Trump tries to avoid his own Benghazi

PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Trump administration’s determination to deploy Marines in response to an assault on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad exhibits its eagerness to keep away from a repeat of the Benghazi controversy that dogged the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton’s State Department.

After supporters of the Iranian-backed militia group Kataib Hezbollah attacked the embassy compound in protest of U.S. airstrikes over the weekend, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced he was “sending further forces to help our personnel on the Embassy.”

These forces come from the very unit that was created in the wake of the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi attack to rapidly come to assistance from embattled embassies in the Middle East.

The unit, which matches by the unwieldy identify Special Function Marine Air-Ground Process Drive Crisis Response-Central Command, was created in Kuwait in 2013, lower than a yr after the Benghazi assault that claimed the lives of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, a member of his help employees and two CIA safety contractors. An analogous unit, based mostly in Spain, was established to cowl embassies in Africa.

The self-contained models are on 24-hour standby and embrace air, floor, logistics and command parts. Past with the ability to reinforce embassy safety, the models can use their plane to evacuate civilians, rescue downed aviators and come to assistance from nations struck by humanitarian or weather-related disasters.

The deployment is not any accident, a former senior administration official informed POLITICO. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was a heavy critic of the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi and especially of his predecessor Clinton, has been concerned that an analogous assault might convey the Trump administration its own model of the scandal.

“Pompeo has lengthy dreaded having a Benghazi-type occasion on his watch and can be horrified if People died in an identical event, partially because of his criticism of Hillary Clinton during Benghazi,” stated the former senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Not lengthy after Esper made his announcement, U.S. Central Command distributed photos and video of the Marines packing up and on the brink of depart Kuwait in MV-22 Ospreys, a clear indication they have been trying to send a message.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) made the connection between Benghazi and Baghdad in a tweet after meeting with President Donald Trump on Tuesday. “President Trump is decided to guard American personnel and expects our Iraqi companions to step as much as the plate. No extra Benghazis,” Graham tweeted. “Very reassuring to see President Trump has beefed up our army capability to guard our personnel in Baghdad.”

Apache helicopters have been spotted dropping flares over the embassy because the protests continued Tuesday, in what a U.S. official, who was not approved to speak on the report, referred to as a “show of pressure.”

Nobody inside the embassy has been harm, the official stated, nor has anybody been evacuated, though the ambassador was out of the nation on holiday break at the time of the assaults.

Wesley Morgan reported from Washington and Daniel Lippman reported from Palm Seashore, Fla.

Article originally revealed on POLITICO Magazine

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