by Fred Burton
U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta (right) shakes the hand of a Libyan freedom fighter in Tripoli, Libya, December 17, 2011. (Courtesy of U.S. Department Of Defense / Erin A. Kirk-Cuomo)
September 22, 2011: Two Diplomatic Security special agents raise the American flag as U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Gene Cretz (right), looks on, at a ceremony marking the reopening of the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, Libya. The ceremony took place one month after Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qaddafi was forced to flee the capital, and seven months after the U.S. embassy staff was forced to depart. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of State)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is greeted by Libyan militiamen and military personnel upon her arrival at Tripoli International Airport in Libya on October 18, 2011. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of State)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton departs the World Islamic Call Society headquarters after meeting with National Transitional Council (NTC) Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril in Tripoli, Libya, on October 18, 2011. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of State)
After serving as the deputy chief of mission in Libya (2007 to 2009), and as the president’s special representative to the Libyan National Transitional Council (March to November 2011), Christopher Stevens is congratulated by Secretary of State Clinton after being named U.S. Ambassador to Libya on June 7, 2012. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of State)
DS MSD personnel test satellite data and voice communications on a cargo ship en route from Malta to Benghazi. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of State)
The ambassador’s villa at the Special Mission Compound in Benghazi. (Courtesy of U.S. House Oversight Committee)
The view north from the ambassador’s residence, looking at the main gate and the February 17th Martyrs Brigade building, at the Special Mission Compound. (Courtesy of U.S. House Oversight Committee)
The DS villa on the east side of the Special Mission Compound. Note Mercedes G Wagon, believed to belong to Annex personnel. (Courtesy of U.S. House Oversight Committee)
The lavish interior of Ambassador Chris Stevens’ villa. (Courtesy of U.S. House Oversight Committee)
The damage caused by an IED attack against the Special Mission Compound main perimeter wall on the night of June 6, 2012. (Courtesy of U.S. House Oversight Committee)
One of the blast-damaged vehicles from British Ambassador Dominic Asquith’s protective detail, hit by RPG fire in Benghazi on June 10, 2012. (Courtesy of U.S. House Oversight Committee)
Blood stains the interior of one of the British ambassador’s protective-detail vehicles struck by an RPG ambush. (Courtesy of U.S. House Oversight Committee)
DS Special Agent Mario Montoya teaches marksmanship and weapons handling to four of the National Transitional Council’s local guards at Benghazi. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of State)
Sean Patrick Smith, a state department information management officer, assigned on temporary duty to Benghazi. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of State / U.S. Embassy, The Hague)
Glen Doherty, seen here photographed during an undated security assignment in the Middle East. (Courtesy of the Glen Doherty Memorial Foundation)
Al-Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports from the burned-out remains of the Special Mission Compound on the morning of September 12, 2012. (Courtesy of Hoda Abdel-Hamid)
Some of the damage that Hoda Abdel-Hamid’s film crew found inside the burned-out destruction of Ambassador Stevens’ villa at the Special Mission Compound. (Courtesy of Hoda Abdel-Hamid)
The burned-out shell of an unidentified vehicle found on the grounds of the Special Mission Compound. (Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation)
The ransacked and burned-out DS residence at the Special Mission Compound. (Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation)
The charred upper-level stairs inside the ambassador’s residence that was ransacked and destroyed by both terrorists and looters on the night of September 11-12, 2012. (Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation)
The ferocity of the fire inside the ambassador’s villa is evident by the soot and ash on one of the building’s chandeliers. (Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation)
Fire damage to computers and other equipment, believed to be inside the TOC. (Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation)
One of the buildings torched at the Special Mission Compound, marked with Arabic graffiti. (Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks on the deaths of American personnel in Benghazi, Libya, at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., September 12, 2012. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of State)
A U.S. Marine Corps honor guard carries the coffin of one of the four men killed in the Benghazi terrorist attack. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense)
President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton honor the Benghazi victims at the Dignified Transfer of Remains held at Andrews Air Force Base / Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, September 14, 2012. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of State)
An FBI Wanted Poster, seeking anonymous tips in the Arab world and on social media, for assistance in the criminal investigation of the September 11-12, 2012, attack in Benghazi. (Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry tours the DS Operations Center at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., February 4, 2013. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of State)
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey testifies during a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Defense Department’s response to the attack against the diplomatic and intelligence post in Benghazi. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of Defense / Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy)
The photo of three “persons of interest” released by the FBI in its investigation of the terrorist attack in Benghazi. (Courtesy of Federal Bureau of Investigation)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden, and American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) President Susan R. Johnson honor foreign affairs colleagues who have lost their lives while serving overseas in the line of duty or under heroic or other inspirational circumstances, at the AFSA Memorial Plaque Ceremony at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on May 3, 2013. The names of the four men killed in the September 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi are seen in the upper right hand corner of the photo. (Courtesy of U.S. Department of State)
About the Authors
FRED BURTON is one of the world’s foremost experts on security, terrorists, and terrorist organizations. He is vice president of Intelligence and Counterterrorism at Stratfor, the largest global private intelligence company, and a former State Department counterterrorism deputy chief and DS agent. He is the author of a bestselling memoir, Ghost: Confessions of a Counterterrorism Agent, and Chasing Shadows.
