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Where were the Marine Embassy Guards??

11K views 82 replies 29 participants last post by  pgrass101 
#1 ·
First, I proclaim my ignorance up front. My barracks used to back up against the Marine barracks that trained the embassy guards. I thought all embassies had a trained corps of Marine Guards. I believe that the perimeter of embassies are guarded by the host country, but step inside the walls and it's Marines (as well as American land). Where were the Marines?

Second, it is my understanding (and I could be more than wrong) that the Ambassador has the last word on whether the Marines should fire or lay down their arms (remember Iran?). Could that have happened here?

Finally, I am beyond angry. We have the 9/11 anniversary. We have Libya that is anything but stable coming off a civil war. So we send our Ambassador and diplomats over there unprotected? Maybe I'm really missing something. Somebody was asleep at the switch and some heads need to roll. Sadly, it'll be some small change schmuck who will take the brunt of this. And, of course, now the the barn door is open, we are racing to send Marines to Libya. What in the world is happening with our intelligence and defense?
 
#43 ·
It seems there is some serious confusion/lack of attention to detail rearing its head again... There were NO Marines at the Consulate in Benghazi, where the firefight took place and four Americans were killed. There WERE Marines in Cairo, but there was no gunfire and no Americans were injured. So....whether or not the Marines in Cairo were armed is - in point of fact - irrelevant, as no one shot any Americans. And, again, I find it highly unlikely based on my long experience serving in Embassies that there was no ammunition in any of the MSGs hands...that would be completely against everything that I have seen in every post I have served in.
 
#45 ·
I saw on the news that the Marines in Cairo are not allowed ammo for their weapons. I really hope THAT changes.
 
#44 ·
Air traffic from Whitman AFB has really picked up. Especially the B2. It has been our all night tonight. Wonder what's up with that? I know several of our military friends are being prepared for Africa....have been for a few months now. And Obama complained about Bush? He may have thought Bush was a hawk....but I think Obama is a chicken hawk....heavy on the chicken.

I don't know if it has been said here, but two of the four killed where former Navy Seals. I think they were the security. There is more than meets the eye on this entire incident.
 
#49 · (Edited)
Air traffic from Whitman AFB has really picked up. Especially the B2. It has been our all night tonight. Wonder what's up with that? I know several of our military friends are being prepared for Africa....have been for a few months now. And Obama complained about Bush? He may have thought Bush was a hawk....but I think Obama is a chicken hawk....heavy on the chicken.

I don't know if it has been said here, but two of the four killed where former Navy Seals. I think they were the security. There is more than meets the eye on this entire incident.
There is more than meets the eye because the security was partially staffed by ex-SeALS?
 
#48 ·
#54 ·
I would take this article - and pretty much everything else you see/read - with a large grain of salt. This particular piece says that two Marines were killed in Benghazi, and that is incorrect. There are some other minor mistakes of nomenclature and such that cast doubt on the veracity of the article as a whole.
 
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#50 ·
Wissam Buhmeid, the commander of the Tripoli government-sanctioned Libya's Shield Brigade,... The deaths are all nothing compared to insulting the Prophet."

This is just sick. Thinking there should be new rules of engagement and hardware issued to all security personnel in countries with large Muslim populations.
 
#56 ·
Yeah, I'm frustrated by the lack of details/wrong details as well. But we have to remember that this happened in the middle of the night, far away, and that the witnesses (Libyan) will be hard to get to and generally unreliable, while the witnesses (American) will have their debriefings kept secret at least in the short time. We can extrapolate certain information from the delay in releasing the names of the other two KIAs. We can (well, I guess I can) surmise some other things based on what I know about how these things generally work. But there are still a LOT of things that I don't know, and a lot of questions that I have about things. Time, I think, will answer a lot of these questions, though the media may not be asking them ere too long. The politics need to be removed from the discussion for now, until we figure out what happened, and take the APPROPRIATE steps to prevent it from happening again - which it seems it is...
 
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#57 · (Edited)
'Arab Fall': LIVE timeline of anti-US rage (PHOTOS) — RT

23:55 GMT: The two "Marines" killed in the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi were identified as former Navy SEAL commandos Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. They had been working as security officers.

:mad:


Shocker:
15:36 GMT: Libya’s deputy interior minister Wanis al-Sharef says the attack that killed four Americans in Libya was an organized two-part operation by heavily armed militants that included a timed raid on a secret safe house just as Libyan and US security forces were arriving to evacuate consulate staff. He says the attacks were suspected to have been timed to mark the 9/11 anniversary and that militants used civilians protesting an anti-Islam film to cover for their actions. The official said there may be a "spy" within the security forces since militants knew the safe house's location.
 
#58 ·
Let's keep politics out of this thread.

For now we cannot blame this on the current administration, no more than we can blame the 9/11 attacks on the Bush Administration.

The fault for this lies with radical Islam, and those who will use religion to stoke the fires of hatered for their own personal gain.

If we want to blame an administration for the current unrest we should start with Carter and Reagan for not responding forcefully enough in Iran or Lebanon, Truman for the divison of Palestine, even Ensinhower for installing the Shah of Iran, or Woodrow Wilson and David Llyod George (British PM) for createing the modern Middle East after WWI.

We do not have enough information yet to lay blame at anyones feet. Listen to OPFOR he knows what he is talking about.
 
#61 ·
#62 ·
After shocks of the 1980's.
The region has been screwed up since the days of Ceasar. U.S. and British interference over the past century have not improved things. What we are seeing now is the consequences of "protecting our national interests" in that region. I think our last, best chance to "fix" things was with Charlie Wilson and his operations. If we had helped rebuild what had been destroyed fighting our proxy wars we might have earned some good will from the locals.
Because politicians for the last hundred years from both sides didn't want to pay the bills then, we are paying for it now.
 
