There was a story from six months ago in the business news...which never got picked by any national news group. The story? The Libyan government, under the Colonel and his family, had plowed a bunch of cash into a Wall Street investment bank (I think it was Goldman Sachs)...and the 2008 hit basically wiped out near a billion dollars of their money. They were extremely upset, and demanded that a team from the US bank come out to Libya.
So the two investment counselors got on a private jet and flew to meet the Colonel’s family. The first hour went fairly negative, and there were some various hints that the two might not walk out of Libya alive. I would imagine the two investment geeks were way out of their league on this event.
However, the Bank had this ‘insurance’ package that went through a British organization, that had various people throughout every single country in the middle east. They had the right people, with the right ‘tools’...to grab a threaten person, and within minutes...get them to safety, and on a plane within an hour or two. The two bank representatives dialed the number...walked out the back door, and went into safe-mode until the British rep arrived and handled the rest of the event.
In this case....the ambassador should have had his charge card...called the British security team in Libya, and asked them to get him to safety...rather than counting on some US government guys who may or may not care one way or another about the safety of the ambassador. It might have cost $750k for such a rescue...but obviously, you weren’t going to get help from the Americans.
Just my two cents on the topic.
Yes this trial balloon about nobody being in the area, ready, within seven hours.... Is laughable.