I heard a story today from someone inside the military that I trust entirely. The story was in reference to General Ham that Panetta referenced in the quote below.
quote:
“(The) basic principle is that you don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on; without having some real-time information about what’s taking place,” Panetta told Pentagon reporters. “And as a result of not having that kind of information, the commander who was on the ground in that area, Gen. Ham, Gen. Dempsey and I felt very strongly that we could not put forces at risk in that situation.”
The information I heard today was that General Ham as head of Africom received the same e-mails the White House received requesting help/support as the attack was taking place. General Ham immediately had a rapid response unit ready and communicated to the Pentagon that he had a unit ready.
General Ham then received the order to stand down. His response was to screw it, he was going to help anyhow. Within 30 seconds to a minute after making the move to respond, his second in command apprehended General Ham and told him that he was now relieved of his command.
The story continues that now General Rodiguez would take General Ham’s place as the head of Africon.
I found this story when I got home after hearing this story.
quote:
President Barack Obama will nominate Army Gen. David Rodriguez to succeed Gen. Carter Ham as commander of U.S. Africa Command and Marine Lt. Gen. John Paxton to succeed Gen. Joseph Dunford as assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced.
As I was typing this I heard John Bolton on Greta say that there are conflicting reports of General Ham’s comments on this tragedy and why a rapid response unit was not deployed. Bolton says someone needs to find out what Ham was saying on 9/11/12.
"Although forces were on alert and ready to launch an operation if needed, the US military commander for Africa, General Carter Ham, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, and Panetta all decided against any intervention as they had no clear picture of events unfolding in Benghazi, he said."
Where is General Ham now? Nothing on the internet other than what Panetta said.
Ooooh this is very big! How often does it happen that a general has to disobey orders to save American lives?
I suppose that scumbag second-in-command is a friggin Obot.
Panetta is lying, just like everyone else in this administration. I don’t trust anything he says.
@ Tigerclaws - Thank you for this post. Other’s — An interesting scenario.
Here is a bit from Gen Ham’s bio - Note he took command in Mar 2011, it should be a 3 year tour. He has 36 years in the Army. We’ll need to look out for an announcement of his retirement.
Carter F. Ham (born February 16, 1952) is a United States Army general, who serves as the second and current Commander, U.S. Africa Command. In that position, he has been in command of the initial 2011 military intervention in Libya.
Ham previously served as Commanding General, U.S. Army Europe and Seventh Army from August 28, 2008 to March 8, 2011. Prior to that, he served as Director for Operations (J-3) at the Joint Staff from August 2007 to August 2008 and the Commanding General, U.S. 1st Infantry Division from August 2006 to August 2007. He assumed his current assignment with the Africa Command on March 8, 2011
Bump
"Bolton says someone needs to find out what Ham was saying on 9/11/12."
There is another forum in which a commenter states that Rep. Jason Chaffetz asked General Carter Ham why he didn't respond in Benghazi, and General Ham is quoted as saying, "No one asked me to respond".
The commenter, however, did not link to an article or video, so it's hard to verify. Wonder if there's any truth to this.