I haven’t seen the news until I’ve watched The
Rachel Maddow Show.
Again, The Rachel Maddow Show didn’t disappoint
me.
Her broadcast confirmed what I’d
been thinking.
“NPR’s Leila Fadel
reports that Libya’s Deputy Interior Minister, Wanis al Sharef, said this was a
sophisticated two-prong attack. Sharef
said it may have been an infiltrator inside the Libyan security forces that
tipped the militants off to the location of the safe house. The attacks may have been timed to mark the
9/11 anniversary and the militants used civilians protesting an anti-Islam film
as a cover for their actions. ”
The
Attack On The Consulate Was A Planned Terrorist Assault Against U.S. and Libyan
Interests
The experts at the Quilliam Foundation, a “counter-extremism
think tank” based in London - Press Release reads as follows:
The military assault against the US
Consulate in Benghazi should not be seen as part of a protest against a low
budget film which was insulting Islam – there were just a few peaceful
protesters present at the event. Indeed, there have been no other
demonstrations regarding this film in Libya.
We at Quilliam believe the attack on
the US consulate in Benghazi was a well planned terrorist attack that would
have occurred regardless of the demonstration, to serve another purpose.
According to information obtained by Quilliam – from foreign sources and from
within Benghazi – we have reason to believe that the attack on the US consulate
in Benghazi came to avenge the death of Abu Yaya al-Libi, al-Qaeda’s second in
command killed a few months ago.
The reasons for this are as follows:
·
24 hours before this attack, none
other than the leader of al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahiri, released a video on
Jihadist forums to mark the anniversary of 9/11. In this video, Zawahiri
acknowledged the death of his second in command Abu Yahya and urged Libyans to
avenge his killing.
·
According to our sources, the attack
was the work of roughly 20 militants, prepared for a military assault – it is
rare that an RPG7 is present at a peaceful protest.
·
According to our sources, the attack
against the Consulate had two waves. The first attack led to US officials being
evacuated from the consulate by Libyan security forces, only for the second
wave to be launched against US officials after they were kept in a secure
location.
The weak security environment in
Libya including in Benghazi and the failure of the government to project its
power outside of the capital have been used as a cover for the attack.
The failure to rebuild the defense
and security sector, in an accountable, professional and responsible manner
will only further the likelihood of such attacks in the future. Attacks in
Benghazi are not new – the Red Cross has been attacked multiple times in
previous months, as have the US consulate and also the UK Ambassador, and such
security lapses encourage attacks. The International Community must take the
challenge of not allowing extremist elements to hijack the Arab Uprisings very
seriously, by renewing their focus on civic and governance responses to check
the efforts of Islamist extremists attempting to exploit the inevitable
security vacuum.
Noman Benotman, President of
Quilliam says:
“These are acts committed by
uncontrollable jihadist groups. We hope Libya will seize this opportunity to
revive its policy of Disarmament, Demobilization and Re-integration (DDR) in
order to facilitate an end to the spread of such attacks, with the help of the
International Community. We hope that the International Community, including
NATO member states and especially the US, will continue their excellent work in
Libya which began with the overthrow of the dictator Gaddafi after 42 years in
power.”
U.S. officials from the State Department,
the National Security Council and law enforcement have not been able to confirm
that this was a planned attack.
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment