Stop me if you've heard this before - Benghazi First Responders Ordered to Stand Down

[Tim Steelersfan]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...yed-response-to-terrorist-attack-us-security/

Top CIA officer in Benghazi delayed response to terrorist attack, US security team members claim

Word of the attack on the diplomatic compound reached the CIA annex just after 9:30 p.m. Within five minutes, the security team at the annex was geared up for battle, and ready to move to the compound, a mile away.

“Five minutes, we're ready,” said Paronto, a former Army Ranger. “It was thumbs up, thumbs up, we're ready to go.”

But the team was held back. According to the security operators, they were delayed from responding to the attack by the top CIA officer in Benghazi, whom they refer to only as “Bob.”

“It had probably been 15 minutes I think, and … I just said, ‘Hey, you know, we gotta-- we need to get over there, we're losing the initiative,’” said Tiegen. “And Bob just looks straight at me and said, ‘Stand down, you need to wait.’”

“We're starting to get calls from the State Department guys saying, ‘Hey, we're taking fire, we need you guys here, we need help,’” said Paronto.

After a delay of nearly 30 minutes, the security team headed to the besieged consulate without orders. They asked their CIA superiors to call for armed air support, which never came.

Now, looking back, the security team said they believed that if they had not been delayed for nearly half an hour, or if the air support had come, things might have turned out differently.

“Ambassador Stevens and Sean [Smith], yeah, they would still be alive, my gut is yes,” Paronto said. Tiegen concurred.

“I strongly believe if we'd left immediately, they'd still be alive today,” he added.

In a statement to Fox News, a senior intelligence official insisted that, “There were no orders to anybody to stand down in providing support.”

Baier put that assertion directly to the operators.

“You use the words ‘stand down,’” Baier noted. “A number of people now, including the House Intelligence Committee insist no one was hindered from responding to the situation at the compound…so what do you say to that?”

“No, it happened,” said Tiegen.

“It happened on the ground-- all I can talk about is what happened on that ground that night,” added Paronto. “To us. To myself, twice, and to-- to Tig, once. It happened that night. We were told to wait, stand-- and stand down. We were delayed three times.”

 

[hamster]

I want corroboration on the this.

 

[BLITZ]

at this point what difference does it make? or so has been asked...

 

[hamster]

I have a feeling, some hard drives are going to go bad..

 

[Lmob0621]

It was Bush's fault... no wait, it was Reagan's fault... or maybe it was Lincoln's fault... at some point the communists will get back to it being Lincoln's fault.

 

[Yinzerlyn]

It happened 2 years ago. Who cares??? (Dems in America)

 

[Booted]

Dude, That was like two years ago.

 

[PoloMalo43]

It happened 2 years ago. Who cares??? (Dems in America)

The ReTHUGnicans care, what's wrong with you? They gotta keep that 'Democrat presidents are weak' fake meme going. It's the only phony card they can play as they've come to realize they may never win the white house again. So they just make up **** and give their golden approval to anyone who will write a book or open their mouth on Fox News and babble anything anti-Obama, anything.

http://thinkprogress.org/world/2014/09/05/3563759/benghazi/

The Amazing Shrinking Benghazi Scandal

A new book from five commandos who were guarding the CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya on the night of Sep. 11, 2012 claims that a U.S. official gave a stand down order that prevented forces from rescuing U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens, who along with three other Americans, died in the attack.

But rather than buttressing long-standing Republican claims that the Obama administration bungled the operation (and later sought to cover it up for political purposes), the revelation highlights how far GOP efforts to tie the president and his closest advisers to the terrorist attack in Benghazi have fallen.

In the book, titled “13 Hours,” five commandos who were guarding the CIA Annex in Benghazi, claim that “they protested repeatedly as the station chief ordered them to wait in their vehicles, fully armed, for 20 minutes while the attack on the diplomatic mission was unfolding less than a mile away,” the New York Times, which received an advance copy of the book, reports. The commandos say “they left the base in defiance of the chief’s continuing order to ‘stand down.’”

The story undermines the conclusions of various government reports — from both the administration and Congress, which found that no such stand down order was given — and even if true, lacks the explosive punch Republicans have promised. The contractors say that the CIA station chief on his own authority and was not operating under orders from anyone in Washington D.C. “He hoped to enlist local Libyan militiamen, and the commandos speculate that he hoped the Libyans could carry out the rescue alone to avoid exposing the C.I.A. base,” the paper claims.

