Quote Originally Posted by Xiahou View Post
This keeps getting weirder and weirder....
Hmm, reading that article it isn't immediately clear that there's anything more at work than uncertain intel on a complex situation, combined with ham-handed PR. The article does not actually support your assertion that "They knew in the first 24 hours that it was a pre-planned assassination." They had leads and locations, which is different from being 100% positive of anything.

The most telling line from the article, in my opinion: "[T]he U.S. intelligence community was studying an intercept between a Libyan politician and a member of the so-called February 17 militia, Libyans charged with providing security for the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. More intelligence has come in that shows members of Ansar al-Sharia, an al Qaeda–affiliated group operating in and around Benghazi, were attempting to coerce, threaten, cajole, and bribe members of the militia protecting the consulate."

Sounds like you have a situation with multiple militias, some of which we were buying off for protection, and the AQ-wannabes trying to drive a wedge between merc and employer. Makes sense; there's no way we could put enough assets on the ground to protect a consulate in a truly hostile environment (see Beirut under Reagan), so the best course is to buy some local muscle. It sounds as though something went wrong with the hired hands.