SAMUEL M. KATZ is an internationally recognized expert on Middle East security issues, international terrorism, counterterrorism, and special operations. His books include Relentless Pursuit: The DSS and the Manhunt for the Al-Qaeda Terrorists and The Hunt for the Engineer: How Israeli Agents Tracked the Hamas Master Bomber. He served for six years as editor in chief of Special Operations Report.
UNDER FIRE. Copyright © 2013 by Fred Burton and Samuel M. Katz. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.stmartins.com
Cover design by Michael Storrings
Cover photographs: gun © Nico Tondini/Getty Images; sky © Goran Stimac/Getty Images; fire © art-pho/shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
ISBN 978-1-250-04110-4 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-3725-6 (e-book)
e-ISBN 9781466837256
First Edition: September 2013
* According to the Tripoli-based daily newspaper Libya al-Youm, fifteen militias were represented at the gathering, including the
Free Libya Martyrs, the Abu Salim Martyrs, Faruq, al-Sahati, Revolutionaries of Sirte, Ansar al-Hurriya, Ummar al-Khattab, Agency for Preventive Security, and Shahid Mohammed al-Hamma.
* For a full detailed account into the timeline of the Viet Cong attack against Saigon and the American embassy, see: Oberdorfer, Don, Tet!: The Turning Point in the Vietnam War (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1971), p. 10; Major (U.S. Army) Robert J. O’Brien, The Attack on the American Embassy During Tet, 1968: Factors That Turned a Tactical Victory into a Political Defeat, U. S. Army Command and General Staff College Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; and, the history of the 716th MP Battalion, at: http://www.716mpvietnam.org/zz.716th%20MP%20History.pdf.
* Identity withheld for security considerations.
* See Evelyn Gordon, “Cairo Encouraged Embassy Attack by Letting Previous Attackers Walk,” Commentary, September 12, 2012; Mostafa Ali, “The storming of Cairo’s Israeli embassy: an eyewitness account (part 1),” September 10, 2011; and Barak Ravid, “Shagrir Yisrael B’Mitzraim, Ha’Ovdim U’bnei Mishpachotai’hem Punu Ha’Layla Be ’Tisa Meyuchedet,” Haaretz, September 10, 2011.
* Saudi Wahabi fanatics seeking to instate the Mahdi, or redeemer of Islam, in the kingdom, seized the Grand Mosque in Mecca, along with hundreds of pilgrims who had traveled to the holy city for the hajj. The Saudi National Guard and military were incapable of ending the takeover by hundreds of militants seeking to martyr themselves. According to reports, French counterterrorist commandos from the GIGN (the Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale) were temporarily converted to Islam so that they could enter the holy city and handle the hostage-taking ordeal; once the French operators were done with their mission, they simply converted back to Christianity. After two weeks and nearly two hundred dead, the Saudis pacified the uprising.
* Under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, nearly all the countries around the world abide by reciprocal responsibilities and obligations regarding the diplomatic facilities and personnel dispatched overseas. Section 3 of Article 31 of the 1963 Vienna Convention states that “the receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the consular premises against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the consular post or impairment of its dignity.” Additionally, Article 40 of the same treaty specifically states that “the receiving State shall treat consular officers with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on their person, freedom, or dignity.” An attack against an ambassador is also covered under Article 29 of the 1961 convention, which states, “The person of a diplomatic agent shall be inviolable. He shall not be liable to any form of arrest or detention. The receiving State shall treat him with due respect and shall take all appropriate steps to prevent any attack on his person, freedom or dignity.” The grounds of a diplomatic post are also protected under the 1961 Vienna Convention, which states, “The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.” See Alex Tiersky and Susan B. Epstein, Securing U.S. Diplomatic Facilities and Personnel Abroad: Background and Policy Issues, Congressional Research Service, November 26, 2012.
* Identities withheld for security and privacy considerations.
* The DS Foundation, a charitable nonprofit, provided $1,500 to the surviving family of the guard killed.
