← The Watch Floor with Sarah Adams
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So we return back to the side of the attacks against us, both at the U.S. consulate and the CIA annex. And we're going to walk through in a series talking about what happened prior to our attacks, what happened during our attacks, and then of course, the most important piece, what's happened in the aftermath of our attacks. So thanks for being here for the start of the series. Today our primary focus is going to be the US Consulate. Now, when we served in Benghazi back in 2012, we called it the US Consulate. Everybody called it the US Consulate, but after the attacks and the events that occurred, it was put out that, well, it's actually a US Mission facility and that allows the State Department not to meet all the safety and security requirements of a consulate or an embassy. So that's why you hear a bunch of different terms when describing the building. Now, at the time, it operated as like a diplomatic outpost, but it didn't issue visas. Yet what a lot of people aren't aware of is, is that we were intending to build a new consulate in Benghazi. And one of the reasons the ambassador wanted to get back to the city was to prepare for an upcoming meeting for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, because she was arriving in October and he wanted to put in front of her the different proposals for the future consulate compound, which would include the State Department and the CIA annex all co located, which of course would help with the security posture as well, because of course State Department was having issues getting their compound to the level of security they needed. It's not false that There were over 600 security requests just in 2012 to improve their compound. I was even at the compound a few days before meeting with Sean Smith and the security team because they were concerned, hey, we have insider threats on this compound. We know it. We know there are people who work on this compound that talk to terrorists. We go back and we tell D.C. they kind of like poo poo us or talk to us like we're crazy. So how can we prove it? How can we show there is a staff member on this compound and he is literally calling and talking to a member of Al Qaeda. So we started brainstorming ways this could be done because they had to almost like sell to their own agency that they weren't safe. Which is crazy because we're going to walk through this today. All the security incidents even leading up to our attack, and you'll see this was a very dangerous environment. Now, the State Department compound, the consulate and the mission, it was a completely separate building than the CIA, which we'll handle another day. But they also then had different layers of security. Obviously different organizations controlled each of them. So the CIA annex did not have the security failures that the consulate had. So I just want to make that clear because people do get confused between the two compounds when we talk about the consulate. Of course, the person who comes to mind is Ambassador Stevens in addition to Sean Smith. But at the time, Ambassador Stevens was not based at the consulate. And so I want to walk through a little bit of his history so people understand. One thing I've learned over the years is that maintenance beats repair every single time. And that's one of the reasons I've stuck with One Skin because it focuses on the science of aging. I've recently been using the OS1 hair serum. What I like is that they take the same long term approach to aging as they do in their other products. Instead of focusing on a quick fix. It's the designed to support healthier fuller looking hair by addressing biological aging at the scalp level. It uses One Skin's patented OS1 peptide technology. And this is really interesting. In clinical testing, it saw a 43% increase in hair thickness and a 40% increase in hair density in just six months. Months. What I like is that it's simple to use, backed by research and fits easily into my daily routine. If you're looking for a way to be more proactive about your long term hair health, this is a product worth checking out from over 10 years of longevity research. OneSkin's OS1 peptide is engineered to support your hair to look visibly fuller and thicker at any age. For a limited time, try one skin with 15% off using code Watch at Oneskin Co. Watch again, that's 15% off at OneSkin Co using Code Watch. And after your purchase they'll ask who sent you. Let them know the watch floor did. So it was in April of 2011 that Chris Stevens actually came to Benghazi as like a special envoy during the Libyan revolution. So he is not like an assigned ambassador yet. So I want to make that very clear. And so at the time he moved into a hotel called the Tibesti and that was like the base of operations for the US support, you know, to the rebels within the Libyan revolution. Now we could get into this all day long. Just so you know, at the end of the day, the story is Libyans rose up, they fought the government and won. But of course on the ground that's not really the truth. Right, because you can't fight a war with untrained persons. So you have to have people who are trained, people who are good with marksmanship, people who can bring in weapons, funding, financing. So really the overarching force was the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaeda and Qatar. So they are really the catalysts who helped on the ground. And then of course the US and NATO helped with the air bombing campaign. And that's where things are now. This revolution started running without the US government. I think a lot of people don't understand that. They think we put it into place and that's not true at all. Now, we did do some mistakes over the years. Actually, a handful of years prior, there was a point