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‘Real News From The Blaze:’ Could the Benghazi Attack Have Been an Attempted Kidnapping?

Sep. 19, 2012 1:44am Nick Rizzuto

It’s becoming increasingly clear that the White House and its surrogates are being less than forthcoming about the events that led to the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. Despite mounting evidence to the contrary, administration officials, including most notably U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice, continue to insist that security at the Benghazi consulate was adequate.

But was that the case?

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Jack Jacobs, a medal of honor winner and NBC News analyst, disagrees with Rice’s assessment. Jacobs stated that, “The level of security in Libya, particularly in Benghazi was woefully low. As a matter of fact, I’d characterize it as no security whatsoever. Shocking and irresponsible.” The NBC report went on to say that, “consulate security consisted of a US regional security officer and a local militia.”

Assuming this was the case, the localized nature of Stevens’ security might answer some of the many questions that remain about that night. How did those responsible know he would be in Benghazi? How did they have the location of his safe-house? Why was Stevens isolated? Why did Sean Smith, a member of the consulate staff, cryptically write “assuming we don’t die tonight. We saw one of our ‘police’ that guard the compound taking pictures” just before the bullets started flying?

The answer could possibly be that Stevens’ Libyan security detail sold him out. They murdered the other members of Stevens’ team and isolated him in a room where he’d be recovered by the people who broke into the consulate under the pretext of a demonstration. That could explain why Stevens was the only one who succumbed to asphyxiation from smoke inhalation while the others died of gunshot wounds.

This would also make sense of a recent video showing Stevens being pulled from the consulate. In the video the individuals who had stormed the compound were yelling “Allah Akbar! He’s alive.” Why? Because a gaggle of humanitarians had just pulled a dead or dying US Ambassador from the consulate? Or was it because he was useful to them alive?

A kidnapping would fit the character of al Qaeda’s local affiliates in Libya. Last week CNN reported that, “A pro-al Qaeda group responsible for a previous armed assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi is the chief suspect in Tuesday’s attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya, sources tracking militant Islamist groups in eastern Libya say.” The group had also been responsible for an attack on a Benghazi Red Cross office.

That pro-al Qaeda group, known as the “Imprisoned Omar Abdel Rahman Brigades,” has been connected to the terror organization’s North African Chapter, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). Over the past several years, AQIM has become known for kidnapping foreign aid workers and diplomats, including UN envoy Robert Fowler’s abduction from Niger in December of 2008. A US Ambassador would certainly have been a big score for the group and a great bargaining chip for negotiating the release of their namesake Omar Abdel Rahman…the blind sheikh.

So how does the theory stack up? Former Senior Operations Officer for the CIA Clare Lopez joined the Real News table Tuesday to discuss the possibility that Ambassador Stevens was the target of a kidnapping plot rather than an assassination:

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Comments (28)

bgibbs42
Posted on April 24, 2013 at 2:36pm
Rep. Jason Chaffetz spoke with Megan Kelly regarding the Benghazi cable signed by Hilary Clinton with ordered the draw down in security by Sept. 6, 2012.

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RGB
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:36pm
Not a kidnap attempt. If it was he would be alive and in their custody. The “kidnappers” has superior numbers and firepower and met little resistance.
Try again lame stream media, try again.

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pap pap
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 11:48am
Maybe Chris Stevens would have been a trade for the Blind Sheik ???

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jrcess
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 11:36am
This whole episode is a failed Obama foreign policy and stupidity by Hillary Clinton. Hillary does not care who dies, she only cares about her own little world. She is a complete failure.

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factchecker2
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 10:50am
The idea of a failed kidnapping attempt makes some sense — but Lopez made several statements that contradict a wide variety of news reports.

First, she said that two marines who were providing security to the ambassador were shot in the head. Problem is that the USMC has publicly stated that there were no marines in Libya (either in Benghazi or Tripoli, if I recall correctly) at the time of the attack. My understanding is that the State Department has its own security forces, and also, that Stevens himself felt constrained by a heavy security detail. Presumably, the State Dept, uses contractors and/or employees, rather than active members of the armed forces. This seems an odd error for someone with Lopez’s background to make.
Second, she says that the “marines” were shot in the head. Again, this is contrary to almost EVERY report which says that the two former Seals were killed in an attack that occurred at a safe house, which occurred several hours after the attack on the consulate. Also, there is some reporting that says the the Seals were not even in Libya to provide embassy security, but that they were on an intelligence mission searching for MANPADS that went astray after the Khadafi regime fell.

