Obama Skipped Security Briefings, Caught Off Guard on Libya, Egypt

As reported by Tony Lee at Breitbart.com, the Internet movie which is being blamed by the Obama administration as the cause for the attacks in Libya and Egypt most likely was just a cover for a coordinated attack that had been planned for some time.

But a closer examination of the evidence indicates al-Qaeda orchestrated these attacks, and the movie was just a bogus excuse used to trigger the widespread violence. Even worse, it seems al-Qaeda telegraphed these attacks, and the Obama administration still got caught flat-footed, unaware of the terror group's strength in the region, missing key signals and clues that were out in the open.

One day before September 11, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri posted a 42-minute video on Jihadist forums urging Libyans to attack Americans to avenge the death of Abu Yahya al-Libi, the terror organization's second-in-command, whom U.S. drones killed in June of 2012 in Pakistan.

In the video, al-Zawahri said al-Libi's "blood is calling, urging and inciting you to fight and kill the Crusaders," leading up to a date heralded and celebrated by radical Islamists.

Another version of the video was actually posted on YouTube on September 9 and yet, President Barack Obama, who has not attended an intelligence briefing since September 5, and his administration did not beef up security at the embassy and consulate on September 11. There were no Marines present to protect Americans abroad, as the Islamic mobs overwhelmed what little security presence there was.

It's just shocking that in the days leading up to the 9/11 anniversary that Obama would be skipping national security briefings. Shouldn't all embassies be under extra alertness and protection at a time when the events of radical Islamic attacks are being remembered and those lost are being mourned?

In a report by Reuters, U.S. officials say the attack in Libya may have been planned:

The officials said there were indications that members of a militant faction calling itself Ansar al Sharia - which translates as Supporters of Islamic Law - may have been involved in organizing the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya's second-largest city.

They also said some reporting from the region suggested that members of Al-Qaeda's north Africa-based affiliate, known as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, may have been involved.

"It bears the hallmarks of an organized attack" and appeared to be preplanned, one U.S. official said.

The Daily Mail also reports on the "premeditated and coordinated" nature of the attacks.

In particular, the rocket attack on the car of Ambassador Christopher Stevens as he was driven from the Benghazi consulate bore the hallmarks of a well-trained terrorist group.

It appears the killers had identified the ambassador's car, knew what his escape route would be and perhaps triggered the violence to lure him into the trap they had laid. There is a possibility some kind of inside information from within he embassy was used.

In June, a pro-al Qaeda group calling itself the Imprisoned Omar Abdul Rahman Brigades claimed responsibility for detonating an explosive device outside the US Consulate in Benghazi and and later released a video of that attack.

The same group is believed to have been behind a rocket attack on the convoy of Dominic Asquith, the British ambassador to Libya, when he was visiting Benghazi the same month and an attack against the Red Cross in Misrata the following day. Two of Asquith's bodyguards were wounded.

In a statement today, the Qulliam Foundation counter-extremism think tank concludes: 'The military assault against the US Consulate in Benghazi should not be seen as part of a protest against a low budget film which was insulting Islam - there were just a few peaceful protesters present at the event.

'Indeed, there have been no other demonstrations regarding this film in Libya. We at Quilliam believe the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi was a well-planned terrorist attack that would have occurred regardless of the demonstration, to serve another purpose.'

And what has Barack Obama been doing? One thing he has NOT been doing is attending his daily national security briefings. As Marc A. Thiessen notes in an op-ed in the Washington Post, Obama has attended less than half of his daily security and intelligence briefings.

The Government Accountability Institute, a new conservative investigative research organization, examined President Obama's schedule from the day he took office until mid-June 2012, to see how often he attended his Presidential Daily Brief (PDB) -- the meeting at which he is briefed on the most critical intelligence threats to the country. During his first 1,225 days in office, Obama attended his PDB just 536 times -- or 43.8 percent of the time. During 2011 and the first half of 2012, his attendance became even less frequent -- falling to just over 38 percent. By contrast, Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush almost never missed his daily intelligence meeting.

And this is the man charged with the protection of the United States?