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Report: Marines Guarding U.S. Embassy in Cairo Were Barred From Carrying Live Ammo

"Neutralized any U.S. military capability."

Updates: Pentagon spokesman George Little told Time magazine Thursday: "With or without a weapon, Marines are always armed...I’ve heard nothing to suggest they don’t have ammunition.”

Additionally, per Time, the Marine Corps said in a statement late Thursday that any reports “of Marines not being able to have their weapons loaded per direction from the ambassador are not accurate.”

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Original post below:

Marines guarding the U.S. Embassy in Cairo were reportedly barred from carrying live ammunition and therefore ill-equipped to defend it from attack earlier this week, according to the U.S. national security newsletter NightWatch:

"[U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson] did not permit US Marine guards to carry live ammunition, according to USMC blogs. Thus she neutralized any US military capability that was dedicated to preserve her life and protect the US Embassy. In this respect, she did not defend US sovereign territory and betrayed her oath of office. She neutered the Marines posted to defend the embassy, trusting the Egyptians over the Marines."

The State Department did not immediately return a request for comment from TheBlaze about the NightWatch report Thursday afternoon.

Time magazine's Battleland blog reported Thursday that "senior U.S. officials late Wednesday declined to discuss in detail the security at either Cairo or Benghazi."

Egyptian protesters on Tuesday scaled the wall of the U.S. Embassy and brought down the U.S. flag, replacing it with a black Islamist flag that stated: “There is no God but God and Mohammed is the prophet of God.” The protest was blamed on an anti-Islam film deemed offensive to the prophet Muhammad.

A similar mob attack broke out at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, culminating in the death of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other American diplomatic personnel. Reports have since circulated that the Libyan attack was planned in advance and timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

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Madeleine Morgenstern

Madeleine Morgenstern

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