An 'Opportunistic' Terrorist Attack

Following the blow-up in Benghazi the Administration seems to have created a new category - the "opportunistic" terrorist attack:

(CBS News) The White House called last week's deadly assault on a U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, "a terrorist attack" Thursday, but didn't clarify whether the Obama administration thought the attack was planned in advance.

"It is, I think, self-evident that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Air Force One Thursday. "Our embassy was attacked violently and the result was four deaths of American officials. So, again, that's self evident."

Well, a few days ago it was self-evident that a volent mob fueled by outrage over a YouTube video had triggered the incident. Whatever.

On Wednesday, Matthew Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told senators that the United States doesn't have specific intelligence that the attack was planned in advance, Reuters reports.

"The best information we have now, the facts that we have now, indicate that this was an opportunistic attack" on the consulate, Olsen said, according to Reuters. "The attack began and evolved and escalated over several hours."

U.S. officials had said since the immediate aftermath of the attack that it originally started as an anti-American protest against an amateurish online video made in the U.S. that insults the Muslim Prophet Muhammad.

"At this point, what I would say is that a number of different elements appear to have been involved in the attack, including individuals connected to militant groups that are prevalent in eastern Libya, particularly in the Benghazi area," Olsen said, according to Reuters. "As well, we are looking at indications that individuals involved in the attack may have had connections to al Qaeda or al Qaeda's affiliates, in particular Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb."

CBS News is reporting that the initial unhappy mobs never existed, which compounds the confusion:

CBS reports this morning that witnesses are saying "that there was never an anti-American protest outside of the consulate [in Benghazi, Libya]. Instead, they say, it came under planned attack. That is in direct contradiction to the administration's account of the incident."

I will add this - the signature of Al Qaeda attacks is multiple targets. Only one US diplomatic outpost came under this type of determined armed assault, which lends a bit of credence to the "opportunistic" concept. On the other hand, if CBS is right and there was no angry mob providing cover and pretext, then the group in Libya created their own opportunity.

It will be interesting to see how much of the Team Obama fog on this is dispersed before November.

MORE: And there is a lot of fog to disperse. Here we go from the Times:

But the State Department now faces Congressional demands for an independent investigation of the attacks and any security failures that might have added to the death toll.

“In my judgment, which is informed by numerous briefings and discussions with experts, the attack in Benghazi was not a black swan,” Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said at a hearing on Wednesday, “but rather an attack that should have been anticipated, based on the previous attacks against Western targets, the proliferation of dangerous weapons in Libya, the presence of Al Qaeda in that country and the overall threat environment.”

And the Tines is either relying upon or backing up the CBS version:

The most significant inconsistency between Libyan and American accounts is whether the attack that night began with a small protest over the trailer of “The Innocence of Muslims,” parts of which were broadcast on Egyptian television. American officials insist there was a protest that began peacefully, only to be hijacked by armed militants. But Libyan witnesses, including two guards at the building, say the area around the compound was quiet until the attackers arrived, firing their weapons and storming the compound from three sides, beginning at 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 11. A witness said that some of those attacking referred to the film’s insults to Islam.

This is tricky - we have dead Americans and a failure to anticipate a terror attack on the anniversary of 9/11. On the other hand, full disclosure might result in both Obama and Hillary lookig inept. It will be interesting to see the press handle this challenge to their belief systems.

Comments

[Reza]

If the story is true that Obama lessened security in order to leave a smaller "foot print" on the country he bombed, then he is over. People have trouble believing that explanation, but they do not understand how the mind of a person primed with apologisitic understandings of the world.

If CBS is true, that shows incredible after the fact management. Another way they're doing it is having The UN ambassador say things. She really does not know cause she's not in on the same diplomatic loop, she's in NY at the UN. She's can't be accused of perjury. That they used her so quickly, and not some Washington State Dept. person who could no the real ins and outs, is suspicious.

[Reza]

BTW, sorry for grammar oddness above. Also, if this was a CIA operation to meet "radicals," such is as foolish as Reagan's dealings with "moderate Iranians," or Obama's letter writing campaign to Tehran.

[Narciso]

No, that doesn't count TM, because Camp bastion and the school in Tunisia, were also targets, the Former offered prince Harry as a target,

[DebinNC]

Speaking of "signature" and "Team Obama fog" to be cleared before November, I'm interested in how this mystery is solved. Did Obama auto-pen identical letters of condolence to fallen SEALS as their families contend, or does Obama personally sign every such letter as the WH claims? A veterans group vows to find out.

