An Excellent Timeline on What Happened in Benghazi

Yahoo! News put together a very good timeline on the events during and since Benghazi

Sept. 11: The Attack
2:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (8:30 p.m. Benghazi time): U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens steps outside the consulate to say goodbye to a Turkish diplomat. There are no protesters at this time. (“Everything is calm at 8:30,” a State Department official would later say at an Oct. 9 background briefing for reporters. “There’s nothing unusual. There has been nothing unusual during the day at all outside.”)
3 p.m.: Ambassador Stevens retires to his bedroom for the evening. (See Oct. 9 briefing.)
Approximately 3:40 p.m. A security agent at the Benghazi compound hears “loud noises” coming from the front gate and “gunfire and an explosion.” A senior State Department official at the Oct. 9 briefing says that “the camera on the main gate reveals a large number of people – a large number of men, armed men, flowing into the compound.”
About 4 p.m.: This is the approximate time of attack that was given to reporters at a Sept. 12 State Department background briefing. An administration official identified only as “senior administration official one” provides an official timeline of events at the consulate, but only from the time of the attack — not prior to the attack. The official says, “The compound where our office is in Benghazi began taking fire from unidentified Libyan extremists.” (Six of the next seven entries in this timeline — through 8:30 p.m. EDT — all come from the Sept. 12 briefing. The exception being the 6:07 p.m. entry, which comes from Reuters.)
About 4:15 p.m.: “The attackers gained access to the compound and began firing into the main building, setting it on fire. The Libyan guard force and our mission security personnel responded. At that time, there were three people inside the building: Ambassador Stevens, one of our regional security officers, and Information Management Officer Sean Smith.”
Between 4:15 p.m.-4:45 p.m.: Sean Smith is found dead.
About 4:45 p.m.: “U.S. security personnel assigned to the mission annex tried to regain the main building, but that group also took heavy fire and had to return to the mission annex.”
About 5:20 p.m.: “U.S. and Libyan security personnel … regain the main building and they were able to secure it.”
Around 6 p.m.: “The mission annex then came under fire itself at around 6 o’clock in the evening our time, and that continued for about two hours. It was during that time that two additional U.S. personnel were killed and two more were wounded during that ongoing attack.”
6:07 p.m.: The State Department’s Operations Center sends an email to the White House, Pentagon, FBI and other government agencies that said Ansar al-Sharia has claimed credit for the attack on its Facebook and Twitter accounts. (The existence of the email was not disclosed until Reuters reported it on Oct. 24.)
About 8:30 p.m.: “Libyan security forces were able to assist us in regaining control of the situation. At some point in all of this – and frankly, we do not know when – we believe that Ambassador Stevens got out of the building and was taken to a hospital in Benghazi. We do not have any information what his condition was at that time. His body was later returned to U.S. personnel at the Benghazi airport.”
About 10:00 p.m.: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issues a statement confirming that one State official was killed in an attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. Her statement, which MSNBC posted at 10:32 p.m., made reference to the anti-Muslim video.
Clinton: Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. Our commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear: There is never any justification for violent acts of this kind.

Much more at the link.
By: Brant

Secretary Clinton Addresses Religion & Riots

Once again proving she's the adult in the global room, Secretary Clinton lays the verbal hammer down after the MidEast riots.

In her remarks, Clinton repeated much of what she's said in the last two days. Namely that the Benghazi attack was carried out by a "small and savage group," and that the United States completely rejects what she called the "inflammable and despicable" anti-Muslim film circulating the Internet. However, Clinton pointed out all religions have faced insults and denigration, but that's no justification for violence. The response to such insults is what separates people of true faith from those who would use religion as an excuse to commit violent acts, she said.
"When Christians are subject to insults to their faith, and that certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence. When Hindus or Buddhists are subjected to insults to their faiths, and that also certainly happens, we expect them not to resort to violence," said Clinton. "The same goes for all faiths, including Islam."
She spoke movingly about her own personal beliefs as a way of re-enforcing her point.
"I so strongly believe that the great religions of the world are stronger than any insults. They have withstood offense for centuries," said Clinton."Refraining from violence, then, is not a sign of weakness in one's faith; it is absolutely the opposite, a sign that one's faith is unshakable."
She asked the crowd to work towards building a world where if one person commits a violent religious act, millions of people will stand up and condemn it

By: Brant

US Ambassador to Libya Killed When Mob Storms Embassy

I guess our support for their revolution was swiftly forgotten when the rumor of an insult to their religion started to spread.

