Engineering Evil: There are more than 58 points ( direct article excerpts) I quickly covered. I focused only on the major ones and not the ones commonly known. There are some time line inconsistencies and you may find some conflicting statements. I leave it to you the reader, to draw your own conclusions.
Listed From the most Recent information to the Oldest:
1. Commanders in Extremis Force, operating in Central Europe had been moved to Sigonella, Italy were 2 1/2 hours away.
2. CIA operators were told twice to “stand down” rather than help the ambassador’s team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
3.The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours
4. According to sources on the ground during the attack, the special operator on the roof of the CIA annex had visual contact and a laser pointing at the Libyan mortar team that was targeting the CIA annex. The operators were calling in coordinates of where the Libyan forces were firing from.
5. American Quick Reaction Force sent from Tripoli had arrived at the Benghazi airport at 2 a.m. (four hours after the initial attack on the consulate) and was delayed for 45 minutes at the airport because they could not at first get transportation.
6. Officials at the White House and State Department were advised two hours after attackers assaulted the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11 that an Islamic militant group had claimed credit for the attack, official emails show.
7. The brief emails also show how U.S. diplomats described the attack, even as it was still under way, to Washington.
8. The first email, timed at 4:05 p.m. Washington time – or 10:05 p.m. Benghazi time, 20-30 minutes after the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission allegedly began – carried the subject line “U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi Under Attack” and the notation “SBU”, meaning “Sensitive But Unclassified.”
9. The message continued: “Ambassador Stevens, who is currently in Benghazi, and four … personnel are in the compound safe haven. The 17th of February militia is providing security support.”
10. A second email, headed “Update 1: U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi” and timed 4:54 p.m. Washington time, said that the Embassy in Tripoli had reported that “the firing at the U.S. Diplomatic Mission in Benghazi had stopped and the compound had been cleared.” It said a “response team” was at the site attempting to locate missing personnel.
11. A third email, also marked SBU and sent at 6:07 p.m. Washington time, carried the subject line: “Update 2: Ansar al-Sharia Claims Responsibility for Benghazi Attack.”
12. While some information identifying recipients of this message was redacted from copies of the messages obtained by Reuters, a government source said that one of the addresses to which the message was sent was the White House Situation Room, the president’s secure command post.
13. A U.S. security officer twice asked his State Department superiors for more security agents for the American mission in Benghazi months before an attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, but he got no response.
14. Eric Nordstrom, who was based in Tripoli until about two months before the September attack, said a State Department official, Charlene Lamb, wanted to keep the number of U.S. security personnel in Benghazi “artificially low,”
15. “We have 15,000 (security contractors) in Iraq, and we have a hard time having more than two dozen in Libya,” Chaffetz said. “It doesn’t seem to balance itself out right.”
16. Federal investigators have arrived at the burned out U.S. consulate in Libya – three weeks after the terror strike that led to the deaths of four Americans
17. Meanwhile, Sensitive documents detailing U.S. operations in Libya remain left behind at the U.S. consulate more than three weeks after the attack which killed ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
18. The documents – some still scattered across the floors of the looted compound – include information about weapons collection efforts, emergency evacuation protocols, the complete itinerary of Ambassador Stevens’ trip, and the names, photographs, phone numbers and other personal information of Libyans who were contracted to secure the U.S. mission.
19. In the days following the attack on September 11, looters were free to roam the remains of the embassy and other highly sensitive documents are expected to have been taken.
20. The compound in Benghazi is now locked, but only two private security guards – paid for by the Libyan owner of the complex – watch over the site, the Washington Post reported.
21. The consulate, located in the city of Benghazi, was reportedly bombed twice in the months leading up to the attack. Bomb attacks on the facility on April 6 and June 6
22. Specific threats on Facebook threatening Ambassador Chris Stevens
23. Benghazi’s chief prosecutor, Saleh Adam Mohammed, told the Daily Telegraph more than two weeks ago that he was expecting the FBI team to arrive within two days, and said the Libyan authorities fully intended to co-operate with their American counterparts. There has been as yet no explanation for the delay
24. The consulate building itself and the accommodation annexe which also came under attack have been left largely unsecured.
25. On September 14, three days after the attacks, President Barack Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, said the United States had no evidence the Benghazi attack was planned.
26. Two days later, Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said preliminary information suggested the attacks were not premeditated and were protests against the anti-Muslim film that provoked demonstrations in Egypt.
27. “We had no military personnel there” in Benghazi, McKeon said after a closed-door briefing from Pentagon officials. He said this was “inconceivable” after an attack on the compound earlier in the year.
28. Obama administration officials say U.S. intelligence agencies had not seen any warnings to indicate the consulate was going to be attacked.
29. Representative C.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said the Benghazi protest was peaceful for about two hours and it was only after the sun went down that the attackers showed up, suggesting that it was an opportunistic assault rather than long-planned
30. U.S. government sources said official message traffic showed that the first communication about a full-scale assault on the consulate was sent at 9:35 p.m. local time in Libya.