[Narciso]

So. I still think that Bel Hadj AKa Hasady, brought qumu as a trainer, his Al Satan party lost out to jibril's faction, one of the saving graces of the Arab Spring

[Narciso]

Is a player, much like Hekmatyar was in post Soviet afghanistan

[Jim Eagle]

All of this hemming and hawing by the WH is only going to embolden further terrorist attacks disguised as spontaneous combustion of hard-felt inner feelings about false prophets. But then we have Carney, Cutter, LeBolt and Nuland perfectly trained by now to deal with all this abstract questions.

Time for another trip to The View.

[Narciso]

No, Sesame Street, possibly the Couric show, shudder,

[Melinda Romanoff]

JiB-

The View appearance is next week.

[Narciso]

Btw. Kerman rather savagely flayed MRI man on CNBC, well as much as such things are allowed (h/t protein wisdom)

[Jim Eagle]

Mel,

I am still waiting for the Obama Teddy-Bear. Even the Vermont Teddy Bear factory doesn't have that model yet. But when I get one I will sleep better.

[Melinda Romanoff]

JiB-

I'd watch out for repeated spontaneous combustion with that particular bear. Something about "Just For Men"'s lead content and high molar acid.

[DebinNC]

Sounds like the Univision fellow (Ramos) put Obama on the hot seat today. Noted Obama promised in '08 to deliver comprehensive immigration reform and didn't. Obama did his "Congress thwarted my heroic efforts" schtick, and Ramos basically said, "No dice, a promise is a promise."

[Narciso]

Well that is true, in that sense, and only that sense Ramos has more integrity than his colleagues in the courtier press.

[Captain Hate]

No, Sesame Street, possibly the Couric show, shudder,

Speaking of television for immature minds, I see the gap toothed pervert will be offering Romney some "advice" tonight. For some reason that imbecile's existence bothers me as much as MessNBC.

So narc, do you think Reese will find Finch in the next episode or will they drag it out. Watching the season finale for the second time made a lot more sense.

[Ann]

I am with Narciso. Why isn't the attack at Camp Bastion just as important. It was planned and had nothing to do with a tape or Prince Harry:

Camp Bastion: It was supposed to be impregnable

Once again, Palin is correct:

http://palin4president2016.blogspot.com/2012/09/video-palin-on-foreign-policy-on.html

If Obama is going to wave the white flag...bring our guys home.

[peter]

Wonder how Univision is going to pay for this? FCC must surely be planning revenge.

[Clarice]

Consider the univision fiasco a preview for the first real debates this jive ass has been in in his life.

[JM Hanes]

Terrorists in Libya? Al Qaeda? Quelle surprise! All the way back in March 2011, even the Huffington Post could read the writing on that wall {abridged & slightly rearranged}:

Almost one in five foreign fighters arriving in Iraq came from eastern Libya, from the towns of Surt, Misurata and Darnah.... [O]n a per capita basis, no country sent more young fighters into Iraq to kill Americans than Libya -- and almost all of them came from eastern Libya, the center of the anti-Gaddafi rebellion that the United States and others now have vowed to protect, according to internal al Qaeda documents uncovered by U.S. intelligence....

Today, there is little doubt that eastern Libya, like other parts of the Arab world, is experiencing a genuine burst of anti-totalitarian fervor, expressed in demands for political freedom and economic reforms. But there also is a dark history to eastern Libya, which is the home of the Islamic Libyan Fighting Group, an anti-Gaddafi organization officially designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization.... The group was founded by Libyan mujahideen returning in the mid-1990s from Afghanistan, where they had gone to fight the Soviets’ Red Army. [I could swear that sounds familiar!]

In 1996 they nearly succeeded in assassinating Gaddafi by attacking his motorcade with either a bomb or a rocket-propelled grenade which missed its target. The attack led to a severe crackdown by the regime. Many were imprisoned or disappeared, but the CIA still regards the group as one of the many franchises of al Qaeda, including al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which operates in Yemen, and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, which is active in Algeria and elsewhere in North Africa.

Eastern Libya has been described by U.S. diplomats as a breeding ground for Islamist extremism. In diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, the region’s young men were said to have “nothing to lose" by resorting to violence. Sermons in the local mosques are “laced with phraseology urging worshippers to support jihad," one diplomat reported.

U.S. officials declined to discuss the make-up of the anti-Gaddafi forces in eastern Libya, and U.S. intelligence agencies declined to comment publicly. To be sure, extremist elements make up only a portion of the resistance to Gaddafi and have been present in every popular uprising in the region stretching from the Iranian revolution to the Egyptian people’s overthrow of Hosni Mubarak. But others caution that in the chaotic jockeying for power that will ensue, whether or not Gaddafi is forced from power, eastern Libya’s extremist groups will emerge.

