Al-Qaida Related Security at US Benghazi Mission?

Senator Lindsey Graham is performing a vital service in leading the Senate challenge to President Barack Obama's increasingly embarrassing effort to control the Benghazi Affair, again calling on the President to allow survivors of the deadly attack to talk with congressional investigators without fear of being fired. Graham told Fox News Wednesday : “Benghazi is eight months old, nobody has been arrested, and the survivors have never been allowed to be talked to by the Congress. This administration is investigating itself.” Earlier this week, attorney Victoria Toensing said she had a client who wanted to share classified information with congressional investigators, but is being blocked by the State Department. At least four career State Department and CIA officials are seeking legal representation and are complaining that administration officials are trying to intimidate them as they prepare to cooperate with congressional investigators, according to a Fox News report. The President, during his Tuesday news conference, said he was unaware of the issue, and White House spokesman Jay Carney on Wednesday called it was a non-issue. “Let’s be clear,” Carney said, “Benghazi happened a long time ago. We are unaware of any agency blocking an employee who would like to appear before Congress to provide information related to Benghazi.” ~~~~~ Dear readers, the importance of Senator Graham's work was emphasized today by a Newsmax report indicating that the security group hired by the US State Department to protect its endangered Benghaei diplomatic mission had clear al-Qaida sympathies, and had prominently displayed the al-Qaida flag on a Facebook page for some months before the deadly attack. The organization calling itself the February 17th Martyrs Brigade was paid by the US government to provide security, but there is no indication the Martyrs Brigade fulfilled its commitment to defend the mission on 11 September 2012, when it came under attack, claiming the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens, information officer Sean Smith, and former Navy Seals Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty. Several entries on the militia’s Facebook page openly profess sympathy for Ansar al-Sharia, the hardline Islamist extremist group widely blamed for the deadly attack on the mission. According to Newsmax, the State Department did not respond to its request for an explanation as to why the February 17th Martyrs Brigade was hired to protect the mission. On April 23, House Republicans released an interim progress report on their investigation into the Benghazi killings, citing “numerous reports” that “the Brigade had extremist connections, and it had been implicated in the kidnapping of American citizens as well as in the threats against US military assets.” The report also stated that just a few days before Stevens arrived in Benghazi, the Martyrs Brigade informed State Department officials they no longer would provide security as members of the mission, including Stevens, traveled through the city. From June 2011 to July 2012, Eric Nordstrom, who was then the regional security officer for Libya, documented more than 200 security threats and violent incidents involving US personnel in Libya. Fifty of those incidents occurred in Benghazi. Yet despite those threats, repeated requests for additional security from the mission went unheeded by the State Department, for reasons that remain unclear. The biggest question is why the State Department would hire a group that openly displayed its admiration for al-Qaida, and ask it to participate in the defense of its diplomatic mission. The banner, or “cover photo” of one of the group’s Facebook pages, shows an Islamic fighter with a portable rocket launcher resting on his shoulder. The distinctive black flag of al-Qaida can be seen fluttering to the man’s left, attached to the vehicle in which he is riding. He wears a headband based on the design of the al-Qaida flag. The flag in question features the shahada, or Islamic declaration of faith, and a white circle that is sometimes described as the“seal of Mohammed.” The flag was made famous by the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s Iraqi al-Qaida affiliate, commonly known as “al-Qaida in Iraq.” The cover photo showing the al-Qaida flag was posted by the site administrator on June 10, 2012., and was the first activity on the Facebook page. Furthermore, the group has repudiated neither al-Qaida nor its violent ideology. According to Newsmax, a document recovered from the mission two days after the attack indicated the State Department had arranged for the Martyrs Brigade to act as a “Quick Reaction Force” to protect the mission. The Memorandum of Agreement states that “in the event of an attack on the U.S. mission, QRF will request additional support from the 17th February Martyrs Brigade.” Throughout the summer leading up to the attack, embassy officials repeatedly asked the State Department for additional security. But the State Department actually reduced security, removing a military detachment responsible for defending diplomats in Libya. Newsmax suggests that one reason the requests for additional security may have been denied is that they did not fit into the administration narrative that al-Qaida elements no longer posed a threat to US interests. One diplomatic cable to the mission indicated that the US-based deputy assistant secretary for diplomatic security was “reluctant to ask for [additional security] apparently out of concern that it would be embarrassing to the [State Department to continue to have to rely on [Defense Department] assets to protect our mission.” When the mission’s regional safety officer in July 2012 wanted to ask State Department official to permit the military security team to continue to protect the mission, Charlene Lamb, deputy assistant secretary in charge of diplomatic security, sent an e-mail that responded: “NO, I do not [I repeat] not want them to ask for the [military security] team to stay!" ~~~~~ One has to wonder if this is just one more security threat and bungled response that neither Secretary of State Hillary Clinton nor President Obama knew anything about.