Posted on 05/06/2013 11:02:20 AM PDT by servo1969
Full title - "Report: Nearby US special forces blocked during Benghazi attack, told ‘you don’t have authority to go’"
As the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya raged on for more than seven hours, a team of U.S. special forces in Tripoli was blocked from flying in to attempt a rescue, according to a top American diplomat who was in the region.
In previously secret testimony given by Gregory Hicks — the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya — to congressional investigators last month, Hicks revealed two possible courses of action that could have saved American lives that night: allowing U.S. special forces to enter Benghazi and flying a fast-moving U.S. military aircraft over the scene of the attacks.
“So Lieutenant Colonel Gibson, who is the [Special Operations Command South Africa] commander, his team, you know, they were on their way to the vehicles to go to the airport to get on the C-130 when he got a phone call from SOCAFRICA which said, you can’t go now, you don’t have authority to go now,” Hicks told congressional investigators, “and so they missed the flight,” which would have gotten the team inserted prior to the second attack on the CIA annex.
CBS News’ Sharyl Attkisson reported on the exchange Monday afternoon, noting that “[n]o assistance arrived from the U.S. military outside of Libya during the hours that Americans were under attack.” The claim that U.S. forces were called off from their attempts to reach the besieged compounds is a direct contradiction of the Obama administration’s claim “that nobody was ever told to stand down and that all available resources were utilized,” Attkisson noted.
Hicks — who briefly became America’s top diplomat in Libya once Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed that night — also told investigators that an intimidating presence by an American military aircraft could have been enough to scare off the attackers and save lives.
“I believe if we had been able to scramble a fighter or aircraft or two over Benghazi as quickly as possible after the attack commenced, I believe there would not have been a mortar attack on the annex in the morning because I believe the Libyans would have split. They would have been scared to death that we would have gotten a laser on them and killed them,” Hicks said.
In excerpts of an interview that aired on CBS Sunday, Hicks revealed that he knew the attack was “a terrorist attack from the get-go.”
Hicks said he immediately sought answers to why U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice characterized the attack as the spontaneous result of an unruly protest while making the rounds on the next week’s Sunday shows.
Hicks will appear before a public congressional hearing on Benghazi this Wednesday.
"Special Operations Command, Africa" not "South Africa", and not "South/Africa." The only Command with "SOUTH" in it is is the Latin American Command.
Makes it sound like the team was already in Libya, in Tripoli. Is that accurate, or did they fly to Tripoli, then get stopped? The article is not totally clear.
That is what I believe was supposed to happen!
But one example - Desert One (1980) wasn't green lighted until after Carter's reelection started publically failing. A followup attempt was held because it would have no positive impact for the Carter reelection.
There are many others several of which are very contemporary.
I have the T-shirt with “Been There; Done That” dates going back to the late 1960s.
We all knew that had to be the case. There’s no way our SEALS would be the effing cowards the State Department and Obama Administration are... In six hours they could have flown from Tampa to get there... Too bad the suckups at the New York Times aren’t capable of figuring that out . Not counting that we have military troops stationed all over that area.
Maybe the MSM should look into the possibility that Obama WANTED them dead. As an example - a message - or maybe something more personal...
I may be wrong about this, but I believe that the proper avenue of responding to an attack on a U.S. embassy in a foreign country is through a U.S. Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). Remember that the U.S. Marines are tasked with providing security at embassies around the world.
A Special Forces unit from the U.S. Army may have been better suited for this mission, but since the U.S. was not at a state of war with Libya there may have been some questions about the role of the Army in this kind of operation.
From what I've heard about this incident, the biggest scandal here is that the Obama administration has scaled back on the use and placement of MEUs all over the world, which meant the U.S. military simply wasn't prepared to deal with this sort of an incident.
I’ll check my local newspaper for further details.
< / s>
In a sane world the current occupant of the oval office would be on TV apologizing and resigning.
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Follow the money! Secret money!?Too many people knew the secret so some had to die? Who ended up with it —
Al quieda? That would be aiding the enemy ... Treason
Why have the Turk meet him there? Why not the embassy?
.....yes sir!...........bingo!...........this “General” that got fired over this incident is who needs to testify!
I believe there was a conscious decision by unpatriotic Clinton and Traitor O that these 4 people were expendable in their never ending self imposed duty to HELP the radical Islamic fundamentalist terrorists all over the world ANY WAY WE CAN!
Why! We are not gonna unleash a our modern military with it’s murderous firepower against our buddy terrorists! We are just not going to do it! Better to sacrifice 4 of our foolish people. That’s what happened!
All the ones from O on down that hindered or stopped the rescue of these 4 patriots are guilty of “aiding and abetting the enemy in wartime” and should be tried and if found guilty shot! I believe millions of Americans would support this statement. Impeachment is not enough. Now, I know execution would NEVER happen but I would love the possibility of it hanging over Clinton’s and Obama’s head for a few years during the pendency of criminal proceeedings.
They considered the endangered Americans expendables.
What is the name of the person who gave the order not to go. We need names!
“What is the name of the person who gave the order not to go. We need names!”
That’s what I was thinking. Now that we have whisleblowers it “should” come out and it ain’t susan rice either.
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