Or as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday about the immediate future of Libya: “We don’t know what the outcome will be."

If you thought it was impossible to define clueless down, you'd be wrong. Maybe Obama should have tried actually voting present at his daily intel briefings -- or just reading HuffPo on his kindle. Clinton & our President have now made an advertisement denouncing the Nakoula video for circulation in Pakistan. They apparently have no idea what the outcome of that will be either.

[JM Hanes]

OldTimer:

The "Cairo Doctrine" strikes me as a very useful formulation. We should follow Krauthammer's lead, and do our level best to keep it in circulation. That said, however, I'd really love to see the Veep debate moderator ask Biden if he agrees with the Obama Doctrine.

[Narciso]

According to Tomlinson, a 'disaffected' MI-6 officer, the camel corps over at the Lego palace, probably including Mark Allen, did work with the Lfg including one fellow, Anas al liby, who is allegedly at Gitmo.

I don't think they solve it one episode, seeing as it took more than one episode to establish her, it doesn't fit the arc panel.

[Narciso]

That huffington post, has the obligatory 'look squirrel' response, Bel hadj, al barrani, and mr qumu were trainers and militia organizers, not merely rank and file. Of course at the time, Myanmar was following the advice of his Lse educated son, how did that work out again.

Yes, Ann, that attack establishes the pattern, as for Karzai, just pull his Dyncorp detail, let fahim run the place

[Narciso]

Well, JM, I haven't seen Mark Lynch latest offering, or Juan cole's so I don't know the limit of cluelessness, but the boys of Aapbara, specially their new chief, will reply In kInd.

[JM Hanes]

narciso:

"That huffington post, has the obligatory 'look squirrel' response, Bel hadj, al barrani, and mr qumu were trainers and militia organizers, not merely rank and file. Of course at the time, Myanmar was following the advice of his Lse educated son, how did that work out again."

I'm not sure to whom you are referring. Are you saying they underplayed the seriousness and/or threat of the terrorist contingent in the Libya uprising or over-spun the "burst of anti-totalitarian fervor?" Anybody reading the HuffPo article would have to fault Hillary for a willful suspension of disbelief, though, don't you think?

I've been half listening to what sounds like BBC news, and the more they play those sound bites from Barack & Hillary, the more I wonder how their disavowal is going over here at home.

BTW, the one thing I don't recall hearing almost anything about is why Stevens went Benghazi in the first place. Have I just missed that part of the story?

[JM Hanes]

Oh, now I see the Qumu reference, narciso, but the HuffPo piece was written over a year and a half ago. Had he already surfaced in a big way at that point?

[mrt721]

"This is tricky - we have dead Americans and a failure to anticipate a terror attack on the anniversary of 9/11 Obama's National Day of Service."

There's the problem.

[Cecil Turner]

I will add this - the signature of Al Qaeda attacks is multiple targets. Only one US diplomatic outpost came under this type of determined armed assault, which lends a bit of credence to the "opportunistic" concept.

The primary defense for an embassy is host-nation police. Libya for obvious reasons has a poorly-functioning (or non-functioning) force. That's the most logical reason for such an attack happening in only one place, and the date is far too coincidental to support any counter-interpretation without substantial evidence. This looks to me like grasping at straws to bolster an obviously false cover story.

[Janet]

What a disgrace...our tax dollars paying for a dhimmi apology. Our lousy POTUS & SOS could take a lesson from the French publisher Charb ~ "“Muhammad isn’t sacred to me,” he said in an interview at the weekly’s offices on the northeast edge of Paris. “I don’t blame Muslims for not laughing at our drawings. I live under French law; I don’t live under Quranic law.”

Yo Pakistanis! Americans don't live under Quranic law!!!

[narciso]

So, the premise was wrong, AQ had multiple targets, in Benghazi to revenge Al Libi, at Camp Bastion, to take out the crusaders, and Tunis, the schools themselves

[Jim Eagle]

Happy Birthday CC.

When Romney is elected POTUS one of the first things he needs to do is name Sarah Palin Ambassador to Australia.

Here's Why!

[Captain Hate]

I wonder what Ambassador Stevens' friends think of the JEF's people expending far more effort to cover his dimwitted response to clear signals that the embassy was in danger than the Indonesian or Pantsuits did in addressing the threat.

[Jim Eagle]

Meanwhile, in Dhaka, The Bangladeshi's are burning Obama's flag draped coffin because its all about the video and not anything to do with America or Obama.

