Earlier today I wrote about the baffling failure to call in the U.S. military to rescue our diplomats besieged in Benghazi. That failure becomes even more puzzling if this Fox News article is right. Reporter Jennifer Griffin writes that former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were working as CIA security personnel at a CIA annex not far from the consulate, and they not only saw the entire attack unfold, but communicated what they saw to Washington in real time.
They wanted to aid the diplomats at the consulate but were told to “stand down”; they ignored those orders and made their way to the consulate and brought back the remaining diplomats, minus the ambassador, who was already dead. Then they took more fire at the CIA annex–this was where Woods and Doherty were killed by a mortar shell at 4 a.m., nearly seven hours after the initial assault began. But their urgent cries for help were not answered. Griffin writes:
In fact, at least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortars were fired at the CIA compound. The security officer had a laser on the target that was firing and repeatedly requested back-up support from a Specter gunship, which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations forces to provide support to Special Operations teams on the ground involved in intense firefights. The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours — enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators.
This would seem to directly contradict Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s contention that the Pentagon knew too little about what was going on to scramble military forces. As does this tidbit from Griffin’s article: “Fox News has learned that there were two military surveillance drones redirected to Benghazi shortly after the attack on the Consulate began. They were already in the vicinity. The second surveillance craft was sent to relieve the first drone, perhaps due to fuel issues. Both were capable of sending real time visuals back to U.S. officials in Washington, D.C.”
Assuming this account is accurate, it is downright mystifying–and alarming–that in spite of real-time knowledge about the assault as it was happening, and the presence only a short flight time away of considerable military resources, someone in the government (one wonders who?) decided to limit the response to sending 22 lightly armed personnel from Tripoli. Someone at a senior level needs to be held to account for this failure.
Isn't Max Boot one of the "think-tank commandos" who signed letters to the US government to arm these terrorists in the first place? Now he's complaining because the guns he gave these psychopaths are being turned on his own people? What did you think was going to happen? Who can you blame but yourself? n nQaddafi was at the gates of Benghazi ready to wipe these terrorists out – and Max was screaming for NATO intervention to stop them. He's also signing letters calling on these exact same terrorists to be armed and backed in Syria – after all, that is exactly what Ambassador Stevens was in Benghazi doing in the first place, arming them and shipping them out.
Pannetta said he could not send help in unless he knew it was safe, leaders act, not wait until it is safe. You do not need marines if it is safe.
We have a downright stupid and sad administration. They caused the death of 4 Americans, shame on them.
Sadly, Obama and his team have been inadequate in leading the country both at home and abroad. It gives me no solace to note that I did not vote for him….He has done the country such a disservice and spends much time 'on vacation' when the country is hurting. I can't tink of another President who did likewise.
What do you mean?
When two students at Columbine High School in Colorado were killing students and teachers, the poluce chief was frozen by fear and allowed people to die needlessly. Since then, police have adopted a policy of responding immediately with all available force when bad guys are shooting. n nApparently everybody in the Obama Administration is still in the "default to fear" mode of response to violent attacks. Bend over. Put your head betwern you legs, and kiss your a** goodbye.
"Assuming this account is accurate"…. let's remember that old high school cliche about "assume".
oldleftie – what about this story so far would lead you to believe we should presume the President's innocence in this case? It's a serious question. He has mishandled this so badly, and clearly he has lied, so why does he deserve any suspension of belief at this point? A politician must earn such generosity from the voters who gave him the opportunity to serve them.
Blackhawk Down Syndrome, nplus an overdose of 'we can't admit we have a CIA safe house in Benghazi' ??? n n
Obama saw his election going up in flames if things went sidewise or civies took a direct hit, and passed. And now he wanders around aimlessly vowing to get to the bottom of questions that could be answered post-haste by asking that guy he sees in the mirror every time he shaves when, how, and why he screwed up.
Kudos. This is a real insight, speculative though it may be. I can absolutely believe a calculation that "If a military effort fails, it will harm me politically, shades of of Carter's failed attempt" being foremost in Obama's mind. I remain deeply perplexed at Obama seemingly being able to skate out of this imbroglio unscathed. It defies my understanding.
