Documents indicate Libyan police may have been involved in planning Benghazi consulate attack

Writing in Foreign Policy, reporters maintain that six weeks after the attack on the compound where the U.S. ambassador was killed, there are still sensitive documents to be found that shed light on the attack.

The circumstances surrounding the attack on the Benghazi consulate and associated "safe house" are becoming more and more mind-boggling. An earlier Digital Journal article explores some of the issues with the White House response. Now, an article in Foreign Policy by Harald Doornbos and Jenan Moussa, raises even more troubling questions.

The reporters visited the fire-ravaged compound where Chris Stevens and another foreign service officer died on Sept. 11. When they visited on Oct. 26, they found that the compound still contained sensitive documents, including drafts of two letters that indicate that the compound was under "surveillance" by the Libyan police, and that the Libyan government had not met requests for additional security.

That these documents were still in the compound almost a month after the FBI searched the compound for evidence about the attack is astonishing. Surely the first thing that is done at a crime scene is to isolate the area and not let anyone in until everything is examined thoroughly and any significant items removed. How can one explain that reporters are allowed into the scene and find these items? No wonder there are all sorts of conspiracy theories about U.S. policy. Is it really possible that agents would overlook this evidence?

The reporters claim that they found Steven's personal copy of the Aug. 6, New Yorker, or remnants of it, lying on the bed in the safe room where Stevens spent his final hours. They also found several ash-covered documents in the Tactical Operations Center, that had been looted and was partially destroyed. Some of the documents are clearly marked as State Department correspondence.

Among the documents found were two draft letters unsigned but both dated Sept. 11, the day of the attack. One letter was addressed to Mohamed Obeidi, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office in Benghazi. Part of it reads:

"Finally, early this morning at 0643, September 11, 2012, one of our diligent guards made a troubling report. Near our main gate, a member of the police force was seen in the upper level of a building across from our compound. It is reported that this person was photographing the inside of the U.S. special mission and furthermore that this person was part of the police unit sent to protect the mission. The police car stationed where this event occurred was number 322."

The IT officer, Smith, who also was killed in the attack had also remarked earlier on Sept. 11 on a gaming forum:.

"Assuming we don't die tonight. We saw one of our ‘police' that guard the compound taking pictures."

The State Department would not comment directly on the documents found by the reporters because of an ongoing investigation. Mark Toner, a spokesperson said:

"An independent board is conducting a thorough review of the assault on our post in Benghazi. Once we have the board's comprehensive account of what happened, findings and recommendations, we can fully address these matters."

The documents also suggest that the Libyan authorities had been asked earlier on Sept. 9 for extra security because of the Ambassador's visit and claim that the Libyan authorities refused to provide the extra support. The document says in part:

"On Sunday, September 9, 2012, the U.S. mission requested additional police support at our compound for the duration of U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens' visit. We requested daily, twenty-four hour police protection at the front and rear of the U.S. mission as well as a roving patrol. In addition we requested the services of a police explosive detection dog.

We were given assurances from the highest authorities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that all due support would be provided for Ambassador Stevens' visit to Benghazi. However, we are saddened to report that we have only received an occasional police presence at our main gate. Many hours pass when we have no police support at all."

A second draft letter, as well as the first, requested an investigation into the police surveillance incident. The letter asked for the highest consideration of the issues raised and increased cooperation. The head of the Benghazi police Brigadier Hmeidah was fired a week after the attack. However, the chief refused to step down. According to his office manager, he is on sick leave right now. The new appointee to the job Salah Doghman said in an interview on Sept. 19 with Reuters:

"This is a mess ...When you go to the police headquarters, you will find there no police. The people in charge are not at their desks. They have refused to let me take up my job."

The reporters claim that the documents may have escaped FBI notice because of continued threats to U.S. personnel in Benghazi. Surely, the U.S. has the wherewithal to protect the area while a thorough search was carried out for documents. A Benghazi resident near the compound said that the FBI team spent only about three hours at the compound searching for evidence. This all looks, from my viewpoint, as incompetence on an almost unimaginable scale.

Attack in Benghazi hurts CIA Libya operations

The attack on a consular office and "safe house" in Libya has set back CIA operations in eastern Libya. About a dozen CIA operatives were among personnel evacuated from Benghazi.

CIA agents were stationed in Benghazi to engage in surveillance of militant groups. One American official said:

"It’s a catastrophic intelligence loss. We got our eyes poked out.”

Among the militant groups targeted by the CIA are Ansar al-Sharia, whom some have blamed for the attack, and Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Although there was public anger against militants after the Benghazi attack, there are still entrenched militant groups in the region. They are obviously aware of U.S. intelligence operations in the region.

Frederic Wehrey, a policy analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said:

“The region’s deeply entrenched Salafi community is undergoing significant upheaval, with debate raging between a current that is amenable to political integration and a more militant strand that opposes democracy,”

The CIA and U.S. contractors are helping track shoulder-fired missiles, and Libyan chemical weapons stockpiles, as well as training Libya's new intelligence services. Obviously, Libyan and U.S. intelligence operatives will have close connections.