The US ambassador to Libya has died after an attack by militiamen on the US consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi, Libyan officials say.

Ambassador Christopher Stevens is said to be among four US officials killed in a protest over a US-produced film that is said to insult the Prophet Muhammad.

US media quote US officials confirming the ambassador's death. But there is no comment from the state department.

Protesters have also attacked the US embassy in Cairo over the film.

In the attack in Benghazi, unidentified armed men stormed the grounds, shooting at buildings and throwing handmade bombs into the compound.

Security forces returned fire but Libyan officials say they were overwhelmed.

A Libyan official has said Ambassador Stevens died from suffocation as a result of the attack.

The death was confirmed by the Deputy Prime Minister Mustafa Abu Shagur.

"I condemn these barbaric acts in the strongest possible terms. This is an attack on America, Libya and free people everywhere," he said on the social networking site Twitter.

By: Brant

Salon Looks at the Militarization of US Policy

Salon has an article that looks at "how we became a nation of warriors". However, I think they miss a few key points...

Over the last century, militarism has warped our foreign policy -- and our soul.

As discussed in Geoffrey Perret's excellent book, A Country Made By War, the military has been a key pillar of this country since the beginning. It's not a "last century" phenomenon.

Embedded in the operation is a lone USAID official. Her minority status is symptomatic of a new age in U.S. foreign policy, one in which America, in peacetime as well as in war, is represented abroad more by warriors than by civilians.

While they get into the meat of this a bit more in the article, the simple fact of overseas missions is this: uniformed servicemembers are the most organized, capable, and deployable collections of professionals the United States has. If a comparable organization of civilians existed, they could be put to work. However, thus far we as a country have not prioritized such an organization.

By: Brant

Piss Poor Pakistani Punditry

I gotta say, if the tagline is correct, and the Pakistan Oberver is "widely read & trusted daily", then articles like this one are clear evidence of the fact that the Pakistanis have no clucking foo what's going on in the world.

Living to its reputation, the US House of Representatives decided to block aid to Pakistan.

Really? What "reputation" is that? The one that expectes meaningful assistance in return for shitloads of money?

The previously approved aid would not be released until Pakistan accepts the US dictates. Also, the US Secretary of State should certify to the Congress that Islamabad is “ fully assisting the United States with investigating the existence of an official or unofficial network in Pakistan for Obama bin Laden, including by providing the United States with direct access to Osama bin Laden’s relatives in Pakistan and to Osama bin Laden’s former compound in Abbotabad.”

I know, right? I mean, how unreasonable of the Americans to demand that several billion dollars in aid get us an ally who actually, y'know, helps us with stuff.

(more after the jump...)

The State Department Redefines "Stupid" - UPDATED

Wow... did a State Department spokesman really call the DoD's treatment of Bradley Manning"stupid"?!

The US treatment of the man accused of leaking secret cables to Wikileaks is "ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid", US state department spokesman PJ Crowley has said.

Mr Crowley made the remarks about Bradley Manning to an audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Lemme tell you what's stupid: being a whiny, self-centered, attention-seeking PFC in a job you don't like but on which people to depend to stay alive, and deciding to stick it to "the man" by splashing classified cables all over the world's media like you're some sort of political savior.

Hey State Department - get with the program. Your dirty laundry is flapping in the breeze, too.

---

Follow-up:

Crowley is out.

Chief State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley quit on Sunday after causing a stir by describing the Army's treatment of the suspected WikiLeaks leaker as "ridiculous" and "stupid," pointed words that forced President Barack Obama to defend the detention as appropriate.
"Given the impact of my remarks, for which I take full responsibility, I have submitted my resignation" to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, according to a department statement attributed to the office of the spokesman. In a separate statement released simultaneously, Clinton said she had accepted the resignation "with regret."
Crowley's comments about the conditions for Pfc. Bradley Manning at a Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va., reverberated quickly, from the small audience in Massachusetts where Crowley spoke, to a White House news conference Friday where Obama was asked to weigh in on the treatment of the 23-year-old believed responsible for the largest leak of classified American documents ever.
Manning is being held in solitary confinement for all but an hour every day, and is stripped naked each night and given a suicide-proof smock to wear to bed. His lawyer calls the treatment degrading. Amnesty International says the treatment may violate Manning's human rights.
Crowley, who retired as colonel from the Air Force in 1999 after 26 years in the military, was quoted as telling students at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology seminar on Thursday that he didn't understand why the military was handling Manning's detention that way, and calling it "ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid." Crowley also said "Manning is in the right place" in military detention.

By: Brant

GrogNews Insomniac Headlines

Yes, they're late. Sorry. It's been a loooooong day.

The Southies are pretty sure the Norks have more uranium sites. Hey, if they've got one, then it's one more than the number of army chiefs the Southies have right now.

Richard Holbrooke, who brokered the Bosnian peace accords in Dayton, has died.

The Army birther who refused to deploy is having his day in court.

Another bomb threat in Sweden as we learn that the bomber was hoping for bigger targets.

Assange is hoping for bail.

By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

A little late today, but real life is busy intruding...

Korea
The US is hoping for a tri-lateral Axis of Kicking Nork Ass with SKorea & Japan, and they're
frustrated China is not doing more about the Norks. Hard to have leverage over crazy people. A top US admiral has a warning for Nork's "bad guy", too.

WikiLeaks
Australia blames the US, rather than blaming Assange over WikiLeaks. The US says WikiLeaks has hurt US foreign relations. I'm sure the US contributed at least in part to that damage. And even though Assange is in jail, WikiLeaks keeps dripping.

A suicide bomb kills 15 at a market in NW Pakistan.

The Palestinians are openly questioning if the US can/will lead the peace process.


By: Brant

GrogNews Daily Headlines

Danger Room takes a quick swim through the latest WikiLeaks data dump as the State Department condemns the release and goes into
goes into full-on damage control. I gotta wonder tho - was an E3 really privy to State Department cables? Really?
Oh yeah, and Israel warned the US that engagement with Iran was pointless. We needed WikiLeaks to tell us that? Maybe they know who offed a nuclear scientist with a car bomb and wounded another.

The Brazilian favela shootout apparently netted a huge drugs haul, and at least one Justin Bieber mural.

A Mexican gang boss has admitted to a whole passel of murders. And isn't it cool that "passel" doesn't set off the spellchecker?

The South Koreans are vowing retaliation against any further attack. Hello? How many further attacks do you need? At least they're starting artillery drills - let's hope it's practicing counter-battery fire - against what Seoul has called an "inhumane crime".

The Japanese are still trying to move the US base off of Okinawa.

And how close have we gotten to capping al Qaeda's #2?

By: Brant

Clinton Flips Karzai a Verbal Bird

US to Karzai: we know it's your country, and we appreciate your concern, but... well, "suck it!"

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton defended targeted U.S. military strikes in Afghanistan on Monday, responding to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's call for the U.S. military to reduce the visibility and intensity of its operations.

"On President Karzai's concerns, we ... share these concerns. We've discussed them on a number of occasions," Clinton told reporters. "But we believe that the use of intelligence-driven, precision, targeted operations against high-value insurgents and their networks is a key component of our comprehensive civlian-military operations."

In other words: "It's your country, and we'll continue to do what we want to in it."

By: Brant

Do Israel and Palestine *Really* Mean It This Time?

