Benghazi - Know Thy Enemy

Interview with Sarah Adams and Dave "Boon" Benton, two CIA officers who were in Benghazi on September 11th when the Consulate and Annex were attacked. Their seven-year investigative effort - Benghazi: Know Thy Enemy - shares the research and documentation revealing who ultimately ordered the attack on the U.S. Mission and why. The order to target Ambassador Stevens came directly from the top of AQ senior leadership, who plotted, planned, and executed the attacks on September 11th, 2001 – Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri. Zawahiri coordinated with Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), who organized with local Islamist groups like the Ansar al-Sharia-Benghazi to coordinate a complex attack on the Consulate, which then carried over to the Annex.

It took ten years for two former CIA officers stationed in Benghazi on that fateful September 11th, an analyst and an operator, to set the record straight. Insider perspective of the intelligence picture on the ground before, during, and after the attacks coupled with the dramatic first-hand account of one of the heroes on the ground who fought against overwhelming odds to rescue Consulate survivors and defend the Annex, saving more than 30 American lives. During the entire thirteen chaotic hours, the official response from the Commander in Chief and Secretary of State was to do nothing. A decade later, not much has changed.

Benghazi: Know Thy Enemy is an important and timely read, especially in light of an American empire retreat from the Middle East and Central Asia on the world stage. The same bad actors involved in 9/11 in 2001 and 2012 are still spreading terrorism around the world, from kidnappings, and funding operations on the African continent, to plotting the next 9/11. The next generation of Islamist terrorists is operating openly again in Afghanistan and war-torn regions like Libya and Syria today. Only fools fail to learn from history and will be doomed to repeat it.