Although this movie is only a literary and artistic creation that is not completely true, it can basically present the scene at the time vividly and bring people a sense of immersion-hopelessness and anger at the failure of the government to act. Regardless of whether Hillary is elected or not, the next government will face this "indelible mark of failure" and must try to mend it. Although the Congressional investigation into the Benghazi incident has been unable to produce fatal evidence to prove Hillary's wrong decision, the FBI's recent email investigation will likely find evidence related to the Benghazi incident.
1. Before the incident: a fatal security breach.
In April 2011, during the Libyan Civil War, Chris was stationed in Libya as a special representative of the United States and liaised with the National Transitional Council of Libya (the opposition interim government, TNC: Transitional National Council). During this period, he witnessed the complete fall of the Gaddafi regime and the reopening of the US Embassy in Libya. Chris has served for more than 6 months this time;
In November 2011, Chris left Libya and returned to the United States, waiting for the
official appointment of the ambassador to Libya ; In May 2012, Chris was officially appointed as the ambassador to Libya and returned to Libya Tripoli, took office at the US Embassy;
in August 2012, the post of Chief Officer of the US Consulate in Benghazi was about to expire. He will leave at the end of August, and the next Chief Officer will arrive on September 15. Therefore, the Benghazi consulate will face a two-week vacancy. Chris appointed a diplomat based in Tripoli to fill the vacancy in the first week and act as acting chief, and he himself fills the vacancy in the second week;
Supplementary note: According to the Select Committee on Benghazi (the Select Committee on Benghazi) final version of the investigation report (Report of the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi), a. Chris’s trip to Benghazi has another important purpose : Examine the possibility of establishing a permanent consulate in Benghazi and advance this work; b. The then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had planned to visit Libya in October 2012, so Chris’s task also included preparatory work for her smooth trip.
Also in August 2012, despite the drastic security situation in Libya, the State Council assigned special service personnel at the Embassy in Tripoli, from 34 (each diplomat can be protected by approximately 1.5 special service personnel) was reduced to 6 (each One special service officer is responsible for protecting the safety of about 4.5 diplomats). The temporary consulate in Benghazi has 3 special service personnel, all of whom have relatively little actual combat experience, especially lack of high-risk actual combat experience. In other words, the two embassies and consulates have a total of 9 official special service personnel.
Additional explanation: Chris applied for an additional 13 security personnel in July and was rejected. The report pointed out that Chris submitted a total of 3 applications, all of which were rejected. In this situation, there are no more extra special agents to leave Tripoli and accompany Chris (later only 2 special agents accompanied). Moreover, after the attack, the Tripoli Embassy was unable to provide assistance to Benghazi while ensuring its own minimum security. The report pointed out that security loopholes were the fatal cause of this tragedy.
On September 10, 2012, Chris arrived in Benghazi and was accompanied by two secret agents from Tripoli for protection. Tripoli left 4 official special service personnel, coordinating with 4 Ministry of National Defense special service personnel (the 4 people are former SST-Site Security Team members) responsible for embassy security (SST previously provided security reinforcements for the temporary consulate in Benghazi, but the State Council 8 The mission of SST to protect the embassy was ended in June, and SST members could not travel with Chris in Benghazi to provide additional protection);
Supplementary note: In Benghazi, the CIA secret base hired 6 former SEAL team members as contract agents to provide rapid response operations and additional protection; cooperate with the Martyrs Brigade on February 17 as a local friendly organization to provide auxiliary security; in addition to this In addition, the United States also cooperates with a local unarmed security force (LGF: local guard force). The security personnel of this team are only responsible for the detection of the outermost ring of the consulate and primary security inspections (such as the inspection of personnel entering and exiting the consulate) as the first line. Line of defense. However, in September, a few days before the ambassador’s visit, the Martyrs’ Brigade stated on February 17 that they did not assume security responsibilities outside the consulate except for the security near the consulate. Therefore, Ambassador Chris was in travel, transportation, and other places. At that time, only the U.S. special service personnel are responsible for security.