America should reject the so called mass media. What good is it if we Americans can't get the ncorrect news on our TV's. the mass news channels are useless. If it were not for Fox and the ninternet we would be up s—s creek with out a paddle.I call for listen out and view out on all mass news channels except Fox news and the internet until they stop holding back news they don't want America to see and hear !!! ,News media are not supposed to suck up to government but are to be critical of government to keep it clean. Thats why our government is as corrupt as I have ever seen it in many many years !! n nPS: ED SCHULTZ AND CHRIS MATTHEWS SHOULD BE FIRED IMMEDIATELY FOR THE TYRADE THEY EXPANDED ON NATIONAL TV. COMCAST, ARE YOU LISTENING ?? n n n n
Chris Matthews and Ed Shultz and the entire afternoon and evening MSNBC line up are the defacto state owned media in the US. You can't fire Federal contractors that easily.
Ye we can, VOTE THE SOCIALISTS OUT OF POWER !!!
Woods and Doherty risked all, and ultimately gave their lives in an attempt to save Ambassador Stevens and the other consulate personnel. If Jennifer Griffin's report is correct, potential political damage was too high a price to pay for the Obama administration to support those brave men. What a contrast between selfless valor and craven cowardice!
no Max, this is not baffling, mysterious, or an enigma wrapped in vapor trails of obscurity. n nObama is President and takes those 2:00 AM calls. n nMystery solved.
His whole life is a mystery, what are you talking about? You must be a part of blind America !
Let me rephrase–Loujr1 you *don't want* Obama to be the one who takes those calls. n nYou see, when he does, there are problems. n nAnd that there are problems is no mystery. n nBecause Obama is the one who takes those calls. n nAnd doesn't know what to do and freezes. n nOr screws up. n nConsequently, because Obama was the guy with the ultimate responsibility, that help was delayed, the consulate continued to burn, the annex was attacked without relief, and following the event sanctimonious fairy tales about videos were slathered over the grubby failure of Presidential inactivity. And then sanctimonious fairy tales about the fairy tales and so on ad infinitum. n nNone of that is mysterious. n nBecause a pseudo-philosophizing empty suit took the call instead of a mensch. n nHowever he got here and to whomever he owes his deepest loyalties, even a blind man can see that having Obama your designated driver as Commander in Chief has as much chance of a happy outcome as Jemma taking the grandkids for a ride.
Because a terrified pseudo-philosophizing empty suit took the call instead of a mensch.
This story has made me ill. Put aside, for the moment, the cover-up and the media sycophants' complicity of silence. It is clear that very shortly after the attack began, the distress calls went out. It is clear that senior officials repeatedly gave orders for those ready to respond to stand down. It is clear that the White House, the DOD chain of command, the State Department and the CIA all knew what was happening or, at the very least, had the real-time ability to know what was going on. n nIt boggles the mind that no one gave the order to do something while these fine people were being murdered. It boggles the mind that Obama was unwilling or unable to order help be sent. It is impossible to contemplate that Obama did not know or was being kept out of the loop. Regardless of what happens on election day, Obama has proven that he has failed to live up to his Constitutional obligations as Commander in Chief. Say what we will about Jimmy Carter (and he deserves all of the opprobrium heaped on his failed presidency), at least Mr. Peanut had the decency to try a rescue and the fortitude to take responsibility for its failure.
This story makes me ill, too. Obama and his minions are despicable human beings, Anyone who votes for him is either an ignoramus or a despicable human being, or both. There are no other options at this point. He has forfeited any right to the noble office once occupied by Franklin Pierce.
Callous US gvt and SD! A bump in the road!!!! nHopefully this Pr. will be a minor bump in the h/o the this country.