Secretary Clinton seems to think so.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday said Israeli and Palestinian leaders are "getting down to business" on core issues of renewed peace talks, but gave no sign they are any closer to resolving a looming crisis over Israeli West Bank settlements.
The Palestinians are threatening to walk out of the talks if Israel resumes construction in the settlements after a slowdown expires at the end of the month. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that at least some construction will resume.
Clinton was in Jerusalem for a second day of talks aimed at ending the impasse, a day after meeting Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at a summit hosted by Egypt.
"They are getting down to business and they have begun to grapple with the core issues that can only be resolved through face-to-face negotiations," Clinton told reporters. "I believe they are serious about reaching an agreement that results in two states living side by side in peace and security."

By: Brant

Pakistanis Added To The Terror List - Spat Imminent?

The State Department added the Pakistani Taliban to the terror watch list, and given Pakistan's recent spate of snits following news they didn't like, one wonders what their next move is? Sitting in a corner and holding their breath 'til they turn blue?

The United States on Wednesday added the Pakistani Taliban to its list of foreign terrorist organizations and set rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to the capture of two of its leaders.

The steps mark Washington's toughest moves against the Tehrik-i-Taliban, or Taliban Movement of Pakistan (TTP), a group that claimed responsibility for the failed bomb plot in New York's Times Square and is increasingly seen as a direct threat to the United States.

"We should be very clear about this. The TTP is very much a part of the most dangerous terrorist threat that the United States faces," Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's ambassador at large for counterterrorism, told a news briefing.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's move, announced in a note in the Federal Register, adds the TTP to a list of some 46 groups the United States deems involved in terrorism and subjects to financial and travel sanctions.

Simultaneously, U.S. prosecutors charged TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud for a plot that killed seven CIA employees at a U.S. base in Afghanistan last December, and U.S. officials offered $5 million rewards for information leading to the arrest of Mehsud and Wali-ur-Rehman, another senior TTP commander.

More details on the charges brought against Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud.

U.S. prosecutors have charged the leader of the Pakistani Taliban, Hakimullah Mehsud, in the plot that killed seven CIA employees at an American base in Afghanistan last December, the Justice Department said on Wednesday.

Mehsud, believed to be hiding in the tribal areas of Pakistan and head of the group known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, was charged with conspiracy to kill Americans overseas and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.

On December 30, a Jordanian doctor who had gained the trust of the CIA employees as a source detonated a bomb hidden under his clothing after entering a heavily fortified compound outside Khost. It was the second-most deadly attack in CIA history.

"Criminal charges are meant to deal with Hakimullah if he's captured," said a U.S. official who declined to be identified. "He can face justice in other ways, too. That hasn't changed."

U.S. military forces have tried to kill Mehsud since the attack with strikes by unmanned aerial drones. The State Department is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his location.

By: Brant

Another Leak in the US Gov't

This time it's a contract analyst who is in trouble for leaking classified intel.

A foreign policy analyst who worked at the State Department has been charged with leaking a top-secret intelligence report to a news reporter last year, the Justice Department said on Friday.

Stephen Kim, who had briefed former Vice President Dick Cheney and other top U.S. officials, was indicted for violating an espionage law barring disclosure of national defense information and lying to the FBI about his contacts with the reporter.

The Justice Department did not identify the reporter and described the journalist's employer as a "national news organization."

Prosecutors said the incident happened in 2009 but gave little detail about the classified intelligence report except that it concerned the "military capabilities and preparedness of a particular foreign nation."

Kim, 43, an employee of a federal contractor on detail to the State Department, has written previously about U.S.-Korean relations.

He pleaded not guilty to the charges and was released pending trial. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison on the espionage count and five years for lying.

"Stephen Kim was on detail from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to the Department of State at the time of the alleged disclosure," said a State Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

By: Brant

Xewater Back in the Contracting Game

After a settlement with the State Department, BlackXE-water is once again free to compete for government contracts.

