The State Department has shut down the office of its special envoy for the closure of Guantanamo Bay, a US official said Monday, in a sign of the fading hopes of shuttering the jail. Daniel Fried, the special envoy in charge of the dossier, will now move to coordinate the State Department’s…
On the day of his death, US ambassador to Libya warned that he was in danger
John Stevens testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on his nomination to be ambassador to Libya on March 20, 2012.(AFP Photo / Mandel Ngan)Hours before US Ambassador Christopher Stevens died in a terrorist attack in Libya, he sent Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a cable warning that local militias were threatening to take away security officers guarding the US diplomats.
The cable, which Stevens submitted on the morning of Sept. 11, 2012, relayed the warning that Libyan militia “would not continue to guarantee security in Benghazi, a critical function they asserted they were currently providing.” Militia leaders had previously expressed anger at US support of a certain candidate for Libyan prime minister and consequentially planned to extract their security.Stevens’ cable reached Clinton hours before terrorists attacked the US consulate in Benghazi and killed the ambassador and three other Americans. The cable was publicly released Friday by the chairman of the US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Darrell Issa, and includes 160 pages of documents outlining the violence surrounding Benghazi.The cable also refers to a Sept. 2 meeting in which the commander of Benghazi’s Security Council expressed deep concern about police and security forces being too weak to protect the country from terrorists.One paragraph refers to the “expanding Islamist influence in Derna” and a “troubling increase in violence and Islamist influence”.The ambassador included a report from a meeting that took place on Sept. 9, during which the “security vacuum” was discussed with the Libyan militia leaders. Stevens noted that Islamic extremists were exploiting this vacuum.“What we have seen are not random crimes of opportunity but rather targeted and discriminate attacks,” Stevens wrote in a memo.“Attackers are unlikely to be deterred until authorities are at least as capable,” he added.The documents outlined a number of security issues in Libya, including a section that described the threats to foreigners. This cable will likely play a major role in this week’s congressional hearings in which Clinton will be forced to explain why security wasn’t increased amid reports of safety concerns by the US ambassador himself.After the Sept. 11 attack, the Department of State claimed they had adequate resources to prevent the endangerment of Americans in Libya and denied having received warnings about possible attacks beforehand.The cable provides evidence that Clinton had plenty of information about the dangers in Libya and should have provided additional security.“Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department (the “Department”) resulted in a Special Mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place,” concluded the official State Department review board report on the Benghazi tragedy.The 160 pages of documents will force Clinton to do a lot of explaining when the hearings kick off on Wednesday. … Read More
Clinton to testify on Libya assault Jan. 22
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will testify on the deadly Sept. 11 assault in Libya on Jan. 22.That’s the day after President Barack Obama’s inauguration and the first day the Senate returns to Washington after a two-week break. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee disclosed the date in an interview on MSNBC. There was no official word from the committee.Clinton had been scheduled to testify last month but fell during an illness and suffered a concussion. She was recently hospitalized for a blood clot.Clinton returned to work on Monday. She had promised to appear before the Senate and House foreign affairs panels before stepping down from her job. Obama has nominated Sen. John Kerry to replace her.Continue Reading… … Read More
Obama nominating Kerry for Secretary of State
WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior administration official says President Barack Obama on Friday will nominate Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., as his next secretary of state.Kerry’s nomination marks Obama’s first move in a sweeping overhaul of his national security team heading into a second term.If confirmed, Kerry will take the helm at the State Department from outgoing Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Massachusetts senator is expected to be easily approved for the Cabinet post by his longtime Capitol Hill colleagues.Kerry leapt to the front of Obama’s list for the State Department job after U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice withdrew her name from consideration last week.The official requested anonymity in order to discuss the announcement ahead of Obama.Continue Reading… … Read More
Benghazi report forces resignation of three State Department officials
Three US State Department officials have resigned after a damning investigation into the killing of the American ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, in Benghazi in on 11 September found “systematic failures” of leadership and “grossly inadequate” security. The report said…
State Dept security chief resigns after Benghazi
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three State Department officials resigned under pressure Wednesday, less than a day after a damning report blamed management failures for a lack of security at the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, where militants killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans on Sept. 11.An administration official said Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security, and an unnamed official with the Bureau of Near East Affairs, had stepped down. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss personnel matters publicly.The report said poor leadership in both bureaus left the post underprotected.”Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus” resulted in a security level that was “inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place,” according to the report released late Tuesday by the independent Accountability Review Board.Continue Reading… … Read More
Benghazi probe finds ‘systemic failures’ at State Department
A long-awaited inquiry into a deadly militant attack on the US mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi slammed State Department security arrangements there as “grossly inadequate.” But the months-long probe also found there had been “no immediate, specific” intelligence of a…