The CIA operations in Benghazi began within months of the beginning of the Libyan rebellion in February 2011. The former prime minister of Libya, Mustafa Abushagur, was surprised at the number of U.S. operatives who appeared at Benghazi airport to be evacuated. He said he learned about some of the operations only after the attack. So even the former head of the Libyan government, has no idea what the U.S. is doing. Abushagur, who was recently sacked by the Libyan parliament, said

:“We have no problem with intelligence sharing or gathering, but our sovereignty is also key."

He, himself, is a U.S. trained engineer who lived in the U.S. for years.

The militant attacks were not only on the consular compound but also on a so-called safe house about a half-mile away that had four buildings in a compound. This compound was supposed to be secret. No doubt CIA agents operated out of it as well. The N.Y. Times agreed to withhold details of these operations at the request of the U.S. government, as disclosing the information could harm sensitive government activities and put U.S. personnel at risk. However, it is clear that the U.S. is very much involved in Libya. The militants know this and they will paint the Libyan government as a puppet of the U.S. Should the U.S. try to act unilaterally to attack those it thinks responsible for the Benghazi attacks, this would just confirm the militant narrative.

A U.S. review board is to investigate the attacks. The F.B.I. sent its own investigators from New York but they apparently are having difficulty because of the security situation. Some analysts believe that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb may have been involved in the attack, as communications were intercepted between the attackers and members of the group. Representative Mike Rogers, head of the House Intelligence Committee said that there was:

“a high degree of probability that it is an Al Qaeda or Al Qaeda-affiliated group that had a very specific target in mind, and that was to attack the consulate and cause as much harm, chaos and death as possible.”

Reuters provides different details about the so-called safe house. Reuters describes the house as a secret CIA base and identified as such by Libya. The post was described as 1.2 miles from the consular mission. Two special forces troops were killed at this base when it was also attacked by militants.

U.S. Special Forces gathering data that could be used to target militants suspected of Benghazi attack

The U.S. Joint Special Operations Command is gathering information that could be used to kill or capture militants thought to be involved in the recent Benghazi attack that killed the U.S. Ambassador and three other Americans.

The top-secret JSOC or Joint Special Operations Command is busy gathering information on militants who are suspected to be behind the attacks on the U.S. consular office in Benghazi, according to senior U.S. counter-terrorism officials. The officials described the process as preparing the "target packages". This would be the first step that would set the stage for orders from President Obama and top advisers to carry out any action against those thought to be responsible for the attack in Benghazi.

President Obama has vowed that he would bring the killers of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans to justice. As in the case of Osama bin Laden, this may mean simply killing them through a raid by Special Forces, or perhaps through drone attacks. U.S. drones are operating throughout eastern Libya in areas where suspects militants are operating. Obama could operate together with Libyan authorities in order to show that Libya is a sovereign country. In Pakistan, the attack that killed Bin Laden was done without Pakistani knowledge in order to ensure Bin Laden was not warned of the attack. There may be the same concerns about secrecy in Libya.

U.S. officials say that Special Operations planners are increasingly active in tracking suspect members of the Ansar al-Shariah group as well as other militants including those thought to have ties with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The U.S. officials say that Libyan authorities identified several suspected attackers based upon eyewitness accounts, video, and photographs at the scene. One U.S. official, who had been briefed on the plans, said:

"They are putting together information on where these individuals live, who their family members and their associates are, and their entire pattern of life."

Drones constantly monitor suspects in order to update and refine data. Rick Nelson, a former Special Operations planner, who is now aat the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said:

"You need to be constantly updating and refining the information on the top targets so that when you get approval, you're absolutely ready to take action."

The decision to act would be made by Obama after meetings with top advisers headed by John Brennan. The U.S. is working closely with the Libyan authorities who are in turn cooperating with the F.B.I.'s investigation into the attacks. An F.B.I. team recently arrived in Tripoli.

The U.S. takes the position that it can target anyone aligned with a terrorist group. If the attack on Bin Laden is any precedent this is supposedly legal even though the U.S. does not have authorization from the country in which the attack takes place.

U.S. officials report that U.S. spy agencies intercepted electronic communications from some Ansar al-Shariah fighters who bragged about the attack to a militant from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb. Details of this and other intercepts have been reported in the Wall Street Journal and the Daily Beast.

I am astonished that all this information is being released or rather leaked by anonymous officials. A key article on these operations of the JSOC comes from the New York Times., a newspaper that often is a mouth piece for the U.S. government. Perhaps the public is being prepared for a surprise to boost Obama's ratings just before the November election. However, it may just be intended to show that Obama is hard at work trying to bring terrorists to justice or just to show how transparent this administration is in telling the public what is going on!

