U.S. Offers New Details Of Deadly Libya Attack (NPR calls it a mob)

Once a mob began attacking the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on the night of Sept. 11, officials in Washington, D.C., watched with alarm. Now, new details are emerging about their response to the deadly attack.

President Obama and his entire national security team monitored what was going on half a world away. Army Gen. Carter Ham, who was the regional commander for Africa, happened to be in Washington that day.

The consulate was burning, and Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was visiting the consulate with a small security team, was missing in the smoky chaos. For the next six hours or more, top officials in Washington watched and tried to send help as a second attack centered on the consulate's annex, a secret CIA base.

Officials say that U.S. forces from Europe and Fort Bragg in North Carolina were dispatched in an effort to help, but they arrived too late. Officials considered sending U.S. warplanes from Italy, but it was decided dropping bombs would lead to civilian casualties.

Officials dispute a report on Fox News that there was a delay, a "stand down" for CIA operatives and Libyan guards to help those under fire at the consulate.

The officials had little time to respond. There were no U.S. troops anywhere near the consulate, either in Libya or even in neighboring countries. So dozens of special operations forces and CIA guards from Tripoli were sent by aircraft to Benghazi, 480 miles to the east. They could not get there in time to help defend the consulate.

Ham, back in Washington, requested a military counterterrorism force from Europe. But they arrived in Libya the day after the attack and deployed to Tunisia two days later. A larger special operations force was sent from Fort Bragg, complete with their own helicopters and trucks. They arrived in Sigonella, Italy, too late to be any help. No American forces were denied by Washington, officials say.

American attack aircraft? An AC-130 gunships would seem to make sense. That's the lumbering black cargo plane, a flying battleship with three types of heavy guns and high-resolution cameras. It's often used to support special operations forces in tight urban areas and can zoom in on enemy forces. But there were no Spectre gunships in the area, officials learned.

Attack helicopters? None around. There were two Navy ships in the Mediterranean, the USS Laboon and the USS McFaul, but only the Laboon is equipped with a Seahawk helicopter, the Navy's version of the BlackHawk.

They were American warplanes based in Aviano, Italy, just across the Mediterranean. But they could not arrive in time to help with the consulate fight. When the attack began, consulate officials made an urgent call to the CIA guards at the nearby annex: We're under attack.

The CIA official there organized his force and the Libyan guards at the annex. Some tried to find heavy machine guns to bring along to the consulate, about a mile away. One of the CIA operatives waiting to leave grew increasingly angry, convinced they were being told to "stand down" on two occasions, according a report on Fox News.

CIA officials in Washington strongly deny there was any order not to mount a rescue mission. And the source tells NPR there was never an order to stay put. It was all about getting ready, not delaying. Within 24 minutes, the American and Libyan team moved out toward the consulate.

The convoy drove along an indirect route to avoid hostile militias, and the Americans and Libyans hustled along on foot for the last half mile, arriving an hour after the call for help.

The source said that surveillance cameras establish what time they left the annex and what time they showed up at the consulate. When they arrived, Ambassador Stevens was missing. He was carried to a hospital by looters, and later died there of asphyxiation from the smoke he inhaled while in the consulate's safe room.

The American and Libyan team loaded up the wounded and the survivors and made their way back to the annex. They got lost in the maze of streets, and some militia members shot at their tires as they made it back to the annex. In Washington, there was relief. At the White House and the Pentagon, top officials believed the worst was over after the successful rescue mission.

For several hours, there was a lull in the fighting. Then a second attack began, at the well-fortified annex. In Washington, the issue of attack aircraft came up among top officials.

The F-16 Fighting Falcons could come to the rescue from their base in Aviano, some officials thought. But there were no clear targets, it was decided. An unarmed Predator drone flew over the area, just before the consulate attack ended. But it offered only a "soda straw" view hundreds of feet below near the annex. There were no armed drones in the area.

Officials watched the grainy footage from the drone. It was hard to determine among the hundreds of people who was with a militia supporting the U.S., and who was taking part in that second attack, and who was a spectator — people, as the source said, "watching a war movie in front of them." Sporadic gunfire added to the confusion about separating friend from foe.

Officials eventually decided they can't drop large bombs in a residential neighborhood.

