New Details on Ambassador’s Failed, Fateful Push for More Security at Benghazi
New Details on Ambassador’s Failed, Fateful Push for More Security at Benghazi
Two journalists combed through the U.S. consulate building in Benghazi, Libya, over a month after it was attacked and turned up something significant: two unsigned draft letters expressing strong concern about security at the building. The letters are dated Sept. 11 - the day of the attack - and addressed to Libya’s foreign minister and Benghazi’s police chief. U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens’s team had earlier requested additional security from the Libyans, according to the letters, and were not satisfied with the results.
The story make clear that there was a significant gap between the security that Stevens had in Benghazi and the security he felt the consulate badly needed. It originally appeared on pan-Arab network Al-Aan and is now in English on ForeignPolicy.com.
With all the rumors, conflicting accounts and confusingly contradictory narratives that have come out of Benghazi in the past month, it’s worth carefully parsing what we learn, and don’t, from this and other new pieces of information out today: