Pirate's Cove

Chucking them under the bus, or reality? We certainly know that the State Department screw the pooch royally, in that they wanted a low key security presence in Libya, and particularly the Benghazi Consulate, depending upon a local militia group, the February 17 Martyrs Brigade (which supposedly has links to the same group that attacked the Consulate, linked to al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood), for security, along with not only refusing to increase security when asked, but telling those who were asking to just stop asking

(CBS San Fran) he head of the U.S. Senate’s Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that it appeared an intelligence mistake along with inadequate security were to blame for the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the American Embassy in Benghazi, Libya that claimed the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens, a Bay Area native, and three others.

“I can tell you this, I think we do know what happened now. There’s no question but that it was a terrorist attack, there is no question but that the security was inadequate and I think that there is no question that we need to work on our intelligence,” said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) during an exclusive interview with CBS 5.

As to intelligence, she’s not blaming the intelligence community per se for having inadequate intelligence pre-attack, she’s blaming them for putting “out some speaking points on the initial intelligence assessment.” In particular “the director of intelligence”. The question is, which one? What is needed is to have the intelligence agents in front of a Congressional panel, surely closed to the public, and get to the heart of the matter. What intelligence did they provide? Why would intelligence be providing “speaking points” rather than, you know, intelligence?

So, we know the State Department blew it big time pre-attack and post-attack. The question is, did the intelligence community blow it? Were the monitoring what was going on in Libya pre-attack? Even the news media knew that Benghazi was becoming increasingly dangerous to Westerners. We were told in the news that the eastern part of Libya was seeing increased jihadi groups going back to when Obama was using our air power against Libya. And, if they didn’t give stupid “speaking points”, will someone speak out against being constantly blamed?

Oh, and then there is this, as reported by Reuters this morning

The State Department’s decision to hire Blue Mountain Group to guard the ill-fated U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, entrusted security tasks to a little-known British company instead of the large firms it usually uses in overseas danger zones.

The contract was largely based on expediency, U.S. officials have said, since no one knew how long the temporary mission would remain in the Libyan city. The cradle of last year’s uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year rule, Benghazi has been plagued by rising violence in recent months.

Security practices at the diplomatic compound, where Blue Mountain guards patrolled with flashlights and batons instead of guns, have come under U.S. government scrutiny in the wake of the September 11 attack in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Why is Hillary Clinton still employed?

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.