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RI.org Exclusive: Did Turkey Play a Role in Benghazi Attack?
http://www.radicalislam.org/analysis/riorg-exclusive-did-turkey-play-role-benghazi-attack/#fm
Wed, October 31, 2012
by: Clare Lopez
Diplomats gather at a memorial service for slain Ambassador Chris
Stevens (Photo: Reuters)If reporting from the Washington Times is
accurate, it looks like the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin was
in on the plot to attack the U.S. mission in Benghazi. According to an
October 27, 2012 report, Libyan witnesses from the Benghazi
neighborhood where the U.S. compound was located told reporters from
the Associated Press (AP) that `150 bearded gunmen, some wearing the
Afghan-style tunics favored by Islamic militants began sealing off the
streets' leading to the facility `around nightfall.'
The Department of State `Background Briefing on Libya,' provided by
telephone to reporters on October 9, 2012 states that Ambassador
Christopher Stevens held his last meeting of the day on September 11
with the Turkish diplomat from 7:30pm to 8:30pm and then escorted him
out to the compound gate to bid farewell. At that point, the briefing
states, `Everything is calm at 8:30 p.m. There's nothing unusual.'
But the AP witnesses said that, `The neighbors all described the
militants setting up checkpoints around the compound at about 8 p.m.'
The checkpoints were described as being manned by bearded jihadis in
pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns and bearing the logo of
the Al-Qaeda terror franchise, Ansar al-Shariah.
That means that the Turkish Consul General would have had to pass out
through the blockade as he departed the American compound and left the
area. There is no record that he phoned a warning to his American
colleague, the one he'd just had dinner with, Ambassador Stevens.
Given the description of the blockade around the American compound and
of the jihadis and their trucks that were manning it, it seems
unlikely that the he somehow just failed to notice. `[N]o one could
get out or in,' according to one neighbor interviewed by the AP.
Except for the Turkish Consul General, it would appear.
Stevens was a sitting duck, a target surrounded by the jihadist
attackers who shortly would take his life and that of his Public
Affairs Officer, Sean Smith.
Similarly, this raises the question of the Libyan
The U.S. Consultate burns in Beghazi during the attack (Photo:
Reuters) gate guards from the "February 17 Martyrs Brigade," the
jihadi militia subcontracted by the British firm Blue Mountain, which
was the prime contractor for the U.S. Benghazi compound security
contract.
What did they know and when did they know it? Even if the Americans,
inside the buildings behind the compound walls and getting ready to
retire for the night, were not aware of what was happening in the
streets around them, the Libyans of the Martyrs Brigade surely must
have been. Yet they provided no warning to the Ambassador and his
people either, because again, according to the State Department
briefing, the American security officers inside were taken by surprise
when the first gunshots and explosions rang out around 9:40 pm.
The State Department must have known much of this when it provided the
briefing. So must have the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department
of Defense, the National Security Council and the White House. More
than likely, the State Department knew in advance of the Ambassador's
meeting schedule for that day, including his plans for a final dinner
meeting with Akin.
To date, however, none of them has mentioned the curious circumstance
that Ali Sait Akin knew the American Ambassador and his staff at the
Benghazi compound were being set up for slaughter and did nothing to
warn them.
The topic of discussion between the Ambassador and his dinner guest
has not been revealed, but it would seem to be of even more
significance now that it has become obvious the Turkish diplomat and
by extension, his government, were at least to some degree complicit
in the attack against Ambassador Stevens and the others.
Clare Lopez is a senior fellow at RadicalIslam.org and a strategic
policy and intelligence expert with a focus on the Middle East,
national defense and counterterrorism. Lopez served for 25 years as an
operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
From: Baghdasarian
http://www.radicalislam.org/analysis/riorg-exclusive-did-turkey-play-role-benghazi-attack/#fm
Wed, October 31, 2012
by: Clare Lopez
Diplomats gather at a memorial service for slain Ambassador Chris
Stevens (Photo: Reuters)If reporting from the Washington Times is
accurate, it looks like the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin was
in on the plot to attack the U.S. mission in Benghazi. According to an
October 27, 2012 report, Libyan witnesses from the Benghazi
neighborhood where the U.S. compound was located told reporters from
the Associated Press (AP) that `150 bearded gunmen, some wearing the
Afghan-style tunics favored by Islamic militants began sealing off the
streets' leading to the facility `around nightfall.'
The Department of State `Background Briefing on Libya,' provided by
telephone to reporters on October 9, 2012 states that Ambassador
Christopher Stevens held his last meeting of the day on September 11
with the Turkish diplomat from 7:30pm to 8:30pm and then escorted him
out to the compound gate to bid farewell. At that point, the briefing
states, `Everything is calm at 8:30 p.m. There's nothing unusual.'
But the AP witnesses said that, `The neighbors all described the
militants setting up checkpoints around the compound at about 8 p.m.'
The checkpoints were described as being manned by bearded jihadis in
pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns and bearing the logo of
the Al-Qaeda terror franchise, Ansar al-Shariah.
That means that the Turkish Consul General would have had to pass out
through the blockade as he departed the American compound and left the
area. There is no record that he phoned a warning to his American
colleague, the one he'd just had dinner with, Ambassador Stevens.
Given the description of the blockade around the American compound and
of the jihadis and their trucks that were manning it, it seems
unlikely that the he somehow just failed to notice. `[N]o one could
get out or in,' according to one neighbor interviewed by the AP.
Except for the Turkish Consul General, it would appear.
Stevens was a sitting duck, a target surrounded by the jihadist
attackers who shortly would take his life and that of his Public
Affairs Officer, Sean Smith.
Similarly, this raises the question of the Libyan
The U.S. Consultate burns in Beghazi during the attack (Photo:
Reuters) gate guards from the "February 17 Martyrs Brigade," the
jihadi militia subcontracted by the British firm Blue Mountain, which
was the prime contractor for the U.S. Benghazi compound security
contract.
What did they know and when did they know it? Even if the Americans,
inside the buildings behind the compound walls and getting ready to
retire for the night, were not aware of what was happening in the
streets around them, the Libyans of the Martyrs Brigade surely must
have been. Yet they provided no warning to the Ambassador and his
people either, because again, according to the State Department
briefing, the American security officers inside were taken by surprise
when the first gunshots and explosions rang out around 9:40 pm.
The State Department must have known much of this when it provided the
briefing. So must have the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department
of Defense, the National Security Council and the White House. More
than likely, the State Department knew in advance of the Ambassador's
meeting schedule for that day, including his plans for a final dinner
meeting with Akin.
To date, however, none of them has mentioned the curious circumstance
that Ali Sait Akin knew the American Ambassador and his staff at the
Benghazi compound were being set up for slaughter and did nothing to
warn them.
The topic of discussion between the Ambassador and his dinner guest
has not been revealed, but it would seem to be of even more
significance now that it has become obvious the Turkish diplomat and
by extension, his government, were at least to some degree complicit
in the attack against Ambassador Stevens and the others.
Clare Lopez is a senior fellow at RadicalIslam.org and a strategic
policy and intelligence expert with a focus on the Middle East,
national defense and counterterrorism. Lopez served for 25 years as an
operations officer with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
From: Baghdasarian