Thread: SENSITIVE U.S. DOCUMENTS FOUND BY REPORTER AT CONSULATE IN LIBYA — MORE THAN THREE WE

The FBI is not allowed into Bengazi and reporters are picking the place clean? Someone is blowing smoke.

SENSITIVE U.S. DOCUMENTS FOUND BY REPORTER AT CONSULATE IN LIBYA — MORE THAN THREE WEEKS AFTER TERRORIST ATTACK

Posted on October 3, 2012 at 4:08pm by Jason Howerton

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  A picture shows the residence of the US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens at the US consulate compound in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on September 13, 2012 following an attack on the building late on September 11 in which Stevens and three other US nationals were killed. Libya said it has made arrests and opened a probe into the attack, amid speculation that Al-Qaeda rather than a frenzied mob was to blame. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
  
  
  
  
  It has been more than three weeks since U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed in a terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, yet documents containing sensitive information about the mission in Libya still litter the grounds of the American compound, the Washington Post has learned.

U.S. documents concerning “weapons collection efforts, emergency evacuation protocols, the full itinerary of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens’s trip and the personal records of Libyans who were contracted to secure the mission were among the items scattered across the floors of the looted compound when a Washington Post reporter and a translator visited Wednesday,” the paper reported

The gates to the compound remain locked, however, no government security forces are currently guarding the compound, allowing looters and other individuals to stroll into the U.S. Consulate. As a result, many documents have reportedly gone missing.

The Washington Post discovered that just two private security guards, paid for by the building’s Libyan owner are keeping an eye on the compound.

“Securing the site has obviously been a challenge…We had to evacuate all U.S. government personnel the night of the attack. After the attack, we requested help securing the site, and we continue to work with the Libyan government on this front,”

Deputy spokesman at the State Department Mark Toner said.The Post has more details:None of the documents were marked classified, but this is not the first time that sensitive documents have been found by journalists in the charred wreckage of the compound.

CNN discovered a copy of the ambassador’s journal last month and broadcast details from it, drawing an angry response from the State Department. Unlike the journal, all of the documents seen by The Post were official.

At least one document found amid the clutter indicates that Americans at the mission were discussing the possibility of an attack in early September, just two days before the assault took place. The document is a memorandum dated Sept. 9 from the U.S. mission’s security office to the 17th February Martyrs Brigade, the Libyan-government-sanctioned militia that was guarding the compound, making plans for a “quick reaction force,” or QRF, that would provide security.

“In the event of an attack on the U.S. Mission,” the document states, “QRF will request additional support from the 17th February Martyrs Brigade.”

Additionally, other documents identifying the Libyan citizens contracted to provide security from a private company disclose names, photographs, phone numbers and other personal information. A number of those Libyans are now concerned that they may in danger, as does the State Department.

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  A portrait of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens is placed along with a condolence book outside the room of Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the U.S. Capitol September 14, 2012 in Washington, DC. Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012. (Credit: Getty Images)
  
  

  
  

  
  A picture shows the interior of the burnt US consulate building in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi on September 13, 2012 following an attack on the building late on September 11 in which the US ambassador to Libya and three other US nationals were killed. Libya said it has made arrests and opened a probe into the attack, amid speculation that Al-Qaeda rather than a frenzied mob was to blame. (Credit: AFP/Getty Images)
  
  This glaring security failure will only put more pressure on the Obama administration to provide an explanation as to why the investigation into the deadly attack has been so sluggish and inefficient.
  
  U.S. Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) on Tuesday sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanding answers about the assault. The GOP lawmakers in the letter argue that some of the previously mention Libyan citizens working as private security were warned by family members weeks before the actual attack occurred.
  
  Sensitive U.S. Documents Found at U.S. Consulate in Libya Three Weeks After Attack | TheBlaze.com

Sensitive documents left behind at American mission in Libya

10/02/2012

The discovery of the documents coincides with increasing pressure on the Obama administration to provide a full accounting of security at the mission prior to the attack, as well as an explanation for the slow pace of the investigation that has followed the Sept. 11 assault.

On Tuesday, two House Republicans sent a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton demanding more information about the incident. The letter from Darrell Issa (Calif.) and Jason Chaffetz (Utah) said Libyans working as private security personnel at the compound were warned by family members in the weeks before the attacks to quit their jobs because of rumors of an impending attack. The congressmen did not say where they had received the information.

Concerns about safety in Benghazi have confined a team of FBI investigators to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, which is hundreds of miles away, and local security officials say they cannot guarantee that Americans would be safe here.

But many of the Libyan contractors, as well as some members of the brigade once tasked with guarding the compound, say they have not been contacted by the Libyan or American governments about their own safety concerns. Some say they have tried to contact the Americans but have not received a response.

The Blue Mountain contractors were intended to complement the armed members of the militia. Both groups were present at the mission on the night of Sept. 11.

In the unsigned memorandum from the U.S. mission to the militia, which appears to be a draft, guards “are required to acquire and maintain their own weapons and ammunition,” the document states.

The security presence appears to have been bare-bones, with three or more members on the compound any time the “principal officer” was present — either the head of the mission or the ambassador.

When the principal officer was not present, a single militia member was instructed to be at the front gate between 8 a.m. and midnight. Between midnight and 8 a.m., one militia member was scheduled to be on roving patrol. The militia members were supposed to work a minimum of eight hours a day and were to be paid a stipend of about $28 a day, a relatively standard wage in Benghazi. They were housed on the compound.

The memorandum tells the militia security force to summon more guards from its nearby compound if the mission is attacked, suggesting that the Americans there were concerned that the regular guard force would be inadequate in an emergency.

