A U.S. Senate report on the September 11, 2012 attack against an American diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya concluded that groups affiliated with al-Qaeda carried out the assault that left four Americans – including a U.S. Ambassador – dead.
“Individuals affiliated with terrorist groups, including AQIM, Ansar al-Sharia, AQAP, and the Mohammad Jamal Network, participated in the September 11, 2012, attacks,” the report said.
AQIM is “al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” while AQAP is “al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.”
Benghazi was put on ice by the mainstream media in the months leading up to the November 2012 presidential election – and didn’t bubble up to major scandal level until May 2013.
Of course by then it was quickly supplanted by the IRS scandal and the revelations regarding domestic spying by the National Security Agency (NSA).
This website has been harshly critical of the administration of Barack Obama as it relates to its handling of Benghazi … from the very beginning.
“Three decades ago, a scandal like this would have been the end of an administration,” we wrote a month after the attacks. “Think about it: Four Americans (including a U.S. Ambassador) were murdered by terrorists in Benghazi, Libya as an American President watched in a secure room halfway around the world – refusing to provide help.”
Not only that at this point it is painfully obvious that the Obama administration – which prior to the Benghazi attacks was touting the defeat of al-Qaeda – deliberate deceived the public into thinking the attack was the spontaneous outgrowth of protests in Libya as opposed to what it was: A premeditated terrorist attack.
Testifying before Senators a year ago, then-U.S. Secretary of State (and 2016 Democratic presidential frontrunner) Hillary Clinton took responsibility for Benghazi, saying “nobody is more committed to getting this right.”
The U.S. Senate report said the attack was “likely preventable,” and cited the failure of the Obama administration to heed “ample” warnings prior to the violence.
“Despite the clearly deteriorating security situation in Benghazi and requests for additional security resources, few significant improvements were made by the State Department to the security posture of the Temporary Mission Facility,” the report states.
Of course as this website has argued all along, the Obama administration’s failure to adequately secure this outpost (and the lies that were told to the public in the aftermath of the debacle) miss the bigger point: The ridiculousness of being in Libya in the first place.
Or as our founding editor said, “It’s impossible to get murdered where you ain’t …”
40 comments
A report said…LMAO!! I saw one today that said it wasn’t preventable.
Direct from the report -> “”The Majority, believes that the terrorist attacks against U.S. personnel at the Temporary Mission Facility and the Annex in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 and 12, 2012, were likely preventable based on the known security shortfalls at the U.S. Mission and the significant strategic (although not tactical) warnings from the Intelligence Community (IC) about the deteriorating security situation in Libya.”
The ridiculousness of being in Libya in the first place.
Right on.
I wonder why the right wing mouth foamers who insist that Benghazi was preventable aren’t as upset with the thousands of American soldiers who died in Iraq in a war that was eminently preventable. Where is the outrage? Iraq was preventable in that Bush and Cheney didn’t have to lie us into that war, but Bush wanted a war to win.
When are Bush and Cheney getting hauled up in front of the Senate?
Well see George W Bush was a Republican.That means nothing to Fits,of course, cause he AINT no Republican!
Hahahahahaahahahahahaah!
Proof positive has been presented Obama and Clinton knew of the danger. Throw up Iraq but look at how many countries believed Saddam had weapons of mass destruction plus he we violating International Law. If it makes you foaming at the mouth liberals happy arrest Bush and Cheney and try him. Do not forget your boy Clinton gave the go ahead to murder 80 Americans on American soil at Waco and Obama attacked Libya without Congressional approval and under Obama we lost a lot more people in Afghanistan because he refuse to send enough troops.
Well, the Afgahn War the U.S.S.R fought should have clued us in that anything short of a full on nuclear strike isn’t winable. More troops, more troops…shit.
You will not get an argument from me on Afghanistan. We should never had gone there to start with. We helped them kick Russia’s butt and then they used what we helped them with to kick ours. But after we went there we should have not left so easily after getting 2500 of our kids killed. Now we have turned Iraq over to Al Qeida. Stupid is as stupid does!
Can you say Tora Bora?
Waco,USS Cole,Mogadishu and so on!
South, I’m not sure what you mean here, had Tora Bora been prosecuted to the end state the military wanted, we would have wiped out all of the Taliban in Afghanistan. As it was, it was still a significant Coalition victory.
Our real failing came after Tora Bora when we ignored Afghanistan in order to prosecute the Iraq War.
Way more embassy personnel died under Bush, look it up ?
The real difference is we did not know so much in advance and Bush never turned down request for troops!
Patently false as I’ve demonstrated here on a number of occasions.
See my post that was moved to the bottom, moron.
Throw up Iraq but look at how many countries believed Saddam had weapons
of mass destruction plus he was violating International Law.