Every agency in the U.S. Government had real time live feeds from the drones and the consulate plus live audio. That's been established in sworn testimony and via "unclassified" but names redacted emails. C130 gunships, F-16s and Delta forces were two hours away as admitted by General Ham who also publicly told the media he was not given the "go" signal to deploy. General Petraeus has put out a clear statement that the CIA did not make the decision to refuse help. So the only question remaining is who made the decision not to provide the fighters on the ground and the embassy personnel under attack the support they needed over a seven hour firefight. Only the White House or the Department of Defense acting under WH orders could have made this decision; not the State Department, the CIA, the DIA, or the DNI. They don't have national command authority. That's how this chain of command works. The left and the media can obfuscate this question, but I'm positive only one person could have given this order. If it turns out to be the President who is the only one I'm aware of with the authority to give this order then I suggest impeachment proceedings are in order. This is not a political statement, and if it is not rectified in a constitutional way it will have far reaching consequences regarding the military's and intelligence services relationship with the Executive Branch. If you really want to break our military then destroy their trust in their command officers including the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs and the Commander in Chief. The one thing I learned in a combat command is the men don't have to like you or agree with you, but they've got to trust you have their backs at all times. The incident in Benghazi is a clear message to the war fighters that command does not.
Thank you MGray38, for a very scholarly analysis of the potential long term effect this debacle can present to the symbiosis between our military and the command structure. It is mortifing.
iT'S FREE SPEECH , POST MY COMMENT ! pLEASE !
And so Max, what many of us wonder, is why any of this is puzzling to you given where the chain-of-command ends–at POTUS, it's weakest link. And why you think that this guy has a solid chance to weight the local players in the midst of an all-in American effort in Syria to avoid the shambles of an Islamist confederacy emerging from the anarchic vacuum after the big dog autocrat is put down. Or are you expecting Americans in force to serve as a permanent praetorian guard to impose order?
They've ripped a page out of the book of Arab politics: give me EVERYTHING I demand and more before I sit down to talk then I'll agree to sit down and talk to take some more from you. It's the same world view: let everything quiet down THEN move in to determine who other than us to blame. n nFrankly I'm half shocked the Obama regime didn't blame the whole thing on the Jews. You could see they almost wanted to with their nonsense about the video.
Max – what have you heard about General Ham, from Africom, being relieved of his duties. Rumor is he was going to go in and provide support, but was told to stand down.
Sounds like your friends at State and CIA have screwed the pooch, Max. Must be a terrible disappointment to you. Us ordinary citizens with no diplomats or spooks for friends are less surprised and less disappointed. We always knew the bastards were worthless. n nNo one at State or CIA ever gets fired. Both institutions are rotten to the core. I look forward to Petraeus on the hotseat answering questions from Issa's committee.
It sure appears that the CIA was rotten at the top, but clearly not at the core. At the core were Woods and Doherty, who refused to allow people to die. The CIA has real heroes in it. Its leaders are the sick cowards.
This is a fast moving story, people, so the latest picture emerging is even worse than we thought. n nIt appears that General Ham, commander of AFRICOM at the time of the Benghazi attack, was linked in with the consulate video feeds and audio contact from the consulate staff, as well as intel coming from the CIA Annex a mile away. General Ham dispatched the drones to the consulate and had live intel from at least one drone continuously within an hour or two of the attack. It *also* appears that General Ham dispatched a C-130 "Spectre" Gunship (a C-130 Plane equipped with heavy weapons for close-air support) to at least the CIA Annex if not to the consulate itself. General Ham also had at least two SOF units prepped and ready to intervene within a few hours of the attack. At the same time, we now know that the CIA contractors at the Annex were in constant communication with their superiors and were told to stand down by someone on two occasions but ignored those orders and proceeded to rescue the survivors from the consulate and retrieve Smith's body as well, back to the Annex. At the same time, the CIA station in Tripoli was cobbling together a relief force of U.S. contractors and Libyan mercenaries and flying in to Benghazi to help the Annex. It is not clear whether Panetta or Obama knew anything about this and might have been organized by the CIA at its own initiative. At some point during the