Up-date: Nov. 4th, 2013 ~

Further developments in the ongoing Camp Bastion investigation: 10 new details about the deadly attack on Camp Bastion (Military Times); previous fence breaches, unoccupied guard towers, limited security for Harriers (jets worth $200 million destroyed in the attack), etc..

The Atwell and Raible families deserve to learn the truth about this tragedy!
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Up-date: Sept. 30th, 2013 ~

First, I have to correct an error in my original post regarding the security forces at Camp Bastion at the time of the attack last September. I misread Michelle Malkin’s article and thought that Tonga was a local town or area of Afghanistan. Who knew that it was an island (poplulation 100,000) in the middle of the Pacific? And futher, who realized that they actually had a military presence? Since our feckless Commander-in-Chief has drastically reduced our troop numbers in Afghanistan we were forced to outsource security on the base to the vaunted Tongan Defence Force (notorious at the base for sleeping on the job). So while they weren’t locals – and potential jihadists – they weren’t anywhere close to being U.S. Marines.
 
Second, there’s been some resolution in the matter. As the Washington Post reported this evening: Two Marine generals (have been) fired for security lapses in Afghanistan ~

British commanders had assigned the task of manning the towers to troops from Tonga, which has sent 55 soldiers to Afghanistan.
 
On the night of the attack, the Tongans left unmanned the nearest watchtower to the point of the Taliban breach, according to an investigation by the U.S. Central Command.
 
Other aspects of the U.S.-British security plan were “sub-optimal,” the investigation found, with no single officer in charge of security for both Bastion and Leatherneck. The security arrangement created command-and-control relationships “contrary to the war-fighting principles of simplicity,” Amos wrote in a memo accepting the investigation.
 
Troop reductions also affected security measures. When Gurganus took command in 2011, about 17,000 U.S. troops were in his area of operations. By the time of the attack, in September 2012, the American contingent had dropped to 7,400 because of troop-withdrawal requirements imposed by President Obama.
 
In December 2011, 325 Marines were assigned to patrol the area around Bastion and Leatherneck. In the month before the attack, that number was cut to about 110.
 
Gurganus did seek permission in the summer of 2012 to add 160 troops to protect Bastion and Leatherneck, but his superiors in Kabul rejected the request because the military had reached a limit on forces set by the White House[…]
 
Gurganus and Sturdevant will be allowed to retire, but Amos said it will be up to Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to determine their final rank.

In the end, someone had to take the fall for Obama and the poltroons in the Pentagon.
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Original post: June 23, 2013
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On September 14th, 2012 Camp Bastion, a British-run NATO compound in Afghanistan, was attacked by the Taliban, resulting in the deaths of two Marines and the worst lost of aircraft since Vietnam. Michelle Malkin deserves huge kudos for staying on top of the story as details have emerged over the last several months ~

… the Taliban waged an intricately coordinated, brutal attack on Camp Bastion in Afghanistan last fall — three days after the deadly siege on our consulate in Libya and after months of prior security incidents and warnings. Fifteen jihadists disguised in stolen American combat fatigues penetrated the complex. They used rocket-propelled grenades, assault rifles and other weapons to wipe out nearly an entire squadron of Marine Harrier jets worth an estimated $200 million.
 
Along with the most devastating loss of U.S. airpower since Vietnam, two heroic U.S. Marines — Lt. Col. Christopher Raible and Sgt. Bradley Atwell — were killed in the battle, and nearly a dozen others were injured.

Military officials refused to release details of the fateful budget and strategy decisions that led to the attack. But Deborah Hatheway, aunt of Sgt. Atwell and the family’s spokesperson, and other Camp Bastion families learned on their own that their loved ones were left vulnerable to attack by military leaders who outsourced watchtower security on the base to soldiers from Tonga.

 
Get that? In hostile territory we outsource security to the locals!

(Correction: “Tonga” isn’t “local.” See 9-30-13 update above)

“The attack only occurred because of an egregious failure in basic infantry practices. … It is painfully obvious that this attack would not have been successful, or likely even attempted, if not for multiple security failures at Leatherneck/Bastion.”

~ Nick Francona, former Marine Corps Ground Intelligence Officer ~

 
Apparently U.S. Central Command is investigating, especially the action or inaction of Maj. Gen. Charles “Mark” Gurganus who was ultimately responsible for base security at the time of the attack. And, as Malkin reports ~

…there is now movement on Capitol Hill to help Camp Bastion families whose information requests have been stymied. Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., has written Marine/CENTCOM leadership on behalf of the victims’ families. (Sgt. Atwell and his family are from Indiana.) Rokita told me in a statement this week: “This is about transparency and accountability. I want to make sure that Sgt. Atwell’s family, Lt. Col. Raible’s family and the American people get the full truth about the Camp Bastion attack.”

 
At the time it occurred, news of this story was lost in the Benghazi smoke & mirrors show. Just one more tragic sideshow in the Obama Cirque du Destruction. But the families – and Americans who still give a damn – want answers.