Our worst fears concerning the safety our US Marines and our foreign diplomats have been confirmed.  Our Marines in Cairo were shouldering unloaded weapons. This coming after the bombing of the Marine Barracks in Lebanon in 1983, where 241 Americans were murdered and 60 more seriously injured.  The Long Commission found that the deaths we caused, in great part, by orders to the Marines on security duty not to load live ammunition into their rifles and portable rocket launchers. That this painful lesson has not been learned by our Armed Forces and diplomats stationed in the Middle East affirms a dereliction of duty by our Commander-in-Chief and the Joint Chiefs.  These folks are personally responsible for the safety and welfare of our Marines and our diplomatic personnel. They have utterly failed.

From an article by Adam Kredo in reliable The Washington Free Beacon we read:

U.S. Marines defending the American embassy in Egypt were not permitted by the State Department to carry live ammunition, limiting their ability to respond to attacks like those this week on the U.S. consulate in Cairo.

Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson "did not permit US Marine guards to carry live ammunition," according to multiple reports on U.S. Marine Corps blog spotted by Nightwatch. "She neutralized any US military capability that was dedicated to preserve her life and protect the US Embassy."

Our national election is in 54 days.

UPDATE: From the author:

The Marine Corps has issued a statement regarding its involvement in the recent actions in Egypt and Libya. In Egypt, the Corps says that, contrary to the information referenced in my blog, the U.S. Ambassador did not impose restrictions on weapons or weapons status on the Marine Corps Embassy Security Group detachment. The Marines in Cairo were allowed to have live ammunition in their weapons. The specific Rules of Engagement under which the Marines operated are classified.

That all said. I have also heard from other Marines today, thanking me/ AT for writing about the "no ammo" embassy postings that they experienced wihtin the past year.

I "borrowed" most of the wording in the first paragraph from Powerlineblog..as they - and Drudge - ran with the same information.