10pm: Attackers open fire at the consulate, which has a main building and a smaller annex.
10.15pm: The assailants gain entry to the complex and the main building is engulfed in flames.
Many of those trapped inside escape but Ambassador Stevens, Sean Smith and a regional security guard remain.
The security guard manages to escape and returns shortly afterwards with others to try to rescue Mr Stevens and Mr Smith.
They find Mr Smith dead and pulled him from the building, but no sign of Mr Stevens. They are driven from the building by thick black smoke, fire and gunfire.
10.45pm: Security staff try to retake the main building but come under heavy fire and retreat.
11.20pm: A second attempt to retake the main building is successful. Fighting moves to the annex.
Midnight: Fighting at the annex - reported to last about two hours - results in the deaths of two more Americans, later named by US authorities as former Navy Seals whose job was to protect the other staff. At some point, here, a joint US - Libyan team of 8 U.S. marines (?) (Were they at the EMBASSY in Tripoli?) flown in, and an undetermined number of Libyan militia-men, arrives at a safe house (referred to as a farm at a remote location by one of the Libyan officials) where the bulk of the staff has taken refuge. (Location of the safe house is undetermined, as is how the staff got there, if it is at some distance from the Consulate.)
SOMEBODY sent the American troops - the question is who? My guess is that this actually was the intended / ordered response, the problem being that the true magnitude / nature of the attack was not fully understood until too late. The rescue team comes under heavy attack at the safe house; two more Americans(?) are killed.
1.15am: Amb. Stevens arrives at a nearby hospital - it is not known who took him. A doctor there has told the BBC that he spent an hour trying to revive him, but that Mr Stevens died from smoke inhalation.
2.30am: Security forces regain control of the annex.
?? am: More Libyan security forces arrive at the safe house, eventually the attackers are driven off, and the Americans are evacuated to the airport, around dawn.
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My understanding is that the annex is at the Consulate and the safe house at a remote location. Perhaps this is not correct?
You pointed out:
Actually Col. Hunt explained that everyone up the chain would have necessarily been notified immediately and they would have had the same access as DAS Lamb. ie. they could have listened in on the phone conversations w/personnel on the ground and watched the live security video on their laptops. There is no doubt that that would be available to the Pres., VP, Sec. State, Pentagon brass, CIA chiefs and many others. They could also have spoken with personnel on the ground just as DAS Lamb did.
Sure, I understood that, but I'm thinking that other information and communications beside the live feed and phone line(s?) from / to the Consulate would have been flowing up the chain, down (hopefully), and likely "sideways" as well. Under the circumstances much of the information might have been confused and or confusing. Even some of the information from the Libyans, afterward, was contradictory. The phrase "the fog of battle", applies, not to mention the possibility of false intel being injected even as the battle raged, or afterward.
Incidentally, in that one link of yours ( http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/12/13833848-us-diplomats-marine-rescue-team-were-also-attacked-at-safe-house-libyans-say?lite ) I found this:
Speaking of the rescue mission, he (Libyan Deputy Interior Minister Wanis al-Sharif) said: "A team of commandos arrived by air and went to a farm which we thought was a secret location. Once they got there, they came under heavy fire from heavy machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and automatic rifles, which resulted in the death of two others."
They went to a FARM? Maybe that's just a mis-translation, but if not, was there heavy fighting at both the annex and at a safe house located at the farm mentioned, which surely sounds like it was not inside the Consulate grounds, or even nearby.
The farm was supposed to be a secret location: That may go right along with "The Taliban is inside the house". I suppose the escaped staff could have been tracked to the safe house, though.
This account does not jive with the photos of Stevens being dragged through the streets. Are you suggesting that those animals shown dragging him, actually dragged him to the hospital? Why would the attackers do that if they were obviously trying to humiliate him? There is something wrong with your account.
My other question echos a poster above: where is the account of dead attackers? Usually, SEAL deaths vs bad-guy deaths are orders of magnitude apart. In a 4.5-hr firefight there should have been stacks of them. But no mention whatsoever. I repeat, there is something wrong.