A British security officer hired to train Libyan guards at the U.S. compound in Benghazi is saying publicly for the first time what the terrorists’ chilling objective was in last year’s deadly attacks.
“They said, ‘We’re here to kill Americans, not Libyans,’” recalled “Morgan Jones,” a pseudonym to protect his safety, in a new “60 Minutes” interview set to air Sunday.
Were Here to Kill Americans: Benghazi Witness Reveals Terrorists Chilling Objective
CBS News
Jones — who said he was annoyed the State Department had prohibited his guards from carrying guns — got a call from one of his men after the attack began.
“I could hear gunshots, and I — and he said, ‘There’s men coming into the mission,’” said Jones, who was living nearby. “His voice, he was — he was scared. You could tell he was really scared, and he was running. I could tell he was running.”
Jones said his mind went directly to his American friends, the State Department agents pinned down inside the compound, CBS News reported. Incredibly, one of them incredibly answered his phone in the midst of the attack.
“I said, ‘What’s going on?’ He said, ‘We’re getting attacked.’ And I said, ‘How many?’ And he said, ‘They’re all over the compound,’” Jones said. “And — I was shocked. I didn’t know what to say. And I said, ‘Well, just keep fighting. I’m on my way.’”
Then Morgan got the word — the terrorists weren’t there for his Libyan guards.
“They said, ‘We’re here to kill Americans, not Libyans,’ so they’d give them a good beating, pistol-whip them, beat them with their rifles and let them go,” Jones told “60 Minutes.”
U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack on the mission and a nearby annex. An independent investigation of Benghazi found the mission security was grossly inadequate and requests for additional security weren’t approved at State Department headquarters, CBS News said.
Here’s a report from CBS News: