A VERY SERIOUS FAUX PAS IN THE HEARINGS UP ON THE HILL (A TELEVISED LEAKED AERIAL PHOTO OF THE SECRET CIA COMPOUND IN BENGHAZI) LED ME TO ALL THIS DOCUMENTATION, ALL THESE SIGNS THAT POINT RIGHT AT THE CIA AS BEING BOTH AN INITIAL CAUSE OF AND THE END REASON FOR THE TRAGIC LOSS OF LIFE AT AMERICA'S BENGHAZI "CONSULATE".
I INVITE YOU TO READ ALL, THEN DECIDE FOR YOURSELVES.
<<A U.S. official familiar with the Benghazi intelligence, who spoke under the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, confirmed to HuffPost that the CIA had an extensive presence in Benghazi, and that the two former Navy SEALs who died in the assault, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, were contractors working for the agency.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/02/benghazi-cia-libya_n_2062131.html
According to documents released by the House Oversight Committee, when the Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy signed an order last December to maintain a presence in the Benghazi compound for another year, his official memo counted 35 "U.S. government personnel," of whom only eight were State Department. Many of the rest were secretly with the CIA, the official confirmed.
The U.S. official noted that at no point in the October congressional hearing did any of the State Department officials testifying use the word "consulate" to describe the Benghazi compound. This was no accident. In fact, the compound served little routine diplomatic purpose, and was largely under the operational control of the CIA.
"The CIA can't admit their role because it compromises the cover of the facility, and that's the most important thing," said Bob Baer, who spent two decades as a field officer in the CIA. "You can never compromise cover."
But there were other potentially mitigating consequences of the CIA's significant involvement in the facility, the U.S. official told HuffPost. For one thing, according to an in-depth investigation by The Wall Street Journal on Thursday it was partly confusion over who had ultimate responsibility for security at the compound, particularly in an emergency situation like the September attack, that contributed to the disarray during the response.
"State Department officials believed that responsibility was set to be shouldered in part by CIA personnel in the city through a series of secret agreements that even some officials in Washington didn't know about," the Journal wrote.>>
<end HP quote>
From the WSJ article: [SEE:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204712904578092853621061838.html]
<<This account of the CIA presence in Benghazi sheds new light on the events, and how the essentially covert nature of the U.S. operations there created confusion. Congressional investigators say it appears that the CIA and State Department weren't on the same page about their respective roles on security, underlining the rift between agencies over taking responsibility and raising questions about whether the security arrangement in Benghazi was flawed.
The CIA's secret role helps explain why security appeared inadequate at the U.S. diplomatic facility. State Department officials believed that responsibility was set to be shouldered in part by CIA personnel in the city through a series of secret agreements that even some officials in Washington didn't know about.
It also explains why the consulate was abandoned to looters for weeks afterward while U.S. efforts focused on securing the more important CIA quarters. Officials say it is unclear whether the militants knew about the CIA presence or stumbled upon the facility by following Americans there after the attack on the consulate.
The extent of the CIA role in Benghazi, and the central role the spy agency played in the run-up and aftermath of the attack, puts a spotlight on Mr. Petraeus, who took over as director of the agency last year.
Mr. Petraeus didn't attend funerals held later for the two CIA contractors, irking some administration officials and CIA veterans.
In Libya, the relationship between the State Department and CIA was secret and symbiotic: The consulate provided diplomatic cover for the classified CIA operations. The State Department believed it had a formal agreement with the CIA to provide backup security, although a congressional investigator said it now appears the CIA didn't have the same understanding about its security responsibilities.
Libyan officials say they were kept in the dark about what the CIA was doing in Benghazi. "The Americans had people coming and going with great frequency. Frankly, our records were never clear [about] who was out there" in Benghazi, said a senior Libyan government official in Tripoli.
The CIA abandoned the annex after it had been scrubbed clean of any sensitive materials, according to U.S. and Libyan officials.
The significance of the annex was a well-kept secret in Benghazi. A neighbor said that he never saw Libyan security guards at the annex compound and that the street never had any extra police presence or security cordon. "If the CIA was living there, we never knew it," the neighbor said.
In early October, the owners of what had been the annex property moved back inside. Recently, a woman and her two children could be seen driving in and out of the front gate. A gardener said they are the wife and children of the Libyan property owner.
