Posted on 05/08/2013 2:38:13 PM PDT by Kaslin
U.S. Special Operations forces in Libya were on the way to the airport to board a Libyan government plane to Benghazi but were told "you can't go now; you don't have authority to go now." That's the stunning testimony of Gregory Hicks, the top ranking American diplomat in Libya after Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed in a terrorist attack at the Benghazi Consulate on September 11, 2013.
Hicks was in Tripoli when the attack commenced. He has told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that after word arrived from the Libyan Prime Minister that Ambassador Stevens had perished, a U.S. Special Operations team was ready to fly to Benghazi before the second attack occurred but received a call from Special Operations Command Africa to stand down.
Hicks and two other State Department officials – "whistleblowers" – are scheduled to testify to the Oversight Committee on Wednesday, May 8.
Hicks testimony completely contradicts the Obama Administration's claim that, "At every level in the chain of command, from the senior officers in Libya to the most senior officials in Washington, everyone was fully engaged in trying to provide whatever help they could…There were no orders to anybody to stand down in providing support."
Hicks also believes lives could have been saved at Benghazi had the administration dispatched just one aircraft from the naval base at Souda Bay in Crete about an hour away. "I believe that 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," Hicks said.
More of Hicks testimony account is available here published by The Hill.
BTTT
Yup, and Sigonella on Sicily is 450 miles away —closer than Tripoli. An F-18 w/o weapons can get overhead to make a scary sonic boom in under 20 minutes —that is done ALL the time in Afgh & Iraq.
They would not have had to trigger even one round, in order to buy those guys more time.
High Treason.
Dear Lord, please let justice be done.
Tatt
36 Democrat Senators called on the AG to order a special Prosecutor over something that really didn’t matter .... Their rationale... “a special counsel will ensure the public’s confidence in the investigation and prosecution and help to restore its faith in our government.”
I think Republicans ought to use that quote and ask for both Democrats and Republicans to call on Eric Holder to do the same for Benghazi...
I believe...lives could have been saved at Benghazi had the administration dispatched just one aircraft from the naval base at Souda Bay in Crete about an hour away...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.
So much for General Bob Scales' comments on Fox that aircraft could not have arrived in time to make a difference.
"36 Democrat Senators called on the AG to order a special Prosecutor over something that really didn’t matter .... Their rationale... “a special counsel will ensure the public’s confidence in the investigation and prosecution and help to restore its faith in our government.” I think Republicans ought to use that quote and ask for both Democrats and Republicans to call on Eric Holder to do the same for Benghazi...-Typical_Whitey "
Excellent idea . . .here's a direct link to the exact quote highlighted on Feinsteins government website:
“a special counsel will ensure the public’s confidence in the investigation and prosecution and help to restore its faith in our government.”
Indeed, we must restore public confidence in the investigation and prosecution and help to restore faith in our government! Heh!
It refused to allow a rescue effort to go forward while the attack was ongoing. Four Americans died.
Then they knowingly LIED to America about the cause of the attack, implicating an innocent man.
The secretary of state then lied while giving testimony to congress.
Democrats continue to cover up, and most of the country could care less.
Mark Thompson, a former Marine and official with the State Department’s Counterterrorism Bureau, said he was rebuffed by the White House when he asked for a specialized team — known as a FEST team — to be deployed. This is a unit made of special operations personnel, diplomatic security, intelligence and other officers.
.
Thanks - been looking for a more specific reference. During MT’s testimony, I scribbled down Nat’l Sec Council, but it was more than that .... though it was a deputy or something. Every reference I’ve seen has been “WH”.
This seems to be a point folks are missing ... the WH refused to deploy them (FEST), a unit put together JUST for this sort of event, after stating all available resources were utilized. Per MT, this team trained twice a year ... went through the whole drill, including flying to some out-of-country destination to make sure they were ready. Their plane was DOD with a full communications suite so even if in the air, they could have stayed apprised of developments. Also, Hicks said that before 3:00 p.m., when he got a call from Libyan officials to tell him Stevens was deceased, they thought there might be a hostage situation since Stevens was reported to be at a hospital controlled by the AQ group that was being ‘twittered’ as the responsible terrorists for the attack. You would think the FEST group (used in hostage situations & successfully), would have been deployed immediately, not only for support, but for just this contingency. This “failure to launch” just adds to the conspiracy theories and/or charges of gross incompetence on the part of Obama & Hillary. I can’t help but think Jarrett is in this up to her neck, too - she’s the puppetmaster.
Agree, seen part of his testimony on O’Reilly and Bill is worried about who told Rice what to say... The 2 question I have, what is the timeline when he is asking to go assist, and who did he talk to? I started searching and found the breitbart video, funny it hasn’t been posted yet.
“When I heard that the situation had evolved to them going to a safe haven and then that we could not find the ambassador, I alerted my leadership that we needed to go forward and consider the deployment of the Foreign Emergency Support Team,” Thompson said during his opening statement.
“I notified the White House. They indicated that meetings had already taken place that evening [deciding against deployment],” Stevens added, explaining that he was told “it was not the right time and it was not the team that needed to go right then.”
Per this link: The Benghazi Talking Points, this is how the comments got edited & by whom:
The Weekly Standard is told, a top adviser to President Obama on national security and foreign policy—further advised the group that the issues would be resolved in a meeting of top administration officials the following morning at the White House. There is little information about what happened at that meeting of the Deputies Committee. But according to two officials with knowledge of the process, Mike Morrell, deputy director of the CIA, made broad changes to the draft afterwards.
My theory as to who told Rice to be the spokesperson for the talking points: Hillary said 'no way, no how' .... she knew she'd be lying up one side & down the other - she had personally talked to Hicks around 2:00 Benghazi time. I believe Jarrett pulled Rice in .... Obama had put Rice into the UN position over Hillary's objections in the first place & elevated the postition back to a cabinet level. Rice had ambitions to be SOS (probably one reason Hill didn't like her) and with Hillary leaving, Jarrett/Obama promised her the position for being a 'good soldier' and Rice took the bait. Fortunately, the lies came back to personally bite her in the butt, even Obama couldn't pull this one out of the fire & she ended up not SOS.
Agreed.
BTTT
Dear Lord, guide our course.
Tatt
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