Libyan Militant groups unapologetic about Benghazi attack

Militant group Ansar Al-Sharia claim they had no part in killing U.S. embassy staff in Benghazi but do not understand why tears are shed about the death of a diplomat. The real crime to them is the insult to Muslims in the film "Innocence of Muslims".

Powerful militias of various stripes simply refuse to lay down their weapons and cede power to the central government even though the Gaddafi regime is long gone. These groups include Ansar al-Sharia. Some have accused the group of being responsible for the attack on the Bengghazi consulate that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three others. The group itself admits that members were present at the demonstration but deny any part in the killings. The government claims to have arrested 50 people as part of its investigation into the attack but has not said whether any are from Ansar al-Sharia.

The group's name Ansar al-Sharia means roughly "patrons of Sharia law". They want to impose Sharia law in areas they control and throughout Libya. There is a group with the same name in Yemen which controlled considerable territory a year ago but have now retreated into the mountains. The U.S. considered them an Al Qaeda linked group. However often such associations are a device to ensure that the U.S. will help the Yemen government suppress them. Once a few drone attacks are made on them they are very apt to link up with AQAM (Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) anyway. The Ansar al-Sharia in Libya are said not to have any links with the Yemen group but they do have links to Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia.

Sometimes the group is called Ansar al-Sharia in Beghazi (ASB) since they are quite active in the city. The group is led by Muhammad Zahawi. As well as being linked to the Tunisian Ansar al-Sahri the group is also linked to other smaller Salifi-jihadist battalions including one led by a former Guantanamo prisoner. Some analysts blame the attack on another militia theOmar Abdul Rahman brigades

In an interview with the BBC, the leader of Ansar al-Sharia, Sheikh Mohammed Zahawi justified the group's decision not to give up their arms as follows:

"The battle is not yet over. There are many Gaddafi loyalists in the new administration."

He is no doubt referring not to people who stayed with the Gaddafi regime but who defected and joined the rebels and are now part of the government. Zahawi also said the group sympathized with other militant groups including Al Qaeda. This view is not uncommon.

Diaa Rahman from the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo said that often Al Qaeda is identified simply as a brand to be adopted because of sympathy with their ideas. This makes it even easier for those in the west to label militant groups as Al-Qaeda or Al-Qaeda affiliated even though Al Qaeda as a central organization probably does not even exist.

Rahman says:“

Al Qaeda as an organization, as a command, it doesn’t exist..There are no orders from Ayman Zawahri coming to jihadists in Libya or Sinai to make something....Since the death of Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda has been in a sense reborn because some of its ideas and the model have inspired new militants.”

The Ansar al-Sharia does not want democracy in Libya but Sharia law:

"We don't believe in the democratic system because even those who live in such systems know it's a fake. We want to tell the world that the democratic project doesn't suit us and doesn't suit Islam."

In Benghazi there is a half-built town on the outskirts meant to house about 200,000 people. It was abandoned by the Chinese as the revolt against Gaddafi gathered steam. The Libyan government wants to entice western capital back into Libya and there are lucrative oil deals waiting to be signed. However, as long as security is weak and the government unstable capital will no doubt flow to more friendly climes.

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.

Libya: More drones being sent together with Marines

The Obama administration is sending more military reinforcements to Libya along with warships. However, drones have been operating in Libya and also U.S.agents have been carrying out missions ever since the NATO mission ended last year.

Army Lt. Colonel Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesperson, told Wired's Danger Room:

Yes, we have been flying CAPs [combat air patrols] since the war ended,”

No doubt with the agreement of the Libyan government the U.S. has been engaged in surveillance with drones monitoring militant activity in Libya. Drones were used extensively during the NATO mission:

Predators launched 145 strikes on ex-regime targets. That was twice the barrage drones unleashed in all of 2011 on tribal Pakistan, the place commonly thought of as the epicenter of U.S. drone strikes.

Since the Benghazi incident more drones will be surveying Libya and an additional 50 marines are being sent although apparently most of these will be used to increase security at the U.S. embassy and consular offices.

There are no doubt already U.S. agents working in Libya on special missions. Indeed, one of the Americans killed in the Benghazi attack told ABC news a month ago that he was working on an intelligence mission to find some of the hidden caches of weapons that are stashed throughout Libya. No doubt there are a number of Americans helping out and no doubt trying to ferret out information about what is happening among militant groups.

More drones are now being sent to fly over Benghazi and eastern Libya. No doubt the drones will be watching for militant activities. Given there are also warships being sent equipped with Tomahawk missiles events could very well escalate. If there is an attack on a suspected jihadist compound or camp this could cause even more conflict with the central government which lacks its own forces to battle powerful militias.

We seem to be witnessing the beginning of a terrorist hunt in Libya no doubt provoked in part by the fact that the Benghazi attack seems to have been planned and executed by a militant group. The U.S. is experiencing a type of blowback as militant Islamic militants who actively fought again Gadaffi are now turning their sights on the U.S. exactly as happened in Afghanistan. The U.S. response may start a new front in the war against terrorism and create new arguments for not cutting the U.S. defense budget.

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.