I thought that was the case, so it was the President and why didn’t anyone ask Hicks who gave the Stand Down order or didn’t he know?
"We do not know the facts for certain, but we do know that the rescue mission stand-down issue revolves around the granting or withholding of cross-border authority, which belongs only to President Obama. More than one hundred gung-ho Force Recon Marines were waiting on the tarmac in Sigonella, just two hours away for the launch order that never came."