How is it that the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, blames the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Libya and the murder of our ambassador Chris Stevens and his aides in the city of Benghazi on a video that’s been making the rounds on YouTube for months when the president of Libya says otherwise?
Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif said he believes Al Qaeda is responsible for the deadly attack at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that killed four Americans and said roughly 50 people have arrested in connection with the violence, according to two broadcast interviews Sunday.
Megarif, president of the Libyan National Congress, specifically disputed the Obama administration’s position that the attacks on the U.S. Consulate on Tuesday were sparked by an anti-Islamic video on the Internet.
In an interview with NPR, Megarif said foreigners have infiltrated his country over the past few months, which has undergone major changes since the uprising against the late dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi.
Why didn’t our intelligence agencies know this? Why weren’t addition security forces in place to address this threat? It isn’t like our nation isn’t hyper-sensitive to threats on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Megarif says the attackers, who he believes are connected to Al Qaeda, used the protests at the U.S. Consulate as a cover to attack the U.S. Consulate on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
“We firmly believe that this was a precalculated, preplanned attack that was carried out specifically to attack the U.S. Consulate,” Megarif told NPR.
“Our friend and friend of all Libyans and all residents of Benghazi and we feel very, very, very,” deep sadness, Megarif told NPR.
Megarif said in a separate interview with CBS News that Libyan authorities have arrested about 50 people in connection with the U.S. Consulate attack.
The Americans were killed when attackers fired on the U.S. Consulate with rocket-propelled grenades and set it on fire.
Megarif said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that “a few” of those who joined in the attack were foreigners, who had entered Libya “from different directions, some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria.”
“The others are affiliates and maybe sympathizers,” Megarif added in the CBS interview.
It’s sad that 11 years after Sept. 11, 2001 our government cannot secure Americans attached to diplomatic missions abroad, especially in the Middle East. With all the Obama Administration boasting about our “improved” reputation in the world and apologies for the U.S. it seems we are no safer abroad; so much for all the tax dollars that have flowed to folks who hate us.
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