On Friday night, January 22, 2016, Larry sat on the phone with John Batchelor and detailed for John's radio audience the protocols that should have been followed when the U.S. mission in Benghazi was attacked on September 11, 2012 -- and he explains that the protocols weren't followed. (Podcast).
To get this question out of the way: is it possible that Larry's information was out of date or his description uninformed about what should have happened at the State Department during the attack?
From comments he's made over the years during his appearances on the John Batchelor Show, my understanding is that since leaving government employment Larry has worked as a contractor for the Department of Defense and retained extensive contacts in the American defense/ intelligence communities and at State. So I find it unlikely he would have brought inaccurate information to the discussion.
I warn readers, Americans in particular, that the discussion while crystal clear is difficult listening. It gets even harder if you're aware that prior to the attack some persons in the U.S. military must have had knowledge that an attack on the Benghazi mission on September 11, 2102 was in the planning stage -- unless we are to believe that the Department of Defense threw together a very detailed report on the planning and planners within 24 hours of the attack.
It took Judicial Watch a lawsuit, FOIA filings and a wait of two years to obtain the detailed report, which JW published on their website May 18, 2015 under the somewhat confusing headline, Judicial Watch: Defense, State Department Documents Reveal Obama Administration Knew that al Qaeda Terrorists Had Planned Benghazi Attack 10 Days in Advance
This doesn't mean the Obama Administration knew of the attack 10 days in advance. It means the U.S. military had at some point obtained intelligence that planning for the attack had started at least 10 days prior to the attack. The reason for the confusing headline is that Judicial Watch was focused on demonstrating that the Obama Administration had been quickly informed that the attack was a well-planned terrorist one, not a spontaneous riot as the administration had told the public in the weeks following the attack:
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it obtained more than 100 pages of previously classified “Secret” documents from the Department of Defense (DOD) and the Department of State revealing that DOD almost immediately reported that the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was committed by the al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood-linked “Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman” (BCOAR), and had been planned at least 10 days in advance. Rahman is known as the Blind Sheikh, and is serving life in prison for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and other terrorist acts.
The new documents also provide the first official confirmation that shows the U.S. government was aware of arms shipments from Benghazi to Syria. The documents also include an August 2012 analysis warning of the rise of ISIS and the predicted failure of the Obama policy of regime change in Syria.
The documents were released in response to a court order in accordance with a May 15, 2014, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed against both the DOD and State Department seeking communications between the two agencies and congressional leaders “on matters related to the activities of any agency or department of the U.S. government at the Special Mission Compound and/or classified annex in Benghazi.”
Spelling and punctuation is duplicated in this release without corrections.
A Defense Department document from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), dated September 12, 2012, the day after the Benghazi attack, details that the attack on the compound had been carefully planned by the BOCAR terrorist group “to kill as many Americans as possible.”
The document was sent to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Obama White House National Security Council. The heavily redacted Defense Department “information report” says that the attack on the Benghazi facility “was planned and executed by The Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman (BCOAR).” The group subscribes to “AQ ideologies:”
"The attack was planned ten or more days prior on approximately 01 September 2012. The intention was to attack the consulate and to kill as many Americans as possible to seek revenge for U.S. killing of Aboyahiye ((ALALIBY)) in Pakistan and in memorial of the 11 September 2001 atacks on the World Trade Center buildings."
[...]Now, exactly at what point did the military obtain this wealth of intelligence about the planned attack? Aye, that's the question, isn't it?
Again, did the military scare up the intelligence within 24 hours after the fact of the attack? If they obtained it earlier, was it forwarded to the White House, CIA, State Department, and all relevant military agencies -- and Ambassador Stevens? If not, why not? And if it was forwarded, was it overlooked or ignored? But if the intelligence was seen prior to the attack -- how is that Ambassador Stevens and the other American staff in Benghazi weren't extracted prior to September 11, the date of the planned attack?
Another important question would be exactly which agency or agencies obtained the intelligence that the Defense Department turned over to the Obama Administration on September 12, 2012. Not to be tacky, but there is the matter of a great many people dead by the most horrible means -- even if it isn't the 250,000 figure the UN likes so much -- and a country reduced to ruins by the most horrible means, and then there are all those annoying refugees.
Again, not to be tacky but one would want to know, I would want to know, whether the intelligence obtained by DoD about the Benghazi attack came from the CIA. Perhaps you can see where I'm headed with this. Or perhaps not, if you don't share my suspicion that defense policy for the erstwhile "republic" of the United States of America and NATO has for a half century been run from a post box in Riyadh.
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