The Washington Free Beacon by: Adam Kredo Thursday, September 13, 2012
Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson Photo Credit:AP
U.S. Marines defending the American embassy in Egypt were not permitted by the State Department to carry live ammunition, limiting their ability to respond to attacks like those this week on the U.S. consulate in Cairo.
Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson “did not permit U.S. Marine guards to carry live ammunition,” according to multiple reports on U.S. Marine Corps blogs spotted by Nightwatch. “She neutralized any U.S. military capability that was dedicated to preserve her life and protect the US Embassy.”
U.S. officials have yet to confirm or comment on the reports. Time magazine’s Battleland blog reported Thursday. “Senior U.S. officials late Wednesday declined to discuss in detail the security at either Cairo or Benghazi, so answers may be slow in coming.” If true, the reports indicate that Patterson shirked her obligation to protect U.S. interests, Nightwatch states.
ADMINISTRATION DEFENDS LAX SECURITY AT CONSULATE
The Washington Times by: Shaun Waterman Thursday, September 13, 2012
Administration officials defended the security measures at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi when a riotous mob and suspected Muslim militants killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, although a State Department source said it lacked the Marine guards common at larger diplomatic missions.
The senior administration official said a force of locally contracted Libyan guards was stationed outside the compound, as is standard practice, and there was “a robust security presence” inside. The guards reportedly fled as the attack intensified in the eastern Libyan city.
In common with every other diplomatic post throughout the world, security at the Benghazi consulate was reviewed in the days before to the Sept. 11 anniversary, the official said. But security of the diplomatic corps in the post-9/11 world has become a major concern at the State Department and on Capitol Hill.
Former national security officials explained that there is always a compromise that must be struck between security and accessibility.
“You have to balance being secure and being able to do your job,” former State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. “You can never completely eliminate the risk. Clearly these attackers exceeded the firepower of a typical diplomatic post defense.”
The Washington Guardian website reported Wednesday that the State Department’s own internal watchdog, its Diplomatic Security office, recently acknowledged it lacked the funding for some recommended improvements, including security training, and was instead looking for workarounds.
Top Obama administration officials said they were still struggling late Wednesday to ascertain a clear timeline of how the events unfolded and who was involved in the attacks in Benghazi and one on the embassy in Egypt. Several officials and analysts speculated that militant Muslims used a trailer from a low-budget film that depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a pedophile and a fraud to incite the mobs and use it for cover to attack.
Benghazi, the birthplace of the revolution that toppled dictator Moammar Gadhafi last year, is a hotbed of activity by Libya’s small but burgeoning Islamic extremist movement.
The U.S. Consulate in Benghazi was attacked in June, a few days before the British ambassador’s motorcade was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade. Last month, the Red Cross compound in the city was attacked with RPGs, but no one was hurt.
One national security expert, retired Army Col. Ken Allard, said the Obama administration should have been prompted to increase security by the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, a call from al Qaeda’s leader to attack Americans and by a growing terrorist presence in Benghazi.
“There is now a lot of story-telling about [al Qaeda] in Libya, apparently not a surprise to anyone who was there, too,” Col. Allard said.
“Our hopes and rhetoric about the Arab awakening have considerably outrun all common sense. I doubt the Libyan attack was a coincidence because our enemies understand that rhetoric matters much less than the ability to bring force to bear against any unguarded outpost.”
The United States increased security at embassies across the Arab world Wednesday in the wake of the killing of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and attacks on diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya.
The Obama administration ordered as many as 200 Marines to Tripoli, the Libyan capital, and warned U.S. citizens throughout North Africa of possible further violence.
Mobs marched on the U.S. Embassy in Cairo on Tuesday. Many clambered over the embassy walls, tore down the American flag and replaced it with a black flag frequently flown by al Qaeda terrorists.
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Elites who send their own to death should be indicted. The traitorous crime of killing your own is much greater than killing the enemy. The Anne Pattersons are risking the lives of the guards, her elitist life is inconsequential. They do the same when they send soldiers to fight in a war with BS rules of engagement.
The same mindset exists within the Israeli government. It took one and a half hours for the IDF to show up at a settlement where Arabs were attacking Jews a few days ago. The settlement had only four rifles to defend itself, as a settlemet security officer told Tamar Yonah – http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Radio/News.aspx/4210 -. There are limits to the number and quality of weapons a settlement can own too.
And there are strict orders to police and IDF on how to deal with a hostile Arab crowd. They are “to disperse the crowd”, never mind the fact that they are throwing rocks and firebombs. Arrests are rarely made.
Authorities would rather have fatalities on the Jewish side than on the Arab side. No consequences when Jews get murdered. If the perpetrators are ever caught, they are eventually released along with other terrorists in one of many gestures of goodwill.
It might inflame the muslims if our marines defend themselves and our embassy by shooting rioters. Apparently the State Department feels it’s better for the sake of avoiding angering the muslim world that our own people are killed rather than the marauding savages.
These clueless fools have this notion that if we show the muslim world we mean them no harm, they will leave us alone. What message we are actually sending to the muslim world is that we are weak and the islamic world is a culture that preys on weakness. This consiliatory display by government officials and disarming our marine guards encourages brutal attacks on us. Only a ruthless display of strength and force will discourage further attacks.
@ Bill Levinson:
Definitely. These security measures should have been taken before 9/11, not after the attacks.
I cannot believe what has happened to the USA. It used to be that Americans laughed at Canadians because our customs agents do not carry pistols. Who is laughing now? Actually it is not funny it is very very sad.
The Fort Hood massacre also happened because none of personnel were armed.
AMERICAN ELITES = = DEVILS :(( !!
No ammunition for the US military personnel at the embassy? Doesn’t this smack of the same mentality in the Marine barracks in Lebanon several years ago? Then, it was Weinberger’s orders.