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The Real Story About Benghazi in Libya - Adele Edisen - 17-05-2013
http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/15/the-real-benghazi-scandal/
May 15, 2013
Another CIA Debacle
The Real Benghazi Scandal
by MELVIN A. GOODMAN
When congressional Republicans complete manipulating the Benghazi tragedy, it will be time for the virtually silent Senate intelligence committee to take up three major issues that have been largely ignored. The committee must investigate the fact that the U.S. presence in Benghazi was an intelligence platform and only nominally a consulate; the politicization by the White House and State Department of CIA analysis of the events in Benghazi; and the Obama administration's politicization of the CIA's Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which has virtually destroyed the office and deprived congressional intelligence committees of their most important oversight tool.
When U.S. personnel were airlifted from Benghazi the night of the attack, there were seven Foreign Service and State Department officers and 23 CIA officers onboard. This fact alone indicates that the consulate was primarily diplomatic cover for an intelligence operation that was known to Libyan militia groups. The CIA failed to provide adequate security for Benghazi, and its clumsy tradecraft contributed to the tragic failure. On the night of the attack, the small CIA security team in Benghazi was slow to respond, relying on an untested Libyan intelligence organization to maintain security for U.S. personnel. After the attack, the long delay in debriefing evacuated personnel contributed to the confusing assessments.
The Senate intelligence committee should investigate why the State Department changed the CIA analysis of Benghazi before it went to the Hill. The Congress is entitled to the same intelligence analysis that is provided to the White Housewith few exceptions. In the wake of the intelligence hearings in the mid-1970s in response to intelligence abuses during the Vietnam War, the CIA lost its exclusive relationship with the president and had to accept a rough equilibrium between the White House and the Congress. It serves both branches of government, and is accountable to both. It cannot act on presidential requests without clearance from the Congress.
The success of the Bush and Obama administrations in weakening the CIA's OIG has ensured that CIA failures have gone unexposed and uncorrected. The statutory Inspector General was created in the wake of the Iran-Contra scandal to assure integrity at the CIA. After the office published reports critical of both CIA's performance before 9/11 and its implementation of the renditions and detentions program, however, the CIA's operations managers wanted the office shut down.
Successive directors have complied. CIA director Michael Hayden authorized an internal review of the OIG in 2007 that had a chilling effect on the staff. CIA director Leon Panetta went even further, appointing an Inspector General in 2009 who lacked both professional experience in managing intelligence investigations as well as the watchdog mentally that the position requires. When nine CIA operatives and contractors were killed by a suicide bomber at a CIA base in eastern Afghanistan, Panetta proclaimed that the bombing involved no operational failures and allowed the operational bureau responsible for the program to investigate itself rather than pursue an IG inspection. Even when the OIG documented Agency lies to the Congress concerning a secret drug interdiction program in Peru, no significant disciplinary action was taken.
As a result, the Agency's flaws have gone uncorrected. The politicization of intelligence in the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003 was the worst intelligence scandal in the CIA's history, but there were no penalties for those who supported CIA director George Tenet's efforts to make phony intelligence a "slam dunk" as well as Deputy Director John McLaughlin's "slam dunk" briefing to President George Bush. The CIA's production of an unclassified white paper for the Congress on the eve of the vote to authorize force in October 2002 marked the misuse of classified information to influence congressional opinion, but there were no consequences.
The destruction of the torture tapes, a clear case of obstruction of justice in view of White House orders to protect the tapes, led to no recriminations at the CIA. The controversy over the use of drone aircraft; the intelligence failure that accompanied the Arab Spring in 2011; and the inadequate security presence in Libya in the wake of the killing of Muammar Gaddafi have not received the necessary scrutiny. Any CIA component in the Middle East and North Africa is a likely target of militant and terrorist organizations because of the Agency's key role in the Bush administration's war on terror and the Obama administration's increasingly widespread use of drone aircraft.
The ability of the Nigerian underwear bomber to board a commercial airline in December 2009 marked an intelligence failure for the entire intelligence community, but there was no serious attempt to examine the breakdown in coordination between five or six intelligence agencies, let alone pursue accountability. Instead, President Obama halted all efforts to return home Yemeni prisoners at Guantanamo. Like the use of the drone, the Guantanamo prison recruits far more recruits for terrorism than any other U.S. action.
If more attention is not given to the biblical inscription at the entrance to the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, that only the "truth will set you free," the decline of the CIA and the intelligence community will continue.