The itinerary of Stevens’s trip to Benghazi includes a near-full accounting of his planned movements during what was supposed to be a visit that lasted from Sept. 10 until Sept. 15. It includes names and phone numbers of Libyans who scheduled were to meet with him. Some of those Libyans have not made their contact with Stevens public and could be at risk if it were publicly known.

The meetings include briefings with American officials, a private dinner with influential local leaders, and meetings with militia heads, businesspeople, civil society activists and educators. The highlight of the visit was the opening of the American Space, a center intended to serve as a hub for U.S. culture and education.

Several copies of the itinerary were scattered across multiple rooms of the compound. One appears to be a page from the ambassador’s personal copy; it was on the floor, next to a chair in the bedroom where he had been sleeping.

The compound still reeked of smoke Wednesday, and all of the buildings had been looted. Overturned furniture, broken glass and strewn documents were everywhere. Chandeliers lay on the floor. In kitchens, food was rotting.
But elsewhere on the compound, gardens were blooming and untouched. Guava trees were heavy with fruit; purple grapes were swelling on rows of vines. The newly hired security guards appeared to be living in a small room at the front gate, where a thin mattress lay on the floor, along with preparations for lunch.

Ayman Alkekly in Benghazi and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

Sensitive documents left behind at American mission in Libya - The Washington Post


View Ambassador Stevens itinerary found in the rubble here.

Sensitive documents left with little security at U.S. mission in Benghazi - The Washington Post

Libyans say few questions being asked about attack

By Michael Birnbaum and Anne Gearan, Published: October 2/Washington Post

BENGHAZI, Libya — Three weeks after the attack that killed four Americans in this city, the investigation of its causes remains in its initial stages, with just a handful of suspects detained, the crime scenes minimally secured and Walid Faraj waiting for a phone call from someone, anyone, asking him what he saw on the night he was injured while protecting the U.S. diplomatic post here.

Faraj, a member of the militia that local officials tasked with securing Americans in Benghazi, said he saw the attack nearly from start to finish. But neither American nor Libyan investigators have paid him a visit, even as he fears that the perpetrators know who he is.

In Washington, a leading House Republican challenged on Tuesday the administration’s version of events on the chaotic night of Sept. 11, suggesting that the attack was planned and that congressional investigators have been told that requests for increased security at the U.S. diplomatic outpost had been turned down.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.) listed incidents dating to April that he said created a pattern of threats.

Some of the incidents had been disclosed earlier, but others appeared to be new revelations. In one case, he said, Libyans working as private security guards at the U.S. compound were warned by family members in the weeks before the assault to quit their jobs because of rumors of an impending attack. He did not specify where the information originated.

“These events indicated a clear pattern of security threats that could only be reasonably interpreted to justify increased security for U.S. personnel and facilities in Benghazi,” Issa and Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) wrote to Clinton.

Clinton assured Issa in a reply released by the State Department that the department would “work collaboratively with you to achieve the result we both want: a full and accurate accounting of the events and a path forward to prevent them from happening again.”

She said the department’s investigation will begin this week.

Meanwhile, an FBI team flown into Libya remains in Tripoli, hundreds of miles from Benghazi. A Libyan official involved in the inquiry said Tuesday that he was aware of only three suspects in custody. Meanwhile, members of the militant group suspected of playing a primary role in the attack have gone underground, apparently taking their weapons with them.

Faraj said he wondered whether anyone was trying to find out what happened the evening that U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was killed along with three other Americans.

“Since that day, nobody has called, nobody cared,” said Faraj, 28, who lost a tooth in the attack and whose legs are peppered with small wounds from the firefight. “How is it the Americans didn’t anticipate anything?”

Witnesses are scattered across Benghazi, a port town where the uprising that toppled Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi began. But many say they haven’t heard from investigators.

The U.S. and Libyan governments have not finalized a deal to allow American investigators to collaborate with Libyans in Benghazi, said Libyan Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel Aziz following a meeting in Tripoli with Elizabeth Jones, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, Reuters reported.

“We are getting ready for the FBI team to go to Benghazi and meet with our team and start joint investigations together and also visit the site,” he said.

Jones talked to Libyans about ensuring “that we are collaborating, that we are being transparent, that we are sharing information,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. outpost remained deserted on Tuesday, with no guards posted at its front or rear entrances.

Although its gates are now locked, the crime scene was unsecured for several days after the assault, allowing looters and others to cart away evidence.

A top prosecutor in Benghazi who is on a committee investigating the incident said on Tuesday that only three suspects have been detained in Benghazi in connection with the attack.

“We are still collecting evidence,” said Salah Adam, the prosecutor. “You can’t arrest anybody unless you have evidence.” He said the investigation probably will take months.

In Washington, Issa and Chaffetz asked Clinton to detail any requests from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli for more security for U.S. installations. Their letter asks her to say by Monday whether the State Department knew about the incidents and what it did to respond. Nuland said Clinton intends to fully cooperate with the request and with a hearing slated for Oct. 10.

Nuland would not say whether there had been requests for more security, citing the State Department’s investigation.
“I think it’s fair to say that we are still working through what we have in this building in terms of documentation, in terms of information about what we knew, who knew it, when they knew it, and that’s part of the process that we have to go through,” she said.

The State Department’s five-member investigating team has not yet met, Nuland said. The department said nearly two weeks ago that the inquiry will be led by retired diplomat Thomas Pickering. Clinton told Issa on Tuesday that retired Adm. Mike Mullen, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is also among the investigators.

Gearan reported from Washington.
​Libyans say few questions being asked about attack - The Washington Post

Quite amazing that not a single, brain-dead, one-celled amoeba in the Clinton State Department had the presence of mind to do a security sweep of the compound for sensitive documents.

Or maybe they did, and just said to hell with it ... let them have it.