BENGHAZI AND THE ARAB SPRING CONNECTION!

(Personal Liberty Digest, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

(Wolfram Alpha, Bakri Nada, David J. Goodman, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Representative Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.), “God, I love to write that…..(R-Calif.), or (D-Wash.) in a small way it makes me feel important, kind of like I am privy to some little tidbit of information that not many people know about. Man you can tell its Saturday, I can get sidetracked pretty easy on the week-ends…..anyways, Darrell Issa.

 

Issa is the head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has issued a subpoena for Thomas Pickering, forcing him to appear for questioning behind closed doors to answer questions concerning the  Benghazi affaire. I for one do not understand a call by a paid employee, (Issa) to another paid employee, (Pickering) to a meeting behind closed doors.

 

Is there something to hide, is national security at question here, will a public meeting endanger secret agents, has there been some sort of collusion going on between intelligence officials…..or worse, nations? I’ve come to understand that whenever public officials…..on any level meet behind closed doors some sorts of shenanigans are going on.

 

I’m a firm believer in the old adage, “the truth will set you free” and I think it needs to be applied in every aspect of government, whether local, state, federal, or the international stage. Of course we have no say with regards to what happens internationally, but we sure as hell can clean up the crap right here in our own back yards.

 

Partisan politics has absolutely nothing to do with the issues that I am talking about, Benghazi and the Arab Spring. Political hay not-withstanding, the more openness that we, as a nation, practice, the better we all will understand the political process, and will be able to make educated decisions not only at the ballot box, but in our daily lives.

 

BENGHAZI ATTACK

The attack on the diplomatic mission at Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012, began during the night at a compound that was meant to protect the consulate building. A second assault in the early morning the next day targeted a nearby CIA annex in a different diplomatic compound. The attacks by the heavily armed group resulted in four deaths and the injury of ten others.

 

Included in the deaths was U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens who became the 9^th foreign diplomat to lose his life in the line of duty. Of the nine diplomats to die, two lost their lives in plane crashes while the others met their demise at the hands of insurgent-rebels, or terrorist activity.

 

Of course there is a history with regards to the number of attacks as well as the funding for security for these diplomatic missions. Between 1998 and 2011, U.S. diplomatic sites were subjected to eleven deadly attacks in Nairobi, Kenya; Calcutta, India; Lima, Peru; Karachi, Pakistan; Bali, Indonesia; Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; Damascus, Syria; Athens, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey; Yemen; and Peshawar, Pakistan. The 2012 Benghazi attack was the second deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic facility that occurred during President Obama’s first term.

 

 

 

In a little known fact, after the Republicans gained control of the House in 2011, they sought successfully to cut the Obama Administration’s funding requests for diplomatic security by hundreds of millions of dollars. However the Benghazi consulate where Stevens and the three others died was considered only a temporary facility, and did not fall under Obama’s security requests.

 

Whether there was, or is adequate funding for security at foreign diplomatic facilities really is not the point, the point is whether heightened military presence and security could have prevented the attack of September 11, 2012. Rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades, assault rifles, 14.5 mm anti-aircraft machine guns and artillery mounted on gun trucks, diesel canisters and mortars are listed as the weapon used during the attack.

 

Could beefed up security rebuffed the attack, I doubt it, a more likely scenario would have been more deaths, injured and wounded. The bottom line sadly for this event was that the diplomatic mission was in no way ready for the violent attack that was launched in the night-time hours of September 11, 2012. And there absolutely is nobody to point a finger at, in this instance, the enemy, (whoever that might be) was better than the United States, hey it happens…..even the Yankees get beat sometimes.

 

In the aftermath of the attack, when hindsight is always 20-20, investigators identified more than a dozen violent events in Benghazi during the six previous months. Carjacking, kidnappings, assassination attempts and running gun battles. In the Benghazi Definitive Report by Jack Murphy and Brandon Webb, members of the Regional Security Office in Tripoli, there had been at least 234 security incidents in Libya between June 2011 and July 2012, 50 of which took place in Benghazi.

 

Hey, Libya is an unstable mess on its best day and total anarchy on its worst. People that either serve militarily or in the diplomatic corp. understand that the country is unstable. Those folks who are in the country gathering news also know firsthand about the instability and dangers and except this fact as simply part of their jobs.

