Fredrick Misleh

Senior Staff Writer
On Sept. 16, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice appeared on ABC News’ “This Week” and said that the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was not premeditated, but “a spontaneous response” to a highly offensive YouTube video titled “Innocence of Muslims.”
This statement is highly offensive to the memories of the four Americans killed in Benghazi at our consulate on Sept. 11: Ambassador J Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith, and ex-SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. It is also offensive to the American people as a whole.
It would seem when examining the sequence of events that unfolded that night in Benghazi, the attack on the U.S. Consulate were, in fact, planned and well executed.
It started with a barrage from an 82-millimeter mortar, followed by another with rockets from RPG-7 anti-tank weapons. This was followed by the penetration of the Consulate by terrorists armed with AK-47 assault rifles and PKM machine guns.
The simple truth is that no one “spontaneously” decides to attack any state consulate, let alone the U.S. Consulate. No one “spontaneously” kills our ambassador (who was highly loved by the Libyan government and people for his desire to immerse himself in their culture). No one “spontaneously” brings forth an arsenal of such heavy weaponry and lays siege to a consulate.
It is of my opinion that the attack on our consulate was revenge by al-Qaeda for our targeting and killing of Said ash-Shihri, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) second-in-command the day before. AQAP contacted al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), who then contacted their allies in the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) and put together a joint force of AQIM-LIFG to retaliate.
As for the Obama administration’s backpedaling on the planned attack to “a spontaneous response,” the answer lies in electoral politics. If the administration maintains the truth that this was a planned attack, it could hurt the reelection bid, as someone would ask how our intelligence missed this. Someone had to pick up some form of SIGINT (signals intelligence [phone calls, emails, radios, etc.]) about this attack. Where was the ball dropped?
By claiming the attack was “spontaneous,” it allows the administration to cover themselves by denying any knowledge of the attack before it happened. This comes at the cost of the memories of four deceased Americans.