firefight at the Annex, either Doherty or Woods used a laser targeting device to point out the position of an Islamist mortar team and requested supporting fire from the Spectre gunship. It appears, however, that General Ham was told by the Administration (Panetta? Obama? Biden?) *not* to intervene in any way. The rumor is that Gen. Ham began to deploy the SOF units in defiance of the order. It is a rumor that makes perfect sense in light of the fact that Ham was immediately relieved of command for no specified reason and in light of the fact that the Spectre gunship was there but did not apparently fire and the SOF units did not launch. n nThe story now begins to come together. The attack began and the call for assistance rapidly went out from the consulate and from the Annex along with immediate video and audio feed to AFRICOM, the White House, and other agencies plugged into the intelligence loop. AFRICOM quickly had a response force up and ready to assist but the White House ordered AFRICOM to stand down. When the commanding general acted in defiance of those orders he was quickly relieved of command. At the same time, the CIA agents at the Annex went to the rescue of the consulate and bought some time by barricading themselves into the Annex while CIA agents in Tripoli put together an ad hoc rescue force with Libyan militia, eventually arriving at the Annex some hours later, too late, unfortunately to save Doherty and Woods. The attackers broke off the attack once the CIA rescue team arrived in force. Team Obama made a calculated decision to downplay the incident, reasoning it seems, that 4 deaths was no big deal and counting on the liberal Media to go along with the theme that the attack grew out of a spontaneous protest.
you are probably very close to the truth! When was general Ham relieved of his duties? If this is true, the whole Army brass should be up in arms and if not- God help us- because then the remd forces have also been politicized! I have always had this apocalypsic view- Obama loses the election bu then declares a state of emergency nationwide- effectively annulling the election- with the Army doing his bidding. After this benghazi case, such a scenario is not out of the realm of possibility….
Oh I disagree, it most certainly is out of the realm of possibilities. Do you really think our military would side with this administration over the people of America?
I said it was one of my real nightmares-an apocalyptic view.But- do you truly believe that the upper reaches of our military- joint chiefs of staff – have NOT been politicized?? Loook at the actions of the generals- not one of them has responded to the many questions on the benghazi debacle ! There was an interview today on Fox with the assistant ecretary of defense in the bush administration -an ex- marine- who actually brought this to the fore and barely-just barely- witheld the accusation that the top brass had been politicized …In such an atmosphere, anything can happen-as unebelievable as it might be…
4 Americans were sacrificed to Allah, so the muslims don't get offended. nWe the people must fix this. nAmerica was never intended to be this way. nOur founders left us with the model to follow, citizen government. We should stop electing lawyers and start electing more Joe the plumbers, and Sally the librarians, the Ethel the accountants, etc. etc. You get the idea, besides, Congress was never intended to be anyone's career. nWe still have the remnants of the "good old boy's club" where Congress did whatever the hell they wanted, and took what they wished. They concocted thousands of pages of (laws), which they admit they don't really understand, and they exempt themselves from the very laws they demand we follow. nAm I missing something here? nDoes someone think someone else is pretty stupid? nDo these lawyers and thieves that steal from us, lie to us, and make fools of us, think that because we've not tar'd n featherd em YET, that we the people are not serious about changing the way government works. As it is, government seems to think that we the people work to provide government with the funds it deems necessary. In fact, we don't NEED a building full of government workers doling out education dollars as they see fit, and, of course, keep a little for their selves. That is the core reason why we're broke. We don't need 3 vice presidents in charge of paperclips working for the dept of ED. nWe must, of course rid America of all those who believe that America needs to be "fundamentally transformed". BUT, we must also begin to retake OUR Congress. Lawyers have been running things for a long time, and they aren't doing so good. nLet's give some other skills a chance at the wheel.
Believe it or not, someone posted a petition to the White House on Change.org to ban Fox news on the theory that presenting false statements of fact endangers our nation. Fortunately, as of Friday, there were under 30 signatures. I'm sure the White House would ban Fox news if they thought they could get away with it, but disrepect for our constitution, mercifully, has not yet reached that level.. nBut the obvious question is – why are all the other news organizations ignoring this story?