Xe, the private security firm once known as Blackwater, has reached a $42 million settlement with the U.S. State Department over alleged export violations, a State Department official said.
Darby Holladay, a State Department duty officer, said the civil settlement was reached Wednesday for 288 violations between 2003 and 2009, when the company personnel were guarding U.S. staff overseas.
They involve the "unauthorized export" of defense articles and services to "foreign end-users in multiple countries" and "false statements and misrepresentation or omission of material facts in information provided to the department."
Also, Holladay said, there were violations "of provisos or limitations on export licenses."
But the violations, he said, "did not involve sensitive technologies or cause known harm to U.S. national security."
Xe is pleased with the settlement, which will allow it to continue to get government contracts.

By: Brant

State Department Ramps Up In Iraq

Without the muscle of DoD behind them, the State Department is going to have to fight their own 'war' in Iraq, supported by - you guessed it - contractors.

As the United States military prepares to leave Iraq by the end of 2011, the Obama administration is planning a remarkable civilian effort, buttressed by a small army of contractors, to fill the void.
By October 2011, the State Department will assume responsibility for training the Iraqi police, a task that will largely be carried out by contractors. With no American soldiers to defuse sectarian tensions in northern Iraq, it will be up to American diplomats in two new $100 million outposts to head off potential confrontations between the Iraqi Army and Kurdish pesh merga forces.
To protect the civilians in a country that is still home to insurgents with Al Qaeda and Iranian-backed militias, the State Department is planning to more than double its private security guards, up to as many as 7,000, according to administration officials who disclosed new details of the plan. Defending five fortified compounds across the country, the security contractors would operate radars to warn of enemy rocket attacks, search for roadside bombs, fly reconnaissance drones and even staff quick reaction forces to aid civilians in distress, the officials said.
“I don’t think State has ever operated on its own, independent of the U.S. military, in an environment that is quite as threatening on such a large scale,” said James Dobbins, a former ambassador who has seen his share of trouble spots as a special envoy for Afghanistan, Bosnia, Haiti, Kosovo and Somalia. “It is unprecedented in scale.”

By: Brant

McChrystal Resigns

The drama is now over. General McChrystal has resigned and the President has accepted his resignation. According to various news reports General Petraeus will go back into the field to take command of US forces in Afghanistan.

Earlier this week Rolling Stone Magazine revealed McChrystal and his staff had shared some ill-advised comments regarding both the President and a number of diplomatic staffers involved in Afghanistan.

In those remarks it was clear McChrystal held his civilian bosses and counterparts in low esteem.

Rightly or wrongly, sharing those views publicly was certain to shorten his military career.

Speculation is rampant regarding the reasons behind the release of those comments, and they vary from the culture of Special Forces being less formal in decorum to over-familiarity with the Rolling Stone reporter, which eventually led to sharing some thoughts publicly that should have been held privately.

Regardless of the reasons the deed is done and a change of command is now done.

Let us hope it does not adversely affect American war efforts in the 'Stan.



Image courtesy US Army, Credit: Cherie Cullen.

By: GladiusMagnus

State Department Arming In Iraq

The State Department is asking for a lot of gear from the military, planning to arm themselves for diplomatic security in Iraq.

The State Department is quietly forming a small army to protect diplomatic personnel in Iraq after U.S. military forces leave the country at the end of 2011, taking their firepower with them.

Department officials are asking the Pentagon for heavy military gear, including Black Hawk helicopters, and say they will also need substantial support from private contractors.

The shopping list demonstrates the department's reluctance to count on Iraq's army and police forces for security despite the billions of dollars the U.S. invested to equip and train them. And it shows that President Barack Obama is having a hard time keeping his pledge to reduce U.S. reliance on contractors, a practice that flourished under the Bush administration.

In an early April request to the Pentagon, Patrick Kennedy, the State Department's under secretary for management, is seeking 24 Black Hawks, 50 bomb-resistant vehicles, heavy cargo trucks, fuel trailers, and high-tech surveillance systems. Kennedy asks that the equipment, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, be transferred at "no cost" from military stocks.