The woman declined to comment, then slammed the security gate shut behind her.>>
NOW HERE IS WHERE CONGRESS AND A WITNESS REALLY SCREWED UP AND BLEW THE WHISTLE ON THEMSELVES!
http://vtest.techprogress.org/tag/central-intelligence-agency/page/3/?mobile=nc
Republicans Reveal Location Of Secret CIA Base During House Hearing On Libya Attacks
By Ben Armbruster on Oct 11, 2012 at 10:28 am
<<The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank caught an interesting tidbit from yesterday’s House hearing on the attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya last month. The GOP — having spent months railing against the Obama administration for allegedly leaking classified information — yesterday revealed classified information. “When House Republicans called a hearing in the middle of their long recess, you knew it would be something big,” Milbank reports today, “and indeed it was: They accidentally blew the CIA’s cover.”
Accompanying the State Department officials’ testimony was an aerial photo of the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, which one of the officials said was “entirely unclassified.” That is until Rep. Jason Chaffez (R-UT) interrupted testimony to point out that the photo contained secret information. Milbank explains:
In their questioning and in the public testimony they invited, the lawmakers managed to disclose, without ever mentioning Langley directly, that there was a seven-member “rapid response force” in the compound [in Benghazi] the State Department was calling an annex. One of the State Department security officials was forced to acknowledge that “not necessarily all of the security people” at the Benghazi compounds “fell under my direct operational control.”
And whose control might they have fallen under? Well, presumably it’s the “other government agency” or “other government entity” the lawmakers and witnesses referred to; Rep. Darrell Issa informed the public that this agency was not the FBI.
“Other government agency,” or “OGA,” is a common euphemism in Washington for the CIA. This “other government agency,” the lawmakers’ questioning further revealed, was in possession of a video of the attack but wasn’t releasing it because it was undergoing “an investigative process.”
Milbank noted that the New York Times had previously reported that CIA operatives had been evacuated as a result of the attack, but the paper “withheld locations and details of the facilities at the administration’s request.”
Minutes after Chaffetz’s outburst, committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) ordered the photo be taken down. “Too bad he didn’t think of that before putting the CIA on C-SPAN,” Milbank said. >>
The above-mentioned Milbank article, Oct. 10, 2012
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-letting-us-in-on-a-secret/2012/10/10/ba3136ca-132b-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_print.html
<<The purpose of Wednesday’s hearing of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee was to examine security lapses that led to the killing in Benghazi [last year] of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others. But in doing so, the lawmakers reminded us why “congressional intelligence” is an oxymoron.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was the first to unmask the spooks. “Point of order! Point of order!” he called out as a State Department security official, seated in front of an aerial photo of the U.S. facilities in Benghazi, described the chaotic night of the attack. “We’re getting into classified issues that deal with sources and methods that would be totally inappropriate in an open forum such as this.”
A State Department official assured him that the material was “entirely unclassified” and that the photo was from a commercial satellite. “I totally object to the use of that photo,” Chaffetz continued. He went on to say that “I was told specifically while I was in Libya I could not and should not ever talk about what you’re showing here today.”
Now that Chaffetz had alerted potential bad guys that something valuable was in the photo, the chairman, Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), attempted to lock the barn door through which the horse had just bolted. “I would direct that that chart be taken down,” he said, although it had already been on C-SPAN. “In this hearing room, we’re not going to point out details of what may still in fact be a facility of the United States government or more facilities.”
May still be a facility? The plot thickened — and Chaffetz gave more hints. “I believe that the markings on that map were terribly inappropriate,” he said, adding that “the activities there could cost lives.”
Republicans were aiming to embarrass the Obama administration over State Department security lapses. But they inadvertently caused a different picture to emerge than the one that has been publicly known: that the victims may have been let down not by the State Department but by the CIA. If the CIA was playing such a major role in these events, which was the unmistakable impression left by Wednesday’s hearing, having a televised probe of the matter was absurd.
The chairman, attempting to close his can of worms, finally suggested that “the entire committee have a classified briefing as to any and all other assets that were not drawn upon but could have been drawn upon” in Benghazi.
Good idea. Too bad he didn’t think of that before putting the CIA on C-SPAN. >>
ONWARD!
FOX "news" has been having a field day with all this.
According to their "Sources who were on the ground” in Benghazi, Libya, it was reported that an urgent request for military help during last month’s terrorist attack on the US consulate there “was DENIED BY THE CIA CHAIN OF COMMAND ".
“The fighting at the CIA annex [in Benghazi] went on for more than four hours – enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators.”
Writing last week in the conservative National Review online, former Marine Corps officer and Reagan administration senior Pentagon official Francis “Bing” West outlined much the same scenario as Fox News, including a timeline of events in Benghazi.
Supposedly there are three audio tapes from that night, from the site of the killings, that someone in the Obama administration is holding onto. I distinctly recall one WAS aired just after the attacks and continue my search for ANY of them. References are made to these audio tapes by several websites and 'news' agencies.
CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan reports that the FBI and State Department have reviewed video from security cameras that captured the attack on the consulate.
The audio feed of the attack was being monitored in real time in Washington by diplomatic security official Charlene Lamb. CBS News has learned that video of the assault was recovered 20 days later from the more than 10 security cameras at the compound.
The government security camera footage of the attack was in the possession of local Libyans until the week of Oct. 1. The video will be among the evidence that the State Department's review board will analyze to determine who carried out the assault.
According to that report, it was not the case that President Obama, Vice President Biden, Secretary of Defense Panetta, and a national security team were "watching real-time video of developments from a drone circling over the site"; rather, a single diplomatic security official was listening to an audio feed of events in Benghazi. Security cameras in the U.S. consulate compound did record video of the events as they unfolded, and a U.S. surveillance drone camera did capture the last hour of the attack, but neither of those sources was watched real-time by officials in Washington — the consulate video recordings were not recovered until weeks after the attack:
Video footage from the United States consulate in Benghazi, Libya, taken the night of the Sept. 11 anniversary attacks, shows an organized group of armed men attacking the compound, according to two U.S. intelligence officials who have seen the footage and are involved in the ongoing investigation. The footage, which was recovered from the site [during the first week of October] by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, offers some of the most tangible evidence yet that a military-style assault took place, according to these officials.
"'The two Navy Seals who were killed in Benghazi had heard the shots at the Embassy and ran to help their fellow Americans despite orders from the CIA higher ups to stand down. The CIA denies that they ignored Americans in peril. Unfortunately for them and the White House there are too many eyewitnesses and a paper trail which give evidence to the sad truth of the situation. '" This was aired on WRKO radio, in an interview with a "Colonel Hunt".
October 27, 2012
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Military/2012/1027/Benghazi-attack-Urgent-call-for-military-help-was-denied-by-chain-of-command?nav=topic-tag_topic_page-storyList
<<Writing in October, 2012 in the conservative National Review online, former Marine Corps officer and Reagan administration senior Pentagon official Francis “Bing” West outlined much the same scenario as Fox News was harping on atthe time, including a timeline of events in Benghazi.
“Fighter jets could have been at Benghazi in an hour; the commandos inside three hours,” West wrote. “If the attackers were a mob, as intelligence reported, then an F-18 [Navy fighter jet] in afterburner, roaring like a lion, would unnerve them. This procedure was applied often in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Conversely, if the attackers were terrorists, then the U.S. commandos would eliminate them. But no forces were dispatched from Sigonella.”
“For our top leadership, with all the technological and military tools at their disposal, to have done nothing for seven hours was a joint civilian and military failure of initiative and nerve,” writes West, a Vietnam combat veteran who has reported extensively on US combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. >>
Not surprisingly, the CIA has not been desirous of the revelation of the presence and status of its employees and so the declarations to the press have not been accurate in that regard.
The CIA HAS since admitted its presence at the compound, but not so much as that leaked aerial photo showed! 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.
If the CIA was so quick to respond to the attack, as the new account reveals, it seems it would have known just as quickly that there was no demonstration outside the consulate acting as a catalyst to the tragic events.
Even some administration officials have placed blame on the intelligence community itself for not being clear enough about what happened before the attack, and what orders may have been given during the attack.
Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain said on CBS’ “Face the Nation" in late October, 2012,
“But now we know that there were tapes, recordings inside the consulate
during this fight.”
McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services
Committee, said the FBI got the tapes and has classified them as top
secret.
The video is here, although it takes awhile for him to get to Benghazi:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3460_162-57541798/mccain-libya-either-a-cover-up-or-incompetence/
IF THE CIA WAS KNOWN TO HAVE BEEN HOLDING THREE 'SUSPECTED TERRORISTS', AS REPORTED (NO ONE CAN SAY WHERE THOSE 3 ARE NOW, BTW!), AND THAT INCITED THE ATTACK ON THE 'CONSULATE' TO FREE THOSE 3 CIA HOSTAGES, OR IF THEIR NEGOTIATING FOR ARMS DEALS INTO SYRIA USING THE EMBASSY OFFICIALS CAUSED A 'REACTION', AS OTHERS HAVE SAID, AND IF THEY DID ISSUE, AS THEY ARE ACCUSED OF SO DOING BY SOME WHO WERE THERE OR WHO HEARD THE AUDIO TAPES, A STAND-DOWN ORDER, WE CAN ONLY HOPE THAT THE CIA, OR WHOEVER WAS RESPONSIBLE, PAYS FOR THE IRRESPONSIBILITY THAT LED TO THE DEATHS IN BENGHAZI.
CHANCES ARE SLIM AND NONE, BUT WE CAN HOPE!
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