User:Myster Black/sandbox

In February 2013, former Army Ranger Jack Murphy and former Navy SEAL Brandon Webb released an e-book titled "Benghazi: The Definitive Report". Using many confidential sources from inside the special operations community, some of which were on the ground in Benghazi on the night of the attack, it detailed a minute by minute account of the attack, including the initial attack on the consulate and the later attack on the CIA annex. More controversially, they reported on JSOC operations in Libya in the months before the attack, which they say precipitated the attack in Benghazi. According to Murphy and Webb, in the summer of 2012, operations began to target Al-Qaeda personalities in Libyan militia organization. In the weeks before the attack, a known associate of financier Yasin Al-Suri was most likely killed to cause Al-Suri to increase his visibility, which would allow JSOC to run a targeted operation in order to kill or capture him. They hypothesize the attack in Benghazi was blowback from these operations that were threatening Al-Qaeda-aligned militant groups including Ansar Al-Sharia. They further reported that due to the secrecy of the operations, which were conducted through then National Security adviser to the President John O. Brennan with knowledge from Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Michael G. Vickers and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, neither the CIA nor the State Department was knowledgeable of these operations, and therefore did not take actions to protect themselves from potential reactions. In August 2013, Murphy further reported that 2 individuals from this team recovered the remains of Ambassador Stevens at the hospital controlled by Ansar Al-Sharia after it was taken there from the consulate. He further reported that the specific goal of this team was to perform assassinations in Libya against Islamic extremists in order to avoid the violence caused by similar radicals in Iraq in 2007.

In August 2013, it was reported by Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston of CNN that dozens of CIA operatives were on the ground in Benghazi on the night of the attack. Their sources say 35 people were on the ground in Benghazi the night of attack, and 21 of those worked in the annex building.They further reported that according to their sources the agency was going to great lengths to keep what they were doing a secret, including polygraphing some of the survivors monthly in order to find out if they were talking to the media or Congress. The actions of the CIA were described as pure intimidation, with any leak risking the loss of a career. Former CIA agent Robert Baer described the frequency of the polygraphs as rare. The report also mentioned speculation on Capitol Hill that the CIA and State Department were secretly helping to move surface-to-air missiles from Libya, through Turkey, into the hands of Syrian rebels.

=Islamic Militancy in Libya= In 1995, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) was founded by Abu Laith al-Libi with the goal of overthrowing the regime of Muammar Gaddafi and installing an Islamic state. Formed from many jihadists who had fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, the group was banned world wide by the UN as an Al-Qaeda affiliate shortly after the 9/11 attacks in 2001. The group reportedly joined Al-Qaeda in 2007, though it was reported in 2009 that some member organizations of the group had subsequently split. Further, Libya supplied the most jihadists per capita to the Iraqi insurgency during the American Iraq war that began in 2003, many of which came from the eastern portion of the country known for Islamic activism that includes Benghazi.

Islamic radical groups played a central role in the Libyan civil war that led to the overthrow of Gaddafi in 2011. Militants like Abdul Hakeem Belhaj, who fought alongside Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, other former members of the LIFG or other radical movements, as well as jihadists who had fought in Iraq and Afghanistan were essential in the effort to overthrow Gadhafi. Rebel leaders spoke of their need for anti-aircraft missiles in the ongoing war. That spring, weapons began being shipped to rebels through Qatar with American approval. In July 2011, it was reported that anti-aircraft missiles were being raided from bunkers of the Gaddafi regime by Libyan rebels. By September 2011, Western counterterrorism officials had become increasingly concerned with the role Islamic radicals were playing in the revolt in Libya, and worried the weapons acquired by them during the war would be used in future terrorist attacks.

=American Presence in Libya and Benghazi= Within months of the start of the Libyan revolution in February 2011, the CIA began building a meaningful but covert presence in Benghazi. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens was named the first liaison with the Libyan opposition in March 2011. After the end of the war, both the CIA and the US State department were tasked with continuing to identify and collect arms that had flooded the country during the war, particularly shoulder-fired missiles taken from the former arsenal of the fallen regime of Gaddafi, as well as securing Libyan chemical weapon stockpiles, and helping to train Libya's new intelligence service. According to some of his colleagues, Ambassador Stevens was in Libya to purchase stinger missiles from Al-Qaeda groups that had been provided by the State Department during the civil war. It has since been speculated that arms shipped through Turkey to Syrian rebels fighting the regime of Bashar Al-Assad were related to the American presence in Libya.

Further, eastern Libya and Benghazi were key intelligence-gathering hubs for intelligence operatives. Before the attack, the CIA was monitoring Ansar al-Sharia and suspected members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, as well as attempting to define the leadership and loyalty of the various militias present and their interaction with the Salafi elements of Libyan society. By the time of the attack, dozens of CIA operatives were on the ground in Benghazi. In addition, it has been reported that in the summer of 2012, American Joint Special Operation Command (JSOC) missions had begun to target Libyan militias linked to the Al-Qaeda network of Yasin al-Suri. By the time of the attack, a composite US Special Operations team with two JSOC members was already in Libya working on their mission profile independently of the CIA and State department operations.

=Instability in Benghazi= In the months leading up to the attack, instability and violence in Libya in general and toward American assets more specifically was significant.