Melvin A. Goodman, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, was an analyst at the CIA for 24 years. He is the author of the recently published National Insecurity: The Cost of American Militarism (City Lights Publishers)
Adele
The Real Story About Benghazi in Libya - Peter Lemkin - 19-05-2013
It's Time To Discuss The Secret CIA Operation At The Heart Of The Benghazi Scandal
By Michael Kelley and Geoffrey Ingersoll / Business InsiderMay 18th, 2013inShare![[Image: Benghazi-Cover-up-600x350.jpg?w=307&h=200&crop=1]](http://www.constantinereport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Benghazi-Cover-up-600x350.jpg?w=307&h=200&crop=1)
In eight months since an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi left four Americans dead, a Republican-led investigation has focused on potential missteps by the White House and come away with nothing significant. There has been little attention given, however, to covert actions by the Central Intelligence Agency that were partially uncovered during the September 11, 2012 attack.
That may be changing.
CNN's Jake Tapper argued this week that we should give more scrutiny to the CIA's presence in the Libyan port city. Congressman Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said the same, according to CNN: "There are questions that must be asked of the CIA and this must be done in a public way." Among the questions are whether CIA missteps contributed to the security failure in Benghazi and, more importantly, whether the Agency's Benghazi operation had anything to do with reported heavy weapons shipments from the local port to Syrian rebels.
In short, the CIA operation is the most intriguing thing about Benghazi.
Here's what we know:
The attack
At about 9:40 p.m. local time on Sept. 11, a mob of Libyans attacked a building housing U.S. State Department personnel. At 10:20 p.m. Americans arrived from a CIA annex located 1.2 miles away, to help the besieged Americans. At 11:15 p.m. they fled with survivors back to the secret outpost.Armed Libyans followed them and attacked the annex with rockets and small arms from around midnight to 1:00 a.m., when there was a lull in the fighting.
Glen Doherty, a former Navy SEAL and CIA security contractor, was with a team of Joint Special Operations Command military operators and CIA agents in Tripoli at the time of the attack. When they received word of the assault on the mission, Doherty and six others bribed the pilots of small jet with $30,000 cash for a ride to Benghazi.
At about 5:15 a.m., right after Doherty's group arrived, the attackers began shooting mortars at the annex, leading to the death of Doherty and fellow former Navy SEAL and CIA contractor Tyrone Woods.
At 6 a.m. Libyan forces from the military intelligence service arrived and subsequently took more than 30 Americans only seven of whom were from the State Department to the Benghazi airport.
So the CIA's response to go to the annex after being held back for 20 minutes saved American lives, but it also ended up exposing their covert presence.
And according to Paula Broadwell, the mistress of David Petraeus when he was CIA director, the CIA may have provided an impetus for the attack by holding prisoners at the annex: "Now I don't know if a lot of you heard this, but the CIA annex had taken a couple of Libyan militia members prisoner and they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back."
At its heart a CIA operation'
In November The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. mission in Benghazi "was at its heart a CIA operation."In January, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Congress that the CIA was leading a "concerted effort to try to track down and find and recover … MANPADS [man-portable air defense systems]" looted from the stockpiles of toppled Libyan ruler Muammar Qaddafi.
The State Department "consulate" served as diplomatic cover for the previously-hidden annex.
The top-secret presence and location of the CIA outpost was first acknowledged by Charlene Lamb, a top official in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security, during Congressional testimony in October.
Representatives Jason Chaffetz and Darrell Issa immediately called a point of order when Lamb exposed the location of the annex, and asked for the revelation to be stricken from the record.
"I totally object to the use of that photo," Chaffetz. said. "I was told specifically while I was in Libya I could not and should not ever talk about what you're showing here today."
Weapons from Benghazi to Syria
Also in October we reported the connection between Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who died in the attack, and a reported September shipment of SA-7 surface-to-air anti-craft missiles (i.e. MANPADS) and rocket-propelled grenades from Benghazi to Syria through southern Turkey.That 400-ton shipment "the largest consignment of weapons" yet for Syrian rebels was organized by Abdelhakim Belhadj, who was the newly-appointed head of the Tripoli Military Council.
In March 2011 Stevens, the official U.S. liaison to the al-Qaeda-linked Libyan rebels, worked directly with Belhadj while he headed the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group.
Stevens' last meeting on Sept. 11 was with Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin, and a source told Fox News that Stevens was in Benghazi "to negotiate a weapons transfer in an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists."
Syrian rebels subsequently began shooting down Syrian helicopters and fighter jets with SA-7s akin to those in Qaddafi's looted stock. (The interim Libyan government also sent money and fighters to Syria.)
What did the CIA know?
