The Attack In Libya, How The U.S. Should Respond
http://www.npr.org/2012/09/13/161091766/the-attack-in-libya-how-the-u-s-should-respond
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Neal Conan at NPR West in Culver City,
California. Another attack on a U.S. embassy, this time protesters in
Yemen broke through the main gate and burned the American flag. They
chanted death to America. In Libya, more than 50 Marines arrived to
take over security at the U.S. Embassy in security with FBI evidence
teams also reportedly on the way and U.S. warships over the horizon.
President Obama said yesterday that the United States would work with
the Libyan government to bring justice to those who carried out the
attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans
in Benghazi, an attack that House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike
Rogers described to the Associated Press as a planned, coordinated,
well-executed, military-style event.
We still don't know who's behind that attack, exactly, or the
significance of the fact that it happened on 9/11. Just who produced,
financed and translated the amateurish anti-Islam film that sparked at
least some of the protests also remains murky.
If you have questions about what happened on Tuesday and where we go
from here, give us a call,
800-989-8255. Email
ta...@npr.org. You can
also join the conversation on our website. That's at
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TALK OF THE NATION.
Later in the program, to Jordan and that country's response to civil
war next door in Syria and to the flood of refugees. But first to
Benghazi and the Guardian's Libya correspondent Christopher Stephen,
he's with us by phone. Nice to have you with us today.
CHRISTOPHER STEPHEN: Thank you very much for having me.
CONAN: The attackers in Benghazi, well-armed, apparently
well-organized. Do we know anything more about who was behind this
assault?
STEPHEN: Well, we assume it was some sort of splinter group in the
Islamic faction. There are a number of predates here who have fallen
under the spotlight of suspicion. Exactly who it was remains unclear,
but certainly it was a very hard-line jihadist (unintelligible). Most
people in Benghazi say it was the same people who fired a rocket at
the British ambassador, who burned up the Red Cross compound, who
attacked the U.N. convoy and who destroyed British war graves earlier
this year.
CONAN: And in those previous incidents, did anybody take
responsibility?
STEPHEN: No one's ever taken responsibility, although in the case of
the war graves, they were filmed doing it. So a lot of diplomats have
said, well, you know, if the authorities wanted to make arrests these
past months, you know, they could have done so. No arrests have ever
been made for any of these things, and I think the pressure is now on
the authorities to explain why.
CONAN: And can you tell us more about what actually happened in this
assault? As I understand, the consulate headquarters itself was the
first target.
STEPHEN: That's right. The assault began at 11 o'clock that night,
when the protests degenerated into a firing. Who fired first, you
know, one can't say. There is a suggestion that the Libyan security
guards in the embassy fired over the heads of the crowd. But there was
a firefight. Eight of the 12 Libyan guards were wounded, and then the
crowd breached the wall.
The ambassador and two security guards then ran into a sort of
fortified compound, where the two guards were killed, and the
ambassador appears to have died from smoke inhalation. Now at the same
time, another group of diplomats managed to get into a Jeep and bust
out of the gates.
They came under fire. The Jeep was hit by bullets, but it was an
armored Jeep. It then drove a mile down the road to a second compound,
which is an accommodation compound, and they went in there. They
closed the gate. An hour later, that compound came under attack from
the same mob.
And I've been to see both compounds. I've been taken around by the
landlords. In the second compound, in the accommodation compound, an
RPG was fired at the roof, and there's a lot of blood where he says
that the fourth man was killed. So two diplomats and the ambassador
were killed in the consulate, one more at the accommodation compound.
He also says that the security guys in the accommodation compound
managed - they sort of turned it into an Alamo. They managed to fend
off the attack, and then at about dawn, security forces finally turned
up. And obviously if this is true, then the Libyans have to explain
why the army spent seven hours waiting before it intervened.
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So what will Obama do? The government took 7 hours to respond? Did
they aid in the attack?
Why did we help free these people? How many millions did we spend
doing so?
Obama the great fool.