Advance Work PRO 466 Benchmark Assignment: Benghazi Essay

Advance Work
Introduction
The attacks and executions occurred in Benghazi has been relentlessly disturbing the national security and interests of Libya. Since the fall of Muamar Gaddhafi, Libya’s political, economic, and security significantly collapsed. The modern Libya that we know today is currently in total chaos, managed by rampant extremism due to the existence of Jihadist militants across the country. The situation is brought by the relentless wave of Arab Spring, which swiped Gaddhafi’s regime and suddenly torn down Libya into pieces. Foreign ambassadors from other countries such as the United States were affected by the onslaught of atrocities impacted by a series of unrest across the country. One of the mostly affected embassies was the American embassy that suffered a significant damage to properties as well as loss of many lives during the siege. This paper seeks to discuss the challenges experienced by the United States in particular to Ambassador Stevens regarding with the security issues of its national security in Libya.
The issue concerning Benghazi is one of the most contemplated cases in modern American history. Political misfortunes immensely affected the security interests of both Libya and the United States due to incessant violence, coercion, and intimidation. Extensive destruction of damages, manpower, and facilities made Libya vulnerable to environmental threats such as the penetration of terrorism. As a result, the elements of both criminal and terroristic activities emerged as the most dominating parties in the country, resulting to a significant risk to safety to both Libyans and the United States (Larson, 2014). Security challenges still imposes today as there are still measurable threats provoked by extremism across the country that still induces atrocities across the Libyan communities.
Challenges
The challenge that is faced by Ambassador Stevens is the lack of intelligence report during his stay in Benghazi that lacks surveillance. The reason behind was that there were raw and unverified information that was not well-appreciated by the US intelligence service that should have been useful to protect American consuls, militaries, and government officials who were in Benghazi. This is brought by lack of physical, technical, and political investigation to confirm any essential information to prove its accuracy. Lack of information limits the ability of the embassy to operate for the reason that officials and personnel are not that certain enough to confirm the validity of the reports. Examples are the presence of militant groups in the area, lack of coordination with the Libyan security forces, and limited accessibility to the internet in the area (Talbot & Jakerman, 2011).
Another area is security threats that have been playing a critical role of shaping the safety of the Libyan society. Ambassador Stevens was not aware that there is a new group that has been taking advantage on the chaos happening in Libya. This is due to the loss of political and security legitimacy responsible for allowing extremist to penetrate all areas of Libya. Christopher Stevens was not informed that they were about to be stormed by the members of Ansar al Shariah, which is a Daesh-linked Jihadist based...