How many of those countries believed that shit because of the faulty intelligence we paraded around?
Funny how a guy Donald Rumsfeld shook hands with had to be “put down.” Gee, wonder why our meddling always turns out badly?
For the umpteenth billion time, Saddam Hussein had, and had used, chemical weapons – ask the Kurds and the Iranians.
Was the issue oversold, unequivocally yes – maybe the next despot will think twice before running a similar ruse.
That wasnt how that war was sold and you know it.Quit trying to defend your fellow REPUBLICAN .Wait,you’re NOt a Republican,Right?
Hahahaha!
Quoting myself here: “Was the issue oversold, unequivocally yes … If you look a little lower or higher, where ever it wound up, you’ll see that I fault the whole Iraq mess with causing us to take our eyes off the ball in Afghanistan.
I do not disagree with you to an extent. All of this should just open our eyes as to how corrupt DC is and they path they lead us down. That is both parties of course. You do remember how in love this Administration was with Gadaffi don’t you?
So you concede the point….
Attacks on US diplomatic facilities-incomplete
DateLocationDetailsDeaths27 January 1958Ankara, TurkeyBombing in embassy compound[1]none26 September 1971Phnom Penh, CambodiaAttack on embassy softball game[2]11972Manila, PhilippinesAttack by communist group, Marine guard wounded[3]none19 August 1974Nicosia, CyprusRiot outside Embassy; Ambassador and assistant shot by sniper24 August 1975Kuala Lumpur, MalaysiaJapanese Red Army gunmen raid Embassynone1979Tehran, IranIran hostage crisis21 November 1979Islamabad, PakistanIslamist riots destroy Embassy (see 1979 U.S. Embassy Burning in Islamabad)22 December 1979Tripoli, LibyaIslamist riots destroy Embassy (see 1979 U.S. Embassy Burning in Libya)none18 April 1983Beirut, LebanonIslamic Jihad car bomb destroys Embassy (see April 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing)6312 December 1983Kuwait City, Kuwaital-Dawa truck bomb outside Embassy620 September 1984Beirut, LebanonHezbollah car bomb outside embassy (see 1984 United States embassy annex bombing)24November 1984Bogota, ColombiaCar bomb outside Embassy planted by drug cartel1February 1986Lisbon, PortugalPopular Forces of 25 April car bomb outside Embassynone14 May 1986Jakarta, IndonesiaJapanese Red Army mortar barragenone9 June 1987Rome, ItalyJapanese Red Army mortar barragenone17 September 1989Bogota, ColombiaRPG fired on Embassy by unknown assailantnone27 July 1993Lima, PeruCar bomb outside Embassy planted by Shining Pathnone13 September 1995Moscow, RussiaRPG fired on Embassy by unknown assailantnone21 June 1998Beirut, LebanonRPG fired on Embassy by Hezbollahnone7 August 1998Nairobi, Kenya and Dar es Salaam, Tanzaniaal-Qaeda simultaneously attacks both Embassies with truck bombs (more details)22424 April 1999Yekaterinburg, RussiaCar bomb outside Consulate planted by unknown assailantnone22 January 2002Calcutta, IndiaHarkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami gunmen attack Consulate514 June 2002Karachi, Pakistanal-Qaeda truck bomb detonates outside Consulate (more details)1212 October 2002Denpasar, IndonesiaConsular Office bombed by Jemaah Islamiyah as part of the Bali bombingsnone28 February 2003Karachi, PakistanUnknown gunmen attack Consulate230 June 2004Tashkent, UzbekistanIslamic Movement of Uzbekistan suicide bomber attacks Embassy26 December 2004Jeddah, Saudi Arabiaal-Qaeda gunmen raid diplomatic compound92 March 2006Karachi, PakistanCar bomb explodes outside Consulate212 September 2006Damascus, SyriaGunmen raid US Embassy412 January 2007Athens, GreeceRPG Fired at Embassy by Revolutionary Strugglenone18 March 2008Sana’a, YemenMortar attack against US Embassy29 July 2008Istanbul, TurkeyArmed attack against Consulate (more details)617 September 2008Sana’a, YemenTwo car bombs outside US embassy in Yemeni capital165 April 2010Peshawar, PakistanAn attack near the U.S. Consulate in Peshawar, Pakistan, kills two consulate security guards and at least six others811 September 2012Cairo, Egypt, Benghazi, Libya,Sana’aA group of terrorists storm the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya — killing the U.S. Ambassador, one staff member, and two security contractors. (more details)414 September 2012Tunis, Tunisia1 February 2013Ankara, TurkeyA suicide bomber attacked the American Embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, on Friday, detonating himself inside a security entrance to the compound. (more details)113 September 2013Herat, AfghanistanA group of 7 Taliban militants attacked the U.S. Consulate in Herat, Afghanistan using truck bombs, assault rifles, and rocket-propelled grenades, killing 2 Afghan security guards and wounding 20 others (more details)
Now, you know Benghazi is the only report Grand Tango and the Neocon loons want to know about, right? Don’t throw facts around…
So, every time something goes wrong, we’ll just whip out a wiki list of other things that have gone wrong, and voila–the issue is settled. You’re a fucking dumbass.
