- Jul 21, 2009
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FYI-Stevens was offered security personnel for the SECOND time, by Gen. Ham just 2 weeks prior to the attack, and Stevens turned it down....read the hearings notes....Hillary does not care what caused the death of 4 Americans at Benghazi.
Prior to the attack, Ambassador Stevens had requested an increase of security personnel at Benghazi which was denied. Who approved the denial?
Who was responsible for failing to immediately send military help to Benghazi? The Warrior Ethos demands this. Obviously, no one but the military understood it. The civilian bureaucrats certainly did not.
He could possibly be here today, if he had said Yes to the security personnel offered....
The other thing to NOTE is the security personnel that the Embassy was requesting prior to the attack, was for more INTELLIGENCE personnel, not armed guards, they felt their security could be stronger with more intelligence AGENTS on the ground there...
CIA had a full annex of intelligence agents on the ground in benghazi...but they still were caught off guard....so who knows if the added security intelligence agents would have even helped?
You fail to realize that the reason Stevens turned down General Ham's offer wasn't because he didn't think he needed additional security...he turned it down because security provided by US Armed Forces instead of the State Department would not have have diplomatic immunity (as the State Department security personnel did) and could be tried by Libyan courts. Stevens also correctly pointed out that under the Force of Arms agreement, the US couldn't bring additional military forces into Libya without the express permission of the Libyan government. All of which is why Stevens REPEATEDLY asked the State Department to not draw down his diplomatic security team. State Department didn't listen however because Hillary was concerned with how it would "appear" to the Libyans if we made it clear we didn't trust their militias to protect our diplomats.
One of the problems our diplomats had leading up to the 9/11 attacks is that because diplomatic security had been diminished as much as it had...they did not have anyone out in the Benghazi community getting a feel for problems. Instead they were isolated in their compounds...essentially blind to what was happening around them.
That's what happens when you're a non-Muslim in a war-torn Muslim city.
I still think we should wash our hands of all of them. If they start anything simply annihilate their families. Bulldoze their homes.