Libya: 'US ignored warnings of deadly embassy attack in Benghazi'


http://daily.bhaskar.com/article/WOR-TOP-libya-us-ignored-warnings-of-deadly-embassy-attack-in-benghazi-3786931-NOR.html


Dailybhaskar.com
Sep 14, 2012, 10:36AM IST



Libya: A day after Libya made arrests and opened a probe into an
attack on the US consulate in Benghazi that killed the American
ambassador, reports have surfaced that the attack was a inside job.



According to a report published in The Independent, the US Department
of State knew of the attack up to 48 hours ahead of time, yet chose to
do nothing.



Reports state that sensitive documents have apparently gone missing
from the embassy following the attack, potentially putting many in
danger.



The US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs
charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that
American missions may be targeted, but no warnings were given for
diplomats to go on high alert and 'lockdown', under which movement is
severely restricted.



Meanwhile, the Deputy Interior Minister Wanis al-Sharif said that the
interior and justice ministries have begun their investigations and
evidence gathering and some people have been arrested.



He declined to give any details of the number of people in custody or
their backgrounds "so as not to hamper the smooth running of the
investigation."



The announcement of the inquiry comes as protests against an anti-Islam
film which sparked Tuesday's attack on the Benghazi mission, spread
across the Arab world and in Iran.



"All measures are being taken. An independent judicial committee has
been set up to carry out an inquiry," Abdelmonem al-Horr, spokesman for
the interior ministry's security commission said.



In Benghazi journalists managed to enter the residential complex that
housed the US consulate and described a scene from a warzone.



All the buildings were blackened by fire, furniture destroyed and walls
punctured by bullets, said the photographer who managed to enter the
grounds with other journalists after obtaining permission from the owner
of the compound.



Security officers and police were nowhere to be seen, inside or outside the consulate, with no sign of an investigation.