in time where the decision was made, and this was during President Bush's administration, that we really should open up to Gaddafi. It'll give us a lot more opportunities with the country as long as they agree to stop engaging in supporting international terrorism. So they started making deals with Gaddafi, and one of the deals was that he needed to release all these political prisoners. And most of them were held in a famous prison in Tripoli called Abu saleem prison. So 2004 and 2006 is where we saw the massive numbers come out of this prison to appease the US to open up relations. And so open up relations means removing the state designation sponsor of terrorism, allowing US Aid to go in, allowing US Businesses doing more diplomacy, all those type of things. So pretty much opening Libya up to kind of the Western world, because before they were ostracized, so it was those terrorists released in that timeframe in the mid-2000s who really made up the bulk or the leadership of the Libyan militias. And most of them were members, as you can imagine, of groups like lifg, Al Qaeda in Iraq, individuals who fought in the Afghanistan Mujahideen, or the Algerian civil war. So they were jihadis. I mean, some fought in Bosnia, et cetera. And that's never really explained to people, but it's the truth. So it was US Policy that did put this in motion. But of course, Libyans kicked it off themselves in 2011. And then we were asked, you know, through, of course, the French president at the time, would you get involved? And that's where we came in. And then the key piece we did, obviously, was the air bombing campaign. Now, President Obama did come out after the fact and said, really, one of the failures of his presidency was getting involved in Libya, not having a plan for the day after. So at least people are honest that we made mistakes. But still mistakes were made. And honestly, you know, we're what, 15 years out almost mistakes haven't been corrected. So we have to learn, right, go forward and still figure out ways to protect ourselves, because a lot of these terrorists are still at large and still targeting US interests. So let me just get back to the ambassador. So again, April 2011, he moves into the Tabesti Hotel. He's leading kind of, you know, the US Engagement during the living revolution. Well, he's constantly, as you can imagine, under threat and being targeted because he was like an American symbol. And when I say targeted, this would be by Gaddafi side of things. So what happens is the hotel does get bombed on June 1st of 2011. So the ambassador, of course, has to evacuate the hotel. He then goes and lives in the CIA annex for three weeks. And then that's when they find kind of these two compounds in Benghazi and decide, hey, we could combine them, take down the wall in between, and create a consulate for him to be based at. So that's actually when the consulate came into play. So in summer of 2011 is when we first established it for people who are unaware. And again, it was like a little over a mile from the CIA annex. So luckily, the Americans were decently close in proximity to each other in the city. Now, the ambassador then stayed at the consulate, performing his duties on behalf of State Department until the end of the revolution. Remember, this was very short. It started in February, it ended in October. So it was On Halloween, actually, October 31st, when NATO said, hey, we're done. Effort over. Great job, everyone. So the Libyan revolution ends. Chris Stevens goes home, and then in 2012, he gets chosen as the US ambassador to Libya. So he comes back then to Libya in May of 2012, and he goes to serve in the embassy. So in Libya, the embassy is in Tripoli, and then the consulate is in Benghazi. So he's now serving as the ambassador in Tripoli and of course, wanting to get back to Benghazi because he spent a lot of time there, he had friends there, and obviously, when you go through a war, you know, it's a different feeling. So he's itching to get back. And it's first August when they make plans for him to finally come back to Benghazi. And then it kind of gets thrown out the window because there's just a lot of security incidents occurring. And we'll talk through some today. And it's decided it's not safe for him to go. So then September rolls around, and the principal officer who's based in Benghazi is going to go kind of on their, you know, their rest and relaxation. They're going to get their time away. And. And he's like, this is a great opportunity. I can go fill in. I finally can get back to Benghazi and then I can meet these requirements, you know, for the plans to build this new consulate, you know, prior to Clinton's visit next month. So he's pushing really hard. Let's get out there in September, and that's kind of where that date comes in. And we'll jump back to the planning in September in a minute. So I want to talk through and we say there's a lot of events now in Benghazi. There's assassinations and attacks every single day. So I'm going to focus on some high level events against foreigners. But you have to remember this is just from the point of view of oh, here's a foreigner being targeted, but everyday people are being targeted. So this is a very dangerous environment and getting worse and worse and worse. So it was in January, so we're not even, what, like a couple months after the revolution's over. It's supposed to be freedom. And on January 19, the former Libyan ambassador to France gets kidnapped and killed in Tripoli. So we start 2012 on a pretty negative note. So it becomes now April when it's really becoming clear that, oh no, there was no plan after Gaddafi and, and you know, the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda played such a heavy role in the fighting that they're now taking over actual institutions and cementing themselves in the