President Obama could not make the dicision to just say Go!
Now our Allies who listened real time to the pleas of our men for combat support waiting and waiting for the President to make a dicision would not follow this man.
According to reports below: Military Command Centers around the world waited for the President to say Go and help our boys at Benghazi.
Benghazi consulate » Within 24 hours, the station chief reported the attack was planned.
By KIMBERLY DOZIER and MATT APUZZO
The Associated Press - Oct.20, 2012
Washington • ...New disclosures that President Barack Obama’s administration could have known early on that militants, not angry protesters, launched the attack on U.S. diplomats in Libya.
Within 24 hours of the deadly attack, the CIA station chief in Libya reported to Washington that there were eyewitness reports that the attack was carried out by militants, officials told The Associated Press.
But for days, the Obama administration blamed it on an out-of-control demonstration over an American-made video ridiculing Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Those are the words of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb from her testimony before House Oversight Committee, Washington, D.C.on October 10, 2012.
"Once these words were uttered there should have been a stunned silence followed by an explosion of questions filled with outrage and disbelief, followed by more yelling and righteous indignation; sadly there was none."Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2012/10/16/murder-and-lies-in-libya/#ixzz29rPELPI8
Carr: Colonel Hunt, thanks for being with us again today. What did you think when you heard Joseph Biden talking ragtime right out of the box last night?
HUNT - The second time in my public career I get to call a public figure a liar --- that’s what I thought. Joseph Biden, right off the bat, lied. He said that what happened in Libya recently… The administration looked so inept is because of an intelligence failure. Howie, When Pakistan blew up an atomic bomb, and we didn’t know about it, that was an intelligence failure. When 9/11 happened, that was an intelligence failure. When India blew up an atomic bomb and we didn’t know about it, that was an intelligence failure. When the Iraqi military lined up on the Kuwaiti border, and we didn't see it coming – didn’t know they were attacking until they did it, that’s an intelligence failure.
This is a flat leadership problem.
What happened is that a woman named Lamb, Undersecretary of State for DSS (Department of State Security), 2 days ago, told Issa's committee that she listened, was talking to, and recorded an almost six hour fight that resulted in the death of four Americans. She was at the State Department's Operations Center in Foggy Bottom in DC. When that happens, there are a bunch of people that get informed. President of the US gets found---- the embassy is being attacked---Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Director of CIA, and on and on.
What also happens is that their command centers, National Command Center (CIA), White House Situation Room--- twelve [Command Centers] that I won't bore you with. At least twelve separate Command Centers are listening to the same conversation. It went on for six hours. The question I think, besides the fact that Biden is lying about it, is Why didn't we do anything? Why didn't the United States government react? Here we are, listening to an attack, and we didn't do a thing. We've got aircraft in Europe, aircraft in the in the Gulf, and we have the capability of doing something, and we did nothing. But for the Vice President...My point is everybody, from the moment the attack happened, in our government, and the decision-making capability, knew that it was an attack, that it was organized, that it was violent, and that it had nothing, nothing to do with a riot, an assembly of people, or a film.
This was not even close to an intelligence failure. This was prescient, actionable information. And this woman testified to it, and everyone's giving everyone a pass. We sat by and watched the Embassy fall, and four Americans died.
Carr: Who was on the radio in the consulate in Benghazi?
HUNT: Department of State Security employee -- a DSS agent was at the operation center in Benghazi. They had a room with radios and cameras. And he makes the call; he punches the alert button. Does everything correct and calls his boss in DC. Then he describes the attack for the whole time, until that the command center is overcome. But when she [Lamb] gets the phone call….
Carr: He's killed. He's killed. He's at the radio when he gets killed. Is that right?
HUNT: The radio stays open. It's still being recorded until it gets destroyed. Lamb, who is in DC listening to all of this--- Clinton gets called, the President gets called, the Joint Chiefs---everybody gets called about this. This is an embassy under attack. Period. It's an automatic phone call. And the fact that we have this recording, instantly. We know exactly the picture. By the way, he sent pictures back because he had cameras. So, the administration knew; they watched it, let it happen, and then for eight days lied about it. And then yesterday, last night, unfortunately, the Vice President of the US just lied. He knows it was not an intelligence failure. No one ever said that, by the way. This is a case where we have information and didn't act. It wasn't a case where we weren’t provided [info]. We had instant knowledge, accurate description, and just sat by and did nothing.
