Sensitive Documents missing from U.S. consulate after Benghazi attacks

Sensitive documents disappeared from the U.S. Benghazi consulate after the recent attack. Some of the documents contain names of Libyans working with Americans and others relate to oil contracts.

The U.S. faces a huge security problem in Libya and no doubt elsewhere as well. Libyan guards were either unable or unwilling to prevent protesters from entering the compound in Benghazi and attacking the consular building.

Most of the staff except for the ambassador and another staff member who died at the consul site were whisked off to a "safe house" that was supposedly in a secret location. However, that house came under sustained mortar attacks. It is clear that the attackers had knowledge of where the safe house was. More details of the attack are emerging that show how security was sorely lacking.

Security sources said that the consulate had been given a "health check" not long before the raid in case something might happen on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. When the attack actually happened the perimeter of the consul compound was breached within 15 minutes. Although there were 30 or so local guards they put up little defense. An observer , Ali Feton , who lived near by said::

"The security people just all ran away and the people in charge were the young men with guns and bombs."

The commander of the government-sanctioned Libya's Shield Brigade said that it was anger over the Mohamed video which led the guards to abandon their posts:

"There were definitely people from the security forces who let the attack happen because they were themselves offended by the film; they would absolutely put their loyalty to the Prophet over the consulate. The deaths are all nothing compared to insulting the Prophet."

This response is completely irrational. The U.S. government and certainly those in the consulate had absolutely nothing to do with the film blaspheming the prophet.

Ambassador Stevens was left in the building after staff could not find him in the dense smoke. Local people found him later unconscious and he was taken to a hospital where he died from smoke inhalation according to a doctor at the Benghazi Medical Centre, Ziad abu Ziad.

Libya's Deputy Interior Minister Wanis Al-Sharif said U.S. said staff were rushed to a Benghazi safe house following the initial attack. U.S. commando units were flown from Tripoli to evacuate the staff from there. The minister said:

"It was supposed to be a secret place and we were surprised the armed groups knew about it. There was shooting."

Indeed the safe house came under mortar fire and two Marines were killed there. Two other people were killed at the main consular building and between 12 and 17 wounded.

Senior diplomatic sources also say that the U.S. State Department had information 48 hours before the attack that Americans might be targeted. No warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert. Probably the "health check" at the consulate was a response to those warnings.

Islamic militants have their own intelligence operatives in Libya. They seem to be much more effective than those of the U.S. and now they have valuable information as well. Probably the militants are hoping for intervention by the U.S. that is quite visible. This will help destabilize an already weak regime.

The U.S. has sent warships, more drones, and more marines and the U.S. has vowed that it will bring perpetrators of the Benghazi attack to justice.

Libyan official blames Gaddafi loyalists for Benghazi attack

Libyan Deputy Interior Minister Wanis al_Sharif claims that those attacking the U.S. consulate in Benghazi were Gaddafi loyalists. A number of Libyan security guards were also killed in the attack.

At a news conference the deputy minister accused Gadaffi loyalists as being behind the attack in Benghazi that killed the U.S. Ambassador and 3 staff members of the U.S. consulate there. Al-Sharif said:

"There were RPGs...which shows there were forces exploiting this. They are remnants of the (former) regime."

He was speaking at a news conference broadcast on Al Jazeera television. He also suggested that the attack could be revenge for the recent extradition from Mauritania of Gaddafi's former intelligence chief.

The minister's explanation does not make much sense. The attack comes as a simultaneous attack happened in Egypt reacting to a film made by an American that portrayed the prophet Mohammed in a manner offensive to many Muslims. The attack was in all probability the work of a radical Islamist group,. As U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton put it the attack was the work of a "small and savage group"

Actually eyewitnesses spoke of Ansar al-Sharia as being behind the demonstration. This group is usually associated with Yemen but Al Qaeda type groups in eastern Libya have begun to use this name to refer to themselves.

The attack on the consulate follows upon the call of al Qaeda leader Ayman-al-Zawahiri for revenge attacks following the death of a senior Libyan Al Qaeda leader in June. The group that may have answered this call is named the Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades. The group claimed responsibility for an earlier attack on a Red Cross office in Benghazi and other attacks as well.

Norman Benotman of the Quilliam Foundation told CNN:

"An attack like this would likely have required preparation. This would not seem to be merely a protest which escalated...According to our sources, the attack was the work of roughly 20 militants, prepared for a military assault; it is rare that an RPG7 is present at a peaceful protest."

The area around Derna is home to radical Islamist commanders who have 200 to 300 men under their command. There are also said to be Al Qaeda type training camps in eastern Libya. These groups are being monitored by U.S. drones no doubt to send a message to the militants. The militants are sending a message in return.