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Originally Posted by i'va biggen
They ware providing a cover for a CUA op. You can shuck and Jive all you want but facts are facts. How about the point Stevens declined more security.
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You do raise some good questions here. We do not know exactly why Ambassador Stevens declined offers of additional security twice from Gen Ham, who was the senior military official in the area. But we do know that Amb Stevens requested additional security thru the State Dept 4 times before the attack and was turned down by the State Dept every time. There were also discussions between the military and State Dept about security in the area. And we know that the State Dept said No to the 18 person security force headed by LTC Wood.
"One person familiar with the events said Stevens might have rejected the offers because there was an understanding within the State Department that officials in Libya ought not to request more security, in part because of concerns about the political fallout of seeking a larger military presence in a country that was still being touted as a foreign policy success.
“The embassy was told through back channels to not make direct requests for security,” an official familiar with the case, who agreed to discuss the case only anonymously because of the sensitivity of the subject, told McClatchy."
So I suspect that even though Stevens wanted additional security and was frustrated by not getting it, he knew that he could not accept an offer of additional security directly from the military unless it was authorized by the State Dept. And we know for a fact that the State Dept did not want additional security in Benghazi. In fact, they pulled LTC Wood's 18 person security force out of Libya in May, several months before the attack.
We also know for a fact that Amb Stevens wanted LTC Wood's security team to stay in Libya after their deployment was scheduled to end in August.
The bottom line here is that it was still the responsibility of the State Dept to provide adequate security for the diplomatic facilities in Libya.