31. Stevens, who was killed in the 11 September attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, warned the State Department of a ‘security vacuum’ in Libya ‘that is being exploited by independent actors’ in one cable that described rapidly deteriorating security conditions.
32. On Aug. 2, six weeks before Stevens was killed, he requested ‘protective detail bodyguard’ positions, calling the security situation in Libya ‘unpredictable, volatile and violent.’
33. A month earlier, he requested that the State Department extend his tour of duty personnel, which is a 16-man temporary security team trained in combating terrorism. The request was denied and the security team left 8 August.Stevens had asked for the security team to stay through mid-September.
34. Senior State Department officials publicly acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that the deadly attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya that killed four Americans, including the ambassador, was not preceded by protests as previously thought.
35. According to the latest account of the attack, there were no protests before the assault on the embassy.
36. Ambassador Stevens arrived in the city the day before accompanied by a five-person security detail. On the anniversary of 9/11, the American envoy decided to hold meetings inside the secured compound, fearing possible acts of violence.
37. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican lawmaker who has led the House Oversight and Government Reform committee’s investigation into the 9/11 attack, says the State Department actually decreased U.S. diplomatic security personnel in the months leading up to the attack.
38. “Regional security officers were denied requests for more personnel and security upgrades to the four buildings and the perimeter security of the U.S. mission in Benghazi,”
http://engineeringevil.com/2012/10/08/exclusive-libya-cable-detailed-threats/
39. A trove of documents, including travel plans and security contracts, lay unguarded at what remains of the American consulate in Benghazi, said a reporter who entered the building on Wednesday
40. The Post said that although the gates to the Benghazi compound were locked in the days that followed the attack, looters were able to roam in the initial aftermath and many other documents may have disappeared.
41. On September 16th, Rice told NBC’s ‘Meet The Press’: ‘First of all, there’s an FBI investigation which is ongoing and we look to that investigation to give us the definitive word as to what transpired. ( refer back to line 16).
42.A diary written by Stevens and obtained by CNN after being found in the wreckage of the Benghazi consulate revealed that he had been concerned about security threats in the city and a rise in Islamic extremism.
43.A White House official firmly rejecetd this, telling ABC News: ‘It’s just not true that he was characterising the attack in Benghazi – the question doesn’t even make mention of it. He’s speaking about broad trends.
44. The president of Libya said this weekend that the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi was carefully planned for months, contradicting a U.S. official’s assurance that there was no prior knowledge of the plot
45. Mabrouk ( head of the FEB 17 brigade) said he received a call from an official in Tripoli who said he had been called by a ‘terrified’ American hiding at the safe house.
46. Mabrouk said the Brigade asked the Americans if they required assistance, but were told that while the situation was precarious, it was under control.
47. A few hours later, Mabrouk said he received another call from Tripoli about the arrival of a U.S. team at Benghazi airport that needed transport into the city.
48. New claims: A member of a Libyan security force said he had met with American diplomats three days before the deadly assault to warn them about the deteriorating situation in the country
49. Earlier this week, a spokesman has dismissed claims that the attacks were the result of a ‘continuing security breach’ and diplomats should have been warned before the attacks as ‘completely wrong.’
50. Reports have also circulated that the attack in Benghazi was an inside job and that the U.S. Department of State knew of the attack up to 48 hours ahead of time, yet chose to do nothing.
51. Adding to the chaos, sensitive documents have apparently gone missing from the embassy following the attack, potentially putting many in danger.
52. The Independent, citing diplomatic sources, has exclusively reported that the U.S. State Department had known up to 48 hours ahead of the attacks that the compounds in Benghazi and Cairo were potential targets. However, none of the diplomats in either city were given warning to go on lock-down, the paper reported.
53. Documents containing delicate information have been lost in the attack, the paper reported. These documents are believed to contain the names of Libyans who are also working for Americans, as well as information on oil contracts.
54. The embassy, located in Libya’s second-largest city, was an easy target as it had not been equipped to withstand a riot, and as such, did not have bullet-proof glass or reinforced doors, reports said
55. It has also been revealed that the Benghazi consulate was not protected by the contingent of Marines that usually safeguard embassies and instead was guarded by Libyan and State Department security officers.
56. The embassy was vulnerable to attack because it did not have bulletproof glass, reinforced doors or other features common to embassies, according to reports
57.A U.S. official said there were no U.S. military personnel at the mission in Benghazi at the time of the attack. Questioned about the consulate’s security, the officials said the compound was guarded by both Libyan security and a ‘robust’ force of U.S. security officers, and that a regular security review before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks had recently been completed. ‘And at that point there was no information and there were no threat streams to indicate that we were insufficiently postured,’ said another U.S. official.
58. It has also raised issues about why the building, which had been attacked before, was so poorly protected.