BLOCKBUSTER: US top security official in Libya says “unbelievable” that State Dept decreased security despite requests

CBS News reporter Sharyl Attkisson has done a fantastic report on the security situation in Libya leading up to the Benghazi attack that killed our ambassador and three colleagues. And what she reports should be blockbuster in the media.

Here’s a quote from Lt. Col. Andy Wood, our top security official in Libya and a Utah National Guard Army Green Beret who headed up a Special Forces “Site Security Team” in Libya:

“We tried to illustrate…to show them how dangerous and how volatile and just unpredictable that whole environment was over there. So to decrease security in the face of that really is… it’s just unbelievable.”

When he says “decrease” he means their security teams left Libya in August:

Lt. Col. Wood has told CBS News and congressional investigators that his 16-member team and a six-member State Department elite force called a Mobile Security Deployment team left Libya in August, just one month before the Benghazi assault. Wood says that’s despite the fact that US officials in Libya wanted security increased, not decreased.

Wood says he met daily with [Ambassador] Stevens and that security was a constant challenge. There were 13 threats or attacks on western diplomats and officials in Libya in the six months leading up to the September 11 attack.

The State Department has responded to this by minimizing it:

A senior State Department official told CBS News that half of the 13 incidents before September 11 were fairly minor or routine in nature, and that the Benghazi attack was so lethal and overwhelming, that a diplomatic post would not be able to repel it.

They also told CBS News “the security teams weren’t “pulled,” that their mission was simply over”.

Talk about playing the powerless victim card. What a joke of a response! There’s no reasonable person in this country who is going to believe that the State Department couldn’t have extended security in Libya at the request of their top security official on the ground. And to suggest that the attack was so overwhelming and lethal that our security forces couldn’t have repelled – well that’s up for serious debate since THEY WEREN’T EVEN THERE TO REPEL IT! Even if they couldn’t repel it, perhaps they could have bought enough time to get the ambassador to safety.

This scandal really is getting more scandalous by the day and should be getting a lot more play in the press. Kudos to CBS News and Sharyl Attkisson for reporting it.

Watch the report:


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