re: #155 AntonSirius

See SFZ’s post which I belatedly quoted. The motivation is anti-Western and anti-American sentiment. Ansar al-Sharia in Benghazi are a jihadi group. Frankly, they don’t need a provocation to get them angry at America.

I don’t think SFZ was claiming to know the motivation, though. And I don’t get how anti-American or anti-Western sentiment excludes anger about the video— doesn’t it rather include it? Isn’t part of why they’re anti-American because we have free speech that allows people to insult Islam?

One of the group’s leaders stated publicly that they had a plan for attacking the compound, but they didn’t actually attack until there were widespread demonstrations against the video.

Can you source this, please?

What makes more sense to you - that they came up with a plan to attack but lacked the desire to execute it until the video gave them a push? That the plan required some sort of diversion, and the demonstration provided them with that diversion? Or that they saw a target of opportunity as a result of the chaos created by the demonstration, and seized the moment?

I’m sorry, I’m not really understanding what planning you think was involved. As I understand it, armed men showed up with weapons and attacked. That is a plan that is pretty easy to organize, right? Why do you think it was some complex operation?