorities. They picked the finish line of the marathon after driving around the Boston area looking for alternative sites, according to this account.
On Friday morning, federal agents, state troopers and local law enforcement officers fanned out to search areas in the vicinity of Dartmouth, Mass., as part of their continuing investigation into the bombings, an F.B.I. spokesman, Jason J. Pack, said.
It was not immediately clear what they were searching for, but the officials said that there was no immediate threat to public safety. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, attended the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Two of his classmates from the college were charged this week with throwing out evidence that officials said could have linked Mr. Tsarnaev to the attacks.
In addition, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told authorities that he and his brother viewed the Internet sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American cleric who moved to Yemen and was killed in September 2011 by an American drone strike. There is no indication that the brothers communicated with Mr. Awlaki.
Mr. Tsarnaev made his admission on April 21 — two days after he was captured while hiding in a boat in a nearby backyard — to specially trained F.B.I. agents who had been waiting outside his hospital room for him to regain consciousness.
After he woke up, they questioned him, invoking what is known as the public safety exception to the Miranda Rule, a procedure authorized by a 1984 Supreme Court decision which in certain circumstances allows interrogation after an arrest without notifying a prisoner of the right to remain silent.
The new details of what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told authorities emerged as the F.B.I. moved forward on Thursday with trying to determine how the brothers were radicalized and the role that Tamerlan’s wife, Katherine Russell, may have played in the plot or in helping the brothers evade the authorities after the attacks.
As part of those efforts, the authorities have sought to determine whether fingerprints and DNA found on bomb fragments were from Ms. Russell. According to two other law enforcement officials, Ms. Russell’s fingerprints and DNA do not match those found on the fragments. All of the law enforcement officials were granted anonymity because they did not want to be identified discussing a continuing investigation.
Federal authorities are skeptical of Ms. Russell’s insistence that she played no role in the attack or in helping the brothers elude the authorities after the F.B.I. released photographs of them. That skepticism has been stoked by Ms. Russell’s decision in recent days to stop cooperating with the authorities.
Official: Boston bomb plot had been set for July 4th
Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY12:07 a.m. EDT May 3, 2013
The suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing had originally planned to strike on July 4, but chose the race because it coincided with the time they had finished assembling the explosives, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
According to hospital interviews with surviving suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev shortly after he was captured, the suspects apparently finished constructing the explosives well before they had originally planned and chose to act sooner rather than wait, said the official who is not authorized to comment publicly.
It was not immediately clear, however, whether the suspects had identified a specific July 4 target that corresponded with a later completion time, the official said. But the suspects allegedly settled on the marathon after noticing preparations for the race shortly before the event.
Boston hosts one of the premiere July 4 celebrations in the U.S., featuring the Boston Pops and a spectacular fireworks display on the banks of the Charles River.
Tsarnaev has been charged with detonating one of the pressure-cooker devices, while brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a confrontation with police in the days after the attacks.
Meanwhile, investigators in the Boston bombing case want to find out what Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his wife discussed when he phoned her a few hours after the FBI released photos of him and his brother as suspects in the deadly attack, a separate law enforcement official said Thursday.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died not long after the conversation during a shootout with police that left his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar, seriously injured.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured a few hours later while hiding in a boat in a backyard in Watertown, Mass. He is currently being held at a prison medical center.
That same evening, police say, three classmates of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth allegedly concluded that he was one of the suspects, went to his dorm room and removed his backpack and laptop. A federal complaint charges that they took the items to try to keep Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from getting into trouble over the bombings.
The content of the phone conversation between Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his wife, Katherine Russell, has not been disclosed, but authorities want to discuss it with her, the law enforcement official said.