Lopez’s account seems to have enough of its contradictions to make one pause.

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- iblvingd
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 12:49pm
  Looks like a continuation from the creators of the original 9-11. Stevens probably was nothing more than a pawn in the terrorist chess game. Or is it the Terrorist Media Clue Game?
  
  WAKE UP AMERICANS!
  
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- jamesctheman
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:34pm
  @ Factchecker. Do you actually believe the widespread media reports? I meet them with a skeptical eye. I honestly don’t believe they’re going off of any other accounts of the story except the government investigation into the series of events. Looking to the the arab press in Libya you get a completely different impression. We haven’t been told the exact events as they transpired & never will. The most plausible scenarios are either he was there as part of a CIA mission to locate & recover American military hardware which explains the small security footprint or it was a kidnapping attempt gone badly. He felt constrained with a large security group with him. He should be constrained to protect his life. More likely given the men he was with one soldier being attached to a previous special operations weapon recovery unit, having a large security profile would attract too much attention. For lack if a better term, I believe he was a weapons attache’ for the U.S. interests during the revolution.
  
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Thornyrose13
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 8:19am
I think Beck was more on track in asking why they were in Behghazi in the first place, with so few security men. There are a lot of things that are not adding up to the “official” story. It may have been an assassination, or different factions in the attacking groups at odds on taking the ambassador hostage. No matter what, the message sent has as usual been totally misread by the administration. I am getting less confident of our country’s future with each passing day.

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- Vickie Dhaene
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 11:11am
  We need to keep watching the other hand! I smell something bigger here happening.
  I will pray to GOD he has Mercy on our souls.
  
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- SREGN
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 1:05pm
  Sacrificial lamb so Obama can sign the UN Don’t Disparage Islam law. Probably a WH set-up.
  
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RJJinGadsden
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 7:16am
I’m not quite sure that it was a kidnapping. It was more or less a capture or kill attack, much like 0bama’s assault on bin Laden (yeah, tongue in cheek). To have hit the ambassador’s vehicle with an RPG if the reports are correct, there had to be the knowledge that all could have been killed in the vehicle. The RPG’s armor piercing round was designed to stop or severely damage a tank. I also would think that if the full intent would have been to capture rather than kill, the hit team would have quickly secreted Stevens away and not left him to the whims of a crowd whipped up to a total frenzy. The fact that he lived for a short time after the initial assault is just something for them to have played with. There was no obvious concern Stevens lived or died. The story that he was taken to a hospital is that is where the morgues are.

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- kryptonite
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 9:15am
  To have hit the ambassador’s vehicle with an RPG if the reports are correct, there had to be the knowledge that all could have been killed in the vehicle
  ——-
  Are you implying Stevens was inside the car when it was hit??
  
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kryptonite
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 6:01am
I am inclined to believe it was a hostage situation as well, although there is no way al-Qaeda would have returned Stevens in one piece.

That still leaves us with some major unanswered Qs. Why did Stevens disappear for several hours? Why would his attackers leave the safe house without him, if he was still alive?

If we think out of the box – which is a must considering who’s in charge – there is one other possibility, namely, that negotiations DID take place and Hussein agreed to release the blind Sheikh in return for Stevens or his remains. If that is the case, the blind jihadist will be heading home real soon. If only he would take Hussein with him.

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- loriann12
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 7:31am
  Really good point. Seems to fit the timing. I gess the sodo my was just icing for them. Remember they cut the hands of thiefs off…what would they do with someone “convicted” of being g a y?
  
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- kryptonite
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 10:31am
  @LORIANN
  Maybe he made the Libyan president a post-election promise, like he did to Medvedev, remember?
  
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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 5:08am
Given the brutality they did to the Ambassador before killing him, even sodomising him if the reports are true, then I have to say NO, this was not a kidnap attempt gone wrong. This was done to send us a message pure and simple.

