In advance of the panel’s first closed-door Benghazi hearing this week, the chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said the administration should have known the consulate assault was a terrorist attack the minute rocket-propelled grenades and mortars were used.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said on Fox News Sunday she still needs to go through thousands of pages of documents, but noted that the five prior incidents in Libya this year alone “aren’t intelligence, they are not threats.”
“They are actual attacks on the British ambassador, on our consulate once before, on a number of other things, on the United States missions. Now, that, to me, is sufficient intelligence to make a decision,” she said. “Now — so we want to see what the extenuating circumstances are, that the security wasn’t beefed by us, if it couldn’t be beefed up by the Libyans or we didn’t close down the consulate.”
Feinstein said she didn’t think the waffling on the nature of the Sept. 11 attack had to do with politics, but “something to do with our assessment.”
“My view is very simple and very direct. The minute you know mortars were used, the minute you know RPGs are used, it’s either a terrorist attack or it’s a military attack. Those are the only two things it could be,” the senator said. “What is a terrorist? It isn’t necessarily all one thing. A terrorist uses the attack as a vehicle and we all know that now. Therefore, it is pretty clear the minute mortars show up and RPGs show up, you have a terrorist attack.”
“Prior incidents give me a good assessment of whether there is a high likelihood, so that the assessment can be with confidence. And, I think that assessment could have been made earlier on, with confidence,” she added.
Feinstein said she has concerns that after the attack “changes were made but the changes were not major” for security at U.S. installations.
“I went to the memorial service in San Francisco for Chris Stevens. The Libyan ambassador to the United States spoke and twice during his remarks, he said, ‘I am so sorry that we could not protect your consulate’ — which is a total admission that the Libyan government was incapable of protecting our facilities,” she said. “This raises a major question for the future. We have 285 embassies and consulates over the world. And, the threats pour in. What do we do?”
We have 285 embassies and consulates over the world. And, the threats pour in. What do we do?
Obviously close them all down, or staff them with suicidals.
I’m sure this will become abundantly clear over the next twelve months.
Ask those who have voted for Obama to volunteer to staff them.
And disarm them all, so that the good people all over the world will see your good will and come to you in peace and harmony.
Geez! Then hopefully she’ll be “fired up — ready to go” to find out why it wasn’t declared a terrorist attack and the nation lied to.
I don’t think that the term terrorist attack is strong enough. This was a commando raid. Except that the attackers did not use helicopters, it resembled the operation that took out bin Laden. Their goal was not to incite terror, but to achieve a military goal using small unit tactics and a variety of weapons, including crew-served.
Further to my comment, the attackers’ military discipline is evident in their willingness to take a reported 60 casualties to achieve their objective.
“Feinstein said she didn’t think the waffling on the nature of the Sept. 11 attack had to do with politics . . .” which means it had everything to do with politics . . . specifically Obama getting re-elected.
“My view is very simple and very direct. The minute you know mortars were used, the minute you know RPGs are used, it’s either a terrorist attack or it’s a military attack. Those are the only two things it could be,” . . .
Obviously, Dianne, you weren’t included in the State Dept. briefings when it was agreed upon (the conspiracy) that the Administration’s position would be (the lie) that it was a spontaneous reaction to a video. You weren’t kept in the loop, Dianne; that’s enough to make most Senators mad.