Posted on 10/26/2012 1:39:18 PM PDT by 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.
Leon Panetta needs to resign.
Will try to look thru the comments at Hotairand see if anything else shows up.
It was their commander in chief.
But I fully expect this administration to take full advantage of the CIA's obligation to stay quiet and try to pin any malfeasance on them.
“.....The American special operators, Woods, Doherty and at least two others were part of the Global Response Staff, a CIA element, based at the CIA annex and were protecting CIA operators who were part of a mission to track and repurchase arms in Benghazi that had proliferated in the wake of Muammar Qaddafi’s fall. Part of their mission was to find the more than 20,000 missing MANPADS, or shoulder-held missiles capable of bringing down a commercial aircraft. According to a source on the ground at the time of the attack, the team inside the CIA annex had captured three Libyan attackers and was forced to hand them over to the Libyans. U.S. officials do not know what happened to those three attackers and whether they were released by the Libyan forces.......”
http://www.israpundit.com/archives/50224
ping
Resign, he should out on bail awaiting his criminal trial. Him and Hitlery both, and Obobo also! And the heads of the so called "News Media" should be arrested also!
This is only “breaking news” on Fox. Went to AOL, MSN, CNN, MSNBC, you can’t even find the word Benghazi on the main pages. Pathetic.
Why are there NO Democrats in Congress at all who are wanting to find out what happened?
Who you asking?
Other than Fox News and the Right Radio commentators, there is no free press in the USA. The rest of these pathetic water-carriers for the Democrats ought to be boycotted and subject to every kind of approbrium.
The ambassador would be a skeleton in the closet the POTUS and SOS would not have wanted to linger around to some day tell the story.
This stinks to high heaven. Obama’s behavior all during, before and after was loopy. The guy they arrested about the “video”; what have they done with him? Of course, the “video” was a diversion meant to take the heat off Obama, you know, the guy who “killed Osama bin Laden and who lives in a bubble where Al Quaeda is ON THE RUN”. - If we cannot be shed of this phony on November 6, Lord help us!
I am SO damn mad about how Hillary, Obama and Biden behaved to the father of the boy who was killed at Benghazi trying to help rescue the people they’d left to die!! God, rid us of these fakes and phonies!
Maybe I’ve watched too who done its, but could this have been a murder. Was the ambassador put in a place where he was likely to be killed because someone wanted to get rid of him?
*************************************EXCERPT*************************************
There may have been confusion about what was overhead or the timing of overhead assets if the information was being passed through a serious of operations and command centers.
blink on October 26, 2012 at 3:45 PM
WHy the confusion? They had set up in a dangerous area that had been a war zone not long ago. The compound had already been threatened. They must have had a worked out protocol in case of an enemy attack. This wasn’t the consulate in Ottawa. I don’t buy it.
BoxHead1 on October 26, 2012 at 3:52 PM
I wanted to stress the fact that Woods and Doherty were FORMER Navy Seals working for the CIA.
In some reports and comments, Woods and Doherty’s actions are being construed and critiqued in the context of active military service. But they were not active military. They were FORMER military now employed by the CIA.
“....Fox News has also learned that Stevens was in Benghazi that day to be present at the opening of an English-language school being started by the Libyan farmer who helped save an American pilot who had been shot down by pro-Qaddafi forces during the initial war to overthrow the regime. That farmer saved the life of the American pilot and the ambassador wanted to be present to launch the Libyan rescuer’s new school....”
http://www.israpundit.com/archives/50224
Thanks very much.
Be sure to watch Bret Baier’s News which airs here at 5:00PM Central.
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