Read Full Article Here
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Benghazi Gate – New Explosive Info On Attack In Libya – Whistleblowers Threaten By Obama Admin
Published on Apr 29, 2013
Potential Whistle Blowers Are Being Threaten By Obama Admin
Unbelievable Interview With Hidden Id Due To Fear Retroversion
Benghazi Gate – New Information On Benghazi Attack In Libya – Explosive Info From Conseal Id
More Info See Video Below
Benghazi Gate State Dept Withholding Benghazi Documents – Whistleblowers Threaten By Obama’s People? http://youtu.be/I9Lc3jNx2PQ
In a photo published in the December 2011 edition of State Magazine, the State Department’s in-house publication, a diplomatic security officer in Benghazi trains local Libyan guards in marksmanship. (State Department photo)
(CNSNews.com) – The February 17th Martyrs Brigade, a Benghazi-based militia with Islamist elements that the State Department hired as a “quick reaction force” (QRF) to protect the department’s mission in Benghazi, warned the State Department that it would not protect the movements of Amb. Chris Stevens when he visited there last September.
That warning was relayed to the regional security officer (RSO) at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli–the top security adviser to the ambassador–in an internal State Department email dated Sept. 9, 2012.
That was one day before Stevens departed Tripoli for Benghazi–for what was scheduled to be a five-day visit.
“[O]n September 8, 2012, just days before Ambassador Stevens arrived in Benghazi, the February 17 Martyrs Brigade told State Department officials that the group would no longer support U.S. movements in the city, including the Ambassador’s visit,” said a report on Benghazi released last week by the chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence, Oversight, Judiciary and Armed Services committees.
In a footnote, the report attributed this information to an “Email from Alec Henderson to John B. Martinec, ‘RE: Benghazi QRF agreement,’ (Sep. 9, 2012 11:31 PM).”
The fact that the militia gave the State Department prior warning that it would not support the ambassador’s movements in Benghazi raises new questions about the way the department handled security in Benghazi and its subsequent unwillingness to make department personnel available to congressional committees that are investigating the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack.
The State Department’s Accountability Review Board (ARB) report, released on Dec. 18, had revealed that the February 17 militia was no longer protecting the movement of U.S. vehicles in Benghazi at the time of Stevens’ September visit to the city. But it did not say that this information had been delivered to the regional security officer in Tripoli the day before Stevens traveled to Benghazi.
In this photo published in State Magazine, the State Department’s in-house publication, then-Special Envoy Chris Stevens in 2011 tours the ruins of the ancient Byzantine city of Cyrene in Libya, protected by State Department Diplomatic Security officers. (State Department photo)
“At the time of Ambassador Stevens’ visit, February 17 militia members had stopped accompanying Special Mission vehicle movements in protest over salary and working hours,” said the ARB report.
A Senate Homeland Security Committee report issued on Dec. 30 also included some additional details the ARB report had not. It said: “In early September, a member of the February 17 Brigade told another RSO [State Department regional security officer] in Benghazi that it could no longer support U.S. personnel movements. The RSO also asked specifically if the militia could provide additional support for the Ambassador’s pending visit and was told no.”
A footnote in the Senate committee report attributes this information to an email sent to Charlene Lamb, who was then the deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for diplomatic security. The email was sent Sept. 20, 2012–nine days after the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi. The footnote says: “REDACTED, e-mail message to Charlene Lamb, ‘Ambassador’s protective detail in Benghazi,’ September 20, 2012.”
Back on Oct. 10, 2012, when the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held an initial hearing on the Benghazi terrorist attack, it took testimony from Lamb and from Eric Nordstrom. Nordstrom had served as the RSO in Tripoli, but left Libya on July 26, 2012, when he was replaced as RSO by Martinec–more than six weeks before the Sept. 11, 2012 Benghazi attack.
Martinec was the RSO in Tripoli, and thus Amb. Stevens’ top security adviser, in the weeks leading up to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi. He was the RSO who received the internal Sept. 9 State Department email stating that the February 17 militia had warned that it would no longer support the movements of U.S. personnel in Benghazi–including the movements of Amb. Stevens. Martinec was also the RSO at the U.S. Embassy in Libya when the Benghazi attack occurred.
