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Published On: Thu, May 9th, 2013

Benghazi testimony confirms officials new attack was a ‘Islamic terrorists’ and not a YouTube video

Obama administration officials were adamant that Benghazi was fallout from the protest of an anti-Muslim YouTube video. The new Benghazi hearings confirm that U.S. diplomats on the ground knew it was a terrorist attack.

At a hearing Wednesday of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee on Benghazi, Trey Gowdy (R–South Carolina) read into the record an email from Beth Jones, the acting assistant secretary of State for Near East Affairs. The September 12 email—disclosed for the first time on Wednesday—said Jones had spoken to Libya’s ambassador to Washington, who said the attack was the work of former Gadhafi regime loyalists.

Gregory Hicks Benghazi testimony

Gregory Hicks testifying on Benghazi photo, screenshot of coverage

Jones said she told the ambassador: “The group that conducted the attacks, Ansar al-Sharia, is affiliated with Islamic terrorists.”

Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli at the time, said there were no reports from U.S. personnel in Libya that there was a demonstration.

Hicks provided new details of the attack in the evening of Benghazi. He said he had no doubt at the time the assault on the U.S. compound in Benghazi was a terrorist attack, noting that Ansar al-Sharia had claimed credit for the assault on its Twitter feed.

Indeed, the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli believed it would be attacked next.

Hicks said embassy personnel smashed hard drives, loaded weapons into armored vehicles, and that the 55 embassy employees in Tripoli that evening were gathered in a safe annex, all in anticipation of the attack.

Hicks recounted what were likely some of the last words of Christopher Stevens, the U.S. ambassador who was killed in the initial assault on the diplomatic and intelligence compound in Libya’s second city. In a patchy phone call, Stevens told Hicks: “We’re under attack.”

Mark Thompson, the deputy coordinator for operations at the State Department’s bureau of counter-terrorism during the Benghazi attacks, testified that the Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST)—a special unit comprised of special-operations officers, FBI officers and diplomatic security personnel—was not deployed on the evening of the attacks.“I alerted my leadership indicating that we needed to go forward and consider the deployment of the Foreign Emergency Support Team,” Thompson said. He added that he was told that meetings had already taken place. “I was told this was not the right time to deploy the team.”

Eric Nordstrom’s emotion testimony on why the investigation matters, this is being played by opponents of the Obama administration in conjunction with Hillary Clinton’s comments: “What does it matter now” – that one posted here

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About the Author

- Writer and Co-Founder of The Global Dispatch, Brandon has been covering news, offering commentary for years, beginning professionally in 2003 on Crazed Fanboy before expanding into other blogs and sites. Appearing on several radio shows, Brandon has hosted Dispatch Radio, written his first novel (The Rise of the Templar) and completed the three years Global University program in Ministerial Studies to be a pastor. To Contact Brandon email [email protected] ATTN: BRANDON

Displaying 4 Comments
Have Your Say
  1. CHRISTOPHER ALLEN HORTON says:

    AS I HAVE TYPED BEFORE, BENGHAZI IS A BIG-TIME “SHAM!”

    IF Acting-Assistant Secretary of State Beth Jones KNEW THE ATTACK WAS THE WORK OF Gadhafi loyalists, WHY DID Ambassador Christopher Stevens NOT KNOW, OR, REFUSE TO CONSIDER THIS INFORMATION? LOGIC DICTATES Acting-Assistant Secretary Jones WOULD HAVE HAD CONTINUAL COMMUNICATION WITH Ambassador Stevens.

    POLITICAL “SPIN” IS SILLY WHEN IT DEFIES LOGIC.

    CHRISTOPHER ALLEN HORTON

  2. Pine 4 Better Daze says:

    It is the American people that are being bamboozled… and it is Barry Soetoro and his
    former Secretary of State Hillary doing it!! Dr. Steve Pieczenik calls Benghazi far more serious than ‘Watergate’ which brought down President Nixon. He is also calling for a
    Special Independent Prosecutor to investigate the Obama administration’s criminal role in
    Benghazi…
    Read the OccupyCorporatism.com report of 5/09/2013, “10 Facts About Benghazi Even
    the Whistleblowers Did Not Reveal,” on the website:
    http://www.occupycorporatism.com/10-facts-about-benghazi-even-the-whistleblowers-did-not-reveal/

    • CHRISTOHER ALLEN HORTON says:

      “Pine 4 Better Daze,”

      YOUR COMMENTARY SUGGESTS THE KENYAN FORCED Ambassador Stevens TO GO; I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WILL HAVE A RELATIONSHIP WITH LIBYA AFTER THE KENYAN IS GONE. CONFLICT IN THE MIDDLE-EAST WILL STILL EXIST AT THAT TIME. SO, AS A CAUCASIAN, IT IS LOGICAL TO ASSUME Ambassador Stevens WANTED TO SUPPORT THE CAUCASIAN IDEAL OF DESTROYING ARAB NATIONS.

      CHRISTOPHER ALLEN HORTON

  3. Brandt Hardin (@DREGstudios) says:

    The true shame in the Far Right’s obsession with this tragedy is the effect on the families of the victims. This entire process is being instrumented as a ruse to attempt to shame Hillary Clinton and our President. Our Republican Congressmen spend their days trying to Bamboozle Obama instead of doing what they are paid for by representing their constituents. See what kind of job they’ve done applying the blackface to the POTUS at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/10/bamboozling-obama.html Their hands are sticking to this tar baby as the public is becoming increasing impatient with the nonsense and waste of taxpayer money.

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