U.S. Received Warnings of Militant Activities in Libya Prior to Attack

Via ARRA News Service
Editorial Image by A.F. Branco

Global Security Newswire - The Obama administration earlier this year received information indicating preparatory activities being carried out by "al-Qaida-leaning" militants and other militants at encampments close to Benghazi, Libya, U.S. and European government personnel said in a Monday New York Times report.

A Sept. 11 assault on the U.S. Consulate in the city killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

The cautionary statements fell within a broader range of other intelligence and foreign service indications that Libya had grown increasingly dangerous after Washington resumed activities at its outpost in the African nation's capital following the Qadhafi government's collapse last year, according to the newspaper.

Prior to July, assailants carried out in Benghazi a series of targeted killings, strikes on Red Cross personnel and an assault on vehicles escorting a British international relations official. "A security vacuum" had developed in the area, according to an August e-mail from Stevens.

The U.S. Embassy in Tripoli warned days before the Sept. 11 strike that the Libyan government  had established a "state of maximum alert" in Benghazi, which had recently faced an explosives attack on an automobile and a foiled attempt to steal money from a bank.

Despite the intensifying threat level, the State Department retained a policy established in 2011 to field relatively few U.S. protective personnel in Libya and to increasingly depend on locally recruited workers to guard Washington's envoys to the country, the Times reported.

The strike is said to have involved members of the groups Ansar al-Shariah, al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the Muhammad Jamal organization.

The security situation in Benghazi and the Obama administration's response to the incident are now the subject of three investigations on Capitol Hill and a State Department probe.

"Given the large number of attacks that had occurred in Benghazi that were aimed at Western targets, it is inexplicable to me that security wasn't increased," said Senator Susan Collins (Maine), ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
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Tags: Terrorism, Benghazi, Libya, "al-Qaida-leaning" militants, death of Americans, Obama Administration, Congressional investigations To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!