future of Libya. You could see that within the first few months it was pretty crazy. So for in Tripoli, for example, because we're not going to talk about Tripoli tons today, but it's important. So the former members of, you know, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group lifg, we're like, we got to cement our role now and our role is going to be security, right? They're not going to go in and say we're a terrorist group. They're going to say, hey, we're here to be the police, the security forces, the military forces to protect the city. And so what they did is they divided the city of Tripoli up into these 19 protective zones and they are pretty much all led by former members of Al Qaeda, et cetera. And then the whole overarching structure was headed, and still pretty much is today by Abdel Hakim Belhaj, right, longtime member of Al Qaeda and he's currently the head of Al Qaeda in Libya. So they completely take Tripoli and you get similar efforts in a number of cities. Ajdabiya is a really good example. You see some in Darna and it's in Benghazi where there are a lot more forward about it. So in Tripoli it's almost was like the concept of like, maybe it's not exactly private military companies, but it's more like security firms. Okay. They're using that type of language, security councils. And in Benghazi they create Ansel Ashwarya Benghazi. And so this is supposed to be a umbrella organization and it's a terrorist group that's Going to kind of control and access and protect and fight whatever within the city of Benghazi and what needs to be done. So if you don't belong to a terrorist group, you could join it and just become a member of Ansar Sharia. But if you belong to a terrorist group, let's say a long time ago you're in the Egyptian Islamic Jihad or maybe you're in Al Qaeda's North Africa branch, etceter, you can just be dual headed and you're in both groups. So there was no you need to swear allegiance to us. It was like, hey, all jihadis, come one, come all, were in this big group together. And so this happened in April of 2012 and it was based on a model that Osama bin Laden had. So a year prior Osama Bin Laden got very involved in Libya and he said, hey, we gotta move in fighters to support them. And he worked with Dr. Ayman Al Zawahiri and a number of other people to move in batches of terrorists. But he also said, hey, for many years I've been trying to put this model and framework together of an umbrella organization of terrorist groups. You can be any group, you can be Sunni, Shia, doesn't matter. And I all want you under this umbrella and work together. And so he did task people to set this up in 2011. He of course gets killed, it falls through the cracks. Then a good friend of his from the Sudan era, Mohammed Al Zahawi, takes up this operational plan a few people do in Ajdabiya and a couple years later they do it in Darna as well. And they say, hey, this was a great framework, let's do it. So that's kind of where Ansar Aya Benghazi comes from. So they make their official announcement and you know, April 2012, and then that's the same month we see this like large bombing on the Benghazi, you know, courthouse. This is kind of now terrorists are going to make their mark and they do have people they want to target, of course, Western interests, but the judges, the police, the military, female activists, peace activists, et cetera, right? Like this is now when they start putting their targeting decks together and just start assassinating people one by one by one. They didn't want you to even consider joining the police or being a judge. Right? Like that is not how it's going to operate in Benghazi. The terrorists are in charge. And another way to look at this is it wasn't just Al Qaeda and terrorists. Muslim Brotherhood is also involved here, but they're More on the political side. So Muslim Brotherhood really came into Benghazi and they made a lot of interesting talking points or kind of selling points because they made it happen. And they were like, hey, let's just use the militias and the terrorists to be the security army in Benghazi. Very similar to what LIFG did in Tripoli. So the police were basically Muslim Brotherhood. Right. When we talk about Libya Shield, that was Muslim Brotherhood. 17 February was a link to Muslim Brotherhood. So these were institutions that were quasi government. So they were supposed to be working with the Libyan government and like a piece of the Libyan government, but they were actually working for and at the behest of the Muslim Brotherhood. So in Benghazi, you had the political side of terrorism and then you had like the fighter side. And it was. It's actually one of the best places to see how well the terrorists were able to pull this together so quickly. So that's the spring, and then it's a quiet for a little bit of time. And then June, pretty much everything goes out of control. It first, though, doesn't happen exactly in Libya. The big catalyst is on June 4th in Pakistan, and the US government takes a drone strike on the number two of Al Qaeda at the time. And the most senior Libyan in Al Qaeda, and so that's Abu Yaqu al Libi. So at the time, he's the deputy to Dr. Ayban Al Zawahiri, who is serving then as the leader of Al Qaeda. So Zawahiri pretty much lost it when this happened, because not even a year before, on August 22nd, the US government killed his number two, a Libyan, Atiya Abdelrahman. So it was after now these two conflicts, consecutive strikes against his deputies, both Libyans, where he decides, we're gonna do something against the Americans. And because to honor that they were Libyan, we're going to do it in Libya. So this is where the plotting starts. That ends up occurring on September 11th. Just to be very clear now, how the chain goes, it's pretty simple. Zawahiri directs the plot. Dr. Ayman Al