A decision was made: No close air support, not even as a show of force that could possibly disperse the fighters. The Americans, and their Libyan allies fighting with them on the ground, were on their own.

At some point, the Quick Reaction Force arrived from Tripoli to help. Rocket-propelled grenades and mortars slammed into the annex. One mortar curled into the base and killed two Americans. The annex was never breached, and the attackers were fought off. The force from Tripoli helped move the survivors to the airport.

There was frustration in Washington that no more American firepower could be brought to help, according to the source. No more troops. No aircraft at all. If the Quick Reaction Force from Tripoli had not been able to fight off the attackers and evacuate the annex, there would have been even more casualties and perhaps more pressure to send in some type of additional American force.

In the end, four Americans were killed: Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith, a U.S. Foreign Service officer, as well as two embassy security personnel, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods. Another 30 Americans and Libyans were wounded.

Obama and some of the same senior officials who huddled in Washington and tried to send them help assembled at Andrews Air Force Base three nights later to meet the four caskets

“NPR must have missed that interview!”

They were busy in a circle holding hands and watching Big Bird.

Will have to dig some more to see where Gen. Ham actually was on 9/11, but did notice these:

Two U.S. officials tell Eli Lake that the State Department never requested military backup the night of the attack.
Nov 1, 2012 4:19 PM EDT

“Representative Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of a House oversight subcommittee investigating the Benghazi attacks, told The Daily Beast that General Carter Ham, the outgoing U.S. commander of Africa Command, “told me directly that he had no directive to engage in the fight in Benghazi.” Spokesmen from Africa Command declined to comment for this story.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/01/new-details-on-benghazi.html

“On Monday, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey issued a statement saying that Army Gen. Carter Ham –- leader of U.S. Africa Command — is leaving as part of “routine succession planning.” A civilian Pentagon spokesman said that Ham is retiring.”