* Name withheld for security considerations due to the special agent’s current work for another federal agency.
* A full description of the TCCC course guidelines can be found at: http://www.health.mil/Libraries/120917_TCCC_Course_Materials/TCCC-Guideliness-120917.pdf.
* Numerous documents, including sensitive ones that were ultimately redacted, were found in the smoldering debris of the Special Mission Compound Benghazi, and published by the Washington Post on October 3, 2012, in an article/feature titled “Sensitive documents left with little security at U.S. mission in Benghazi.” Details concerning the QRF and local guard force were found in these published documents.
* Location withheld for security considerations.
* Following the attack, according to the official (unclassified) Accountability Review Board that investigated all details pertaining to the attack, an SSC official was quoted as saying that “he had ordered the removal of the car to prevent civilian casualties.” The statement hints that the SSC was aware that an attack was imminent; of course, if they knew that an attack was imminent and did not warn the security assets in the Special Mission Compound, the implication is that the SSC, and elements of the new Libyan government, were complicit in the events that transpired.
* These radio transmissions would likely have gone along these lines, based on our understanding of the events as they unfolded. This is a summation of the communication and vernacular as per the events and as per security considerations. The same applies to communications appearing hereafter in the text.
* According to a CNN report (Security Clearance, May 15, 2012), a U.S. diplomat who visited Derna in 2008 noted in a cable: “Unlike the rest of the country, sermons in eastern Libyan mosques are laced with phraseology urging worshippers to support jihad in Iraq and elsewhere through direct participation or financial contributions.”
* An example of the power of such chat rooms, blogs, and social media communications, already one of the most effective tools of the Arab Spring, was found, following the terrorist attack in Benghazi, on a jihadist site. Among the comments and calls to action was the following: “All should strive together towards one goal; expelling US embassies from Muslim lands, persevering in demonstrations and protests, as has happened in a number of Muslim nations. Their embassies should be torched like zealous brothers did in Egypt and Yemen. And whenever a Muslim gets a hold of US ambassadors or delegates, he has the best example in the act of the grandsons of Omar Mukhtar in Libya—who slaughtered the US ambassador—may Allah reward them. Let the step of expelling embassies and consulates be a milestone to free the Muslim lands from American domination and arrogance.”
* On March 9, 2013, it was announced that Yacone would head up the FBI’s elite Critical Incident Response Group out of Quantico, Virginia (the same unit that coordinated the rescue of a five-year-old who, in February 2013, was held hostage for several days in an Alabama bunker).
* As a result of the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, and other events (such as the arrest of a GRS staffer in Pakistan), there has been a great deal of media spotlight into the secretive world of the CIA’s special operations assets and the GRS program. Some of the open sources, include the December 2012 article in the Washington Post referenced in this book. Other sources include: Matthew Cole, “Raymond Davis Is CIA Contractor, U.S. Officials Say,” ABC News February 21, 2011; David Ignatius, “Death in Benghazi: CIA timeline of how a tragedy unfolded: Multiple errors were made, but there’s no evidence the White House deliberately impeded rescue efforts,” Washington Post, November 5, 2012; Geoffrey Ingersoll, “Missteps By CIA’s Shadowy Military Wing Highlight The Agency’s Troubling Shift To Militancy,” Business Insider, January 2, 2013; and, of course, Mark Mazzetti’s outstanding book, The Way of the Knife: The CIA, A Secret Army, and a War at the Ends of the Earth (Penguin Press, 2013).
*On September 27, 2012, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin E. Dempsey convened a press conference where the deployment of U.S. Marines, a FAST team, to augment security at the embassy in Tripoli, was confirmed. Even prior to this news conference, on September 18, 2012, USMC Commandant General James F. Amos addressed the deployment of the FAST Marines at the Atlantic Council. Additionally, the limitations of the U.S. military’s reach were expressed quite specifically by General Martin E. Dempsey when he testified before congress concerning Benghazi on February 7, 2013.
* As was conv
eyed by Lt. Col. Andrew Wood, the SST commander, in the October 2012 hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, a request was made to extend the unit’s tour in Libya because of the security predicament in the country and, indeed, inside the city of Benghazi. General Ham agreed. The SSTs, though, did not belong to AFRICOM; they belonged to U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and, reportedly (based on interviews), USSOCOM did not want the team to extend in its embassy support role but wanted it to get back to doing spec ops elsewhere in the region where it was needed. The impression given, though, was that DS and the Department of State did not want to extend the SST mission any further, and this appears to be incorrect.
* Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in her January 23, 2013, hearing on Capitol Hill, stated, “We did not have a clear picture” of events on the ground as they transpired.