Ten years ago, on September 12th, 2012, SOFREP shared its initial reports on the attack on 9/11 on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. It hit very close to home here at SOFREP as one of the casualties was former navy SEAL and CIA contractor Glen Doherty who was the best friend of SOFREP publisher Brandon Webb. Just a few months before Glen had contributed two articles for the site, one about Special Warfare Combatant Crewmen and another about SOF medics using live goats to train on in order to save human lives.
In the aftermath of the attack that killed Glen, US Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department employee Sean Smith and, former navy SEAL and CIA contractor Ty Woods, SOFREP reported extensively on the government foul-ups that led to the attack wrote the “Benghazi; The Definitive Report,” which became a New York Times Best Seller.
As Global Threat Analyst Sarah Adams wrote to today, some 12 years after the Benghazi attack, the planners and perpetrators are mostly still at large and operating out of Libya as ISIS and Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists. This should be unacceptable to the American People which fought our longest war at great expense in blood and treasure to avenge the lives taken by terrorists during the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
What appears below is our first piece of coverage on the Benghazi attack published on September 12th, 2012 when the attack was only hours old. We reported the death of Ambassador Stevens because it was reported on the news, but refrained from publishing the names of Smith, Woods and Glen Doherty pending official notifications to their families.
Friends of Glen set up a memorial foundation in his memory to assist SOF veterans with the transition from military to civilian life. So far they have awarded 81 scholarships amounting to $590,000. If you can spare a couple of bucks, please visit and donate to them here at the Glen Doherty Memorial Foundation.
“This was a coordinated attack, more of a commando-style event. It had both coordinated fire — direct fire and indirect fire. There appeared to be military maneuvers approaching the facility.” – House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich. to CBS News
Experts believe the attack in Libya that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others and left three more wounded in Benghazi was a planned and coordinated para-military operation. The timing coincided with the anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks. The mob violence seems to have been used as a distraction.
The shooting started about 10 pm local time Tuesday night. There were about 30 Americans in the consulate compound guarded by Libyan security.
The attack was conducted in two phases, the assault group of about 20 men breached the compound using rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns. They then precisely struck a secure facility where the Ambassador was located. The fight lasted some four and half hours.
Extremists have recently threatened revenge for the killings of al Qaeda’s latest dead number two guys, Saeed al-Shihri in Yemen and Abu Yahya al-Libi in Pakistan. I am sure the noisy campaign season celebration of the death of Osama Bin Laden has also irritated Islamists.
CNN reports that U.S. surveillance drones are being deployed to eastern Libya to locate jihadi camps and targets linked to the attack. Expect Libyan forces to conduct a series of raids in the next two weeks. As more details are discovered, we will fill in the blanks.