[Katechon]

They took the body of Information Management Officer Sean Smith, who had been killed. Glen Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods saved everyone that was still alive at the Main Compound. It took them three hours. And then they went back with all of them to the CIA Annex building, where they came from.

The attack continued. In fact, it had never stopped. The crew was fired upon during the entire ride running the gauntlet through the streets, from the Main Compound back to the CIA annex. They arrived back at about midnight.

Once at the annex, the annex has its own security – a security force there. There are people at the annex. The guys in the car join the defense at the annex. They take up firing positions on the roof – some of them do – and other firing positions around the annex. The annex is, at this time, also taking fire and does take fire intermittently, on and off, for the next several hours. The fire consists of AK-47s but also RPGs, and it’s, at times, quite intense.

-- Background Conference Call With Senior State Department Officials

At that point they called again for military support and help. And a THIRD time were denied.

Tyrone Woods was on the roof manning a heavy machine gun while mortars were being fired on them.

They were taking fire, but there were no communication problems at the CIA annex. The ex-SEALs were in constant radio contact with their headquarters.

This CIA annex was a very high value target. It contained a LOT of cash for the Benghazi Gun Running, as well as weapons, and a case files containing the names of the folks who were assisting the US diplomatic mission in this regard.

The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than 4 hours.

Keep in mind, the Sigonella Naval Air base in Italy is only 480 miles away. Back up could have gotten over Benghazi in due time. A Spectre AC-130 gunship carrying commandos could have been there in less than two hours. Such a gunship with a Gatling gun in the side is unbelievably lethal. It's a tornado of steal blazing with devastating power and pinpoint accuracy.

Two Tier-One Special Operations groups were at Sigonella, including Delta Force, which happened to be training in Europe.

Delta Force's primary tasks are counter-terrorism, direct action, and national intervention operations, although it is an extremely versatile group capable of conducting many types of covert missions, including, but not limited to, hostage rescues and raids.

No less than two drones were overhead during the attack and one of those drones was actually ordered in from Tripoli and sending back images in real time. At one point, one drone probably was replaced by the other, "maybe it ran out of fuel and the second one came in and took its place," speculates Clare Lopez.

This raging battle at the CIA annex was sent on video directly to the 'Situation Room' at the White House. There WAS “real-time information,” despite what Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said. We need to understand that that’s WHAT THE MILITARY DOES, everywhere around the world, on land or on a ship. Wherever it may be, they practice over and over again, repeatedly, the rescue of civilians and the rescue of embassy personnel, in each area wherever it is that they’re posted. They have drills, they have plans, they have practice situations, and they have role players that play the part of the bad guys.

In addition to Delta Force in Sicily, there were also guys on ships right off the coast of Libya when it happened. There were loads of assets, and every one of them had practiced repeatedly a scenario just like Banghazi. Not Benghazi per say, but a rescue situation where an American mission is under attack.

We know that at 5 pm eastern time (about an hour and a half into the attack of the Main Compound), President Obama met with Vice President Biden and Secretary of Defense Panetta in the White House for over an hour. Obama watched in real time the attack from a drone-cam. Then, at some point later, President Obama went to bed. He had that fund raising trip in Las Vegas the next day. He slept, he got up the next day and he skips his National Security briefing. Yet again.

somewhere around 4 o'clock in the morning the annex takes mortar fire. It is precise and some of the mortar fire lands on the roof of the annex. It immediately killed two security personnel that are there, severely wounds one of the agents that’s come from the compound.

-- Background Conference Call With Senior State Department Officials

Both SEALs died. And the terrorists got to keep all of the arms and cash of the CIA "annex."

[MestaMachine]

Excellent, concise, and to the point summary of the Benghazi nightmare. This is what we know. It’s what we DON’T know YET that is going to burn this playhouse down.

[Slyfox]

REMEMBER BENGHAZI

[onyx]

B T T T ! ! ! ©

[hosepipe]

The consulate was proctected by ONE(1) seal.. and the Annux was protected by ONE(1) seal.. They had thirty(30) or so staff at the consulate.. and whole entire city is protected by TWO(2) seals..

And they knew for several weeks ahead an attack was comming.. and even experienced a couple attacks before the final assault..

TWO(2) Seals... to protect the entire shebang.. with no overhead ordinance.. and little ordiance on the ground..

Who is the head guy running this dog and pony show.. Bagdad Bob?.. Barney the Dino?..
The kid that mows my lawn could do better than that...

Where are the people screaming from the house tops..
Where are the jokes?.. Where is the mocking outrage?..
This is not only criminal it is treasonous...

[Just mythoughts]

Who has the inventory list of what was taken? State Department? Maybe that is the question Congress should be demanding. There would be by necessity of government red tape copies of these case files, right?

I suspect the Obama administration knows who has these case files, they must be worth their weight in gold.