Zawahiri gives the plot to the head of Al Qaeda's branch in North Africa, Aqim. And then the leader was Abdelmalek Drukdal. So Drukdal gets the plot, and it's decided the plot's gonna actually be a kidnapping of the US Ambassador for the release of a number of terrorists. And then those terrorists will be released in honor of the fallen Libyan terrorists from the drone strikes. So. So there's Arguments among who the terrorists are, but as always, they're going to ask for the blind Sheikh. There was a lot of discussion. They were going to ask for lady Al Qaeda or Fia Siddiqui who's held in the United States. And then they were going to ask for a Libyan terrorist in Iraq named Adel Al Shalali. And we'll come back to him, but he's very important to this story. So that is where the plotting starts. Now then Drukdal gives the plot to Muktal Belmokhtar, who ran kind of like his own branch within aqim. He could be rogue at times, but he was the expert at kidnapping for ransom operations. So they just thought it was a perfect fix. Now there is a whole nother mastermind for the CIA annex attack. And we'll talk about that another day. But just so you know, Mokdal Balmokhtar becomes the mastermind of the attack on the US Consulate, the one we know well. So that is just the beginning of June. Then we have on June 6th. So just a couple of days later, a giant hole is blown into the side of the wall at our consulate. And so it was kind of like State Department's like, ah, it was an insider, he wasn't happy with his job. It was a one off. I'm not entirely sure I see it that way now that we know the whole timeline, but that's what occurred. The more interesting thing is then what happens the next day. So on June 7th is this military parade put together by Ansel Asharia to kind of show their dominance in the city. So there's over 1,000 terrorists, but the, the crazy part is they even bring in foreign terrorists. And guess who is one of their special guests? Mukhtar Belmokhtar. So he gets invited by a very famous terrorist in Benghazi named Wassam bin Hamad, who ends up being the mastermind of our CIA annex attack. So he's at this event and as you can imagine, it's pretty aggressive. They're going through the streets of Benghazi with weapons, military equipment, black flags, and they're saying basically, we're in charge, this is our city. That's really where you knew it was probably going to get bad for a long time going forward. At the time they had about 5,000 members. That's just from April to June. How many at the time? Then of course, by the time they carried our attack, they probably had over 10,000. When that happened, there was a lot of concern in the city of Benghazi to Where this is getting a little out of control. We don't just have a Benghazi problem. There are Algerian terrorists at this event. There are Tunisian terrorists at this event. There's people who fought in Afghanistan in this parade. We have a problem too, where there's foreign fighters in our city. Well, just four days later, there's then an RPG attack on the British ambassador's convoy. And a lot of people have heard about this because rga, when the CIA did respond to this event, the big kind of consulate attack then that occurs in Benghazi before ours, but it's such a good blueprint for ours is on June 19, the Tunisian consulate gets attacked and completely overran. It's actually very similar. If you watch that video in our video of what happened, and it's of course, Ansel Asharia, right. Kind of planting their flag. And they had a very close relationship with the Ansa Asharia branch in Tunisia and even tariffs from that came and attacked us on September 11th. Right. So they had a lot of different joint efforts and plans to begin with. So June's a pretty wild month in Benghazi. Then July. A lot of the targeting is internally against Libyans. There's all these assassination hit squads, and there's honestly a lot of questions like, how are they finding us? And really, after the fact, it was learned the terrorists were just targeting local Benghazi residents using the phone network. So they really were just sitting in, like Libyana, which was one of the phone company, following the phones, finding someone at a location, calling in the hit team. They went to that location and took them out. I mean, it was that simple. But nobody was really thinking terrorists were that capable or that they would do targeting in that way. So it was really surprising, as you can imagine, to the police and local security officials at the time. Now, it was the end of July, on July 31, where there's an event in Benghazi that really did hit kind of the worldwide news. And it was kind of this capture of seven Iranians who were in the Iranian Red Crescent. Now, before these were for sure, Quds Force. So the Iranian Quds Force never really could get any footing in Libya. Right. They're like, oh, there's a revolution. We can make our way in. It didn't happen. And then, of course, everybody was trying to get in there post revolution, mostly terrorist groups, but. But the Quds Force is part of that world, and they really did not make the inroads they thought they would. And so they get detained on this day. They get detained by A group called Rafala Al Sahati, It's a branch within the 17th of February Martyrs Brigade. And on the night of our attacks, these seven people are still held in their compound. So just so you know, they're detained when our attack occurs. So there's ongoing negotiations between kind of these Al Qaeda linked terrorists and the Iranian government at the time to get these seven released besides all the stuff happening with us. So we get to August and the first real big thing actually happens over in Tripoli and there's car bombs that blow up outside of the Ministry of Interior. Now this ends up being a really crazy thing because to this