The REAL Benghazi Story: What the White House and Hillary Don't Want You to Know (18 page)

• The State Department labeled the attacked Benghazi facility a “U.S. special mission.” Why was it given such an unusual designation?

• Were the U.S. special mission and/or the nearby CIA annex in Benghazi involved in any way in procuring and shipping weapons to the jihadist rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad of Syria or to any other rebels fighting in the Middle East or Africa?

• Ambassador Chris Stevens’ original role in Libya was to serve as the main interlocutor between the Obama administration and the rebels based in Benghazi. Was Stevens himself involved in recruiting and/or vetting jihadists or coordinating arms shipments to the gunmen fighting Assad’s regime in Syria or to any other rebels fighting in the Middle East or Africa?

• The
New York Times
reported that from offices at “secret locations,” American intelligence officers “helped the Arab governments shop for weapons” and vet rebel commanders and groups “to determine who should receive the weapons as they arrive.” The CIA declined to comment to the
Times
on the shipments to Syria or its role in them.
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Where were these purported secret offices located? Was this a reference to the secret CIA annex and obscure U.S. special mission in Benghazi where Stevens held his final meeting with a Turkish diplomat?

• The New York Times
reported in December 2012 that Stevens himself facilitated an application to the State Department for the sale of weapons, filed by one Marc Turi, whom the
Times
describes as an “American arms merchant who had sought to provide weapons to Libya.”
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Why was Stevens aiding in an application for an arms merchant? Is this an ordinary activity for a U.S. ambassador? Was Stevens involved in activities in Libya beyond the diplomatic realm? If so, could these activities have any relation to the Benghazi attacks?

• Fox News reported that Stevens was in Benghazi the very night of the attacks “to negotiate a weapons transfer in an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists.”
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Is this accurate?

• In August 2013 there was speculation on Capitol Hill that U.S. agencies operating in Benghazi “were secretly helping to move surface-to-air missiles out
of Libya, through Turkey, and into the hands of Syrian rebels.”
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Were these activities indeed taking place? Were such activities transpiring in the U.S. facilities in Benghazi? Could it be that the movement of these weapons provoked the Benghazi attacks?

• The
New York Times
reported that U.S. intelligence officers aided Arab governments in obtaining weapons, “including a large procurement from Croatia.”
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The C-110 forty-man special ops force was reportedly “training” in Croatia during the Benghazi attacks. The force was not deployed to help the embattled Benghazi facilities. Was the C-110 in Croatia to protect, collect, or ship the weapons reportedly procured in that country?

• The ARB report provided a timeline of the attacks, an accounting adopted by the Obama administration. The report claims the initial assault on the U.S. special mission in Benghazi started between 9:45 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. local time and lasted until about midnight, when all but two Americans were evacuated to the CIA annex about a mile away. According to the ARB report, at midnight the annex was attacked intermittently for an hour by gunfire and RPGs. The ARB report claims the next phase of the attack started at about 5:15 a.m. local time, describing the second wave of attacks as consisting of heavy mortar and RPG assaults.
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• However, witnesses on the ground, including CIA contractors inside the annex, said there was no lull in the fighting at all.
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The “lull” claim is central to the Obama administration’s explanation for why no air support or special forces were deployed to Benghazi. Was there a lull or not? If not, why didn’t the Obama administration immediately deploy reinforcements? If there was no lull, why did the State Department claim there was?

• Why were no reinforcements sent the night of the attacks? The government’s standard response is patently absurd. They say they thought the attack was over following the initial assault, so therefore there was just not enough time to send a rescue mission or air support. But how could they have known what the gunmen had planned or that the “first wave” was the only attack to be carried out?

• After the initial assault Stevens went missing. As reported, the acting assumption of the decision makers that night was that Stevens had been kidnapped. Why were special forces not immediately deployed for a potential hostage situation involving a supposedly kidnapped U.S. ambassador?

• On the night of the attack, Gen. Carter Ham was placed in charge of the C-110 special ops force maintained for rapid response to emergencies. The force exists for the very purpose of responding to events such as the Benghazi attacks. Why was command of the C-110 transferred from the military’s European command to Ham’s Africa Command in the middle of the attack?

• Instead of deploying to Libya from their “training” position in Croatia, the C-110 were reportedly told on the night of the Benghazi attacks to begin preparations to return to their normal operating base in Germany. Why was this order given? Why was a special force that exists for the very purpose of an emergency like Benghazi told in the middle of a massive attack on our U.S. mission to return to their normal operating base?

• Former deputy Libyan ambassador and whistle-blower Gregory Hicks said he contacted AFRICOM the night of the attack but received no support.
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What justified the lack of support?

• Representative Westmoreland, chairman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee, commenting on closed-door testimony given to his intelligence committee, told Fox News in November 2013 that State Department employees inside the mission “were not armed, not kitted up and there hadn’t been any shots fired from our side as far as the testimony reveals.”
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In another interview with Fox News that same month, Westmoreland further stated one of the U.S. security officers was barefoot during the attack while another two were “riding around in a Land Cruiser.”
¹⁵
This witness testimony of unarmed personnel directly contradicts the narrative in the ARB report, which specifically claims the personnel inside the compound were armed. The document even describes how the security officers retrieved their weapons.
¹⁶
How does the State Department explain these glaring contradictions?

• U.S. government agencies, including the CIA, have long denied the persistent claim that there was a “stand down” order during the attack. However, CIA agents on the ground in Benghazi testified to lawmakers that they were loaded into vehicles and ready to aid the besieged U.S. special mission on September 11, 2012, but were told by superiors to wait.
¹⁷
Were any U.S. personnel ready to mount a rescue operation told to wait? If so, this would further contradict claims made by the State Department’s ARB report, which states that the response team one mile away in the CIA annex was “not delayed by orders from superiors.”
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How does the State Department explain this discrepancy?

