Charles Rowley's Blog

As more information percolates into the public arena about the debacle in Benghazi, the worse it looks for Barack Obama.

This column focuses attention on the build-up to September 11, 2012, and suggests that the United States President was directly implicated in that fatal attack.

The story begins last winter, when the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli began to report back to Washington about the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi. As pro-Western Libyans attempted to form a fledgling democracy, so al -Qaeda-linked militants emerged to exploit the evident power vacuum.

Army National Guard Lt. Colonel, Andrew Wood was well aware of the growing threat to the Benghazi consulate and regularly relayed his concerns to Washington, without any discernible effect.

By June 2012, the Benghazi consulate compound consisted of one fragile wall and four under-secured buildings. It was guarded by five U.S. security officials, a few Libyan private security guards, and the Libyan February 17 Martyrs Brigade, which quartered in a nearby CIA annex.

The Tripoli Embassy watched and, under Obama administration orders,  did nothing as militants stepped up their attacks in Benghazi.  The International Red Cross buildings were repeatedly attacked, until the red Cross shut down its Benghazi relief operations.  A former Libyan guard turned terrorist  placed a home-made bomb at the U.S. consulate wall and blew a huge hole in that wall.  There was no response. Terrorists then attacked the British ambassador, with the consequence that Britain immediately evacuated all its personnel from Benghazi.

The United States, under direct orders from Washington, remained as the only Western power in Benghazi. Colonel Wood fought a useless long-distance battle of emails and phone calls with the State Department, begging the government to beef up its security presence. His requests were repeatedly denied by Christine Lamb, an Obama hack in charge of international programs in the State Department’s mis-named Bureau of Diplomatic Security.

By August 2012, Colonel Wood and his three site security teams had been pulled out of Libya, no doubt because he had irritated the Obama administration, perhaps even the President.  Also gone were three of the State Department’s mobile security teams,  pulled out on the instructions of the same Christine Lamb.

Ambassador Stevens had also been reporting repeatedly to the Department of State  about increasing violence if Benghazi. On September 11, 2012, in his last words to Washington, Ambassador Stevens expressed growing frustration with police and security forces unable to control Benghazi. Two hours later, the Benghazi consulate suffered the consequences of Obama and his administration cutting and running from Benghazi in favor of campaign-time for the  November 6 presidential elections.

Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta, David Petraeus and Christine Lamb, your hands are all running with the blood of patriotic Americans. Like Lady Macbeth, you will never be able to wash all that blood from your guilty hands.

Hat Tip: Rowan Scarborough, ‘Lack of Strike Force impeded Benghazi response’, The Washington Times, October 29, 2012