point, car bombs weren't really something you saw often and especially in the capital of Tripoli. And so of course, this is around the time they already decided. Ambassador, you can't travel to Benghazi this month. Things are very uncertain. There's all these assassinations, there's all this targeting. We don't know what's going on. And then it's August 20th where there's a, a car bombing and it targets the first secretary of the Egyptian Embassy and he's actually in Benghazi for an event. So that is what it's like really, just from the beginning of the year until August. Incredibly unstable. And again, this isn't anything to do with the targeting of Libyans that are just constantly incurring. Thousands are dead at this point from these targeted operations just in Benghazi alone. So we now get to September. And so now this is when it's decided, yes, Ambassador Stevens can travel to Benghazi and they put together a whole agenda. The agenda gets faxed and sent over to the Ministry of interior on September 6th and it says the ambassador's coming and obviously asks for extra security support and we'll talk a little bit about that. And then it has his plans. The Daisy is going to be a town, et cetera. So this is the time. Then the terrorists get their hands on the agenda and they finally now choose a date. So they see the agenda and they see on September 11th that the ambassador is going to stay on the compound the entire day. And that is why they choose it. So there's a lot of people that think they chose it to do with the protests in Egypt. First off, the protests, protest in Egypt was supposed to be in the end of August and it actually got shifted to September 11th. So that wasn't even the original date of that. And there is some crossover. One of the planners of that protest is Dr. Ayman Al Zawahiri's Brother. And he was privy to this plotting. So there is a little coordination between the two. But that is not why it was chosen to go for the ambassador that day. It was chosen because he was gonna be time and place, predictable and on the compound the entire day. So we just have to make that clear. So it's now September 6th, and the terrorists are like, okay, you know, get to Benghazi. You know, get to the safe houses, get ready. Cause we're gonna roll on September 11th. Now it's a few days later, and it's September 9th, and this is something that went out, and it was pretty famous. So the State Department goes and meets kind of with the local leaders in Benghazi, and there's a whole discussion. It's the principal officer, because he's about to leave on vacation, but he hasn't left yet because the ambassador's coming the next day. And they have a discussion about the security situation. And this is the famous incident where Wissam bin Hamad, again, the terrorist who invited Muktar bin Mukhtar, and then Mohammed Al Gharrabi, who. Who runs Rafal Al Sahati Brigades, they tell the principal officer, we can no longer guarantee your security in the city of Benghazi. Meaning if you need us, we're not coming to help. And they explain it's because. So Libyan elections were about to happen. They actually ended up happening a day after our attacks. But the US Government was backing a candidate named Mahmoud Jabril. He was very famous because he's the one that actually convinced the French government and then Secretary of State Clinton to join with kind of the rebels in the revolution. So he was the catalyst who brought in kind of this outside influence, NATO. Whereas you can imagine the terrorists, first off, don't like that NATO was ever brought in. Second, Jabril was saying, we need to make a real police, real military, et cetera. We can't have these militias running everything. And we can't even roll in a lot of these militia members because they're members of Al Qaeda. So he had a very strong stance like, we need to build legitimate and real security institutions. And the terrorists wanted to keep their power and their militias, as we still see today in Tripoli. And so that was the argument. So on September 9, we knew if something happens, none of these people are coming to save us. Because, remember, these are all the individuals under the Muslim Brotherhood arc, but they are all the relationships, for the most part, the US Government has with security personnel in the city of Benghazi. So at September 10, around 11 in the morning, where Ambassador Stevens finally arrives in Benghazi. He arrives with two of his security personnel from Tripoli and he comes to town. At first it's a little under wraps, but honestly, later in the day he meets again with kind of the same Benghazi city leadership. And by then everybody knows he's in Benghazi. And Chris Stevens is actually a beloved figure at the time in Benghazi. Yes, the terrorists don't like that NATO was involved, but of course the citizens of Benghazi are very thankful for their participation. So there's also a lot of excitement, excitement that he's in the city. So that day, earlier in the day, he actually comes to the CI Annex. He comes at 2 o' clock and we give him a counterterrorism threat briefing. And it's very interesting because he says nobody in Tripoli has told me any of this stuff. So he was unaware of how bad Benghazi had gotten. These daily assassinations, these kind of Al Qaeda cells and training camps. So it was really shocking to him. And he was like, hey, when I get back, I'm going to make sure I get more robust briefings on the terrorist side of things. So that was kind of like our interaction with him the day before 9, 11. Then like I said, he goes and meets with the city officials and they're a little difficult to him. They're like, hey, you got here May, why did it take you so long to get here to Benghazi? So they felt a little offended and a few feathers were ruffled. So it wasn't the most friendliest meeting like he expected. So