Posted on 10/08/2012 11:56:10 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
(CBS News) The former head of a Special Forces "Site Security Team" in Libya tells CBS News that in spite of multiple pleas from himself and other U.S. security officials on the ground for "more, not less" security personnel, the State Department removed as many as 34 people from the country in the six months before a terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.
Lt. Col. Andy Wood will appear this week at a House Oversight Committee hearing that will examine security decisions leading up to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi.
Speaking to CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, Wood said when he found out that his own 16-member team and a six-member State Department elite force were being pulled from Tripoli in August - about a month before the assault in Benghazi - he felt, "like we were being asked to play the piano with two fingers. There was concern amongst the entire embassy staff."
He said other staffers approached him with their concerns when the reduction in security personnel was announced.
"They asked if we were safe," he told Attkisson. "They asked... what was going to happen, and I could only answer that what we were being told is that they're working on it - they'll get us more (security personnel), but I never saw that."
Wood insists that senior staff in Libya, including Ambassador Stevens, State Department Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom, and himself, all wanted and had requested enhanced security.
"We felt we needed more, not less," he tells Attkisson.
Asked what response their repeated pleas got from the State Department in Washington, Wood says they were simply told "to do with less. For what reasons, I don't know."
"We tried to illustrate... to show them how dangerous and how volatile and just unpredictable that whole environment was over there. So to decrease security in the face of that really is... it's just unbelievable," Wood tells CBS News.
One State Department source tells CBS News the security teams weren't "pulled," that their mission was simply over.
State Department officials have told CBS News that Wood was not part of the security assessment in Benghazi and that his assignment to Tripoli means he was unfamiliar with the local situation in the smaller port city in the country's east.
Lt. Col. Wood, Nordstrom and State Department official Charlene Lamb, based in Washington, will offer some of the key testimony at this week's House Oversight Committee hearing, led by committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
CBS News correspondent Margaret Brennan reports that the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Management, Patrick Kennedy, will be the highest ranking official from the State Department to testify before the committee.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the State Department is cooperating fully with the congressional investigation, according to Brennan.
State Department officials have told CBS News that Wood was not part of the security assessment in Benghazi and that his assignment to Tripoli means he was unfamiliar with the local situation in the smaller port city in the country's east.
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Headquarters has spoken.....doubt they had ever visited that small city.
A lot of nasty hydrocarbons were spewing into the air.
Careful.....that could be a racists statement.....and that is perhaps even really BAD!
Are they saying that Benghazi was deliberately being isolated?
Good point. I hadn't thought that Bush had done it, but of course....
I see now why Bush has not spoken out since he left office. He was so goddam busy directing hurricanes and setting up personnel domino control scenarios to foil every single moment of his successor's administration that he's just plum tuckered out.
.
Then we had Black Hawk Down!!
Getting some facts:
I assume the film has some relation to the facts...
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And he is closer to the action than Bush.
And he has been making some NON-TEAM player comments lately!
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/95199.htm
Kennedy BIO
Based on his solid background, he should have known better...unless he was focused on “Greening.”
What would have been Hillary’s rationale for reducing security in Libya? Was Hillary so ignorant and (somehow) uninformed as to buy into the Arab Spring narrative?
I forgot all about the Oxford hill billy hiring Aspin for SoD. History seems to repeat itself quite often. Good historical catch on your part.
Exclusive: Libya Cable Detailed Threats
The Daily Beast | Oct 8, 2012 12:00 AM EDT
Exerpt:
The threat from the militias underscores the dangers of relying on local Libyan forces for security in the run-up to the 9/11 military-style assault. The U.S. consulate in Benghazi employed a militia called the “February 17 Martyrs Brigade” for security of the four-building compound. In addition, there were five Americans serving as diplomatic security and a group of former special operations forces that acted as a quick reaction force on the day of the 9/11 attack. Members of the militias led by bin-Ahmed and al-Gharabi overlapped with the February 17 militia, the cable says.
Link: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/10/08/exclusive-libya-cable-detailed-threats.html
Rebrocasting this evening at 9 EST.
Encourage everyone to watch....
State Dept looks very BAD in this hearing....seemed unaware that the strength of the militiants were rapidly increasing.
The State Dept was reducing the Security forces in Libya and NOT drawing on resources that were available from the US Military.
That was brought up at the hearing.....Kennedy had no answer.
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