Collectively these details raised the question of what the CIA knew, given that Agency operatives in Libya were rounding up SA-7s, ostensibly to destroy them, while operatives in southern Turkey were funneling weapons to the rebels.Ambassador Stevens certainly would have known if the new Libyan government was sending 400 tons of heavy weapons to Turkey from Benghazi's port.
Just like the CIA would know if those the weapons arrived in Turkey and began showing up in Syria.
Journalist Damien Spleeters created this sourced map, drawing info shared on social media such as YouTube, that gives an idea of the MANPADS presence in Syria.
We've added red tag noting the Turkish port, Iskenderun, where the massive SA-7 shipment docked.
Other intriguing details
This week Nancy Youssef of McClatchy reported that Ambassador Stevens reportedly twice turned down offers for additional security, despite specifically asking for more men in cables to the State Department.Right after the attack American Matthew VanDyke, who fought with Libyan rebels during their revolution, told us he suspected that extremist groups in the nearby mountains who felt marginalized by the new Libyan government "saw their opportunity to pounce."
Earlier this month Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kent.) told CNN: "I've actually always suspected that, although I have no evidence, that maybe we were facilitating arms leaving Libya going through Turkey into Syria. … Were they trying to obscure that there was an arms operation going on at the CIA annex? I'm not sure exactly what was going on, but I think questions ought to be asked and answered."
So now that the White House has released more than 100 pages of Benghazi emails, and the State Department's role during and after the attack have been probed ad nauseam, it's time for someone to explain what the exposed CIA operation in Benghazi was all about.
The Real Story About Benghazi in Libya - Adele Edisen - 23-05-2013
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/opinion/the-cias-part-in-benghazi.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print
The New York Times
May 22, 2013
The C.I.A.'s Part in Benghazi
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Throughout months of Republican "investigation" into the tragedy in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11 last year, the Central Intelligence Agency has escaped the scrutiny and partisan bashing aimed at the State Department and the White House. But we now know that the C.I.A., and not the State Department or the White House, originated the talking points that Republicans (wrongly) insisted were proof of a scandal. It was more central to the American presence in Benghazi than the State Department, and more responsible for security there.
The C.I.A.'s role needs to be examined to understand what happened and how to better protect Americans.
Republicans have mostly fixated on the talking points that were the basis of comments made by Susan Rice, the ambassador to the United Nations, on television the Sunday after Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed. She said the siege seemed to have been a spontaneous protest hijacked by extremists, not a planned terrorist attack. Within days, Republicans in Congress were calling for her head. They later claimed the C.I.A. wanted to tell the truth but Ms. Rice and the administration cared only about protecting President Obama.
Under pressure, the White House has since released e-mails describing the interagency machinations behind the talking points, which David Petraeus, then the C.I.A. director, initiated at the request of Representative C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. As Karen DeYoung and Scott Wilson reported in The Washington Post on Wednesday, the e-mails show that Mr. Petraeus was critical to producing talking points "favorable to his image and his agency."
It was the C.I.A. that wrote in the first and subsequent drafts that the attacks were "spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault" on the American mission in Benghazi and a separate annex, operated by the C.I.A.
Early drafts said Islamic extremists with ties to Al Qaeda participated and that the news media had suggested a link to the Libyan militant group Ansar al-Sharia. In an apparent attempt to avoid blame for not heeding warnings, the C.I.A. said it produced "numerous pieces on extremists linked to Al Qaeda in Benghazi and eastern Libya."
Other e-mails show that it was the F.B.I., which led the inquiry, and the C.I.A.'s general counsel and deputy director who wanted references to Ansar al-Sharia deleted to avoid compromising the investigation. Another intelligence official wrote that there was no "actionable intelligence" that foretold an attack of the kind that occurred.
Republicans faulted the State Department for objecting to the C.I.A.'s initial draft. But the department seemed concerned mostly that the C.I.A. would say more to lawmakers than what could be shared with reporters or that the C.I.A. was trying to suggest that warnings about the attack had been ignored.
To a degree, the wrangling occurred because the C.I.A. annex was a classified operation. In fact, the C.I.A. was the main American presence on the ground in Benghazi, had relationships with local groups and was supposed to have the best fix on what was going on. There are serious questions as to why the agency did not have a better handle on security and didn't do a better job of vetting the local militia that was hired for protection.
The State Department did a full a public review of its behavior and accepted the conclusion that "systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels" in two bureaus created "a security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place." Reforms are under way. Congress needs to look closely at the C.I.A.'s role and insist that the agency do the same.