#64 ·
Our govt mostly gives their government military aid. Anything that is not military aid is still given to their governments. The money never trickles down to the people.

And, many on this forum thought it was a great idea to get rid of Khaddafi, Hussein, and other leaders. See how great that is turning out for us? If anyone thinks that if and when there is a new Syrian gvt that this kind of things will not happen is stoned.

The fact is the people like US when we help overthrow an oppressive gvt. They do not like the US for any other reason.

Does anyone else see the parrells here and what happend in the 60's and 70's? We helped overthrow gvt's and replaced them with ones that we felt would be loyal to us. The problem is the PEOPLE of those countries resented the US in many cases and did not like the new gvt's either.
 
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#66 ·
Do you really think that doesn't come from the Administration? The one who appoints them?
I have worked with Embassy staff at all levels....Please stop blaming the administration on things you do not know anything about. This is not meant to be an insult. OPFOR, I, and others have experience with Embassy staff and security at different levels. If the Ambassador thinks there is a threat he/she will dictate the appropriate steps to take.

If you don't like Obama there are plenty of valid things to pin blame on him.
 
#69 ·
I wonder how the responding Marines and equipment actually get into the surrounded Embassies. Not asking for anyone to break opsec, just wondering out loud.
 
#70 ·
Helicopters.....but every situation is different depending the hostilities at the time, government support with their security forces, avenues of approach.....METT-T......
 
#73 ·
My bad. They did but I know that post WWII they were very pro US. I think there's a remnant of that left. I'm also guessing they'd take us back, considering where their economy is.
 
#74 ·
Phillipines was the same situation that we do all the time....we support the government (Marco's at the time) so we can have bases there but we keep forgetting the PEOPLE of these countries don't want us there. Many time they see us as the masters of their government who usually are repressive and don't take care of them.
 
#76 ·
Aznav: Interest on the debt is around $200 billion, not $2 trillion. That's plenty bad when you consider what will happen when interest rates rise or the fact that we are borrowing 1-1.5 trillion more every year (nearly 40% of our budget is borrowed).

Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2
 
#78 ·
The security protocols and so called "rules of engagement" in Libya were changed drastically not too long ago. Right after Quadaffi was killed in the streets. The State Dept. (Hillary Clinton), part of the Obama administration wanted a small footprint in Libya. No Marines at the Embassy.

Also, Ambassador Stevens was not at the Embassy when he was assaulted, abducted and killed. The US Embassy is in Tripoli. He was at the US Mission in Benghazi. A completely less secure location. There were no Marines present at either the Embassy in Tripoli and certainly not at the Mission in Benghazi.

There are serious concerns as why Ambassador Stevens was posted to be at the less secure Mission in Benghazi on the anniversary of 9/11/01 and not at the Embassy in Tripoli which, even though there were no Marines, at least it is supposedly a more secure compound. The Mission in Benghazi is described as a building no more secure than an outhouse. No beefed up construction, no bullet proof glass in the windows etc.

The personal protection security detail for Ambassador Stevens were private contractors which consisted of the two former Navy Seals and another former military member.

Again, the No Live Ammo and No US Marines posted in Libya was part of the "New Security Protocols" which were enacted after the death of Quadaffi, were at the construct of the US State Dept. and approved by SecState Clinton.

Read Col. David Hunt's interview for Breitbart here.

I couldn't help but notice how stunned and haggard Hillary looks following all of this. As far as I'm concerned, she knows deep inside her heart the responsibility she bears for the death of the Ambassador and his security contingent. The Administration's foreign policy in the middle east has been an abject failure in my humble opinion and I saw it coming way back earlier this year when the so called "Arab Spring" broke out. It sure wasn't hard to see the writing on the wall at that time.
 
#79 ·
We have on this forum our own OPFOR who guards embassies in real life and who knows more that some talking head on TV. I would suggest not relying on right wing media for accurate information, it is just as bad as left wing media. You can listen to both or foregin news sources.

Marine spokesman at Pentagon Lt Col Chris Hughes says these reports are NOT true. This is on the record:

“The Ambassador and RSO have been completely and appropriately engaged with the security situation. No restrictions on weapons or weapons status have been imposed. This information comes from the Det Commander at AMEMB Cairo.”
As reported on FOX news.

So who are you going to believe, someone who wasn't there or the Commander of the Marine Detachment Guarding the Emabassy in Cario?
 
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#81 ·
Barkn,

The USMC said it had guards at the embassy in Tripoli
"Marine Corps spokeswoman Capt. Kendra Motz said that Marines were not posted to the consulate, unlike the embassy in the capital, Tripoli.
Read more: Ambassador Stevens killed at site with no Marines - Philip Ewing and Jonathan Allen - POLITICO.com

Just not at the consulate. I do not trust Briebrat as he is the only one saying this and he has a declared political agenda. If the Marines weren't there we will hear it from the Marines. If you don't believe that Marines speak up ask some of our marine members here.
 
#82 ·
Well, Brietbart isn't saying much of anything these days because he's dead.

And as I said, whether there were Marines or not at the Embassy in Tripoli, the Embassy is not where the assassination took place. The abduction and assassination took place at the Mission in Benghazi, where a complete lack of security existed. I posted the question that on the anniversary of 9/11/01, what the heck was Ambassador Stevens doing being posted in Benghazi?

As a former Marine myself, I am certainly not criticizing Marines in any way. Only the lack of forethought on the part of the administration for not seeing all this coming. I stand by my comment that the administrations foreign policy in the middle east is an abject failure on epic proportions.

Trust me, this will all come out in the end. Especially after all the FOIA requested documents have been complied with.
 
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