• It is known that the Libyan rebels looted Muammar Gaddafi’s reserves of man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADS. Were the antiaircraft missiles in the hands of the Libyan rebels or other jihadists a major threat that impeded the possibility of dispatching U.S. aircraft to aid the American targets during the Benghazi attack? Was the MANPAD proliferation taken into consideration when deciding whether to send air support to Benghazi?

• Was Stevens or his body held hostage at any point. If so, by whom? How was Stevens’ corpse eventually released? Were there negotiations to secure the remains? What promises did we make for Stevens’ body, and to whom? If Stevens’ body were held hostage, why do we not know about it?

• Thomas Pickering, the State Department’s lead Benghazi investigator and author of the State-sponsored Accountability Review Board report, raised some eyebrows when he refused to deny there was a plan to kidnap Stevens. The response took place at a House Oversight and Government Reform committee hearing on Benghazi in mid-September 2013, when Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), asked Pickering directly about a potential kidnapping plot. Is any U.S. agency in possession of intelligence indicating that the Benghazi attack was a kidnap operation gone awry? Was there a plan to kidnap Stevens and hold him for the exchange of high-level prisoners?

• Abdallah Dhu al-Bajadin, who was identified by U.S. officials as a known weapons experts for al-Qaeda, wrote on a jihadi website that Stevens was killed by lethal injection after plans to kidnap him during the Benghazi assault went awry. Obviously we need to take anything a terrorist says with more than a grain of salt. However, is there any information that would indicate Stevens was killed by lethal injection? Was a full autopsy performed? If so, why haven’t the results been made public? Were any toxins found in Stevens’ blood?

• The ARB report states the intruders smoked up Villa C, likely to make breathing so difficult that anyone inside the safe room would need to come out. And that seems to be just what happened. According to the ARB report, Stevens and his guards had no choice but to exit the safe room for fresh air. How did Stevens and his guards make it
from the safe room, where they were being smoked out, into a bathroom in the Villa without any of the intruders noticing?

• An Obama administration e-mail released in May 2014 states that in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attacks, someone at a local Libyan hospital called to report Stevens was at the medical center and was “alive and well.” The e-mail entirely contradicts the ARB report, which states the caller at the hospital said a man matching Stevens’ description was brought to the medical center and was “unresponsive.” How does the State Department explain this discrepancy? Was the hospitalized ambassador alive and well, or unresponsive? If Stevens was alive and well, as the Obama administration e-mail claims, then how did he die?

• How did Stevens’ body get from a heavily besieged compound to the Benghazi Medical Center? The ARB report says Stevens was transported by “good Samaritans.”
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How did these “good Samaritans” make it past Ansar al-Sharia roadblocks with the body of the most high-profile American in Libya? And just who are these “good Samaritans” in Benghazi who risked their lives to make it through the various checkpoints all the way to the hospital?

• The Benghazi Medical Center was controlled by the rebels. The ARB report called the facility “dangerous for American personnel” because of Ansar Al-Sharia’s known presence inside the hospital.
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Did Ansar or any other Islamic extremist group become aware of Stevens’ presence at the hospital?

• The ARB report explains that the “presumed remains of Ambassador Stevens” were brought to the airport by Libyan contacts in “a local ambulance at 0825 local, and the TDY RSO verified Ambassador Stevens’ identity.”
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The ARB report does not explain how these “Libyan contacts” managed to get Stevens’ body out of the “dangerous” hospital. Who were the Libyan contacts?

• The eighty-five-page Senate report reveals details about how Stevens’ body arrived at the tarmac with the waiting evacuation airplane. “After more than three hours of negotiations and communications with Libyan officials who expressed concern about the security situation at the hospital, the Libyan government arranged for the Libyan Shield Militia to provide transportation and an armed escort from the airport.”
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Who was holding Stevens’ body, and how were the remains eventually released? Were any promises made by the U.S. government for the release of the body?

• Are any of the attackers tied to Egyptian former president Mohamed Morsi or any other Muslim Brotherhood figures?

• It is known that the U.S. government had knowledge indicating some Egyptian participation in the assault. Why did the Obama administration
initially keep this critical piece of information from the public?

• Unsubstantiated Arabic-language reports from the Middle East claim a passport belonging to the alleged killer of Stevens had been recovered at the home of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood deputy leader Khairat el-Shater. Is this true? Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reportedly visited el-Shater in prison in August 2013, spending over an hour talking to the Brotherhood leader.
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What did the senators discuss with el-Shater?

• The White House sought at first to connect the September 11, 2012, Benghazi attack to protests that same day in Cairo, Egypt, in which rioters climbed the walls of the U.S. embassy and tore down the American flag. Those Cairo protests were widely reported to be acts of defiance against an anti-Muhammad movie. However, the protests were actually announced days in advance as part of a movement to free the so-called blind sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman, who is serving a life sentence in the United States for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Is there information suggesting any of the Benghazi attackers were motivated by the campaign to release Rahman?

• There were unconfirmed reports that Egypt’s former Morsi government would not allow the U.S. officials to interrogate suspects in the attack. Is this accurate?

• On September 10, 2012, one day before the Benghazi assaults, al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri released a video calling for attacks on Americans in Libya to avenge the death of Abu Yahya al-Libi, one of the most senior al-Qaeda operatives, who was killed by a U.S. drone strike. Is there information indicating the attackers were sent by Zawahiri or were part of an effort to avenge al-Libi’s elimination?

• Is there information indicating Iran or any other state actor was in any way involved in the Benghazi attacks?