Ed Morrissey
Hot Air
9/12/2014
Hey, maybe this is why the embassy in Tripoli was so insistent on getting US Marines back for security in Benghazi. A FOIA request from Judicial Watch produced 130 pages of State Department documents regarding assessment of the use of local militias for security at the Benghazi consulate in the three months prior to the attack that killed four Americans, including the first US Ambassador killed in the line of duty in 33 years. The memos show that the contractor responsible for arranging local militias to guard the compound repeatedly warned State that the locals were unreliable and often left the facility undermanned…
…morale among the militia members was not high. If they were failing to show up for their shifts, it seems difficult to believe that anyone would have assumed they would have stuck to their posts if trouble arrived. These memos began shortly after the June bombing, which BMG blamed for their inability to staff the facility properly — and before State renewed the lease on the facility, even though it didn’t meet the Inman Standard for securing diplomatic facilities…
…Now we know why Stevens wanted the military detail to remain while he worked out the immunity deal. Instead, even with these memos in hand about the reliability of the Libyan guards, State rebuffed Stevens, and it cost him his life along with three other Americans.
Just to remind everyone, no one at the State Department has lost so much as a paycheck over these decisions. Maybe we should get a better answer as to why.
Read the complete article at HotAir.com
