Benghazi Bull

I know that I shouldn't be diving into this, given that 1) I'm no expert, and 2) I've already stated an aversion to writing much about politics and current events in the present season. But if I had the inclination to spend much time on this, I think my head would probably explode. Fortunately for me, the veins in my head have been able to withstand the pressure - so far.

The basics you probably already know. A few weeks ago, on 9/11, American embassies throughout North Africa and other places came under seige by often violent protestors. Actually, this has been a fairly common occurrence in the last decade, but much more pronounced in the last couple of years since the so-called Arab Spring resulted in the overthrow of several North African governments that are now in the hands of increasingly anti-American militant Islamists.

A year ago, American forces supported or otherwise engaged in military action against Libya to overthrow Moammar Gadhafi (choose your favorite spelling if you don't like mine). I won't get into the specifics of that action right now, but the result was and continues to be a significant power vacuum. Such environments have been ideal for al Qaeda. On 9/11/2012, it appears that our Benghazi consulate came under direct fire from a terrorist attack, killing Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

The administration - for at least two weeks, up to and including the president's speech to the UN last week - put blame on some stupid video on YouTube. Spokesperson after spokesperson came out and placed blame on a mob, supposedly incited by this video, for this act of violence. To be blunt, that's a load of bull. As the media is beginning to report, American intelligence knew within hours and days that this was a premeditated, planned attack. From Reuters (emphasis mine):

Within hours of last month's attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, President Barack Obama's administration received about a dozen intelligence reports suggesting militants connected to al Qaeda were involved, three government sources said.

Despite these reports, in public statements and private meetings, top U.S. officials spent nearly two weeks highlighting intelligence suggesting that the attacks were spontaneous protests against an anti-Muslim film, while playing down the involvement of organized militant groups.

It was not until last Friday that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper's office issued an unusual public statement, which described how the picture that intelligence agencies presented to U.S. policymakers had "evolved" into an acknowledgement that the attacks were "deliberate and organized" and "carried out by extremists."

The existence of the early reports appears to raise fresh questions about the Obama administration's public messaging about the attack as it seeks to fend off Republican charges that the White House failed to prevent a terrorist strike that left a U.S. ambassador and three others dead.

So, you'd think that following an attack on the anniversary of 9/11, and furthermore knowing that every such anniversary calls for a heightened security awareness around the globe, we'd already be well on our way to gathering evidence and identifying the perpetrators and responding as appropriate, right? Condsider this from the Washington Post (emphasis mine):

Three weeks after the attack that killed four Americans in this city, the investigation of its causes remains in its initial stages, with just a handful of suspects detained, the crime scenes minimally secured and Walid Faraj waiting for a phone call from someone, anyone, asking him what he saw on the night he was injured while protecting the U.S. diplomatic post here.

Faraj, a member of the militia that local officials tasked with securing Americans in Benghazi, said he saw the attack nearly from start to finish. But neither American nor Libyan investigators have paid him a visit, even as he fears that the perpetrators know who he is.

In Washington, a leading House Republican challenged on Tuesday the administration’s version of events on the chaotic night of Sept. 11, suggesting that the attack was planned and that congressional investigators have been told that requests for increased security at the U.S. diplomatic outpost had been turned down.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) listed incidents dating to April that he said created a pattern of threats.

Some of the incidents had been disclosed earlier, but others appeared to be new revelations. In one case, he said, Libyans working as private security guards at the U.S. compound were warned by family members in the weeks before the assault to quit their jobs because of rumors of an impending attack. He did not specify where the information originated.

“These events indicated a clear pattern of security threats that could only be reasonably interpreted to justify increased security for U.S. personnel and facilities in Benghazi,” Issa and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) wrote to Clinton.

Clinton assured Issa in a reply released by the State Department that the department would “work collaboratively with you to achieve the result we both want: a full and accurate accounting of the events and a path forward to prevent them from happening again.”

She said the department’s investigation will begin this week.

The State Department "will begin" an investigation this week? Pardon the language, by why the hell hasn't it already started? From Foreign Policy (emphasis mine):

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrel Issa (R-CA) Tuesday afternoon to pledge the State Department's full cooperation with Congress in getting to the bottom of the Sept. 11 attack on the Benghazi consulate that killed Amb. Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

"I appreciate that you and your committee are deeply interested in finding out what happened leading up to and during the attacks in Benghazi, and are looking for ways to prevent it from happening again. I share that commitment," Clinton wrote in the letter, obtained by The Cable. "Nobody will hold this department more accountable than we hold ourselves -- we served with Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, and Tyrone Woods."

Clinton said that the State Department's Accountability Review Board will begin work this week and the letter revealed the names of all five board members. In addition to former Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Pickering, who will lead the board, the other members will be former Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen (ret.), Catherine Bertini, Hugh Turner, and Richard Shinnick.

Clinton asked Issa to withhold any final conclusions about the Benghazi attack until the review board finishes its work and reports to Congress, which could come as early as November or as late as early next year. She pledged to work with Issa's committee and asked him to submit any requests for information or witnesses at hearings to the State Department's Office of Legislative Affairs.

November? Next year?! I understand that combing through intelligence reports and after-action reports and connecting dots and so forth takes time. But there is clearly sufficient actionable intelligence to draw preliminary conclusions far faster than that. But, gosh, we have that inconvenient fact that there's an election a few weeks away. So we should wait to ask questions about how a complete security breakdown in a violent part of the world on the anniversary of the most horrific act of terrorism in our history was allowed to happen. Our response to this attack can only be described as inept, incompetent and impotent. We are projecting weakness. And in that part of the world, weakness is despised and it will be exploited, meaning the situation is more dangerous than ever.

I'm going to avoid entertaining what the appropriate response should be to those that committed this act. But I have no problem calling attention to the simple fact that this scenario should never have happened in the first place. We dropped our guard, and Americans paid the price. And no future drone attack can rectify that failure.