The Benghazi Transcripts: US military woefully unprepared for attack, documents show

FoxNews ^ | 1/13/2014 | Jennifer Grifin

[RoosterRedux]

Hundreds of pages of declassified transcripts from the U.S. military's top commanders present a picture of a woefully ill-postured military force whose assets were not in a position to quickly respond to the Benghazi terror attack -- or other hot spots across Africa and the Middle East.

The 450 pages of newly declassified transcripts detail testimony from secret, closed hearings last year before Congress. They provide fresh insight into the military's decision-making that night from the very commanders who staged the rescue efforts, including the top commander in Africa at the time Gen. Carter Ham.

Among other details, they reveal gaps in the military's positioning of assets around the world.

For example, no attack aircraft were placed on high alert on Sept. 11, and the closest F-16 fighter planes to any of the trouble spots in North Africa were in Aviano, Italy. None were armed, and the closest air refuellers were positioned 10 hours away at a base in Great Britain.

No Defense Department AC-130 gunships were within a 10-hour flight to Libya, according to committee members who heard commanders' testimony over the past 15 months. And the commander's in-extremis force, which included a unit of 23 special operators who are used at the commander's discretion, were training in Croatia that day. They did not make it to a staging base in Sigonella, Italy, for another 19 hours after the attack began, according to committee members.

[blueunicorn6]

There must be something really bad about Libya.

[Graewoulf]

Dereliction of Duty File for the 2014 Impeachment of CIC B. Hussein Obama, aka Barry Soetoro, a known, documented, legal citizen of the Sovereign Nation of Indonesia.

[oldbill]

Had an alert recall been made at Aviano, I guarantee you that those F-16s would have been loaded, scrambled, refueled at Sigonella, and been overhead in four hours, max.

When Americans are in extremis, American military will spare no effort to come to their aid.
Providde they don’t have buffoon leadership stopping them.

Ham, Dempsey, Panetta, Obama will forever have those dead Americans on their souls.

[Eagles6]

Yeah. Don't know if it's true or not, just throwing it out there.

The real crimes are that the Benghazi office had little security despite the men on the ground begging for it.

The general and others are saying that they didn't have forces postured to help on he anniversary of 9/11? Why not?

they say they couldn't have gotten there in time? No one had any idea how long this would last, our guys could have held out for days or it could have turned into an Iran hostage situation.

Let's no forget the real reason why they were there in the first place.

But yeah, are there any Patriots in the the higher ranks? Will anyone spill the beans about what is really going on?