Carr: You said there were a dozen posts listening to this play by play account.
HUNT: Sure
Carr: Just give me a few examples of what kind of agencies would have been involved in this listening or monitoring.
HUNT: National Military Command Center in the Pentagon (that's the military head), the White House Situation Room, the CIA Operations Center, the Counterterrorism Center, EUCON (European Command). Africa Command, Special Operations Command, SOC-EUR [?] Special Operations Command Europe), Atlantic Command, NATO. Everybody.
Once this call is made, and a button is pushed, saying, oh by the way, we have an attack going on, everybody listens in --- this is old tech, an old procedure that’s been going on for years. Anybody who has ever been on a watch listening in the military knows what I am talking about. And it is amazing to me that this is not even being discussed. It is the elephant in the living room for me. We knew this was going on and did nothing.
Carr: Let's say, let's say there's the African Command and some sergeant is monitoring it, and you know, he's there and he listens to what's going on, and he says, captain come over and listen to this. And the captain listens to it, and I guess the captain would have to call his superior officer, right? And then at some point , wouldn't all these people be calling the Pentagon or the State Department in Foggy Bottom and say, Hey there's a problem in Benghazi. What are we gonna do?
HUNT: Within minutes that happens. It's instantaneous notification of an entire chain of command. An embassy is under attack and falling. And oh, by the way, turn to channel 27, and here's the information. And then these separate places are asking for – some cases begging for--- guidance. What do you want us to do? Because the military guys, whether it's in Bahrain or Europe, or any place else, can't on their own just go in there, but we have the means available. The point is that nobody pushed the button to say "GO."
Nobody had the guts. Nobody cared enough. Six hours, Howie [Carr]. The last time this happened was Mogadishu, when we stood by and watched a ten hour fire fight go on and did nothing. For ten hours that happened, during the Clinton administration. We watched this in Bosnia ....and other places, where an administration fails to act.
But this one. To have the vice president this late in the game --- over four weeks since this has happened---to lie about it and to say it was an intelligence failure is outrageous. And nobody, nobody caught him, nobody backed him up. And it's hardly being mentioned at all, but it's, I think, very serious. And what you said yesterday I think is going to come to pass. This is going to turn out to be a Watergate-sized scandal.
Heroic: Former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods, right, and Glen Doherty, left, were also killed in the mortar attack
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2220241/Barack-Obama-Benghazi-attack-Mother-diplomat-criticises-Presidents-optimal-comment.html#ixzz29radFEPu
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Carr: So you think you think some of these commands in the area or in Europe and elsewhere that they actually did go to the their civilian superiors in Washington or made contact with them and asked them what do you want us to do. And apparently there was no response?
HUNT: Howie, there are digital and written logs that will be produced that will show that each one of these places, automatically---it is not a question of, Do you have a choice. Whoever is on the watch; whoever was in command center, when an incident like this happens, HAS to do certain things, inform certain people, and it's all logged in. It's a matter of record. So once Lamb testified that she's listening to this, what she just said was that our entire Government was listening, not just Lamb and the State Dept. What I realized when I read the testimony and heard it was that if this phone call actually happened, all of these other headquarters were involved, and a whole bunch of people said NO to wanting some kind of attack to help save Benghazi. That begins and ends at the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon. And there's logs, and hopefully Congress will say, We want people to testify. We want the watch officer. We want the senior guy in charge there. Bring you records, and tell us who you talked to. It’s all procedural…
Carr: Is it the Pentagon's fault, or is it the State Department's fault?
HUNT: No, no, no. State and the White House. The National Military Command Center would not have been able, allowed, to launch---I don't believe---an attack without political permission because they would be launching into a country. I don't think the NMCC could make that call on their own. And it wouldn't be State; it would be the White House.
But again, Howie, during this attack, Clinton is informed---that is part of the procedure---and the President of the US is informed, as is the Vice President, as is the Chief of Staff, and on and on.
A six hour firefight in Benghazi is not classified. It is not a secret.
It's an event, and it's a serious event. And when the ambassador dies, when they know he has been captured, it even goes up higher.
And we couldn't get an FBI team in there for three weeks. We had CNN reporters in there picking up the Ambassador's diary. This was ineptness, incompetence, and lying. I think Biden ought to be called on it, just like we did with Clinton when she said she was being shot at. People were there Mr. Vice President. You are lying. This was not an intelligence failure, and he knows that.
