Analyst's note:  Absolutely must consider. Perhaps we can now begin to understand that our national security can NOT be defended with "hope" and viewed as a "bump in the road."  Apparently this was not even the first such attack.

Jihadists twice set off explosives at the consulate prior to the incident that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens, and announced threats on Facebook about escalating attacks on Western targets in the run-up to the 9/11 anniversary, according to whistle-blowers reaching out to House Republicans.

In the five months leading up to this year’s 9/11 anniversary, there were two bombings on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and increasing threats to and attacks on the Libyan nationals hired to provide security at the U.S. missions in Tripoli and Benghazi.

[....] Until Sept. 19, eight days after the consulate attack, senior administration officials had said it resulted spontaneously from riots at the U.S. embassy in Cairo against an Internet video denigrating the Muslim prophet. Spokesmen for the State Department and the National Security Council did not return emails late Monday evening. [....]

When are we also ever going to learn that al-Qaida is directly related to the Muslim Brotherhood.  As an update to this article we just learned that Sensitive documents left behind at American mission in Libya.

[....] U.S. intelligence confirms that the very same terrorists who premeditated the attack on our own Libyan Consulate, also played a key role in the killing of four Americans and may have used American taxpayer money to fund the effort.

[....] former CIA officer Bruce Riedel went even further, telling the Hindustan Times: “There is no question that al-Qaida’s Libyan franchise, Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, is a part of the opposition. It has always been Gadhafi’s biggest enemy and its stronghold is Benghazi. What is unclear is how much of the opposition is al-Qaida/Libyan Islamic Fighting Group – 2 percent or 80 percent.”

The arming of the Libyan rebels may have aided in the attacks on our consulate in Libya. One witness to those attacks said some of the gunmen attacking the U.S. installation had identified themselves as members of Ansar al-Shariah, which represents al-Qaida in Yemen and Libya. [...]