Hicks: Special Forces ‘Furious’ Upon Being Told to Stand Down video at link"According to Benghazi whistleblower Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission in Libya, special forces were “furious” when they were told to stand down during the Benghazi attack. “I will quote Lieutenant Colonel Gibson,” Hicks told the House Oversight Committee in hearings today, “He said, ‘This is the first time in my career that a diplomat has more balls than somebody in the military.’”"
This might be considered a stand down too.
Whistle-blower: Botched talking points hurt FBI probe of Benghazi attack"Another whistle-blower questioned Wednesday why more military assets were not deployed sooner during the Benghazi terror attack. Mark Thompson, a former Marine and official with the State Department's Counterterrorism Bureau, said he was rebuffed by the White House when he asked for a specialized team -- known as a FEST team -- to be deployed. This is a unit made of special operations personnel, diplomatic security, intelligence and other officers."
Here is a third way a "stand down" policy was implemented IMO.
Blow-by-Blow: How Obama & Hillary Left Americans to Die"Nordstrom further testified in writing that Hillary Clinton waived security requirements for the Benghazi consulate despite high and critical threat levels in the six categories of security standards established under the Overseas Security Policy Board and the Secure Embassy Construction and Counterterrorism Act of 1999. The waiver can only be authorized by the Secretary of State, who cannot delegate that responsibility to someone else. ”If the Secretary of State did not waive these requirements, who did so by ordering occupancy of the facilities in Benghazi and Tripoli?” Nordstrom wrote."
“they significantly reduced the protection forces”
The debate about whether there were adequate and available forces to intervene in the attack in time is not, in my thinking, a fruitful line of inquiry right now. That is not to say that it is not a significant question that needs to be addressed eventually, but it turns on fairly technical and arcane (to the average person) factors.
Why protection was reduced instead of beefed up is a more deliberate question that can be answered with documentation and testimony. There were policy decisions made. Who, when, and why?
And who were "they"??...At that level it's not incompetence......It's ACCESSORY TO MURDER!
People have forgotten that one of Hillary’s first statements about the incident was something to the effect of (paraphrasing) “Who would have thought that this would happen in a country that we just liberated?”
Her response showed at the very least, that she has no clue as to the motivations of Islamic riff raft, and sent our diplomatic mission in to a situation she didn’t have and still lacks an appreciation for.
Given the power of her position and the information/intelligence available to her, it is a self indictment of her inability to fill position of leadership of a rowboat much less the helm of a Ship of State as large and powerful as the United States. For her to aspire to higher levels of leadership, much less for anyone else to seriously consider her for such responsibilities, is sure folly.