Carr: Who should have made the call? Who should have ordered the troops? Who should have ordered some kind of scrambling? send in the jets, helicopters, Marines?
HUNT: The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs could have easily called the Secretary of Defense. The Secretary of Defense could have done this, easily…Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff. Howie, they are never out of contact with each other. It's not like, Oh, go find Leon Panetta or where’s the President?
Anyone in that chain, from the Secretary of State…could have asked or told the Dept of Defense, We need help in Benghazi now. What are the closest assets we have? That’s a simple phone call.
Just simple operation military can do that, but they never would have done that on their own. There are incidents in our lifetime where we wish we would we had done it on our own. Bosnia is just one of them. Africa, remember the Congo, and a whole bunch of other places where we didn’t. But this is an example where we watched four Americans die and a consulate fall. We had 320 incidents leading up to this, and while the attack was going on for 6 hours, we watched it. Not just Ms Lamb, but the entire operational arm of the US government was watching and listening to this, and we did nothing.
More evidence of deception By President Obama’s attempts to wriggle free from his own words and actions on Libya are making things worse. American Crossroads, taking exception to Obama’s announcement last night that he really had declared Benghazi to be an act of terrorism, has sent out a memo, which reads:
The President clearly misled the American people with this claim, because if Obama’s Rose Garden speech was indeed the White House position, it did not inform any subsequent statement by the White House press office — and was even directly contradicted by his own spokesman several days later.
Carr: Where are the reporters? This is like Watergate.
HUNT: Yes
Carr: When Watergate broke, every newspaper in the country, every network in the country was all over this. Now, it Daryl Issa and Jason Chafetz, and a few Republican congressmen and staffers. Where are the reporters? Are they too busy looking for somebody Mitt Romney gave a haircut to when he was in prep school?
HUNT: I can’t answer that, but for me, they are so in the bag. And, by the way, this is so obvious…this is such an obvious thing, that it is being missed. If the operational center at the State Dept is hearing this, all these other operational commands are hearing this as well.
Carr: So there's got to be a lot of people reporters could talk to---there’s people who are assigned to the Pentagon---they haven't had that many cutbacks. There's got to be people who know what happened that could provide them with the documentation and the records, and it wouldn't take long to blow the story out of the water.
HUNT: It should have been blown out two days ago. I’m not the only one who thinks this is crazy thinking about this. Any guy who’s ever pulled watch, any NCO, any enlisted officer---anybody who’s ever been in these Command Centers knows exactly what I’m talking about. And, Howie, this is after 911. Fifteen years ago we did this. And since 911, since we’ve been at war for eleven years, in Afghanistan, our communications is staggeringly quick. Look at the White House situation room during the killing of Bin Laden.
Carr: And it's and it is the anniversary of 9/11 that this is all happening on. You’d think they'll be even more on their toes. HUNT: Yes. The communications is sophisticated and instantaneous. They had satellites looking at this. Carr: They had drones…there was a drone looking at this, right?
HUNT: Thank you. And our reaction---three weeks…. We’ve got an ambassador dead, two retired Navy Seals, who weren’t even assigned there---they were assigned to a classified annex down the street--- and another man. And the place is decimated for six hours, and our response is zero. And then the Vice President gets on, and the first words out of his mouth is a lie ---
Well, it’s an intelligence failure. No, it is not, Mr. Vice President.
It’s not even close to an intelligence failure. This was inaction on the part of your administration who watched this guy die and did nothing. I don’t know what they are investigating, it’s so… My only concern is…Well, there’s too people, just too many people that were watching this. I honestly don’t see how they get to cover this up, unless the press doesn’t do its job. But I didn’t even hear Issa’s committee ask her [Lamb] the question. Maybe the people were in shock when Lamb made her statement, but that’s staggering. I can't believe that people don't know what I'm saying… that all these other….
Carr: This like something out of a movie, where some non-com says, “Colonel, colonel, our men are getting slaughtered there.” And no one has any interest in following it up. It seems like fiction; it doesn’t seem like it would happen in real life.