Video

[Cecil Turner]

The bigger issue is that this (and the Cairo embassy, and other incidents) illustrates the failure of Obama's foreign policy. Which is what I suspect the Administration is trying to avoid with the ridiculous story line.

The centerpiece of Obama's claim to FP success lies with the following:

• Contra Bush, who focused on state sponsors, Obama's populist message, delivered first at his Cairo speech, supposedly leads to living together in peace;
• hunting down and killing Bin Laden (practically singlehandedly, to hear him tell it);
• drawing down the Iraq/Afghanistan wars, with timetables and restrictive ROE.

In fact, each of these has been a disaster. A strong Egyptian government under western-friendly Mubarak has been replaced by a more democratic regime built around the Muslim Brotherhood. A thoroughly contained Khadafy has been replaced by a Libyan government owing much to Al Qaeda and extremist "freedom fighters." The one strongman government we'd really like to see replaced--Syria's--we apparently can't muster the intestinal fortitude to oppose effectively.

Killing Bin Laden obviously didn't cripple Al Qaeda, and in fact they appear to be more capable today than when he died. Closing bases in Iraq removed any possibility of effective military pressure on Iran (and hence the leverage of threatening such). Afghanistan is less stable than before the "surge," and casualties are mounting. Whatever the supposed benefits of "smart diplomacy," they'd better start happening pretty soon. Because Bush's focus on governments is looking a lot smarter than this in hindsight.

[Captain Hate]

Fouad Ajami makes mincemeat of the JEF's moooooslim outreach in an article that's behind the WSJ's firewall

Our foreign policy has been altered, as never before, to fit one man's electoral needs. We hear from the presidential handlers only what they want us to believe about the temper of distant lands. It was only yesterday that our leader, we are told, had solved the riddle of our position in the world.

Give him your warrant, the palace guard intone, at least until the next election. In tales of charismatic, chosen leaders, it is always, and only, about the man at the helm.

[Janet]

John F'n Kerry -

US Embassy Islamabad @usembislamabad

Senator Kerry on video: "We feel it is without any legitimacy, any potential redeeming quality. It is an insult to everybody,”

He is speaking about the YouTube video. I believe it is a good description of himself.

[Janet]

*I am screaming this at our leaders* -
...and thinking about that video & our govt. turning into an enforcement arm or at least an apologist for Islam....
Our country is condoning keeping people in the ME in darkness. Are they not ALLOWED to hear or believe anything but Islam?

We should be dropping box loads of that crappy DVD all over the ME. Bibles, secular books, The Origin of Species,...everything.
Those people should be free to make their own choices. Is that idea too hard for our govt. to espouse? ...or are we now on the side of forcing them to live in darkness?

[DebinNC]

Kerry described every Michael Moore film.

[Ranger]

Not sure where this belongs, but with the administration's story on what happened in Libya falling appart, this seems a good place:

U.S. Distrust in Media Hits New High

Very interesting numbers. Independents' trust of the media is down 10% from 2008. Only 31% of independents trust the media, and only 33% are following political news closely these days. That tells me that there is no way the media can spin for Obama any more. 67% of independents simple refuse to watch their hackery.

[Jim Eagle]

Evidently, in the new Andrew Morton book on Monica Lewinsky she reveals she had an abortion during her affair with Clenis. No it wasn't his but another guy she was more than sharing cigars with and Clenis didn't know about it.

Its all here.

[Clarice]

Excellent, Cecil. Right on the mark, I think.
JMH, I've passed on your excellent suggestion for a Biden question on the Cairo Doctrine to our friends who are tweeting the moderatos.

[Jim Eagle]

Jake Tapper calls out Obama on Fast and Furious.

Are the MSM hedging their bets?

I hope Team RR puts this one in their ad hopper soon while the memories are there.

[daddy]

JiB,

Very sad on your Monica link about her abnortion during her affair with Clinton. From your link:

“I(Her abortion) proved to be noisy, painful and distressing, leaving her traumatized and deeply scarred,” the book says.

Her family and friends were worried about her emotional state. One friend, Neysa DeMann Erbland, said: “It was a very difficult time for here, especially as she wanted kids so desperately.”

Finally, Miss Lewinsky was ordered by her mother Marcia to have counseling in a Virginia medical center.

Over a series of sessions, she talked in detail about her experiences. The therapist found her “anxious, depressed and with low self-esteem”.

Anxious, depressed and with low self esteem. So very sad and understandable, but it's the Republican's engaging in a War on Women.

[Pofarmer]

I'm with Janet. The best cleanser is light. Don't keep the people in the dark.

[Captain Hate]

Anxious, depressed and with low self esteem

Perfect setup for the red-nosed rapist.