Why, do they, ( republicans ) leave out the part, that the American Ambassador refused, 4 times, help from the military strike force just off shore, who he had constant communication with ? Republicans keep grasping at straws, Hillary will be our next President. Thank god Rommel did’nt get elected, we’d be in 2 more wars by now!!!
And yes, the force could of been there in time, BUT HE REFUSED, proberly a republican, no great loss, anyway.
Rommel? Yes he was in North Africa 60 years ago.
Rommel didn’t get the help he needed either damned Comando Supremo!
Too bad MacArthur didn’t get the support to cut the Chinese off in N. Korea either. A little radioactive waste along the Korean/Chinese border probably would have improved things. :)
Seriously though, how interesting is it that history paints MacArthur as heartless when it was him that showed restraint in using nukes? Truman came out smelling like a rose and MacArthur was thrown under the bus(for a while at least as the information gets slowly liberated).
Serious historians understand that the death toll in Japan would have been on an order of magnitude higher had we been forced to invade. I haven’t seen anyone (who didn’t have an agenda) really challenge the necessity of Truman nuking Japan. The death toll from both bombs was somewhere between 280,000 and 320,000 including those who would die later from the radiation. The RERF studied the after effects and there was no significant spike in radiation injury beyond those directly exposed (birth defect etc.)
Operation Olympic and Colonel (the two Op Plans that formed Operation Downfall, the invasion plan) planners estimated the US would have 250,000 casualties with 30,000 KIA. The IJNGS (Japan’s naval high command) predicted there would be 20,000,000 Japanese deaths. The Japanese were given two full days to surrender before Sweeny and crew headed Nagasaki. They knew what had destroyed Hiroshima.
Mac A was his own worst enemy. Most people know he served in WWI and WWII but few realize that during the interwar years he rose to be Chief of Staff of the Army – theoretically the highest office. He had actually retired before WWII started and was serving as the Military Advisor to the Philippines when WWII started. For all faults, and there were many, General of the Army MacArthur is easily the most talented strategic commander who ever lived. His ability to stay focused on the war while fighting battles (with the enemy and the Navy) is the stuff of legends – and it’s all true.
That very success and the accompanying arrogance made him few friends in War weary Washington but Mac was still around when Korea started and at age 70 he was given command of the UN mission to drive North Korea back across the 38th parallel. Anyone with any grasp of tactics who has looked at Inchon and who doesn’t see the genius is stupid. The entire nuke discussion was agenda driven and one need remember that Marshall and Truman hated Mac.
I hold them both Truman and MacArthur in the highest esteem.
Wrong, he is a republican, now named Romney.
Some of you people are amazing, this report came out of the Senate.
Fits and his fellow non Republican Republicans like the Colonel,Pytel etc.hate and make fun of the Congress and all politicos for that matter,until they say something they agree with.
Then they are magically transformed into “statesmen!”
Two words: Reagan/Beruit
“what difference does it make”
—– Sec. of State Hillary Clinton
She’s got a point. Yours ?
Preventable had we had more security. Why was there not more security? Two explanations are that our ambassador declined extra security multiple times and the Republican mandated cuts in funding. You can claim this is all on Hillary Clinton, but you would be wrong to do so. And where is all that stuff about “stand down” that has been stated repeatedly?
Republicans should be cautious about using this tragic episode in an attempt to score political points. Their glee to blame Clinton and/or Obama undermines their faux outrage and comes across as being disrespectful to Stevens and the others.
13 more TDY would not have helped either, just 13 more dead.
It’s damn near impossible to get killed in a war if there’s no war.
Can you say Bush and 9/11?
Obama’s dereliction of duty as commander in chief is the issue–he was nowhere to be found during the attack, and took off for Las Vegas the next morning to campaign, couldn’t even be bothered to call to check in with his national security team. He did NOTHING, same as when he played spades with Reggie Love during the bin Laden raid. Hilary had the nerve to tell the families–before they were completely dissed by his administration–“we’ll get the guy that made this video.” Really? In America you can be arrested for freedom of speech? she’s an incompetent pig, and Obama is worse–a shallow ignorant teenager in what is supposed to be an adult’s job. Doesn’t bother with pesky details like the Daily Intelligence briefing, which he skipped over 60% of the time, especially that entire week. He is an affirmative action abortion. Makes Carter look competent.