U.S. ambassador to Libya, and 3 others killed.

[Hump66]

Devil dogs are on their way. They can't stand missing a party.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap...Tg1v-Q?docId=a927db7d6a0b4a078e82093d4916f383

Marines headed to Libya to reinforce security
By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer – 1 hour ago
WASHINGTON (AP) - When the Pentagon called out the Marines on Wednesday and dispatched them to Libya, it wasn't the first wave of an invading force.
Instead, the 50 Marines are part of an elite rapid-response team and they were sent to assess and reinforce security in Libya in the aftermath of the attack in Benghazi that killed the U.S. ambassador there and three other Americans.
Known as a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team, or FAST, the team's role is to respond on short notice to terrorism threats and to bolster security at U.S. embassies. They operate worldwide, and the team that went is one of two that are based in Spain.
Administration officials who discussed the Marines spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the military movements. The Marines arrived at the U.S. embassy in Tripoli, and there were no immediate plans for them to advance to Benghazi. Officials said they did not know how long the team might stay there.
A second Marine FAST element was standing by in Spain but had no orders to move, officials said.
The Pentagon also ordered two Navy destroyers to the Libyan coast. Officials said the ships, the USS McFaul and USS Laboon, which carry Tomahawk cruise missiles, did not have a specific mission, but they give commanders flexibility to respond to any mission ordered by the president. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Pentagon spokesman George Little said the U.S. military regularly takes precautionary steps when potential contingencies might arise in a given situation. He did not comment on ship movements.
U.S. embassies, particularly in major countries and in unstable or less secure nations, usually have a resident contingent of Marine security guards. Early indications were that there was no Marine security unit at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. A consulate is a branch office in major cities outside the capital. These guards work under the supervision of the senior diplomatic officer at an embassy.
The main role of Marine security guards is to protect classified national security documents, according to the web site of the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group, which administers the security guard mission from a Marine base in Virginia. Their secondary role is to protect U.S. citizens and U.S. government property in the event of an emergency.
The Marines began their security guard mission in 1948. They are trained at the Marine Security Guard School.
In rare cases, the Marines send a Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team, or a portion of the team, to reinforce security at embassies. They were sent to Africa, for example, in response to the 1998 terrorist attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. A FAST group also provided security aboard a Navy hospital ship in New York following the 9/11 attacks.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

 

[SMS]

I thought I heard the 2 guys killed with the Ambassador were marines.

Speculation is that, if they were Marines, they might have been accompanying the Ambassador...he was visiting that Consulate at the time of the attack (he was based in Tripoli). They could've been posted there in liason with the DSS security force...but the facility apparantly did not have an official MSG detachment.

My point was...even if there were Marines at the facilities in Libya or Egypt. Their mission is not to blast anyone who comes over the wall. The first line of defense is and almost always has been the host nation government.

 

[farmerbyron]

So as a counter point... here are some photos you most likely won't see on CNN or Fox.

Yes, there are some differences between Christians and Muslims, the Middle-East and the West, ect. Regardless about how you feel about our policies there, it's important to not demonize all Muslims, as hard as it is. It would be no different than any other group demonizing all christians as Westboro Baptist crazies.

You can view more at http://imgur.com/a/tlCyI

Why the hell can't these be the people in power of that $hithole of a country? Is it because they are a vast minority? Or just because true power comes from the barrel of a gun?


This whole incident is why we should not have intervened in Libya and why we should not intervene in Syria. When muslim extremists are killing other muslim extremists, we need to step aside and let it happen. Qaddafi vs. muslim brotherhood is a war in which the US wins no matter what.

 

[Lurker66]

Or perhaps Khadfi was right when he was telling the world it was al qaida he was fighting. We might have let al qaida overthrow Khadafi just to be rid of him.

 

[11b1776]

Aestus - thank you for those photos

+1 thanks

 

[Shadowrider]

Mitch, I didn't look through all the pages of this thread to see if your question was answered...but in short, this was a Consulate and not all Consulates have a contingent of Marine Security Guards (MSG).

An important point, for the Libya incident AND the Egypt incident, to everyone complaining about the Marines not stacking the bodies on the wall, is that even if a facility has a contingent of MSGs....the MSG's primary mission is the internal security of the facility. The force is not large and only in extreme circumstances would the MSGs use kenetic force on the exterior grounds.

They will not be ordered to open fire on a crowd of punks climbing an exterior wall and burning a flag. This policy pre-dates the Obama admin and has been SOP for a long long time. In the case of the Libya incident, from what I've seen the attacking force was large. A half a dozen Marines might have changed the equation, but it still would've been ugly. I'm sure this target was picked precisely because it didn't have a large American security presence.

SMS, pardon me if my terminology isn't correct, but I think I heard tonight that the "real embassy" (the main one in Libya) is in another city (Tripoli?). This one was "temporary" or "secondary" if you will.

 

[SMS]

Correct. It isn't our embassy. It is the US Consulate in Benghazi...some consulates have a MSG presence, but not all.

 

[11b1776]

Yes secondary, if you look at the embassy website places like Germany, England, Japan, Mexico have many American embassies throughout the country.

 

[SMS]

We have many consulates throughout some countries...but typically only one embassy.

 

[JB Books]

There are many foreign consulates throughout the US too.