HUNT: It's happened a lot in my time, unfortunately. Like I said, we saw it in the Congo: we saw it in Bosnia. We've seen a lot of incidents where an organization will not act. It’s frozen, and this is the case. And that sergeant you are talking about is actually a general. This is immediately communicated that this embassy is under attack violently, and generals are looking on their IPADS at the pictures, and that’s how good this stuff is. Those images are all over the place. And we knew this was bad, getting worse, and did nothing, and then lied about it for 8 days? Carr: So how many people do you know…
Criticism: Pat Smith, whose diplomat son Sean, right, died in the raid, slammed the President's remarks
President Obama on “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart that the slaying of four Americans in Benghazi was “not optimal.” That shameful remark cut a very deep wound in Pat Smith, whose son Sean was among those killed in last month’s attack. In a heartbreaking interview with The Daily Mail, Smith took Obama to task for his callousness and reckless disregard for her son’s life:
Speaking from her home in San Diego, Mrs. Smith, 72, continued: “It’s insensitive to say my son is not very optimal – he is also very dead. I’ve not been “optimal” since he died and the past few weeks have been pure hell.”
“I am still waiting for the truth to come out and I still want to know the truth. I’m finally starting to get some answers but I won’t give up....."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2220241/Barack-Obama-Benghazi-attack-Mother-diplomat-criticises-Presidents-optimal-comment.htmlHUNT: -- Rice’s statement now, along with the President’s, by the way, and the Secretary of State’s and everybody else, there’s a bunch of people lying. It’s not just Rice. She just got stuck on the Sunday news 5 times. And everybody, on top….[interrupted by Carr] Carr: How many people actually---give me a number of people who knew what was going on while it was happening, or all around the world. How many people would have known?
HUNT: Oh, it’s in the hundreds---those staffs---anywhere---NMCC, maybe 60-70 people at one time; CIA Operations Center, about forty plus; the Terrorism Center could have 60-70 on duty at that moment: the White House situation room, 12. It goes on and on. I mean it's hundreds of people, Howie, that knew what was going on at the time---not later. It's to me such a huge thing that maybe it’s just so big and so obvious that people are just letting it go. I have no explanation for it. Except what I'm telling you is not a revelation. This is day-to-day operational information that this administration has been lying about for all this time. You don't need an investigation. There are straight up procedures that, I promise you. were followed. And in those procedures, people like the Sec of State, the Pres of the US---within minutes---within minutes are told, We have an embassy under attack.
A Libyan man investigates the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi following an attack by militants that killed four Americans on Sept. 11. / Sept. 13 photo by Mohammad Hannon/Associated Press
HUNT: I wish this was being blown out of proportion by the press. Romney was right when he said it. it's a very, very awkward defense. Cutter’s a PR person But the vice president---people have to call him out on this. He should, not should, he does know better. He’s just lying. It’s the second time I have had to call a public figure a liar…. It's outrageous. We had people dying. And, by the way Howie, it’s not just one phone call. During the six hours, all of these decision makers are being updated by their staffs. General, this just happened. General, we just found out this guy died. The fight’s still going on. There are now 60 people---these are constant. Video, written, digital, audio updates to the chain of command that did not function. It just seized up. That to me---Why did it seize up? Because there are a whole bunch of people need to go to jail….[Carr interrupts]
Carr: Surely there was somebody --- surely there must have been several people trying to get something done, trying to get some relief to the these people that were in mortal peril, right?
HUNT: Of course; there are really good people in these organizations. Why the decision was not made to, at least, attempt to do a flyover, to put jets in the air, Marines moving, something. I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for it. I’ve been in those rooms when decisions were not made, and they were always political, as to why they were not being done. But this, this one….Our capability to record things is so sophisticated, this will come out. I just…No news organization has---because I have talked to a couple of them --- has gone on this angle. They are still going on the Romney vs Obama, versus Biden laughing too much. Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. How about he lied--- in his opening remark. He flat lied. It was not an intelligence failure. That a lie, and he knows better. He knows it wasn’t an intelligence failure. He’s been in the government, what, for 40 years? Carr: Yea, 40 years.
HUNT: Like I said, Pakistan blowing up a nuke, that was an intelligence failure. 911, big intelligence failure. What happened in Benghazi was an operational, leadership failure on an entire government chain of command. It did not act and had six hours to do so and did nothing.
Carr: It certainly seems like it's gonna come out if they have the former head of the CIA and Michael Chertoff and these guys issuing statements today saying that Biden was way out of line, and he lied, and he knows better. These guys can point any reporter that’s interested in the right direction, who to talk to to get the information, I would think it.