Look not to Al Queda in this one part; look to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

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razhunter100
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 3:13am
Obama’s Four Gallons of Gas Minimum Mandate
By Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), Special to The Hill
http://nation.foxnews.com/gas/2012/09/18/obamas-four-gallons-gas-minimum-mandate

The latest mandate handed down from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is so ridiculous, even I was shocked. The EPA has now mandated how much gasoline you must buy at certain gas stations. Say hello to the Obama Administration’s four gallon minimum.

This unprecedented EPA overreach applies when filling up at a gas station that provides both E15 and E10, gasoline with 15 or 10 percent of ethanol, respectively, from the same hose.

At the insistence of the ethanol industry, the Obama Administration is pushing E15 into the marketplace, regardless of the serious concerns about the fuel’s impact on drivers. From its inception, E15 is a study in the consequences of government interference in the marketplace. The EPA’s decision to set a minimum purchase requirement is just the most recent example.
…

Calls Mount for Hillary’s Resignation
http://nation.foxnews.com/hillary-clinton/2012/09/18/calls-mount-hillarys-resignation
Ben Stein: Hillary should resign
By ALEX BYERS | Politico

Washington has debated and compared the responses of President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to last week’s attacks in Libya, but Ben Stein has his eye on a different politician.

It’s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who has to answer for the death of four Americans …

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MFHorn3
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 3:11am
The Administration’s “protest gone wrong” narrative reminds me of O.J. Simpson’s “drug deal gone wrong” defense. Obama and Hillary are channeling Johnnie Cochren.

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Wool-Free Vision
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:52am
Okay, Nick. Let’s go over our grammar for just a moment.

In the headline, you left out the word “have.” It should read, “Could the Benghazi attack HAVE been an attempted kidnapping?”

In the first sentence of the story, you use the contraction “it’s,” which means “it is.” You should have used the possessive pronoun “its.” The possessive pronoun has no apostrophe.

There are several other minor grammatical issues involving commas, quotes, and the word “that” when leading into a quote. But, like I said, they’re minor and easily overlooked.

For now, let’s just worry about the headline and first sentence. But, you should probably brush up on your grammar if you’re going to be representing Conservatives, simply because Liberals look for little details like that to use as justification to completely discount the source of news they don’t want to hear.

Thanks in advance for considering these admittedly petty concerns.

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- Salamander
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 5:06am
  There is nothing petty about using proper English! I make mistakes all the time and they change the meaning of what I intended. Also, the grammer and spell-checkers often offer their ‘heavy hand’, just when I’m looking ahead or thinking about the next thought; so, I miss the ham-handed error. Thank you for your coaching–it will lead to a better product for all of us!
  
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Delores at CH WV
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:46am
Is there any truth left in the government lies that is spun everyday from this government? I think back to President Eisenhower words, “Beware of the government military complex”; this sums it up for me.

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- shirelover
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 6:53am
  Delores, I agree with your assessment, if anyone knew about the military complex it would have been Mr. Eisenhhower!
  
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MFHorn3
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:26am
A second Obama Administration will likely use their version of the incident in Libya as an excuse to tamp down anti-Obama protests in our own country in the name of public safety. I’m just guessing that a second term would inspire many anti-Obama protests.

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- galicant wiseword
  Posted on September 19, 2012 at 8:55am
  Maybe that’s why the DHS and every other alphabet agency is buying ammo like crazy and why the commie-in-chief was so quick to have one of his lackeys appeal and stay the recent unconstitutional NDAA ruling.
  
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13th Imam
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:17am
Obama Puts hit out on us ambassadors killers. So he put a hit out on his own administration?

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Chuck7884
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 2:13am
I believe the Ambassador was ambushed on his way to Benghazi and there are more bodies out there to be found.

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RaydocX
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 1:58am
The reports coming back note the attack PrEcEdEd any protest… The Obama administration is (hopefully) unknowingly aiding the enemy by insisting this was a ‘few bad apples’ in a protest and insisting our freedom of speech caused it all…

But instead of doing any real reporting, the MSM is having a misguided orgasm over the truth Romney stated as hyperbole to reinforce the importance of contributing to his campaign.

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razhunter100
Posted on September 19, 2012 at 1:56am
Reality Check: Afghan Attacks on U.S. Soldiers “trending” in the Wrong Direction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-mgOdlfXQ4&feature=g-all-u

Reality Check: Attack On U.S. Ambassador In Libya An Example Of “Blowback”?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA3ZohJUjuc&feature=relmfu

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