At the same time, although the Ministry of National Defense warned according to intelligence, the area (including Cairo, Tripoli, Tunisia, Khartoum, Sanaa, etc.) is in a high-risk state and requires high-level vigilance. However, the Ministry of National Defense's security maintenance forces in these high-risk areas have not been substantially adjusted and strengthened, and fighter jets, tanks and other equipment have not been adjusted to a high alert state to deal with possible crises;
September 11, 2012, 600 miles In Cairo, Egypt, to the east, nearly 2,000 demonstrators gathered outside the US Embassy to demonstrate. The protesters’ protests mainly included two main reasons: First, supporters protested against the US’s detention of the leader of the organization under the call of the local organization Jamaa Islamiya, and second, an anti-Muslim film on the oil pipeline caused local dissatisfaction.
Additional explanation: What is important is that the Egyptian protests did not have any impact in Libya. The testimony of the Tripoli diplomats, the deputy envoys of the embassy, and the five special service personnel of the Benghazi consulate also stated that although they knew about the protests in Egypt and were worried about the possible chain of protests, they did not find any local attacks against the United States. Protest action.
2. Within 13 hours: important facts that cannot be ignored
a. The reason why the secret base has not received any support is because there is no support force operation at all.
Although President Obama and Secretary of Defense Panetta clearly issued military support orders, in the 13-hour solo defense battle at the secret base, no military aid forces and equipment went to Benghazi. The earliest U.S. military force arrived well after 13 hours.
b. Should support troops wear American uniforms?
In the process of waiting for the action and finally failing to act, there is such a detail: A member of the FAST (Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team) of the US military stationed on Rota Island, Spain (3 hours flight distance from Benghazi) waited on the plane for 3 When I was young, he was ordered to put on his uniform and then take it off four times, and there was even such a debate about whether the members should bring their own personal weapons.
At the moment when quick action is most needed, policymakers are discussing the need for support operations to be approved by the Libyan government, and what diplomatic impact the presence of U.S. troops in Libya will have. Politics, not rescuing Americans, became the primary consideration.
c. It is the pro-Gaddafi armed forces that ultimately helped all the personnel in the base to evacuate.
During the Libyan Civil War, the United States was committed to helping the opposition to overthrow the Gaddafi regime. But at the end of the 13-hour war, it was a pro-Gaddafi regime's armed forces that ultimately helped all the personnel at the base to evacuate, not any organization that the United States had established friendly relations in the previous 18 months.
d. The focus of the discussion at the White House meeting is the tubing video.
As described in the movie, after the secret service personnel found the body of the technician Sean Smith, they failed to find the ambassador Chris, and Chris was officially reported as missing. At the same time, the White House held a two-hour meeting in Washington DC (starting at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time). The participants included the Secretary of State, the State Department, the Department of Defense, and the White House. However, the main content of the meeting was the YouTube video. After the meeting, of the 10 action items formed at the meeting, 5 were related to the video.
However, in fact, after the attack, senior officials of the State Council and the Diplomatic Security Command Center had real-time contact with Benghazi ground defense personnel, and obtained judgment and intelligence that it was a terrorist attack. In addition, there is also an instant connection with Tripoli. In their conversations, the diplomats in Tripoli never mentioned the video and there were video-related discussions between the diplomats-proving that the video was related to the Benghazi terrorist attack. There is no direct and exact relationship.
e. The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was unable to attend the meeting because he had to go home to hold a dinner.
According to regulations, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should attend the meeting held at the White House that night, but he did not. Instead, he went home to host a dinner for foreign celebrities.
f. One set of narratives within the government and another set of narratives are publicly declared.
The night of the attack:
That night (approximately 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time), Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the President of Libya made a phone call. She did not mention any video or protests on the phone, but said that she needed support from the other party and said: 1 ) She understands that the US base has been hit by heavy fire, 2) Ambassador Chris is still missing, and 3) She understands that the attack is related to the Ansar al Sharia organization. In addition, the email she sent to her daughter that night also made it clear that she fully understood that this was a terrorist attack.
