Breaking: Fox News reports CIA command refused to help Benghazi consulate during attack

Hot Air ^ | 12:01 pm on October 26, 2012 | Ed Morrissey

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Yesterday, Leon Panetta told reporters that the US military didn’t intervene to assist our consulate in Benghazi during the attack because of a lack of real-time intelligence.  Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin now reports that the CIA got at least three requests for support from the annex in the city to help fend off the attack — and that the chain of command not only refused the requests, but ordered its personnel to “stand down.”  Two of the Americans killed in the terrorist attack disobeyed orders and attempted to rescue their fellow Americans:

Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that three urgent requests from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. Consulate and subsequent attack nearly seven hours later were denied by officials in the CIA chain of command — who also told the CIA operators to “stand down” rather than help the ambassador’s team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.

Former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were part of a small team who were at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. Consulate where Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When they heard the shots fired, they radioed to inform their higher-ups to tell them what they were hearing. They were told to “stand down,” according to sources familiar with the exchange. An hour later, they called again to headquarters and were again told to “stand down.”

Woods, Doherty and at least two others ignored those orders and made their way to the Consulate which at that point was on fire. Shots were exchanged. The quick reaction force from the CIA annex evacuated those who remained at the Consulate and Sean Smith, who had been killed in the initial attack. They could not find the ambassador and returned to the CIA annex at about midnight.

At that point, they called again for military support and help because they were taking fire at the CIA safe house, or annex. The request was denied. There were no communications problems at the annex, according those present at the compound. The team was in constant radio contact with their headquarters. In fact, at least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortars were fired at the CIA compound. The security officer had a laser on the target that was firing and repeatedly requested back-up support from a Specter gunship, which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations forces to provide support to Special Operations teams on the ground involved in intense firefights. The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours — enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators.

It’s not as if there was no resources to respond, either:

A Special Operations team, or CIF which stands for Commanders in Extremis Force, operating in Central Europe had been moved to Sigonella, Italy, but they too were told to stand down. A second force that specializes in counterterrorism rescues was on hand at Sigonella, according to senior military and intelligence sources. According to those sources, they could have flown to Benghazi in less than two hours. They were the same distance to Benghazi as those that were sent from Tripoli. Specter gunships are commonly used by the Special Operations community to provide close air support.

Griffin’s sources tell her that the annex had painted a laser target at a terrorist mortar position and had called for an air strike.  I’m not sure what that looks like in Panetta’s world, but it at least sounds like real-time intelligence on the attack, as well as a clear target, if this report is correct.

Saxby Chambliss is right — this gets uglier every day.

[combat_boots]

“Has anyone in the media spoken to any of the 30+ people whose lives were spared because of the heroic acts of these Seals? An airplane ticket to Germany and then interview them all. Let us find out more.”

No. We have no need to know about these people. And they have reason to disappear.

[Marine_Uncle]

I screwed the pooch big time on that one. Can't squirm out of a dead wrong mistake on my part. I did carefully check the real distance between the two points in question, after the fact.
Being tired or not. I could have mislead. I didn't think the nm's where quite that large. Just want to clear the record.
So I in dishonor tried to make a cute excuse. Perhaps time to change my tag line.

[TigersEye]

Do you have any doubts that assets were available and ready to go?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

LOL ....well said.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Hey,...you are among friends here....mistakes are tolerated...unless there are bodies.

LOL!

[Fred Nerks]

TREVOR LOUDON tells you who Panetta really is:

VIDEO -

http://www.trevorloudon.com/2012/09/trevor-loudon-outs-leon-panetta-video-do-you-know-who-panetta-really-is-loudon-on-ron-paul-foreign-policy/

[jjotto]

Hardly a big deal.

Point is that HUGE resources were available within an hour or two!

[1066AD]

The CIA has issued a statement denying that anyone in the CIA did any such thing.

[Marine_Uncle]

RE: "Do you have any doubts that assets were available and ready to go?"

I am not privy to anything more then the general public has at it's disposal.
I just don't know. I want to believe what we hear mostly coming out of sites such as Fox, and many military blog sites as being accurate.
I would hold true to my long dissertation on my personal Microsoft Flights in a F18E Super Bug Hornet I voiced. They are honest and pretty accurate description of what a real flight time frame would entail from KSY airbase in Sicily to Benghazi, for most of any NATO aircraft with like air to ground weapons loaded.
Let us face it. We are somewhat at the mercy of the reporting by so many in various arenas. But surely what say we heard from the two Colonels, on at Rush, the other from the Kedlow show days back, are for the most part on the level.
So much has been brought out that a blurp here and there can fall through the cracks. But the whole main issue does not go away. The POTUS screwed the pooch.
You and I know. Contingency plans should long before have been put in place.
I'll fall back on the fact the Aircraft Carrier group G.H. Bush where pulled out of the Med a few months earlier for their home base Norfolk, thereby leaving this area without the real air power that would have been minutes away. Leaving only two Navy Destroyers in the Med as far as I can see.
If it turns out what we read at BLACK FIVE is correct. Then the Sicily Airbase is taken out of the equation. Likewise. What was available at airbases in Italy proper. Little has been said.
Perhaps we shall continue to get clearer pictures of what air assets as well as ground assets could have been positioned in the area had our government been a bit wiser.
And I say that with the knowledge as has been brought out through the press that a small unit of SECOPS where flown into Tripoli prior to 9/11.