But–unlike Nordstrom, who did not get the warning from the February 17 militia and who was not the RSO at the U.S. Embassy in Libya when the Benghazi attack occurred–Martinec did not testify in the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Nor did the committee take testimony from the as-yet-anonymous RSO who was on temporary duty in Benghazi in September 2012 and, who, according to the Senate Homeland Security Committee report, heard directly from the February 17 militia that it would no longer support U.S. movements in the city.
The State Department’s Accountability Review Board concluded that the number of State Department security people on the ground in Benghazi had been inadequate even in the period that preceded the February 17 militia’s declaration that it would no longer protect the movements of U.S. personnel in the city.
“Overall, the number of Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) security staff in Benghazi on the day of the attack and in the months and weeks leading up to it was inadequate, despite repeated requests from Special Mission Benghazi and Embassy Tripoli for additional staffing,” said the ARB report.
Not only was the State Department facility in Benghazi understaffed, according to the ARB, it was also staffed with less experienced officers.
“Furthermore, DS’s reliance on volunteers for TDY [temporary duty] positions meant that the ARSOs [assistant regional security officers] in Benghazi often had relatively little or no prior DS program management or overseas experience,” said the ARB report. “For a time, more experienced RSOs were sent out on longer term TDYs, but even that appeared to diminish after June 2012, exactly at the time the security environment in Benghazi was deteriorating further.”
Both the ARB report and the Senate Homeland Security Committee report concluded that the Americans on the ground in Benghazi during the terror attack, including the State Department security officers, acted with great courage.
“The board determined that U.S. personnel on the ground in Benghazi performed with courage and readiness to risk their lives to protect their colleagues, in a near impossible situation,” said the ARB report.
“While our country spent Sept. 11, 2012, remembering the terrorist attacks that took place 11 years earlier, brave Americans posted at U.S. government facilities in Benghazi, Libya, were fighting for their lives against a terrorist assault,” said the Senate Homeland Security Committee report.
On Sept. 10, 2012—the day after RSO John Martinec at the Tripoli embassy got the email telling him that the February 17 militia would not support the ambassador’s movements in Benghazi—there were only three temporary duty State Department Diplomatic Security officers deployed at the department’s compound in that city. Stevens brought only two more with him when he went ahead with his trip to Benghazi that day—bringing the total number of State Department security personnel in that city to five.
The ARB report “found that plans for the Ambassador’s trip provided for minimal close protection security support, and that Embassy country team members were not fully aware of planned movements off compound.”
Benghazi Gate State Dept Withholding Benghazi Documents – Whistleblowers Threaten By Obama Admin
Published on Apr 29, 2013
Benghazi Whistleblowers Explosive Interview!
Benghazi Gate State Dept Withholding Benghazi Documents Whistleblowers Threaten By Obama admin
More Info See Video Below
Benghazi Gate – New Explosive Info On Attack In Libya – Whistleblowers Threaten By Obama’s People? http://youtu.be/Q8uYcYnDfTs
It was revealed for the first time today that the body of murdered Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was recovered by a secret two man Special “Ops” team that was not affiliated with any of the other security entities involved in the Benghazi attack.
This team, acting under their own initiative and armed with their own weapons, undertook this mission despite very little intelligence available for this exceedingly hostile and volatile environment. The information came to light this morning on WVOX’s Vernuccio/Allison radio show.
The previously undisclosed information was provided by former Army Ranger Jack Murphy who is the co-author along with Brandon Webb of Benghazi: The Definitive Report.
Murphy described in vivid detail the events of the attack including the fact that the hired gate security unit who came from a local militia brigade were armed only with cricket bats and fled the scene when the first RPG hit the front gate of the Temporary Mission Facility (TMF) around 9:40 PM Benghazi time.
