State Department stayed out of contractors' dispute over consulate security, letters show

Letters obtained exclusively by Fox News appear to show the State Department refused to get involved when the company tasked with protecting the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, raised security concerns, the latest indication that warning signs may have been ignored in the lead-up to last month's terror attack.

The letters pertain to a dispute between Blue Mountain Libya, the security license holder in Libya, and its operations partner Blue Mountain UK, which trained and provided the local guards. 

A source with knowledge of two State Department meetings -- one in June and a second in July -- told Fox News that Blue Mountain Libya felt the security provided by the UK partner was "substandard and the situation was unworkable." 

But according to the source, when the Libyans tried to bring in a third party -- an American contractor -- to improve security, a State Department contract officer declined to get involved. 

"The U.S. government is not required to mediate any disagreements between the two parties of the Blue Mountain Libya partnership," contracting officer Jan Visintainer wrote on July 10 to Blue Mountain Libya, adding that to date "contract performance is satisfactory." 

Asked about that letter Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the department's investigation likely would address the issue. 

"Presumably, those kinds of questions will have to be looked at in the context of the work that we're doing," she said. 

A representative with Blue Mountain UK has not yet responded to a request by Fox News for comment. 

The July 10 exchange and the apparent warning that set it off are sure to be examined closely as both the State Department and Congress begin to scrutinize what may have gone wrong in the weeks and months preceding the attack, in which the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed. 

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee plans to hold a hearing Oct. 10 on security in the region before the attack. Two members of that committee, Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, fired off a letter Tuesday to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking a string of security-related questions. 

They detailed attacks and other security incidents in Benghazi starting in April and asked the State Department what measures it took to address the threat. Further, they claimed officials have told the committee of "repeated requests" for additional security that were turned down. 

"Based on information provided to the committee by individuals with direct knowledge of events in Libya, the attack that claimed the ambassador's life was the latest in a long line of attacks on Western diplomats and officials in Libya in the months leading up to September 11, 2012," they wrote. "In addition, multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the committee that, prior to the September 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi. The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington." 

A State Department spokeswoman said Tuesday that Clinton plans to respond to the lawmakers' questions. 

The letter to Clinton alleges 13 incidents that showed the deteriorating security situation on the ground -- one of which included workers with Blue Mountain. Weeks before the attack, the letter said, Libyan guards employed by the Blue Mountain Group were urged by their family members to quit over rumors "of an impending attack." 

The letter included other incidents, which have been well documented, including the June attack on a convoy carrying the British ambassador. And it said "assailants" put an explosive device at the gate of the U.S. Consulate in early June, blowing a hole in the security perimeter. 

The State Department, meanwhile, has stood by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice in the face of criticism and calls for her resignation. Rice came under fire for claiming repeatedly the Sunday after the attack that it was a "spontaneous" reaction to protests over an anti-Islam film. The administration now acknowledges the assault was a coordinated terror attack.

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Man sought in daughter-in-law's murder reportedly threatened to kill DEC officer in 1985

A New York man wanted in the murder of his daughter-in-law threatened to kill a state Department of Environmental Conservation officer in 1985.

Eugene Palmer was arrested and charged with second-degree aggravated harassment after he made repeated “life threatening” calls to Kenneth Didion’s home over a period of months, according to The Journal News, citing a report at the time by the Rockland Journal.

The arrest of Palmer in that case ended a DEC investigation into numerous phone calls threatening Didion’s life and home that the officer had received since December 1984, the paper reported.

Palmer, working as a truck driver at the time, pleaded guilty in April 1986 and the next month was sentenced to one year probation and fined $750. He also was ordered to avoid any contact with Didion for a year.

No motive for the threats was ever established.

"He’s a woodsman and he has plenty of guns.”

- John Pannirello

Palmer, 73, is the subject of a police manhunt after he allegedly shot his daughter-in-law early last Monday.

Palmer, who lives in Haverstraw, N.Y., admitted to relatives that he killed Tammy Palmer, 39, after shooting her at about 7:40 a.m. Monday, minutes after the woman put her two children on a school bus, according to Tammy Palmer’s father, John Pannirello.

“He admitted it, he admitted it to his sister,” Pannirello told FoxNews.com. “He said, ‘I just shot Tammy.’”

Palmer reportedly then told his sister, Elaine Babcock, who could not be reached for comment, to “give [him] an hour to get away” before calling police to report the crime. Babcock told The Journal News she then called 911 and went to Palmer’s home, where police investigators had already found her body.

Palmer, a seasoned outdoorsman, is now being sought by police and may be hiding out in the woods near Willow Grove Road or in Harriman State Park, a vast wooded area, police and relatives told FoxNews.com.

“They think he’s up in Harriman, they’re all out looking for him,” Pannirello said. “But he’s a woodsman and he has plenty of guns.”

Police discovered Palmer’s green 1995 Dodge Ram pickup truck on Tuesday afternoon during a search of Harriman State Park. The vehicle was found on a trail about a half-mile from his home, the Times Herald-Record reported. Bloodhounds on loan by Westchester County police then picked up a scent and traveled up steep ridges before growing too tired.

Haverstraw Police Chief Charles Miller told the newspaper that authorities were waiting for a search warrant before entering the vehicle, the newspaper reports.

Babcock, meanwhile, has said her brother, who left money to pay property taxes before fleeing, was caught in the middle of domestic problems between Tammy Palmer and his son, John, who had been estranged after 17 years of marriage.

