A new account from the CIA of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya,
reveals that intelligence-agency operatives responded within a half
hour to the assault by heavily armed fighters on the poorly guarded
mission.
The timeline offered by senior intelligence officials Thursday also disclosed for the first time that two of the four Americans killed in the attack were actually CIA intelligence contractors – and not State Department security personnel, as they were previously identified.
Overall, the CIA’s depiction of the events that led to the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens offers new insight into US operations in the eastern Libyan city. It suggests that the small and lightly secured diplomatic mission served as a kind of cover for a larger but covert US intelligence presence, centered in an “annex” located about a mile from the consulate. This intelligence-gathering was focused on an area where Islamist extremists and Al Qaeda-affiliated militants were known to operate.
Yet the information does nothing to answer the myriad outstanding questions about Benghazi. Those questions include: Why did the consulate maintain flimsy security in an unstable area with militants known to have heavy weapons? Why were requests for increased security rebuffed in Washington? Why was the US ambassador staying at a mission under such risky conditions? And what did President Obama know about the terrorist attack and when?
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2012/1102/Benghazi-fallout-CIA-reveals-secret-intelligence-hub-was-nearby
The timeline offered by senior intelligence officials Thursday also disclosed for the first time that two of the four Americans killed in the attack were actually CIA intelligence contractors – and not State Department security personnel, as they were previously identified.
Overall, the CIA’s depiction of the events that led to the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens offers new insight into US operations in the eastern Libyan city. It suggests that the small and lightly secured diplomatic mission served as a kind of cover for a larger but covert US intelligence presence, centered in an “annex” located about a mile from the consulate. This intelligence-gathering was focused on an area where Islamist extremists and Al Qaeda-affiliated militants were known to operate.
Yet the information does nothing to answer the myriad outstanding questions about Benghazi. Those questions include: Why did the consulate maintain flimsy security in an unstable area with militants known to have heavy weapons? Why were requests for increased security rebuffed in Washington? Why was the US ambassador staying at a mission under such risky conditions? And what did President Obama know about the terrorist attack and when?
Read more: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Foreign-Policy/2012/1102/Benghazi-fallout-CIA-reveals-secret-intelligence-hub-was-nearby
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