Concerns about safety in Benghazi have confined a team of FBI investigators to the Libyan capital, Tripoli, which is hundreds of miles away, and local security officials say they cannot guarantee that Americans would be safe here.
But many of the Libyan contractors, as well as some members of the brigade once tasked with guarding the compound, say they have not been contacted by the Libyan or American governments about their own safety concerns. Some say they have tried to contact the Americans but have not received a response.
The Blue Mountain contractors were intended to complement the armed members of the militia. Both groups were present at the mission on the night of Sept. 11.
In the unsigned memorandum from the U.S. mission to the militia, which appears to be a draft, guards “are required to acquire and maintain their own weapons and ammunition,” the document states.
The security presence appears to have been bare-bones, with three or more members on the compound any time the “principal officer” was present — either the head of the mission or the ambassador.
When the principal officer was not present, a single militia member was instructed to be at the front gate between 8 a.m. and midnight. Between midnight and 8 a.m., one militia member was scheduled to be on roving patrol. The militia members were supposed to work a minimum of eight hours a day and were to be paid a stipend of about $28 a day, a relatively standard wage in Benghazi. They were housed on the compound.
The memorandum tells the militia security force to summon more guards from its nearby compound if the mission is attacked, suggesting that the Americans there were concerned that the regular guard force would be inadequate in an emergency.
The itinerary of Stevens’s trip to Benghazi includes a near-full accounting of his planned movements during what was supposed to be a visit that lasted from Sept. 10 until Sept. 15. It includes names and phone numbers of Libyans who scheduled were to meet with him. Some of those Libyans have not made their contact with Stevens public and could be at risk if it were publicly known.
The meetings include briefings with American officials, a private dinner with influential local leaders, and meetings with militia heads, businesspeople, civil society activists and educators. The highlight of the visit was the opening of the American Space, a center intended to serve as a hub for U.S. culture and education.
Several copies of the itinerary were scattered across multiple rooms of the compound. One appears to be a page from the ambassador’s personal copy; it was on the floor, next to a chair in the bedroom where he had been sleeping.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/sensitive-documents-left-behind-at-american-mission-in-libya/2012/10/03/11911498-0d7e-11e2-bd1a-b868e65d57eb_story_1.html
