WASHINGTON — A speedy and effective response by newly trained Libyan security guards to a roadside bombing outside the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi in June might have resulted in underestimating the security threat to the personnel stationed there, according to counterterrorism and State Department officials.
The Libyan guards’ aggressive action in June came after the mission’s defenses and training were strengthened at the recommendation of a small team of Special Forces soldiers who augmented the mission’s security force for several weeks in April, U.S. officials said.
“That the local security did so well back in June probably gave us a false sense of security,” said one U.S. official who has served in Libya, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the FBI is investigating the attack. “We may have fooled ourselves.”
The presence of the Special Forces team and the conclusions reached about the role of the Libyan guards offer new insight into the kind of security concerns that U.S. officials had before the attack Sept. 11 that killed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
Security at the mission has become a major issue as the Obama administration struggles to explain what happened during the attack, who was responsible and how Stevens ended up alone. Republicans and Democrats have demanded more detailed explanations on possible security lapses.
“There were warnings,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Just how much U.S. and Libyan officials misread the threat has become more evident as they analyze the skill with which the mortar attack at the annex a half-mile away was carried out by the attackers. That assault, nearly three hours after the initial attack, killed two former Navy SEALs.
With as few as four armed Americans and three armed Libyans guarding the mission as the attack began, Stevens’ own bodyguard was so far away that he needed to sprint across the compound under gunfire to reach the building where Stevens was working. Stevens died of smoke inhalation.
And even after eight additional security officers arrived, the roughly 30 Americans were surprised and outgunned again in the second attack, dependent on an ad hoc collection of Libyan militiamen to protect their retreat and avoid greater casualties, Libyan officials said.
U.S. counterterrorism officials and Libyans on the scene say the mortar attack was likely carried out by the same assailants who attacked the mission and then followed the convoy of U.S. survivors retreating to what they thought was a safe house.
The first mortar shell fell short, but the next two hit their mark in rapid succession with deadly precision, according to an account that David Ubben, one of Stevens’ security guards, told his father, Rex Ubben. The account was supported by other U.S. and Libyan officials.
The attack culminated several weeks of growing violence against Western and other diplomatic posts in Benghazi. State Department officials said they were aware of the worsening climate and took precautions.
After an attack in early April on the convoy of the U.N. special envoy for Libya, Ian Martin, the top regional security officer at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, Eric Nordstrom, sent about four Special Forces soldiers to Benghazi to augment security and conduct a security assessment, the U.S. official said. The soldiers were part of a larger group of nearly two dozen special operations personnel sent to Tripoli last fall to establish security at the mission.
As a result of the assessment, the mission increased the number of sandbagged defensive positions and gave the Libyan guards more training.
“We weren’t blind to fact the security situation in Benghazi was more tenuous than in Tripoli,” said the U.S. official who served in Libya. “We were constantly considering Benghazi and constantly looking for ways to improve security there.”
