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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums40+ Libyan guards did little to defend the consulate (Reuters)
http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/09/13/libya-ambassador-assault-idINL5E8KCLHR20120913In Libya, deadly fury took U.S. envoys by surprise
By Hadeel Al Shalchi
BENGHAZI, Libya, Sept 13 (Reuters) - Diplomats had long been on their guard in Benghazi, a city that was the cradle of Libya's Western-backed revolution but also home to Islamists who have attacked foreign envoys.
Yet a long night of mayhem in which the U.S. consulate was overrun and torched, the ambassador lost and dying alone in the smoke while rescuers ran into a deadly ambush as they sought to save survivors, seemed to overwhelm U.S. security procedures.
Accounts from Libyan and U.S. officials, and from locals who watched what began as a protest on Tuesday against a crudely made American film that insults the Prophet Mohammad spiral into violence and a military-style assault on U.S. troops, point to a series of unfortunate choices amid the confusion and fear.
The actions of Libyan former rebel fighters assigned to help guard the lightly fortified compound may also face scrutiny. Libyan officers suggested that sympathy for the popular anger at the slight to their religion, as well as simple fear under heavy fire, meant the guards may have done little to defend the walls.
cash__whatiwant
(396 posts)HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)If not the guards, then who were they?
summerschild
(725 posts)Everything I've heard indicated the Libyans tried to protect them.
jsr
(7,712 posts)Ali Fetori, 59, an accountant who lives near the embassy, said: "The security people ... just all ran away and the people in charge were the young men with guns and bombs."
Triloon
(506 posts)summerschild
(725 posts)The tv has been on in the background all day, switching back and forth between CNN and MSNBC.
I've been reading about it all day on line. I don't recall reading it. (Did you read my post?)
joshcryer
(62,269 posts)jsr
(7,712 posts)jsmirman
(4,507 posts)in light of the information you now have that Libyans died attempting to defend the building?
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)jsmirman
(4,507 posts)and frustrating.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)bhikkhu
(10,715 posts)...pulling him from the burning building at 1:00 am, carrying him unconscious to a vehicle and then driving him to the hospital. The battle at the consulate went on until 2:30 am, says the article.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444426404577647060576633348.html
MercutioATC
(28,470 posts)I realize it was more of an office building than one of our fortified compounds, but why were Libyans defending it? You'd think that, especially someplace like Libya, we'd have our own troops there.
jsr
(7,712 posts)The Vienna convention says "the receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the consular premises against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the consular post or impairment of its dignity."
It's shocking that the guards didn't even try to disperse the crowd or call for help. They just disappeared and let the crazies do whatever.
joshcryer
(62,269 posts)It was a planned attack.
I don't buy the reports that it was the guards fault.
We don't generally blame the guards in other incidents.
MercutioATC
(28,470 posts)Libya? Hell, no. There are places where we should be providing our own security, at least within the compound.
Indpndnt
(2,391 posts)The embassy is in Tripoli and is considered U.S. soil. A consulate is in smaller cities and is not considered foreign soil. That's why the difference in security.
MercutioATC
(28,470 posts)Thanks for the explanation
Indpndnt
(2,391 posts)The one in Egypt at the embassy and the one in Libya at a consulate. Both terms are thrown about in the reporting, so it's easy to get them mixed up.
emilyg
(22,742 posts)dionysus
(26,467 posts)unc70
(6,110 posts)Consulates are often little more than an office or two, depending on situation.
rustydog
(9,186 posts)nc4bo
(17,651 posts)the security forces.
What the heck were they to do if they were out gunned?
Number_9
(32 posts)... to his online community and that he suspected a pending attack.
Link to follow when I get home or someone beats me to it.
riverwalker
(8,694 posts)Libya rescue squad ran into fierce, accurate ambush
http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E8KCMYB20120912?sp=true
......Of the eight American troops who had come from Tripoli, one was killed and two were wounded, Obeidi said. A Libyan deputy interior minister said a second American was also killed in the attack on the safe house. It was not clear if this was a diplomat or one of the consulate's original security detail.
"It began to rain down on us," Obeidi told Reuters, describing the moment the attack began - just as the Libyan security force was starting up the 10 pickup trucks and sedans they had brought to ferry the Americans to the airport.
"About six mortars fell directly on the path to the villa," he said. "During this firing, one of the marines whom I had brought with me was wounded and fell to the ground.
"As I was dragging the wounded marine to safety, some marines who were located on the roof of the villa as snipers shouted and the rest of the marines all hit the ground.
"A mortar hit the side of the house. One of the marines from the roof went flying and fell on top of us.".......