 

Needless to say, without doubt, everybody involved knew of the dangers of the country, their jobs, and on their person. Each day, undoubtedly every person went to work with the understanding that they might be shot at, or that somebody was planning on hatching an I.E.D.

 

SECRETARY OF STATE HILARY RODHAM CLINTON

Simply put, was Hilary Rodham Clinton responsible for the apparent lax security in Benghazi, and an equally simple retort…..no! Although the Secretary of State is responsible for both political and military matters as well as foreign attitudes and the general atmosphere of the same, usually, at least during the past three administrations, the Secretary of State has no military experience, thus relies on advisors to glean information regarding security as well as a military presence!

 

Clinton as the Secretary of State is responsible for the administration and management of foreign embassies and consulate offices. Foreign trade and some intelligence assets report directly to the Secretary of State, and the consular officers are all sworn to obey the directives set forth by the President of the United States, sworn through the Secretary of State.

 

In addition the Secretary of State advises the President on issues involving foreign nations and is responsible for the negotiation of new treaties as well. The course of action that will best serve the United States in foreign policy also is a major portion of the Secretary of State.

 

 

The Secretary of State had an awesome responsibility with regards to the foreign affairs of Benghazi in particular, and Libya in general. As I’ve mentioned, the conditions in Benghazi were at the very best, unstable. The decisions with regards to security, according to Thomas Pickering were made well below Clinton; it is usually the way these decisions are made. People on site ascertain whatever situation is in question, and based on that Intel make the appropriate decision.

 

Benghazi is a city of 631,555 people, while the metropolitan population numbers 1,110,000, and is a port city located on the Mediterranean Sea. The ancient Greek city that existed within the modern day boundaries of Benghazi was founded around 525 BC and it was called Euesperides.

 

Like many middle-eastern countries, there is a long and uneven history of occupation by both Libya and the city of Benghazi. Benghazi superseded Cyrene and Barca as the chief center of Cyrenaica after the 3^rd century AD, and the area dwindled to an insignificant village surrounded by magnificent ruins.

 

The Ottoman reinvented the area in the 13^th century, and ruled therein until the Italians invaded the area in 1911. Nearly half of the local population of Cyrenaica under the leadership of Omar Mukhtar resisted the Italian occupation and paid the price for their resistance when Benito Mussolini came to power and more than 125,000 Libyans lost their lives.

 

During World War 2 first the Germans and then British held sway in Libya and Benghazi, and it would take until the 1950’s when Benghazi and Tripoli were declared capital cities until 1969 when Muammar Gaddafi stated a coup d’état, and concentrated all government institutions to Tripoli.

 

Benghazi and Tripoli were both bombed in April of 1986 by U.S. Air Force and Navy plans, with President Reagan justifying the attack claiming Libya had been responsible for terrorism directed at the United States including the bombing of LaBelle discotheque in West Berlin…..ten days before.

 

Muammar Gaddafi would remain in control of the country pretty much until his death in October of 2011, during a bloody civil war, at the time of his death the ruthless dictator was 69 years old. I include this information to illustrate the volatility of the country. For anybody to think that security, troops, no matter the amount, or the precautions taken would stem the tide of a concerted military effort really is whistling Dixie.

 

ARAB SPRING

The Arab Spring is the media term for the revolutionary wave of violent as well as nonviolent demonstrations, protests, riots and civil disorder in the Arab world that began in December 2010. Rulers have been removed from Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Yemen. Protests have broken out in Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco and the Sudan, while minor skirmishes have been observed in Mauritania, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, and Western Sahara.

 

There have also been border clashes in Iranian Khuzestan by Arab minorities and in Mali sparked by returning from the Libyan civil war. To say that the area is a powder keg would be an understatement, to keep a footprint in the area is like asking to get your toes shot off!

 

Here is a fresh idea…..instead of pointing fingers and having meetings behind closed doors, maybe everybody involved needs to step up to the plate and admit that its foolhardy to keep diplomats and CIA annexes in volatile areas that have been warring for centuries, war to these people clearly is a way of life…..do we fall into that same trap?????

HAVE A NICE DAY!