Breaking: Security ‘Deteriorating’ in Libya (Updated)
The British and US governments have removed an undisclosed number of personnel from facilities in Tripoli, Libya as militias have taken over government agencies. Fox reports that the Pentagon is ordering forces based in Europe to be on security stand-by to provide further assistance should it be necessary. On Thursday, the US State Department warned Americans not to travel to Benghazi.
While we hope for the best for the people of Libya who reject Islamist tyranny, I cannot help but wonder about something. This morning’s revelations point to the fact that on September 10, 2012, the CIA warned the Obama administration that the US embassy in Cairo, Egypt and around the region were under threat from Islamists seeking to obtain the release of the “blind sheik” and other Islamists in US prisons.
With a day’s warning, the Obama administration never issued a security alert to our forces in Europe to prepare for contingencies, as it has today.
Why?
Update: Details from Fox:
The U.S. military has alerted two elite military units in Europe to be on standby if needed to respond to a deteriorating security situation in Tripoli, Fox News has learned.
In recent days both the U.S. embassy and British embassy in Libya have removed non-essential staff from their embassies.
A specialized Marine unit based in Moron, Spain, is in the process of being repositioned closer to Libya; and in Stuttgart, Germany, a special operations force assigned to AFRICOM has been placed on heightened alert.