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Posted on 02/12/2014 12:37:05 PM PST by Nachum
The U.S. military had a multitude of forces in the region surrounding Libya when terrorists attacked the Special Mission in Benghazi and murdered four Americans, according to an unclassified Navy map obtained by Judicial Watch this week.
The map features the Navy fleet positions in the North Africa Area of Responsibility (AOR) on September 11, 2012, the day Islamic jihadists raided the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the first diplomat to be killed overseas in decades, and three other Americans were murdered in the violent ambush.
Dozens of vessels were stationed in the region on that day, including two aircraft carriers (Dwight D. Eisenhower and Enterprise), four amphibious ships, 13 destroyers, three cruisers and more than a dozen other smaller Navy boats as well as a command ship. Carriers are warships, the powerhouse of the naval fleet with a full-length flight deck for aircraft operations. During the Benghazi attack, two carriers were based to the east in the Arabian Sea, the Navy map shows.
Two amphibious assault ships (Iwo Jima and Gunston Hill) were situated to the east in the Gulf of Oman and one (New York) was in the Gulf of Aden, the map shows. A fourth (Fort McHenry) was located on the west side of the African continent in the Atlantic Ocean. Amphibious ships resemble small aircraft carriers and have air-craft strips for vertical and short take-offs and landings. The destroyers are scattered throughout the region, but the closest appear to be four (Cole, Forrest Sherman, Jason Dunham and Aboon) in the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya. The rest of the fleet includes cruisers, minesweepers, patrols and a command ship.
The map was provided to Judicial Watch by retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Randall R. Schmidt, who is investigating how the military responded
(Excerpt) Read more at judicialwatch.org ...
The enemy killed four Americans and ran us out of Benghazi. To this day, what has been done to send a message to our enemies that they would pay dearly for trying to do this again?
Benghazi is in North Africa. Carthage was in North Africa. Can anyone find Carthage on a map? Seen any photos of Carthage? Carthage laid a couple of big defeats on the superpower of their time...Rome. I can fly to Rome and take photos. Nobody even knows where Carthage was. There’s a lesson there for us. I’d be willing to pay for a few bags of salt for Benghazi.
one of the questions asked at the link is where was the JC Stennis Aircraft carrier.
Apparently it was enroute to relieve the Enterprise.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/where.htm
Active Duty ping.
“You have the right to remain silent....”
To hell with Miranda rights. Waterboard his terrorist enabling ass.
How many hours does it take to fly from McDill to Benghazi?
Not sure where you are going with that question. Depends on the aircraft and mission profile. What does that have to do with Benghazi? The operational forces do not come from McDill. Libya is AFRICOM's AOR. SOCOM units would already be at a FOB within the AOR.
It appears your post has gone over like a fart in church. No matter how much we may want to slam the administration over their lack of response, if this map is correct, your analysis is correct-no naval units were in a position for any kind of timely response. Referencing amphibious ships in the Gulf of Aden and Gulf of Oman as the original post does only indicates ignorance of their capabilities.
The biggest failure here was the ignored warnings and denied security requests from the ambassador to the State Department.
Yep.
I guess.
If the map is correct then it just shows that the Navy had nothing afloat near enough to help. It does not show what other military resources were available.
The nearest significant US base was Sigonella in Sicily, which may have had some special forces people and transport aircraft suitable for the mission. These may be what Gen. Ham may have referred to, unless there were some secret squirrels in less well known places. Sicily would be much closer than AFRICOMs bases in Stuttgart or Djibouti. Flight time would vary with the asset, plus lead time of course, and decision cycle time, so I expect that if assets were available at Sigonella and a mission approved promptly they would have arrived at best three hours after the attack.
If it were me deciding I would have approved the mission, if one were immediately feasible. If nothing else it would have shown the flag. I would also have packed Benghazi harbor in the following few days with those destroyers and done the gunboat diplomacy thing.
But given the timeline of the embassy attack its pretty clear that anyone not already on the spot could not have saved the ambassador.
I understand you sentiment regarding Egypt. When the moslem brotherhood took over as was apparent; It was time to go (imho). I was of the opinion we should have left earlier. I realize the Egyptian People did fight back against the moslem brotherhood, technically, without our help thanks to the political powers that be we funneled countless amounts of money to the moslem brotherhood through hillary’s State Department, panetta at Defense and zer0 with the approval of congress to keep the moslem brotherhood in power. Since moslems play both ends of the candle against the middle of the candle, I’m uncomfortable with not only our powers that be here but also the powers that be throughout the region. In Syria, I dislike asad immensely, but still prefer the devil we know instead of the devil lurking to overthrow him. Know I went from Egypt to Syria and did not mention Lebanon or Libya but I am of the opinion we should leave the region to its own, including the Saudis. Iran ... would allow Israel to do what they must and if we should need to become involved as we should have earlier and did not thanks to once more the powers that be, (imho) our powers that be have made too many mistakes and eventually (imho) the region will become more rabid. But that is only my opinion.
Yes, the dead SEALS would have preferred ‘operational forces’ but in the situation they were in I’m sure a few over-paid over-stuffed generals would have done just fine.
My question’s real - how long would it take to fly from McDill to Benghazi? I’m assuming you understand - I’m NOT talking about 1970’s style crop dusters...
The decision whether to remain in a country considers many variables, security just being one of them.
jmo
Benghazi ping.
Let Republicanprofessor know if you want on or off this ping list.
I assume a military jet could have made the trip faster... I'm counting on you to give me that information.
(Not implying we had any military folks positioned any closer than Tampa...) Just curious and all as to how lame the excuses out of Washington have to be before someone looks at this realistically.
Impeach AND remove
Iirc we have had embassy’s attacked in Africa and we sent marines from ships to rescue the employees.
Yes the locals are supposed to protect the outside but I don’t think that precludes us from doing more as needed.
That’s not it. Despite the appearance, why would Obama/Clinton/JCS allow this to happen?
We know that the Red Cross and Britain had intel regarding 9/11 terrorist actions in Libya. They acted accordingly. We know the US had the assets and the capability to intervene.
Why was Stevens better off dead?
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