[Marine_Uncle]

"Point is that HUGE resources were available within an hour or two!"
We yet to have to determine just what airbases and other sites where actually in the theater of operation ready to go.
To many reports coming out with in some cases partially conflicting reports. But I did feel bad about perhaps misleading our folks. I screwed the pooch on that thread. I felt at least required to set the record straight.
So in no way do I challenge your statement. I have been of the same opinion. We have some conflicting reporting coming forth as to the real readiness at some so far named US ground/Air assets.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks... very revealing.

[Marine_Uncle]

"Hey,...you are among friends here....mistakes are tolerated...unless there are bodies."
Yeah. But I felt really bad after realizing I could have mislead. Here I am screaming how the kenyan screwed the pooch big time. And I screwed the pooch. Worse then ripping into the carrier deck in my F18 after a very sloppy glide path to the carrier. Boom! Hang in their E..

[jjotto]

It’s true that in this period of Obama-backed upheaval throughout northern Africa, this entire Administration might be knowingly leaving those looking out for American interests unprotected and vulnerable.

It should be expected of a deep-cover jihadi like Obama and the traitorous State Department, but why are guys like Clapper and Petraeus shaming themselves in future American history?

[uncitizen]

did u see the thread in which the story goes that Hams second in command relieved him of duty because the general was going to ignore orders to stand down?

Now Gen. Ham is being replaced in the African Command.

somehow now I’m wondering if that is really how it went down.....I just don’t know....do those kinds of things happen outside of the movies?.....granted it seems like we are in a movie right now!

but I just wonder if it was a nameless but gutsy subordinate that relieved Gen Ham of duty or if that might’ve been done by Panetta or Obagman himself...

[Marine_Uncle]

"...but why are guys like Clapper and Petraeus shaming themselves in future American history?"

Believe me. I have the same questions. To some small effect.
Many years ago while in a engineering test group at what then was Westinghouse AeroSpace/Defense facility in MD., working on the F16 Fire Control Radar program, I almost lost my job while protesting that there where those in the loop that where willing to allow our computers to be shipped to Air Force bases with a known faulty I/O card, where a Intel ROM was bad.
I was really pissed off. There where those that indicated... don't worry. The I/O board in question, would be found to be faulty in the field and appropriately replaced.
Yeah F***. While some honorable pilot lost his life in an air battle with boogies.
In that case, I won the battle. The faulty boards where not installed in our FC computer and sent into the field.
So your so right in your assertions regarding said people we have to look up to in order to keep this nation and all it's assets safe and sound, IMHO. Take care.
Enjoyed exchanging info with you. Our posts have not meet in the past. And again. Thanks for the appropriate correction to my bad estimate on said base that was in question.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Pinging you and others to this thread I just spootted by going thru the latest articles posted.....what a flood of stuff that comes on the FR website:

Libya Timeline (Video)

Posted by Freeper One Name.

********************************************

RightChange.com ^ | 9/25/2012? | Unknown- Compilation

Posted on Fri 26 Oct 2012 19:00:58 PDT by One Name

A well-edited timeline of events and deceptions, captured for posterity in broadcast clips.

[Marine_Uncle]

Thanks Ernest. Watched the video and responded in the other thread. BJ and his fighting wife are going to put the screws to the kenyan one way or another. She obviously has already taken steps in that direction. I loath them both so much. But I loath the hybrid Muslim Communist even more so if in the whole picture, that is possible.
So much literally dishonor between the three of them.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Agreed.

Nite!

[Marine_Uncle]

Your eyes are getting cloudy, they are becoming tired. You feel sleepy, you did not watch the latest Fox News with Gretta with her guest Bing West as what a total screw up the Libyan 9/11 tragedy entailed. Check it out tomorrow while wading through recent Fox "Gretta" sessions. Bing West in essence, places the whole blam on the kenyan, no if butts or and.
A total botched up. Bing is on the record as to his total disapproval of how this administration shunned responsibility on this issue. Have a great upcoming day.
My eyes are becoming cloudy, I feel more tired then I did a few hours ago when I screwed the pooch, and gave a false impression on a given issue. I feel even more sleepy. But I take courage that I too, have side arms on my chair :).
I can take the sometimes rough landings on the carrier despite my bad judgement, and land without falling off the chair or spilling the red wine unto the key board. But a direct ill carried out landing procedure. Take my wings away from me.
Things are not shaping up well for the goons that get tax dollars to pay for their huge salaries in the White House, by all indications.
Revenge is Mine say the Lord of Host. But surely HE gives us some leeway when it comes to trying to in each of our little ways try to preserve what HE allowed to come to past on the planet earth. I believe America is what it is called.
I can totally relate to the horrible things that happened to those four men. I still have a nephew on a second tour at a rather remote FOB in Afghanistan, each day doing what he must in this case as a civy Intel contractor do in behalf of his country's best interest.
For me as with so many others here, and other like minded sites, it is about how does our leadership best give those in harms way adequate protection where it is at all possible.
Those that roam about the oval office and pollute it's honor this time around are held in contempt in my eyes.
I will continue to give the DOD and the CIA a pass on this one. They most likely where over ridden by perhaps someone like the black widow's, eyes upon the clown she rules over. And obvious to most I taint talking about the lard ass that on occasions does some gardening. Sleep well.

[GOPJ]

Panetta is a bald-face liar.

Or worse...