In the days and years following the 2012 attack, however, Republicans and conservative commentators had promised more. They claimed to have uncovered evidence attributing the “stand down” order to President Obama or a rotating cast of advisers:

BILL KRISTOL: “It would have been a presidential decision.” [10/26/2012]

REP. DARREL ISSA: “I have my suspicions, which is Secretary Clinton told Leon [Panetta] to stand down.” [2/17/2014]

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ: “[M]ilitary personnel were ready willing and able, and within proximity, but the Pentagon told them they had no authority and to stand down.” [5/7/2013]

RUSH LIMBAUGH: “Doug Ross maintains here that Valerie Jarrett gave the orders to stand down in Benghazi. Valerie Jarrett, who constitutionally is not in the chain of command and cannot do that. And that’s why this, if true, is a bombshell.” [8/6/2013]

Earlier this year, the House Armed Services Committee concluded that U.S. military would have been unable to respond in time to the attacks and a declassified version of the House Intelligence Committee analysis found “no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration.” Both committees are currently Republican-led.

As Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Martin Dempsey explained to the Senate in February of 2013, “This is the middle of the night now, these are not aircraft on strip alert.” Then-secretary of Defense Leon Panetta testified that “unfortunately, there was no specific intelligence or indications of an imminent attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi. And frankly, without an adequate warning, there was not enough time given the speed of the attack for armed military assets to respond.”

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a member of both the House Intelligence Committee and the Benghazi panel, dismissed the new allegations. Members of both the House and Senate “found that our personnel acted heroically and appropriately in trying to secure local assistance and avoid ambush,” Schiff said in a statement. “Nor did we find any evidence that a different course of action would have saved – rather than jeopardized – more lives. To second guess these decisions made in the fog of battle is both unfair to the brave personnel involved and highly irresponsible.” But that’s not stopping Fox News and other conservative outlets from using the latest revelations to prop up the “stand down” conspiracy. The network is describing the stories in the new book “as a dramatic new turn to what the Obama administration and its allies would like to dismiss as an ‘old story.’” It will host a special featuring interviews with the security contractors interviewed for the book and promises to deliver a “first-hand account of what really happened in Benghazi.” But that truth keeps changing in ways that have Republicans second-guessing the strategy that many thought would lead them to a political victory over the White House.

 

[Confluence]

so PoloElfie chooses to believe the version of politicians not actually there over eyewitness statements from career military men?

And simply ignores the testimony above of some of those men who claim the ambassador and others would still be alive?

Please don't act like you're thicker than a whale sammich.....how is work tonight? You cleaning aisles or resetting pins?

 

[PoloMalo43]

so PoloElfie chooses to believe the version of politicians not actually there over eyewitness statements from career military men?

And simply ignores the testimony above of some of those men who claim the ambassador and others would still be alive?

Please don't act like you're thicker than a whale sammich.....how is work tonight? You cleaning aisles or resetting pins?

I'm at home thank you and you're still Canadian, so worry about flying hockey puck accidental deaths or whatever you guys do.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

ThinkProgress. Insightful. What's Mother Jones' take on this situation, I wonder?

 

[Steeltime]

Oh, for heaven's sake, we KNOW that Bammy had nothing to do with ordering reinforcements or ordering a stand-down, since he had important work to do - attend a fundraiser in Las Vegas the next day.

 

[hamster]

I'm at home thank you and you're still Canadian, so worry about flying hockey puck accidental deaths or whatever you guys do.

So now, if you happen to have been born in Canada, your opinion is worthless. You should shut up, and do as you are told by those that know better. How condescending. Polo's bigotry, and intolerance, knows no bounds. She is truly a piece of ****.

 

[Hineswardkickedurpanzyass]

I'm at home thank you and you're still Canadian, so worry about flying hockey puck accidental deaths or whatever you guys do.

I am pretty sure that is racist, why don't you just throw in a Canuck or moose joke while you are at it?

 

[Confluence]

Wait til she finds out I live just down the road from Ross McKittrick.......

 

[Rod Farva]

Wait til she finds out I live just down the road from Ross McKittrick.......

Name dropper.......

 

[hamster]

Name dropper.......

Todd Haley was at my son's soccer game this morning.

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

Todd Haley was at my son's soccer game this morning.

While his wife was in my bed...

 

[Yinzerlyn]

I am pretty sure that is racist, why don't you just throw in a Canuck or moose joke while you are at it?

Moose jokes are only valid in Alaska, dontcha know?

 

[Tim Steelersfan]

so PoloElfie chooses to believe the version of politicians not actually there over eyewitness statements from career military men?

And simply ignores the testimony above of some of those men who claim the ambassador and others would still be alive?

Please don't act like you're thicker than a whale sammich.....how is work tonight? You cleaning aisles or resetting pins?

Ahhh, THIS. In Ferguson, nothing matters, but eyewitness accounts. What HQ says matters nil.

In Benghazi, eyewitnesses aren't to be believed, but everything HQ says is.

It IS 100% all about the politics and nothing more.

 

[Rod Farva]

See, the narrative now is that there was no stand down order given because there was never an order given to do anything. So paralytic inaction due to feckless policy is now a defense.