HUNT: It’s a huge…. Howie, standard operating procedures of how our government operates---There’s books, huge, huge books. And every one of these Commands I have mentioned was on that call, was listening, and followed their procedures, and were never given the words to go. It never happened. That’s all…It’s simple. It’s a very simple question and a very straightforward answer. I talked to this General: I talked to this Secretary. The Sec of Defense said this. The Chief of Staff at the WH said this. It’s not hard. This is all recorded. And somebody needs to explain why, for all this time---6 hours went by and Americans died---and all this time for the FBI to get there, and, oh by the way, Why is it that the heads of our government are lying about this. Can you imagine if you are a family member, if you are Steven’s family, or these Seals, or the kid from Winchester? And you are getting lied to like this? C’mon. I mean c’mon.
Carr: I know. Well how about to know that they're listening all over the world for six hours while your son or husband could have been saved.
HUNT: Yes, yes: that’s why I’m yelling about it. When Lamb said that, when the Undersecretary of Defense said that, I went, Oh my God! Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Where is the follow-up. Where is the New York Times banging on the door.
Carr: Exactly, exactly. Let’s take a call or two… [First caller not transcribed] Second and last caller: Adam you're next with Howie Carr and Colonel David Hunt. Go ahead Adam. Thanks so much for covering this. This is absolutely infuriating our guys are being treated this way. We don’t even give them the respect enough to---this is just disgusting. Somebody's gotta leak that tape.
HUNT: Ok, the testimony is public. It’s on the Internet.
Carr: We know the testimony, but Adam is saying [if we had the tape] we would know what the former Seal was saying five hours before he was brutally murdered. You know what I mean.
HUNT: But that tape’s available. All of this---if people can get upset about this. If the press would simply do its job. To me it's so obvious… what these people’s jobs were and how much information they had, and the fact that they decided to do nothing, and then to lie about it on television for all these weeks---And the Vice President to start out with a lie like this and not get challenged, no push back.
Carr: I know… He lied to forty million right out of the box last night.
HUNT: Of course he did. This is not an opinion. I’m not giving you Colonel Hunt’s opinion. This is a fact. She [Lamb] said what she said [in her testimony] . It’s a matter or record. These Commands exist, and the procedure is as I have stated.
There is nobody who is going to argue or push back that when an embassy in under attack, there in a ton, a pile, a truckload of headquarters that are listening and have operational plans to do something about it, and they were not allowed to do it. Our government knew exactly---Pearl Harbor was an intelligence failure. We didn’t see that one coming. This one, we not only saw it coming, we were watching it minute by minute.
Carr: Have you talked to anybody in the Romney campaign about this? I mean, they should be ready to go with this next week.
HUNT: I've got a couple calls in, and I'm trying to get a hold of Sununu and ??? and they are really busy. The answer is No, I haven’t talked to anybody. […..] I don't know why this is not being jumped on. There is no wiggle room here, Howie. This is Lamb’s testimony in State Department and everything else after that is facts. It’s not an opinion. CIA Operations Center was listening. The White House Situation Room was listening, and on and on and on. Carr: Did you hear the ombudsman of the New York Times, the public critic? She wrote on her blog yesterday, I don’t know why we aren’t covering this story.
HUNT: (laughter)
Carr: She did! I give her credit for saying it. And do you know what the editors came back and said. There were six better stories to cover in DC.
HUNT: You're right: you were right this is going to be big. This is Watergate big because of the coverup and how many people were involved. Carr: This is the way the New York Times handled Watergate in the beginning. They tried to poo poo it---It’s just a police story you know. And they got their butts kicked. And someone's gonna kick their butts on this story too.
That command structure did nothing. Afterward, they lied outright to cover-up their own culpability for political reasons. An intelligence failure, under the circumstances, was impossible.
State Department officials have revealed for the first time that there were no demonstrations or protests outside the Libyan Embassy last month and that the so called anti-Muslim video had nothing to do with the attack and murder of our Ambassador and other Americans. The White House is now saying it was bad intel that led them to blame the movie. We spoke with Fox News military analyst Col. David Hunt about these revelations.