[Gene Eric]

Bookmark

[ScaniaBoy]

I agree with others; exceent summary of the Benghazi tradgedy.

Just one question: I used Google Earth to locate the US consulate and found it at the same spot that you’ve indicated (south-west perifey of Benghazi). However, when I tryt to locate the US consulate annex or CIA annex I get a pointer just north of the Algeria St, close to the harbour - about 4 km from the Conuslate. What did you use to pin-pont the location?

[21twelve]

Thanks for the great article.

[nightlight7]

From Panetta's explanation it seems that he and the generals weren't sure what antiaircraft weapons the attacking terrorists had. There was lots of advanced weaponery supplied to the anti-Gaddafi forces by the US and others during the uprising and it is conceivable that the attackers may have set up a trap against the routine response scenarios (e.g. as Aidid's forces had done in Mogadishu).

Hence, Panetta and the generals (or Obama) may have decided to take the safest course, callous and cowardly as it is. The most likely unfolding, if the Obama team gets pushed to the wall on this matter before Tuesday,is that Panetta will take the fall.

[Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America]

State Dept. 'Note to self': FIRE SUPPRESSION SYSTEMS REQUIRED IN ALL ANNEXES, COMPOUNDS, EMBASSIES, covert or otherwise.

Perhaps they know who took Stevens to the hospital but telling us a terrorist group did to try and keep their HOSTAGE alive would sound a bit DAMNING.

It reads like this thing went from a staged hostage-taking to a full on war because two unknowing SEALs decided to ignore their orders and engage the foreign players.

The brave actions of Smith, Woods, and Doherty were beyond heroic; Impossible to characterize with mere words. If Bush were President they'd be alive. I have no doubts about that. They're dead because their Commander-In-Chief abandoned them for political reasons.

[Paul R.]

A few points & questions:

Using Google maps, and scaling manually, the driving distance between the Consulate and the Annex (as located by the map provided above) appears to be right at 1000 meters. Not 2 km. This assumes Google’s scale is accurate.

Also per Google maps, there is a significant open area just to the south of the Annex, and a mix of developed and somewhat open areas outside of that. The Annex is “more or less” on the south side of town, and Benghazi overall is right on the coast. It would appear to be “not impossible” from the standpoint of sending rescuers in, possibly from a modest distance away if one doesn’t want to drop in right on top of the firefight / attackers, or fight through densely populated portions of the city.

Who were the “guys on ships right off the coast of Libya”? I had not heard / read this before.

I was under the impression that the Americans (Doherty, perhaps?) were lasing the mortar after it had fired on them, hoping for air support before the mortar got them in range? How would they know where to point the laser, until the mortar started firing at them (but missing)? At any rate, the part about the mortar fire immediately taking out Woods (at the heavy machine gun) and Doherty seems a bit exaggerated. It also seems like the battle might have gone even worse had the attackers been able to knock out the heavy machine gun / hit the annex right away.

Perhaps you mean that when the attackers’ mortar finally found the range, the first shot that actually hit the annex immediately killed the two Americans.

Was in fact the Annex abandoned by all Allied personnel that morning?

Do we know who the injured American survivors are? (Understandably, if they are CIA, their identities are being kept secret.)

[Paul R.]

One has to zoom in with Google Maps to get a good look at this:

There are actually 4 fairly substantial buildings at the Annex.

What is the large complex of sizeable buildings immediately North of the Annex? Could be some sort of farming (chicken houses?) or warehousing operation?

[Diogenesis]

"NOTHING is more important than protecting al Qaeda.
And finding underage prostitutes for my staff."

[Rappini]

I can only conclude that Barry Hussein Soetoro didn’t authorize our assets to go help our guys is because he didn’t want to offend the Muslims,period.

[Nachum]

The list, Ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/

[M Kehoe]

Thanks Julie for posting this on the FL board.

The Battling Bastards of Benghazi

We’re the Battling Bastards of Benghazi,
no fame, no glory, no paparazzi.

Just a fiery death in a blazing hell,
defending the country we loved so well.

It wasn’t our job, but we answered the call,
fought to the consulate, ‘n scaled th’ wall.

We pulled twenty countrymen from the jaws of fate,
led them to safety, ‘n stood at th’ gate.

Just the two of us, ‘n foe by th’ score,
but we stood fast to bar th’ door.

We called for reinforcement, but it was denied,
so we fought, ‘n we fought, ‘n we fought, ‘n we died.

We gave our all for our Uncle Sam,
‘n Obama didn’t give a damn,

Just two dead SEALS, who carried the load,
no thanks to us, we were bumps in the road.

Please join the Navy SEAL Foundation in taking a moment of silent reflection today to honor the sacrifice of these warriors and their families here at home.

5.56mm

[phockthis]

sfl