he goes back to the consulate that night and then, you know, he has this thing where he famously writes in his journal kind of these never ending security threats. But it was kind of a day, I think he was thrown off a little bit because he thought it would probably be a lot easier different when he arrived in Benghazi because last time he was there during a wartime and now this should be a peace time. And it looks nothing like peace now when we talk about who is on the compound. So the ambassador comes with two security guards. So that's three people. We have Sean Smith who does the it, and then we have three diplomatic security agents there. And then there's local staff. So the security side of the local staff, there's supposed to be four armed members of the 17th of February Martyrs Brigade, which I've already told you is linked to Al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood, et cetera. And then there's a private security company called The Blue Mountain Group. And they have five guards at a time who are unarmed. So that's the makeup of who's on the compound. So it's actually not a lot of people. And this compound is pretty massive. It's a large compound. So these are small numbers in a city that has become just so unpredictable and attacks every day, et cetera. Now, when we talk about the day of 9 11, the ambassador had a number of things on his agenda. And because he had to stay in the compound, some things were moved. So he was supposed to go meet kind of with the Arabian oil company, one of their executives that got moved to the compound. He ends up meeting also with the head of a shipping and maritime company that happens on the consulate. He then has his Turkish counterpart come. He was a Turkish consulate General in Benghazi. That happens on the compound. And then even after that, British Special Forces are in the city, and they even stopped by the compound. So they're the last people to leave. You know, ate something at night. So a lot of people have come and gone on the compound all day. The really interesting thing, though, it was actually about 6:45 in the morning that day where the first thing kind of seemed off. And, you know, Sean Smith ends up writing about this online, and that's why so many Americans now know about it. He makes a point under his vow rat posting on his gaming forum saying, assuming we don't die tonight, we saw one of our police that guard the compound taking pictures. So it's 6:45 in the morning on September 11th, and there is this police force who's supposed to be outside the consulate as like a static position. And remember when I said the letter got sent on September 6th? Well, when it asked for extra security, it was this police force. Well, the police force was not consistently there from the time the ambassador arrived until the attack. So that was an issue in itself. But one of these individuals belonging to this police force is up doing kind of surveillance on the compound from an elevated position. So it causes concern, but not to the concern where it really changes anything for the day. And then people just move on with the ambassador's agenda. But. But when we talk about this vehicle, it's very important. So the vehicle does return to the compound and it's there just prior to the start of the attack. So it gets there about 9pm now, if you just look on surveillance footage, it just looks like it gets there and it's just monitoring, you know, an empty street. But it actually got there to provide cover for terrorists. Coalescing right off the camera. So when we say State Department was worried, there were insider threats, there were insiders involved in this. So we had a 17th of February member that didn't even show up for his shift that day because he knew the attack was coming. We probably had about 20 to 25 members of 17 February involved in the attack. We had more than a dozen members of Rafael Al Sahati, one of his branches, involved in the attack. Farah Shaku, one of the terrorists at the attack, who's an Al Qaeda member, literally had workflow, Blue Mountain Group. So there's a lot of insiders involved in this. So it's very complicated. But of course, one insider is the police. So the police are sitting in their car watching the terrorists start showing up around 9pm now, the lead for the ground attack gets there at 9. So his name is Omar Al Shilali now. Now, he's an interesting individual because at the time he's head of AQIM in Libya, but it's his brother Adele, who's the one that I'm telling you, is in Iraqi custody. So his brother is supposed to be one of the terrorists freed for the release of the ambassador. So, of course he has a very vested interest in this. He's leading the attack that night and he's smart enough to never step in front of any of, kind of the ranges of the consulate cctv. It's very interesting, I've reviewed them all. And he makes sure he stays off camera the entire time. So he knew in advance, obviously, where to be positioned, where to stand and where he'd be safe from any surveillance. So he's the one that then gives the terrorists the go. And the go is simple. The first thing they do is they shoot an RPG at the main camera to try to take it out. So they can't have their identities be on camera. Right. Very, very smart. They thought through a lot of different things. They also thought through, hey, people might come to help the Americans. We need to be prepared for that. So they split their forces in half. So half entered onto the compound to do this assault and then to hopefully affect the kidnapping of the ambassador, the other half cordoned off all the streets outside of the consulate. So you couldn't just roll on in and go straight into the consulate. You would be met with some sort of force, a checkpoint, and obviously armed individuals that you really aren't sure who they are when it