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/military/fcca70c5-75cf-55be-90b6-16f3f95f2821.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Griboedov Aleksander Sergeyevich Griboyedov (Russian: Алекса́ндр Серге́евич Грибое́дов, alternative transliteration: Griboedov) (January 15, 1795 – February 11, 1829) was a Russian diplomat, playwright, poet, and composer. He is recognized as homo unius libri, a writer of one book, whose fame rests on the verse comedy Woe from Wit (or The Woes of Wit). He was Russia's ambassador to Qajar Persia, where he and all the embassy staff were massacred by an angry mob.Contents [hide] 1 Early life 2 Death 3 Legacy 4 References 5 Sources 6 Further reading [edit] Early life Born in Moscow, Griboyedov studied at Moscow University from 1810 to 1812. He then obtained a commission in a hussar regiment, which he resigned in 1816. The next year, he entered the civil service. In 1818 he was appointed secretary of the Russian legation in Persia, and transferred to Georgia. His verse comedy The Young Spouses (Молодые супруги), which he staged in St.Petersburg in 1816, was followed by other similar works. Neither these nor his essays and poetry would have been long remembered but for the success of his verse comedy Woe from Wit (Горе от ума, or Gore ot uma), a satire on Russian aristocratic society. Princess Nino Chavchavadze, Griboyedov's wife. 1820s As a high official in the play puts it, this work is "a pasquinade on Moscow". The play depicts certain social and official stereotypes in the characters of Famusov, who hates reform; his secretary, Molchalin, who fawns over officials; and the aristocratic young liberal and Anglomaniac, Repetilov. By contrast the hero of the piece, Chatsky, an ironic satirist just returned from western Europe, exposes and ridicules the weaknesses of the rest. His words echo the outcry of the young generation in the lead-up to the armed insurrection of 1825. In Russia for the summer of 1823, Griboyedov completed the play and took it to St.Petersburg. It was rejected by the censors. Many copies were made and privately circulated, but Griboyedov never saw it published. The first edition was printed in 1833, four years after his death. Only once did he see it on the stage, when it was performed by the officers of the garrison at Yerevan. Soured by disappointment, he returned to Georgia. He put his linguistic expertise at the service of general Ivan Paskevich, a relative, during the Russo-Persian War of 1826-1828, after which he was sent to St. Petersburg at the time of the Treaty of Turkmenchay. There, thinking to devote himself to literature, he started work on a romantic drama, A Georgian Night (Грузинская ночь, or Gruzinskaya noch'). [edit] Death Several months after his wedding to Nino, the 16-year-old daughter of his friend Prince Chavchavadze, Griboyedov was suddenly sent to Persia as Minister Plenipotentiary. In the aftermath of the war and the humiliating Treaty of Turkmenchay, there was strong anti-Russian sentiment in Persia. Soon after Griboyedov's arrival in Tehran, a mob stormed the Russian embassy. Monument erected in Soviet times in Dilijan, Armenia commemorating the location where Aleksandr Pushkin (on his way to meet his brother) stopped the carriage with Aleksandr Griboyedov's body being transported to Tiflis. An inscription in Russian and Armenian says: "Here A. S. Pushkin on 28[verification needed] June 1829 saw the body of A. S. Griboyedov". The incident began when an Armenian eunuch escaped from the harem of Persian shah Fath Ali Shah, and two Armenian girls escaped from that of his son-in-law. All three sought refuge at the Russian legation. As agreed in the Treaty of Turkmenchay, Armenians living in Persia were permitted to return to Eastern Armenia.[1] However, the Shah demanded that Griboyedov return the three. Griboyedov refused. This caused an uproar throughout the city and several thousand Persians encircled the Russian compound demanding their release. Griboyedov then decided to offer to return the Armenians. But it was too late. Moments later, urged on by the mullahs, the mob stormed the building."[2] Griboyedov and other members of his mission had prepared for a siege and sealed all the windows and doors. Armed and in full uniform, they were resolved to defend to the last drop of blood. Although small in number, the Cossack detachment assigned to protect the legation held off the mob for over an hour until finally being driven back to Griboyedov's office. There, Griboyedov and the Cossacks resisted until the mob broke through the roof of the building, and then through the ceiling, to slaughter them. The escaped eunuch and Griboyedov, who fought with his sword, were among the first to be shot to death; the fate of the two Armenian girls remains unknown.[1][3] Second secretary of the mission Karl Adelung and, in particular, a young doctor whose name is not known, fought hard, but soon the scene was one of butchered, decapitated corpses. Griboyedov's body, thrown from a window, was decapitated by a kebab vendor who displayed the head on his stall.[2] The mob dragged the uniformed corpse through the city's streets and bazaars, to cries of celebration. It was eventually abandoned on a garbage heap after three days of ill-treatment by the mob, such that in the end it could be identified only by a duelling injury to a finger. The following June, Griboyedov's friend Alexander Pushkin, travelling through the southern Caucasus, encountered some men from Teheran leading an oxcart. The men told Pushkin they were conveying the ambassador's remains to Tiflis (now Tbilisi). Griboyedov was buried there, in the monastery of St David (Mtatsminda Pantheon).[2] When Nino, Griboyedov's widow, received news of his death she gave premature birth to a child who died a few hours later. Nino lived another thirty years, rejecting all suitors and winning universal admiration for her fidelity to her husband's memory. In a move to placate Russia for the attack and the death of its ambassador, the Shah sent his grandson Khosrow Mirza to St Petersburg to apologize to Tsar Nicholas I,[2] and to present him with a large diamond, now known as the Shah Diamond.[citation needed] [edit] Legacy Griboyedov, c1825 Monument in Moscow Author Angela Brintlinger has said that "not only did Griboedov's contemporaries conceive of his life as the life of a literary hero—ultimately writing a number of narratives featuring him as an essential character—but indeed Griboedov saw himself as a hero and his life as a narrative. Although there is not a literary artifact to prove this, by examining Griboedov's letters and dispatches, one is able to build a historical narrative that fits the literary and behavioural paradigms of his time and that reads like a real adventure novel set in the wild, wild East." One of the main settings for Mikhail Bulgakov's satirical novel The Master and Margarita is named after Griboyedov, as is the Griboyedov Canal in Central Saint Petersburg. On April 17, 1944, Pravda ran a lengthy feature on the commemoration of Griboyedov's 150th birthday when high-ranking officials, military leaders, diplomats, writers, and artists had attended a celebration in the Bolshoi Theatre. Novelist and Stalin deputy Leonid Leonov eulogized Griboyedov, mentioning especially his love of his fatherland.

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