SecState Clinton’s signature on documents ordering reduced security, no marines, unloaded weapons - and cover-up
Col. David Hunt w/ Howie Carr WRKO AM 680 - Boston - Wednesday, October 10, 2012 (32:14)
http://audio.wrko.com/a/64574661/islamabad-gate-with-col-hunt.htm
The Congressional hearing on the Libyan attack has revealed that the State Department denied a request by American Special Forces in Libya to continue their use of a DC- 3 airplane for security operations throughout the country. Meanwhile the State Department okay-ed the funding for Chevy Volts with a charging station for the U.S. Embassy in Vienna. We spoke with Fox military analyst Col. David Hunt regarding Libya and the White House’s attempts to sanitize their accounts.
Six hours in Benghazi - live and in color. “How are we not responding, when there’s a live fire fight underway for six hours?” Candlelight vigil outside the U.S. consulate in Benghazi gets out of hand.
We still don’t know why Ambassador Stevens was in Benghazi.
Col. David Hunt w/ Howie Carr WRKO AM 680 - Boston - Thursday, October 11, 2012 (22:06)
http://audio.wrko.com/a/64625569/col-david-hunt-on-the-lies-lies-and-more-lies-on-libya.htm
Fox military analyst Col. David Hunt checked in with us again after the revelation that there were multiple listening posts which heard the cries for help from the US Embassy in Libya and none of them did anything. The State Department says they still do not know what really happened in Libya.
Col. David Hunt w/ Howie Carr WRKO AM 680 - Boston - Friday, October 12, 2012 (28:37)
http://audio.wrko.com/a/64657882/col-hunt-on-the-newest-libyan-revelations.htm
posted on Friday, October 12, 2012 8:56:37 PMby Prospero
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform: Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb’s written testimony on the “Security Failures in Benghazi, Libya” on Oct. 10, 2012 (PDF)
Transcript: Testimony of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Charlene Lamb on the “Security Failures in Benghazi”
Edited by Jenny Jiang
Transcript*: Testimony of Charlene Lamb, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, before the House Oversight Committee on the “Security Failures in Benghazi” on Oct. 10, 2012:
*Transcript does not include interruptions and objections raised by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) over the “sensitive” nature of information disclosed by the State Department in a public hearing.
Charlene Lamb, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, before the House Oversight Committee on the “Security Failures in Benghazi” on Oct. 10, 2012. SOURCE: House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Chairman Issa, Ranking Member Cummings, members of the Committee.
"My name is Charlene Lamb. I am Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Programs in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security at the Department of State. I’ve been in law enforcement for 35 years, including 17 consecutive years stationed abroad as a Regional Security Officer in Nicaragua, Tanzania, Kuwait, Guatemala, and Germany. I’m here today to share our best information to date about what happened in Benghazi on September 11th.
As you know, there are on-going investigations and reviews being conducted, and we are speaking today with an incomplete picture. But as this process moves forward and more information becomes available, we will continue to engage closely with Congress. Let me begin by describing the actual compound in Benghazi. It is more than 300 yards long and nearly 100 yards wide.
A second building –Building B – housed Diplomatic Security agents. The Tactical Operations Center (or TOC) occupied a third building. The fourth building on the compound served as the barracks for the Libyan 17th February Brigade members.
After acquiring the compound, we made a number of security upgrades. Among other steps, we extended the height of the outer wall to 12 feet with masonry concrete, barb wire, and concertina razor wire.
We increased the external lighting and erected Jersey Barriers outside the perimeter. We also added equipment to detect explosives, as well as an Imminent Danger Notification System. And we installed security grills on windows accessible from the ground, and included escape windows with emergency releases.
All of these measures and upgrades were taken in coordination with security officials in Benghazi, Tripoli, and Washington. I work closely with 275 diplomatic facilities around the world. Determining the right level of security for each one is an intensive, ongoing, constantly evolving process — one that I appreciate and understand from my own time on the ground as a Diplomatic Security officer.
That brings me to the events of September 11 itself.
At approximately 9:40 pm local time, dozens of attackers launched a full-scale assault. They forced their way through the pedestrian gate, used diesel fuel to set fire to the Libyan 17th February Brigade members’ barracks, and then proceeded towards the main building.
A Diplomatic Security agent working in the Tactical Operations Center immediately activated the Imminent Danger Notification System. He also alerted the quick reaction security team stationed nearby, the Libyan 17th February Brigade, the Embassy in Tripoli, and the Diplomatic Security Command Center in Washington.