happened. And we know this from even when GRS approached the first checkpoint. So it was organized very well from that standpoint, they had also thought through a number of other things that were really interesting. One is, well, when we get the ambassador, we're going to have to have terrorists take like eight hour shifts and be with him who speak fluent English. So they chose some individuals just to do that. One was named Abubar Al Jazeera. He just years prior was a businessman in Algeria. AQIM came over and took over his town. Muqtabal Muktal rolls in and he says, you join my terrorist group or I shoot you in the. So he's an AQIM commander now. So he spoke fluent English. And then they brought two Canadian terrorists in to do it. And also some of the Germans they brought in, too, were going to play this role. So think about it. They're thinking through. We're going to hold the ambassador for a while. We're going to have people who can communicate, deal with the negotiations, deal directly with the ambassador. And the Canadians were Ali Medilev and a Canadian. All his hair is called Shaddad, but his name is actually Craig Katsirobas. And those two Canadians and actually Abu Bara end up in January of just the next year being involved in the big Alaminas oil facility attack. And the two Canadians die in that attack. So I just want you to be aware of how they thought through all of these details. So it's 9:42. They do the assault on the compound, and then there's a number of different things that happen over the night. So at the consulate, there's two main attacks on the actual compound. And then there's a third attack on an embassy vehicle when it leaves the compound. So it was a consulate embassy vehicle with a mix of people. Then there ends up being three additional attacks on. On the CIA annex that were not Al Qaeda and done completely separate from Al Qaeda. So we got like, half the night's Al Qaeda. Half the night is a whole nother effort. And so I want to make that clear. So when we have this, 942 is the first attack, obviously we know the story. CIA gets delayed in responding. And when we talk about the annex, we'll get into that specifically in the Times. And then CIA is coming over and there is some exchanges of gunfire. So they attack CIA officers for the first time between the two consulate attacks. But then the second consulate attack is almost an hour later. It's at 11:10. And then it's now where the Americans are deciding, hey, it's time to leave the consulate. We got Sean Smith. If the ambassador is still in the building. He's well past deceased by now because of the fire. Because what happened is the terrorists came out of the compound. They couldn't get into the building the Ambassador is in, so they started a diesel fire on that building. So it was about 20 minutes into the attack. A lot of people get confused because there was a fire right away. But when they came to the compound, they started a fire on just that guard post where the 17th of February is supposed to be stationed. And then about 20 minutes later, they started on Villa C where the Ambassador is. So they're like, let's smoke them out. It doesn't work. CIA gets on the compound. They find Sean Smith. They can't find the Ambassador, so they're like, he's deceased in the consulate. Or the terrorists got him. Right? We gotta get off this compound. It's completely compromised. Attacks are still incoming, and we need to get to a safer location. And plus, we have a whole other compound of people to protect. So everyone goes to leave the compound. This is then where one of the consulate vehicles leaves and they get ambushed. They get ambushed at 11:16 leaving the compound. So that's kind of the third and final attack on essentially the State Department that night. So at that point, we leave the consulate for good. We're done. Now, of course, Libyan intelligence eventually goes in. I think even the Italian Consulate General goes back and they get materials for it. He ends up with the Ambassador's diary. The Intelligence Service, of course, gets all the CCTV that we've been able to watch and why we have these exact timestamps and we're done. So the interesting part is when me and Boone go back to Benghazi, of course we want to go back and see the consulate. Well, it's very different. It's so many years later. It used to be two compounds put together. Now there seems to be maybe, maybe four different properties within the space that was our consulate. But we were able to go into the property. It still has the original owner. We were able to go in the consulate building. It's very interesting. He has restored it, and we're going to show you it to what it looked like prior to this attack. So it's really amazing to see. It's almost a little surreal to go in there and to just. It looks like nothing actually happened to the building. It's a very surprising thing. They were here at the former U.S. consulate. Unlike the old CIA annex, the consulate building is still standing. Villa B that the Ambassador actually was staying in and unfortunately passed away in during the attacks that occurred Against Us on September 11th in 2020. They have actually restored the entire building that was burnt, you know, as the terrorists were trying to get to him. A lot of people don't know, but Al Qaeda's goal wasn't to harm anybody. That's why, like, the guards weren't killed on the compound. It was to come here and kidnap Ambassador Stevens and then they were going to use him for hostage exchanges to release other Al Qaeda terrorists in a number of countries, including the US, Iraq, etc. The terrorists were not able to get into this safe room, which is just right here around the corner where the Ambassador was harbored. And that's why they started the fire, to try to smoke him out. And then of course, that's when the response came from the