Police are maintaining a road patrol around the border of Harriman State Park in hopes that Palmer will surrender.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from The Journal News

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Washington State wants park system to think like the private sector

Washington State is considering being the first in the nation to make its Parks Department self-sustaining. As recently as 2009 the legislature appropriated $94 million toward the operating budget of the state’s 117 parks. But now, facing a $3 billion budget deficit, Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire is proposing cutting funding to zero.

“We were broke,” said Marty Brown, director of the state Office of Financial Management. “Of all the entities in state government, it (the Parks Dept.) was one we thought actually had possibilities of income generation.”

State parks attract 40 million visits a year. Getting off the public dole will require competing for entertainment dollars, improving services while being cost-effective. In short, lifelong bureaucrats like Don Hoch are required to think like the private sector.

“We just started a new partnership division,” says Hoch, director of Washington State Parks. “We’ve started marketing. We have to develop a new skill set that we’ve never had to develop before. We were never in the competition business.”

Change is taking root. Up until 2011 it was free to enter state parks for the day. Now there’s a $10 a day use fee, which can be avoided if visitors buy a Discover Pass for $30 -- good for all parks for a calendar year. Sales for the Discover Pass have so far been disappointing.

In an effort to boost revenue, vending machines and concession buildings are starting to pop up. Also, small cabins are being built at campgrounds attracting visitors who are willing to pay more than the price for a camp site.

Things under consideration: variable pricing, charging more during peak season and less during the winter months. The staff of 123 park rangers was deemed expendable, prompting anger from some park advocate groups.

“We see all kinds of bad things happen,” says Jonathan Guzzo of the Washington Trails Association. “We see not only deterioration of trails and other facilities, we see vandalism, illegal activity and dumping.”

Guzzo says volunteer groups like his have picked up some of the slack by doing some trail maintenance and giving educational talks typically done by rangers.

While some decry privatization, it’s already happening on a limited basis. American Land and Leisure Co. based in Utah manages campgrounds in National Forests and three state parks in California. They collect gate fees, sell firewood and other concessions and clean the bathrooms. Steve Werner of American Land and Leisure says he’s able to save state’s money by paying a lot less for labor.

In the Washington State Parks Department, labor accounts for 85 percent of the budget. It’s less than half that much for private companies. Retirees are frequently tapped to live and work at the parks.

Some believe private companies can actually improve the experience people have at state parks. Lower salaries allow for more money to go into maintenance and marketing.

“State government is pretty bad at advertising the experience you can have at public parks,” says Paul Guppy of the Washington State Policy Center, “but a private company would have much more incentive to broaden their appeal to a wider public to encourage more people to come.”

The key is attracting visitors without turning these public parks into theme parks.

Hoch doesn’t think he can do it without help from the taxpayers. He’s asking the state legislature for $18 million.

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State Department issues warnings in Sudan, Tunisia

WASHINGTON –  The State Department on Saturday ordered the departure of all family members and non-essential U.S. government personnel from its embassies in Sudan and Tunisia and warned U.S. citizens against any travel to the two countries due to security concerns over rising anti-American violence.

"Given the security situation in Tunis and Khartoum, the State Department has ordered the departure of all family members and non-emergency personnel from both posts, and issued parallel travel warnings to American citizens," said department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

In Tunisia, the warning advised Americans that the international airport in Tunis is open and encouraged all U.S. citizens to depart on commercial flights. It said Americans who chose to remain in Tunisia should use extreme caution and avoid demonstrations. On Friday, protesters climbed the walls into the U.S. Embassy in Tunis, torching cars in the parking lot, trashing the entrance building and setting fire to a gym and a neighboring American school that is now unusable.

In Sudan, the warning said that while the Sudanese government has taken steps to limit the activities of terrorist groups, some remain and have threatened to attack Western interests. The terrorist threat level remains "critical" throughout Sudan, the department said. It noted that U.S. officials are already required to travel in armored vehicles and to get permission to travel outside Khartoum, where crowds torched part of the German Embassy and tried to storm the U.S. Embassy on Friday.

A U.S. official said on Saturday that Sudan's government is holding up the deployment of an elite Marine team that the U.S. planned to send to Khartoum to boost security at the embassy.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton worked the phones on Saturday, calling top officials from seven countries to discuss the situation following a wave of protest and violence over an anti-Muslim film that has swept across the Middle East and elsewhere in recent days. An obscure, amateurish movie called "Innocence of Muslims" that depicts Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a pedophile sparked the outrage.

On Tuesday, protesters in Egypt breached the walls of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and then well-armed extremists attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, killing four Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. Since then, protests over the video have spread to more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. While most were peaceful, marches in several places exploded into violence, including Tunisia and Sudan.

Clinton on Saturday spoke to the prime minister of Libya, the president of Somalia, and the foreign ministers of Britain, Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Nuland said.

With Libyan Prime Minister Mustafa Abushagur, Clinton spoke about the importance of bringing the consulate attackers to justice, Nuland said. The prime minister "expressed confidence that the attackers would be brought to justice, noting that the government was already starting to take action," she said.

With the Egyptians, Turks and Saudis, Clinton thanked them for their condemnations of the violence and spoke of the need to ensure security at diplomatic missions, Nuland said. Clinton and Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr also "agreed that while the film may be offensive and reprehensible, it cannot be used as justification for violence," Nuland said.

Clinton's calls and the State Department travel warnings came as President Barack Obama paid tribute to the Americans killed in Benghazi in his weekly radio address and denounced the anti-U.S. mob protests that have followed.

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