He went on to describe the rescue of the TMF personnel by members of the nearby CIA Annex led by former Navy Seal Tyrone Woods. The rescue unit operated under an informal security agreement with the State Department but the effort was initially resisted by the Chief of Base at the annex. Within ten minutes of their arrival at the TMF, Woods and his team secured the survivors of the attack and the body of Sean Smith, a State Department Communications specialist and returned to the annex without being able to locate and recover Ambassador Stevens due to the intensity of the fire in the building where he was last located and the presence of both attackers and looters who were swarming through the compound.
Sources: 3 al Qaeda operatives took part in Benghazi attack
By Paul Cruickshank. Tim Lister. Nic Robertson and Fran Townsend, CNN
updated 6:53 PM EDT, Thu May 2, 2013
Demonstrators set the U.S. Consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya, on fire on September 11, 2012. The U.S. ambassador and three other U.S. nationals were killed during the attack. The Obama administration initially blamed a mob inflamed by a U.S.-produced movie that mocked Islam and its Prophet Mohammed, but later said the storming of the consulate appears to have been a terrorist attack. View photos of protesters storming the U.S. Embassy buildings.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
“Three or four members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” took part, one source says
Western intelligence services suspect they may have been sent to carry out the attack
They were later traced to northern Mali, where the trail appears to have gone cold
(CNN) — Several Yemeni men belonging to al Qaeda took part in the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi last September, according to several sources who have spoken with CNN.
One senior U.S. law enforcement official told CNN that “three or four members of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” or AQAP, took part in the attack.
Another source briefed on the Benghazi investigation said Western intelligence services suspect the men may have been sent by the group specifically to carry out the attack. But it’s not been ruled out that they were already in the city and participated as the opportunity arose.
The attack on the compound and subsequently on a “safe-house” to which Americans had been evacuated left four U.S. citizens dead, including the ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.
Demonstrators on September 12 gather in Libya to condemn the killers and voice support for the victims in the attack on the U.S. Consulate.
If the AQAP members were dispatched to Benghazi, it would be further evidence of a new level of co-operation among jihadist groups throughout the Middle East and North Africa, counterterrorism analysts say.
According to one source, counterterrorism officials learned the identity of the men and established they had spent two nights in Benghazi after the attack. Western intelligence agencies began trying to track the men in the aftermath of the terrorist attack, but were always behind in their manhunt.
A burnt vehicle is seen at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 12.
They were later traced to northern Mali, where they are believed to have connected with a fighting group commanded by Moktar Belmoktar, a prominent jihadist leader, according to a senior law enforcement source.
The trail appears to have then gone cold. In early 2013, jihadists were driven out of many areas of northern Mali in a French-led offensive.
Another source briefed on the investigation had previously told CNN that Belmoktar had received a call in the aftermath of the Benghazi attack from someone in or close to the city. Whoever made the call was excited.
Half-burnt debris and ash cover the floor of one of the consulate buildings on September 12.
There is no proof the call was specifically about the attack, but the source says that is the assumption among those with knowledge of the call. One source says the phone call was discovered when a Western intelligence service trawled through intercepts of communications made in the wake of the attack.
CIA officials told CNN they had no comment on whether any call had been intercepted.
One other source briefed by Western intelligence told CNN a call was intercepted but said only that it was placed to an AQIM commander, not specifically Belmoktar.
Belmoktar is an Algerian terrorist operative linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb who claimed responsibility for the attack on the In Amenas gas facility in southern Algeria in January this year. Some 38 people were killed during a three-day siege there.
The damage inside the burnt U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on September 13.
Chadian troops supporting the French intervention in Mali claimed in March that Belmoktar and others in his group had been killed during an operation in the remote Adrar des Ifhogas mountain range.
There has never been any confirmation of his death, and one source briefed by Western and regional intelligence officials told CNN that Belmoktar may have started operating in the “desert triangle” straddling the borders of Algeria, Niger and Libya.
U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement about the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Rose Garden at the White House on September 12 in Washington.
3 pals of Boston Marathon bombing suspect arrested: sources
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Heightened security, empty streets, and memorials mark the the days after the Boston Marathon bombings.
By Pete Williams, Richard Esposito, Michael Isikoff and Tracy Connor, NBC News
Three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are under arrest, suspected of removing items from his dorm room after the April 15 attack, sources said Wednesday.
Two of them were detained April 20 on immigration charges and a third has now been taken into custody, sources said.
They will be charged with lying to federal investigators for denying they took the items from the dorm, sources said.
Three college friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are being held by police in Massachusetts in connection to the case, allegedly removing possible evidence from his dorm room. NBC’s Pete Williams reports.
There was no indication the three men, who have ties to the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, had any prior knowledge of the bombing.
“Please be advised that there is no threat to public safety,” the Boston Police Department said on its website, confirming the arrests but releasing no further information.
Authorities said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, and his older brother Tamerlan carried out the blasts that killed three and wounded more than 200 near the finish line of the race.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a firefight with police. Dzhokhar was arrested after a manhunt and has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction.
Law enforcement officials have told NBC News that Dzhokhar told them during questioning he and his brother wanted to defend Islam after the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Kevin Johnson and Doug Stanglin, USA TODAY1:31 p.m. EDT May 1, 2013
A source says the three were college classmates of bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Three college roommates of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have been arrested on suspicion of allegedly removing some of his personal effects from their dorm room at his direction following the April 15 attack, a law enforcement source reported Wednesday.
None of the three is suspected of having advance knowledge of the plot or participating in the planning of the bombing.
Two law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation say two of the three are originally from Kazakhstan who were friendly with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Associated Press reported.
Linda Cristello, a Boston attorney who represented Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev in immigration court Wednesday morning, confirmed her clients now face separate federal charges and have an afternoon court appearance related to the bombing case.
At the immigration hearing, which involved alleged visa violations, lawyers for the two men said they had cooperated with Homeland Security and FBI investigators for hours and were only college friends Tsarnaev and should be released, The Boston Globe reported.
The pair have been held in a county jail for more than a week on allegations that they violated their student visas while attending the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with Tsarnaev, who is originally from Russia.
The name of the third suspect was not immediately released.
Three law enforcement sources confirmed the arrests, which were also announced by the Boston Police Department on its Twitter account. The sources asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
http://www.democracynow.org – The U.S. military has acknowledged for the first time the number of prisoners on hunger strike at the military prison has topped 100. About a fifth of the hunger strikers are now being forced fed. Lawyers for the prisoners say more than 130 men are taking part in the hunger strike, which began in February. One of the hunger strikers is a Yemeni man named Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel. In a letter published in the New York Times, he wrote: “Denying ourselves food and risking death every day is the choice we have made. I just hope that because of the pain we are suffering, the eyes of the world will once again look to Guantánamo before it is too late.” We speak to attorney Carlos Warner who represents 11 prisoners at Guantánamo. He spoke to one of them on Friday. “Unfortunately, they are held because the president has no political will to end Guantánamo,” Warner says. “The president has the authority to transfer individuals if he believes that it’s in the interest of the United States. He doesn’t have the political will to do so because 166 men in Guantánamo don’t have much pull in the United States. But the average American on the street does not understand that half of these men, 86 of the men, are cleared for release.”
Demonstrators set the U.S. Consulate compound in Benghazi, Libya, on fire on September 11, 2012. The U.S. ambassador and three other U.S. nationals were killed during the attack. The Obama administration initially blamed a mob inflamed by a U.S.-produced movie that mocked Islam and its Prophet Mohammed, but later said the storming of the consulate appears to have been a terrorist attack. 
Demonstrators on September 12 gather in Libya to condemn the killers and voice support for the victims in the attack on the U.S. Consulate. 
A burnt vehicle is seen at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on September 12. 
Half-burnt debris and ash cover the floor of one of the consulate buildings on September 12.
The damage inside the burnt U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on September 13.
U.S. President Barack Obama makes a statement about the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Rose Garden at the White House on September 12 in Washington. 