CIA's GRS and the terrorists ended up fleeing the compound. Unfortunately, when GRS came in here to look for the Ambassador, it was so smoke filled in here, they couldn't find him. They were able to find the body of Sean Smith, get Scott Strickland out. And then there was a fear the terrorists actually had kidnapped and taken the Ambassador. Of course, we found out a couple hours after everybody left the compound. The neighbors and locals were looking around the compound. That's when they found him. We discussed the at the Benghazi Medical center and he was brought there by good Samaritans. But, you know, it's really good to see the home restored. You know, a family enjoying it. It still has the same landlord from the day of our attacks. So it's just another really great story of things being rebuilt. The crazy thing is is this compound now is four separate compounds. So this is the only building still standing from the night of our attacks. Now, we're not gonna show you the outside of the compound. Cause over years he has had interesting individuals show up, crazies. I mean, probably we were right, but I mean, he knew who we were. But at the end of the day, so of course we want the family to have privacy because this is a family compound now. It's not a diplomatic facility. We'll show you. There's a cat that lives in the house. Super friendly, friendly like a dog. And then it got out. So, yes, the cat got. I like to blame that on myself. But they were able to get it. But it's just this interesting thing because the US government didn't help with any of this reconstruction. We didn't pay any damages. This is the State Department. The State Department did not pay any damages to the owner of this compound. And remember when The Tabesti got attacked in 2011. The ambassador had to find a safe compound quickly. So this is the individual that made that happen for him. And Americans stayed there safe for well over a year. You can't control, of course, terrorist events. And we left this individual high and dry. And remember, we put two compounds together. So we left the landlord on one side and the landlord on the other side completely just in the wind. We paid no damages. We even. The State Department blew off the lease. So they didn't even pay the last three months of the lease. So we completely ripped off these people, left this terrorist destroyed compound for them, and just walked away. And it's just a frustrating thing because that is not the face we want to have as Americans, because this person's also a victim, right? This is his home. And he has to now build this home from the ashes for his family. And that's a very, very difficult thing to do. And it's already a location everybody knows about. So it's a frustrating thing. Now, the C Annex, the CIA did pay all the damages. They paid out the lease. So they met their obligations. So it's the State Department that, you know, really owes these people a lot of money. So if anyone has any relationships in the State Department, even the people who served here, I'm surprised if you're still in the building, you're not saying something, because this is wrong. This is not how you treat people. This is not the American face we want to put forward. I want to just bring up this last piece of information we found out when we were on the compound, because it was actually kind of heartwarming. So the owner says that every 911 since the attack in 2012, someone drops off a bouquet of flowers on 9 11, right? Someone comes there and honors our fallen every year. So whoever does that, we thank you. They do it anonymously. But it is a very touching thing and it means a lot to us because a lot of people have used Benghazi, manipulated the truth about Benghazi, not really brought any justice for Benghazi. When some of these things are simple to do, it's simple to pay your debts. It's simple to put some of these terrorists on the FBI most wanted list. It's simple to tell Libyans, you're not getting US Aid if you don't go after our attackers. There are all these things that our government can do diplomatically to do the right thing for what happened on September 11th at the consulate against a very beloved US Ambassador Stevens. And then, of course, Sean Smith and We would like to see more done, but we don't want to see it manipulated or we don't want to see it so someone gets a clickbait headline. We want to stop these terrorists. Remember I told you 80 entered the compound? Almost. Another 80 cordon off the streets. There are 160 terrorists who decided they were gonna go grab an American that night. And we just said, oh, that was fine. Thank God you didn't get him. But, yeah, we're not bringing any of you to justice. It's one of the craziest things I've ever seen. So we hope through this series, we teach you a lot about what was happening on the ground, what the attacks were really like, and then what's happened since, you know, and maybe more things we can do about it. Like in this case, hey, we can at least pay these landlords what we owe them. It's a very, very simple thing. It's very expensive to rebuild, as you can imagine, after terrorists have taken control of your city. Huge portions of Benghazi have been destroyed. We'll show you that this isn't easy to. It's great to defeat terrorists. It's a hard fight, but then to put the pieces together after is actually very difficult. And so we want to be supportive of the people, too, that are doing this. These are our allies, right? He gave his home to our ambassador, and we have to remember those things. At the end of the day, the most important thing when we're overseas is to truly have the moral compass of Americans and act that way and put our best face forward. Thanks for being here today on the Watch floor, and we look forward to you joining the rest of our series from when we went back to Benghazi. See.