Contractors will be needed to maintain the gear and provide other support to diplomatic staff, according to the State Department, a potential financial boon for companies such as the Houston-based KBR Inc. that still have a sizable presence in Iraq.

By: Brant

Property Accountability Issues in Baghdad

Millions of dollars of equipment are missing, and mismanagement of funds seems epidemic.

Tens of millions of dollars in federal property is missing or unaccounted for at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest U.S. diplomatic mission abroad, according to an internal State Department audit released Wednesday.

The report from the department's inspector general found that 159 of the embassy's 1,168 vehicles, worth $18.5 million, are unaccounted for.

The report said 282 vehicles worth $40.4 million have not been properly registered, and $2.3 million in other property, including furniture and other office equipment, is missing.

The audit doesn't say whether the missing property has been lost or stolen, but it says the failure to account for the items is unacceptable.

Auditors also found that the embassy is paying nearly $270,000 per year in charges for more than 2,000 cell phones that have not been registered to authorized users. The report said the embassy could save more than $740,000 a year by disconnecting unassigned and underused cell phones and limiting international calls.

In addition, the report said the embassy has 1,000 more hand-held radios than it is using and could save $936,000 if they were sent to posts where they are needed.

"Embassy Baghdad has had difficulty controlling and accurately accounting for its U.S. government property," said the audit, which was conducted between July and November of last year. It noted the difficulties of doing so in a war zone, a move to a new compound and frequent staff changes. But it said that the inventories should have been done.

By: Brant

How Quickly Does North Korea Come Off the Rails

The international investigation has concluded that the Norks sank the Cheonan. Now the Norks are saying they'll go to war if anyone retaliates. Right-thinking people will rightly note that the Norks went to war when they sank the Cheonan.

Tensions deepened Thursday on the Korean peninsula as South Korea accused North Korea of firing a torpedo that sank a naval warship, killing 46 sailors in the country's worst military disaster since the Korean War.

President Lee Myung-bak vowed "stern action" for the provocation following the release of long-awaited results from a multinational investigation into the March 26 sinking near the Koreas' tense maritime border. North Korea, reacting swiftly, called the results a fabrication, and warned that any retaliation would trigger war. It continued to deny involvement in the sinking of the warship Cheonan.

"If the (South Korean) enemies try to deal any retaliation or punishment, or if they try sanctions or a strike on us .... we will answer to this with all-out war," Col. Pak In Ho of North Korea's navy told broadcaster APTN in an exclusive interview in Pyongyang.

An international civilian-military investigation team said evidence overwhelmingly proves a North Korean submarine fired a homing torpedo that caused a massive underwater blast that tore the Cheonan apart. Fifty-eight sailors were rescued from the frigid Yellow Sea waters, but 46 perished.

Meanwhile, Secretary Clinton is off to Asia and now dealing with this hassle.

The White House said late Wednesday that the ship sinking was an 'act of aggression' that is 'one more instance of North Korea's unacceptable behavior and defiance of international law.' It called it 'a challenge to international peace and security and ... a violation of the Armistice Agreement' that ended the Korean War.

The State Department said the evidence ruled out any alternative explanation and the United States was "already working very closely with our ally (South Korea) and consulting with our partners regarding appropriate steps."

poll by twiigs.com

By: Brant

Clinton Going Rogue?

In a stunning accusation, Secretary Clinton claims that members of Pakistani leadership know where Omar and Bin Laden are, and that they're hiding the information from the US. Wow. Just, wow.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she believes that some Pakistani officials know the whereabouts of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, in what was one of the strongest accusations of supporting terrorism that the United States has ever issued to its South Asian ally, the Times of India reported today.

Clinton's comments seemed aimed at Islamabad's military and intelligence sectors rather than the civilian government, according to the newspaper.

''I am not saying they are at the highest level ... but I believe somewhere in this government are people who know where Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda and where [Taliban leader] Mullah Omar and the leadership of the Taliban are," Clinton said in a "60 Minutes" interview. '"We expect more cooperation [from Islamabad] to help us bring to justice capture or kill those who brought us 9/11."

By: Brant