Correspondingly, after the White House meeting, at 10:08 in the evening, Hillary Clinton issued a statement to the public on behalf of the US government. The main points of the statement were: 1) condemning the attack, 2) publicizing the sacrifice of a US diplomat (Sean Smith). 3) The United States has nothing to do with that tubing video.
The statement did not inform the American people of the facts she knew at all (the above three points in the conversation between Hillary Clinton and the Libyan president), and the third point, especially here, misled the public without any means, implying the link between the attack and the video, despite its purpose. It shows that the United States has nothing to do with the video, and that any attempt to rationalize the attack is unacceptable. "Someone tried to rationalize this cruel behavior, thinking it was a response to an anti-Muslim video circulating on the Internet. The United States condemns all derogatory behaviors against other religions... But what should be clearly stated is that this violent behavior Rationalization is unacceptable." The
day after the attack:
In the early morning of the second day (September 12, Eastern Time), the Deputy Spokesperson of the National Security Council sent an email like this to more than 20 relevant personnel, including the White House, the Department of Defense, the State Department, and intelligence agencies: "The President and the Secretary of State A statement will be issued this morning... To ensure that we are consistent with our external statement today, Ben Rhodes (the White House Deputy Security Advisor at the time) will hold a meeting at 9:15 am Eastern Time..."
And President Obama made a speech in the Rose Garden a few minutes before , Jake Sullivan (then Hillary Clinton’s foreign affairs consultant) emailed Ben Rhodes and others, saying, “Egypt (the protests) actually did not have much violence. We will not declare that the violence in Libya was triggered by provocative videos. "
In addition, on the afternoon of September 12, Hillary had a phone call with the Prime Minister of Egypt, not only clearly mentioning that "we know that the attack has nothing to do with the video. This is a planned attack, not a protest..." but also said According to intelligence, "We believe that this organization is closely related to Al Qaeda."
But how did they claim it to the outside world?
On this day, the two statements issued by President Obama and the statement issued by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton still put "the United States condemns all derogatory acts against other religions" and "opposes such violence" in the same sentence, and continue Implying the link between the attack and the video, misleading the public.
It is worth mentioning that, although the government’s public statement hinted at the connection between the attack and the video and protest, Susan Rice, who represented the government in five Sunday talk shows, declared with certainty that this was a "spontaneous escalation of protest." At that time, even the White House found it unacceptable.
It was not until 10 days later that Hillary Clinton told her the truth about the American people who were the first to be responsible. "The Benghazi incident was a terrorist attack."
g. The errors in the CIA's intelligence assessment report have been repeatedly cited by the government.
After the public statement, the government continued similar narratives for more than a week, constantly linking the attacks to the video, and citing the intelligence assessment report issued by the CIA on September 13 as support (this is the only evidence they can cite). In fact, this report contains some critical errors.
After the Benghazi incident, the CIA collaborated with another intelligence agency, OTA (Office of Terrorism Analysis), to conduct intelligence assessments. This was also the first retrospective intelligence assessment conducted by the CIA. Based on this report, Deputy Commissioner Morell wrote the talking points for the Standing Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives, and at the same time as a briefing to the president, it was widely distributed to various departments within the government.
The content of the report mainly includes two major aspects: assessing the Libyan government’s ability to respond to the attack and the fact that extremist forces participated in the attack. It did not focus on the protests. It simply mentioned the “early stage of the protest”, which was later proved to be a mistake. The information used is actually derived from a report of the protests that took place in Cairo a week ago (September 4). A more serious error appeared on the second page of the report. The headline was "Extreme Forces Used the Benghazi Protest", but the following content cannot be used as evidence to support it. Not only that, it turned out later that this title was also a mistake-it was originally intended to be written as "extreme forces took advantage of the protests in Cairo."
However, this error was not discovered for more than a week and continued to be used as supporting evidence in the external statement of the government department, indicating that there were protests before the Benghazi attack.
h. The capture of a suspect.
