Just hours before he died in a terrorist attack at the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Ambassador Chris Stevens sent a cable to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton painting a chaotic, violent portrait of the eastern Libya city and warning that local militias were threatening to pull the security they afforded U.S. officials.
Militia
leaders told U.S. officials just two days before the attack that they
were angered by U.S. support of a particular candidate for Libyan prime
minister and warned “they would not continue to guarantee security in
Benghazi, a critical function they asserted they were currently
providing,” Stevens
wrote in the cable the morning of Sept. 11, 2012. He also cited
several other episodes that raised questions about the reliability of
local Libya security.
“Growing problems with security would discourage foreign investment and led to persistent economic stagnation in eastern Libya,” Stevens cautioned.
The Washington Guardian obtained a copy of the memo, a weekly summary of events in Libya dated just hours before a band of terrorists struck the unofficial U.S. consulate in Benghazi and a neaby annex building where the CIA operated, killing the ambassador and three other Americans.
