Josh Rogin
Foreign Policy
9/14/2012
The State Department told reporters Friday afternoon that it won’t answer any more questions about the Sept. 11 attack on the consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans until the investigation into the incident is complete.
“I’m going to frustrate all of you, infinitely, by telling you that now that we have an open FBI investigation on the death of these four Americans, we are not going to be in a position to talk at all about what the U.S. government may or may not be learning about how any of this this happened — not who they were, not how it happened, not what happened to Ambassador Stevens, not any of it — until the Justice Department is ready to talk about the investigation that’s its got,” State Department spokeswoman Victorian Nuland told reporters late Friday afternoon.
“So I’m going to send to the FBI for those kinds of questions and they’re probably not going to talk to you about it,” she said…
…Two senior officials did speak extensively about the events of the night of the attack on the consulate Sept 12 in a background conference call with reporters, but that’s all the information the administration intends to give out, Nuland said…
Read the complete article at Foreign Policy.
Also at the site, Inside the public relations disaster at the Cairo embassy
Related: Chaos at the State Dept.?
…the full story of the attack on the Benghazi consulate is much worse than we have been told…
Update: …The explanation of how Stevens died from smoke inhalation is curious at best…
…Some of the missing papers from the consulate are said to list names of Libyans who are working with Americans, putting them potentially at risk from extremist groups, while some of the other documents are said to relate to oil contracts…
Update 2: The Obama Foreign Policy: A Non Sequitur
Up until September 11th, 2012, the Obama campaign truly believed that their candidate had the upper hand on the issue of foreign policy. In fact, during Mr. Obama’s nomination acceptance speech just last week, he portrayed Mr. Romney as “new to foreign policy.” But while it is true that Mr. Obama has the luxury of having three and one-half years under his belt as President of the United States, it is also true that he has spent most of time focused on domestic issues of an ideological nature.
It is true, too, that his foreign policy is based on the United States taking its “proper place” in the world as an “equal.” Further, it is also true, as is evidenced by the violence currently be perpetrated against US embassies across the Middle East – violence that has claimed the lives of four US emissaries, including a State Department ambassador – that Mr. Obama’s foreign policy is not only a complete and utter failure, it has left our nation less safe and the target of those who oppose liberty and freedom around the world…
Update 3: This is how Islamists knew of secret U.S. safehouse
NEW YORK – An Egyptian security official speaking to WND today said there is information about large-scale infiltration by al-Qaida and its affiliated Jihadia Salafiya groups within the Libyan security apparatus.
The claim comes amid speculation about how Islamists who targeted the U.S. mission in Libya seemed to have inside information about the movement of the American diplomats in the country as well as the location of a supposedly secret U.S. safehouse in Libya…
…The claim of al-Qaida infiltration of Libyan security forces comes after WND documented earlier this week how the U.S. supported Libyan rebels amid widespread reports that al-Qaida groups were incorporated in the rebel ranks.
The attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya is being widely blamed on al-Qaida-linked groups…