In 2014, the U.S. military arrested Ahmed Abu Khattala, a Libyan in Benghazi, who was allegedly a member of the armed group responsible for the terrorist attacks in Benghazi. His trial will be held in September 2017.
3. Failed diplomacy, excessive political considerations, and the inevitable "suicide mission"
During Obama's tenure, "no boots on the ground" (no boots on the ground) became the main style of foreign affairs operations. Although after the "Arab Spring" swept across the Middle East and North Africa, the United States intervened in the Libyan revolution, supported the opposition to overthrow the Gaddafi regime, and tried to prevent Libya from becoming a failed country, and then becoming a hotbed for al-Qaeda and other extremist forces' wanton expansion. But what is fatal is that the United States has failed to more actively intervene constructively. The policies formulated by senior State Department officials for Libya are not consistent with what their experts pointed out that Libya needs help to establish a judicial system, help economic reconstruction, The goal of ensuring Libya's ability to maintain infrastructure and services has been left unimportant.
On April 10, 2016, speaking of the biggest failure in his term, President Obama also admitted that in the process of intervening in the Libyan revolution, his government “failed to make effective plans for (overthrowing Gaddafi)”.
The foreign policy of not deploying ground troops and leading behind-the-scenes, and the guideline of "depart after the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime" resulted in the United States being only symbolically present in Libya, and the situation inevitably went out of control. For Libyans, they had to face ISIS, Al Qaeda and other extreme forces after experiencing the dictatorship of Gaddafi. For the United States, despite the realization that Libya has become an extremely dangerous area between 2011 and 2012, American citizens are still left in these dangers.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pays particular attention to the strategic deployment of the Libyan region. She persuaded the president that after the overthrow of the Gaddafi regime, she still retains the diplomatic setting and sent Chris as the ambassador. But then, she ignored her responsibility to protect the safety of these diplomats. In August 2012, she let go of the last opportunity to protect American citizens (significantly reduce security forces), despite warnings indicating that Americans are at risk. rapidly increase. The activities of Ambassador Chris and diplomats here inevitably become "suicide missions."
Gregory N. Hicks, a retired member of the State Department for 25 years, was the deputy envoy of the U.S. mission to Libya. He was also the last person Chris had a conversation with before leaving Tripoli and going to Benghazi. He said, "If Chris' application for 13 additional secret agents is not rejected by the senior management appointed by Hillary, things may be different."
Added note: The law states that the Secretary of State should be responsible for protecting the safety of Americans overseas; the same is true for the law. The Secretary of State is required to be responsible for ensuring that American expatriates should be on the same base. If not, the Secretary of State is the only one who has the responsibility to reach an agreement with the head of the security department and issue a statement. During Bill Clinton’s presidency in 1998, after the US Embassy in Africa suffered two bombings, the law has specifically required that the responsibility for the statement must not be delegated to other personnel by the Secretary of State. However, in the process of receiving questions, Hillary repeatedly stated that she had not personally received any security reports or requested additional security applications, indicating that she had delegated specific security matters to professionals, and believed that this was not her responsibility. In the process of responding to the media and congressional investigation reports, Clinton’s team also repeatedly emphasized that Hillary himself did not "personally" dismiss the application-if only by hitting the Enter key with a finger in person, can it be called "personally".
Main source of facts and data:
Report of the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi , June 28, 2016
Reference article:
Benghazi report rakes over old ground, but some answers are still hard to find, theguardian.com, June 29, 2016
What the Benghazi attack taught me about Hillary Clinton, by Gregory N. Hicks, foxnews.com, September 11, 2016
House Republican report reveals new details about the 2012 Benghazi terror attacks, theatlantic.com, June 28, 2016
Clinton claims house Benghazi report 'found nothing,' says time to'move on', foxnews.com, June 29, 2016
Watching the Benghazi film, 13 hours, with a republican crowd, theatlantic.com, January 17, 2016
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