(Photo left: Abu Yahya al-Libi.)
CNN reported starting Friday 21 that its agents in Benghazi found a personal diary of the slain Ambassador Chris Stevens on the floor of the abandoned US Consulate. CNN reports now that it photocopied the contents and returned the diary to the Stevens family. CNN reports that it has confirmed details in the diary with its own sources. The most sensational detail is that Chris Stevens, according to CNN (see above) believed he was on a hit list. This reporting is consistent with information given to me since Thursday 13 September, when I learned just before going on Larry Kudlow's CNBC show to report that Ambassador Stevens was lured to Benghazi and assassinated in a sophisticated Al Q linked operation launched by the Cyrenaica jihadists in retaliation for the drone killing of Abu Yahya al-Libi on June 4 in AfPak. The Obama administration, in the voice of POTUS Obama, also Secretary Rice and Clinton, also other agents, at first tried to explain the Stevens death in terms of the movie riots. Later in the week, the DNI contradicted the White House line by saying the strike was terrorism. The straight-forward argument is that Ayman al-Zawahiri created a video released for 9-11-12 in which he spoke of al-Libi; and that Al Q launched the Benghazi strike in obedience to al-Zawahiri. Eventually the Obama White House may be forced to acknowledge this much of the formula. But what else is being left out?
Benghazi questions to be asked.
(Photo left: From left: Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods and Sean Smith died in the recent attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Libya.)
What's in the Stevens diary about a hit list? What names? More questions: what was Stevens doing in Benghazi? Who invited him? Who told him to go? More: what were the two ex-Seals, Tyler Woods and Glen Doherty, doing in Benghazi? What was their job? Who paid them? Secretary Rice said they were involved in "security" -- though not Stevens's security. What security? Wood and Doherty were Iraq war veterans, several tours: who hired them to go back into Libya? For what? More: Why after nearly two weeks do we not have the names of the men who launched the attack? The Libyan voices have pointed to foreign elements. But what Libyan elements? Where is al-Libi's older brother, a senior commander in the jihadist militia of Cyrenaica. What relationship did Stevens and or the ex-Seals have with the Cyrenaica jihadists? Are these the same elements that were recruited to fight the Quadhafi regime? Are they on the US payroll?
"Bumps in the road...."
On 60 Minutes these last hours, POTUS Obama's unusually inadequate metaphor of "bumps in the road" for the recent anti-American violence across the ummah, and for the assassination of Chris Stevens on 9-11-12, invites puzzlement (see below):
“Well, I'd said even at the time that this is going to be a rocky path. … But I was pretty certain and continue to be pretty certain that there are going to be bumps in the road because-- you know, in a lot of these places-- the one organizing principle-- has been Islam. The one part of society that hasn't been controlled completely by the government.”
I can understand that Candidate Obama believes that his foreign policy will not win or lose the election; however why go out of your way to trivialize the Benghazi tragedy? This looks and sounds like a mistake. POTUS may still be on the script that says that Benghazi was part of the movie riots and not on the script that says Benghazi was as an Al Q strike. The flag-burning and jihad-threatening of the last weeks requires more explanation from POTUS than a shrug of we-expected-this. My other information is that POTUS is in line with the ambition of his kitchen cabinet on foreign policy (Rice, Clinton, Power, Jarrett, Brennan) to use Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in Syria in the same way they used it in Libya -- leading from behind.