Documents obtained by Judicial Watch from their May 2014 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuits filed against the State Department and the Department of Defense revealed that the Obama administration knew about the attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi at least 10 days before the attack.
The documents also revealed that the DOD immediately reported the attacks on the consulate.
The documents included an August 2012 analysis predicting the failure of President Obama’s policy of a regime change in Syria as well as a warning about the rise of the Islamic State. The documents also included a confirmation that United States was aware of an arms shipment from Benghazi to Syria.
One of the documents from the DOD’s Defense Intelligence Agency dated September 12, 2012, the day after the attacks in Benghazi, lays out the details of the attack on the consulate and assesses that it was carefully planned by the terrorist group "Brigades of the Captive Omar Abdul Rahman."
The group is known to have connections to the Muslim Brotherhood as well as to al Qaeda. Rahman is serving a life sentence in prison for his role in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.
The group’s goal was to "kill as many Americans as possible," according to the documents, which were sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
An October 2012 DOD document contained the first official document that the Obama administration knew of the shipment of weapons from Benghazi to rebel forces in Syria.
Weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the Port of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria. The weapons shipped during late-August 2012 were Sniper rifles, RPG’s, and 125 mm and 155 mm howitzers missiles.
During the immediate aftermath of, and following the uncertainty caused by, the downfall of the (Qaddafi) regime in October 2011 and up until early September of 2012, weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles located in Benghazi, Libya were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya to the ports of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria. The Syrian ports were chosen due to the small amount of cargo traffic transiting these two ports. The ships used to transport the weapons were medium-sized and able to hold 10 or less shipping containers of cargo.
The heavily redacted document did not reveal which weapons were sent to Syria
The DIA consistently warned of the deterioration of the situation in Iraq and warned that it creates an ideal situation for Al Qaeda to return to Mosul and Ramadi, according to an August 2012 report. During this time the United States was monitoring weapon flows from Libya to Syria. The agency warned of dire consequences but blocked out most of what those consequences were.
The State Department produced a single document from a separate lawsuit that Judicial Watch had filed against the department. The document was created by Hillary Clinton’s office the morning after the attacks on the consulate in Benghazi and was sent throughout the State Department.
Neither the State Department nor Hillary Clinton have turned over any documents in regards to Benghazi or personal email accounts that were used by her and other top aides during her time as Secretary of State.
Judicial Watch has filed multiple FOIA requests and has waited over two years for the documents that they have received.
"These documents show that the Benghazi cover-up has continued for years and is only unraveling through our independent lawsuits," said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch. "The Benghazi scandal just got a whole lot worse for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton."