Benghazi! by Ethan Chorin

Author:Ethan Chorin [CHORIN, ETHAN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Books
Published: 2022-09-06T00:00:00+00:00

19

Witnesses Huddle

As the attack on the US Mission was underway, one of Washington’s stated priorities was the security and safety of its officials on the ground. But even before the dust settled, an effective response was predicated on understanding who the attackers were and what motivated them.

Libya and Egypt weren’t the only countries that experienced violent anti-Western disturbances around this time. There were reports of protests linked to the Innocence of Muslims video in dozens of separate locations in the region—and outside it, as far away as Pakistan, Indonesia, India, and Australia. Many of them took place outside US embassies and consulates. A few involved significant violence, in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Sudan, Greece, Indonesia, and India.1 NSC spokesman Tommy Vietor described the protests in Pakistan, for example, as “terrifying.”2 One can see how the first impression of Benghazi from London or Washington might be one of a single band within a rapidly expanding circle of protests and violence emanating from the film and the original protest at the US Embassy in Cairo.

But while Washington was struggling to make sense of the video and its connection to the Benghazi attack, as well as the early claim of responsibility by the Islamist militia Ansar al-Sharia, groups of Westerners and Libyans who were in the vicinity of the attack started speaking among themselves, comparing notes. Some spoke cautiously to the media.

The moment I landed back in the States, on September 20, I got a call from Jay Solomon of the Wall Street Journal, whom I had first met in Libya back in 2005. He wanted to know what I had to say about the attack, and specifically the video—which still hadn’t registered with me as a relevant issue, as at no time during our time in Benghazi did anyone we interacted with ever mention either a protest or a video, let alone a specific video, as being a factor in the attack.

The article, which appeared on the cover of the Journal the next day under the lead “Miscues Before Libya Assault,” reported that “the ambassador told [Chorin] there was ‘no indication of trouble’ following the protests in Egypt.”3 To me, this phrasing implied that both Stevens and I knew about the protest outside the US Embassy in Cairo at that time (I didn’t, though when he texted me, Stevens may have just learned of it from his deputy, Hicks, back in Tripoli) and that we were worried about it. Solomon didn’t seem to see my concern—“it’s not an issue,” he told me—but from this limited exchange, I could see that these kinds of seemingly insignificant elisions could be problematic.

I had already started to reach out to my own contacts in Benghazi—Libyans and Westerners—and discovered quickly that there were others who, like Ahmed and I, had seen or been exposed to part of the attack. One of these was Italian consul general Guido De Sanctis—who had met Chris Stevens on his arrival in Benghazi in April of the previous year. De Sanctis was eating at the Venezia restaurant on the backside of the US Mission as the attack began.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.