Adele
The Real Story About Benghazi in Libya - Drew Phipps - 01-05-2014
From news 5/1/14
"Retired Brig. Gen. Robert Lovell told the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform that U.S. forces "should have tried" to get to the embassy in time to help save the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans who were killed by militants in twin attacks the night of Sept. 11, 2012. He said the State Department should have made stronger requests for action.
State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf countered: "The notion that the State Department did not do everything possible to protect our people that night is as offensive as it is wrong."
"The truth is that multiple assets were deployed to Benghazi that night," she said. Harf listed a six-man team from the CIA outpost a mile away, a Predator drone that provided real-time images of the attack, a seven-person security team from Tripoli and one Marine rapid-response platoon. Some of those did not arrive until after the attack was over."
My question: Where's Hillary gonna hide once the predator drone shots go public?
New: 5/1/14
A few hours later, the powerful chairman of the Armed Services panel, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., challenged the testimony of Lovell, who was in U.S. Africa Command's headquarters in Germany monitoring the attack.
The general "did not serve in a capacity that gave him reliable insight into operational options available to commanders during the attack, nor did he offer specific courses of action not taken," McKeon said.
How can that possibly be true? Is our military that incompetent?
The Real Story About Benghazi in Libya - Drew Phipps - 03-05-2014
from news 5/2/14:
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker John Boehner on Friday declared he would schedule a vote to create a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack, escalating a political battle that has raged since the final days of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign."
The Boehner Committee?
The Real Story About Benghazi in Libya - Dawn Meredith - 03-05-2014
Drew Phipps Wrote:from news 5/2/14:
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker John Boehner on Friday declared he would schedule a vote to create a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack, escalating a political battle that has raged since the final days of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign."
The Boehner Committee?
No not this time. The Republicans are going to expose Hillary. The WC was a united group. This is not.
Dawn
The Real Story About Benghazi in Libya - David Healy - 03-05-2014
Dawn Meredith Wrote:Drew Phipps Wrote:from news 5/2/14:
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Speaker John Boehner on Friday declared he would schedule a vote to create a select committee to investigate the Benghazi attack, escalating a political battle that has raged since the final days of President Barack Obama's re-election campaign."
The Boehner Committee?
No not this time. The Republicans are going to expose Hillary. The WC was a united group. This is not.
Dawn
The GOP can't find anyone worthy or electable to run against Hilary, simple as that... the best they can muster these days is pounding on tables, bending a knee towards a picture of Ronny Raygun, dragging out Mutt Romney and his patent leather loafers. The GOP has now begun playing military tactician regarding a event happening 5000 miles from D.C. And most of the idiots never served in uniform, much let alone spilled blood.
The Republican Party is full to the brim with mental and militaristic incompetents, fucking idiots! The GOP can't get on message because they don't HAVE a message... Nobody is listening to John *Weepy* Boner (except Hilary of course--LMFAO)!
The Real Story About Benghazi in Libya - R.K. Locke - 03-05-2014
Stefan Molyneux has just put out a pretty comprehensive video on this subject:
The Real Story About Benghazi in Libya - Drew Phipps - 06-05-2014
Oh, the irony. Or is it hypocrisy? Or, will this story, once and forever, be the textbook example of why a democracy needs a First Amendment INDEPENDENT press?
From news 5/6/14:
"Media Matters chairman David Brock is urging top CBS News executives to reopen the network's internal investigation over its discredited "60 Minutes" report on the Benghazi attack."
(You might remember the story as the one where a guy pretended to have been there and then later it turned out that he told the FBI he wasn't there.)
"Re-opening the investigation is warranted as it now appears that CBS' internal investigation was not thorough, was wrong on critical points, and omitted key facts -- facts that would have revealed that Logan's report was tainted by partisanship and unprofessional conduct," Brock wrote.
Lara Logan, the network's chief foreign correspondent, and Max McClellan, her producer, went on leave following the network's internal review and have not returned. A New York magazine report, published Sunday night, has renewed interest in the network controversy and provided new details about how the erroneous Oct. 27 story -- which featured a discredited "eyewitness" and several unsourced claims about the September 2012 attack that killed four Americans -- ever made it on air.
Brock, a right-wing Clinton antagonist in the 1990s, turned left and went on to found Media Matters and super PAC American Bridge. He recently started Correct the Record, a new initiative to defend Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of State at the time of the Benghazi attack. In October, Brock wrote "The Benghazi Hoax," an e-book examining how Republicans and conservative media have promoted what he considers a "phony scandal."
The Real Story About Benghazi in Libya - Peter Lemkin - 06-05-2014
Good summary of Benghazi by Corbett in the podcast here.