One agent secured Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith, the information management officer, in the safe haven. The attackers used diesel fuel to set the main building ablaze. Thick smoke rapidly filled the entire structure. The agent began leading the Ambassador and Sean Smith through the debilitating smoke toward the emergency escape window.
Nearing unconsciousness himself, the agent opened the emergency escape grill window and crawled out. He then realized they had become separated in the smoke. So he re-entered and searched the building multiple times. Finally the agent—suffering from severe smoke inhalation, barely able to breathe or speak – exited to the roof.
Other agents retrieved their M-4 submachine guns from Building B. When they attempted to return to the main building, they encountered armed attackers and doubled back. They regrouped, made their way to a near-by armored vehicle, and then drove over to assist the agent on the roof and search for the Ambassador and Mr. Smith.
After numerous attempts, they found Mr. Smith. Unfortunately, he was already deceased. They still could not find the Ambassador. The [annex] quick reaction security team arrived with 40 members of the Libyan 17th February Brigade. They all continued the search for the Ambassador.
Then at approximately 11pm, the Libyans insisted for everyone’s safety they needed to evacuate the site. The combined security team made a final search for the Ambassador before leaving in an armored vehicle.
They took heavy fire as they pulled away from the main building and on the street outside the compound but wearable to make their way to the annex.
[Interruptions by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah)]
In the early morning, an additional security team arrived from Tripoli and proceeded to the annex. Shortly after they arrived, the annex started taking mortar fire, with as many as three direct hits on the compound. It was during this mortar attack that Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed and a Diplomatic Security agent and a quick reaction security team member were critically wounded.
A large number of Libyan government security officers subsequently arrived escorted the remaining Americans to the airport. We were then able to confirm reports that the Ambassador’s body was at the Benghazi General Hospital, and the Department coordinated the transfer of his remains to the airport.
Before I close, I would like to say the men and women who risk their lives in the service of our country are heroes. I have served with many of our security professionals in Libya and around the world. They are my friends and my colleagues. And I trust them with my life.
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The Obama Libya Cover-Up Explained
BEGIN TRANSCRIPTGetting rid of Khadafy basically turned the Benghazi area into an Al-Qaeda stronghold. That was the truth of the matter, and that's what the regime doesn't want anybody to know, or didn't. So they concocted the story that the video was responsible for the death of the ambassador and the three other Americans in the attack in Benghazi, because the regime had tried to tell this great story, "Look what we did. We cleaned up Libya. We got rid of an evil guy, and we've made Libya part of the Arab Spring, a great outbreak of democracy. Look, aren't we wonderful." When instead what happened was we kicked him out of there and then left ourselves, and we left ourselves nobody to control what was happening in the aftermath, and Al-Qaeda has established a beachhead in Benghazi.
Obama's running around saying that there is no more Al-Qaeda, until yesterday when he pulled it out of his speeches. He was saying there was no more Al-Qaeda. I'll tell you, what we have learned overnight and this morning, Romney is so set up for the foreign policy debate on Monday night, and there's much more detail to this. You know, brevity is the soul of wit. Everything that I am going to say down the road here on the program today basically will be to explain how McClatchy learned this. It involves the CIA. The CIA knew within 24 hours that it was a militant attack, that there was no video, there was no spontaneous demonstration. The State Department knew immediately. The White House knew. It was Jay Carney who started the lie.
It was Jay Carney under orders, I'm sure, from Obama and whoever else, which started the ball rolling on the video, and then Susan Rice gets involved. And again, all of that was to cover up an absolute disaster. Taking Khadafy out, it's arguable whether that was a good thing to do, but we did it, and in the process Obama's raising the flag, (Obama impression) "Look at me, look at me. I mean, I can pull the trigger as good as anybody, get bin Laden, take care of Libya." And what happened was, in fact, the ringleader of the Benghazi attack is now doing media appearances in the Middle East. He' going on The Oprah shows of that region bragging about what he did. He's not hiding behind a mask or anything. The ringleader of the attack is doing media appearances, is doing television shows. Let's go quickly to John Bolton. A couple of audio sound bites here. Numbers ten and 11. He was on American Newsroom with Martha MacCallum this morning on Fox. And I love Bolton. You know, Bolton, former UN ambassador for us during Bush, tough-as-nails guy. He's very, very much into ideology and he is of the belief that the reason everything's falling apart in the Middle East is because of Obama's ideology, because of his liberalism, or Marxism or socialism, whatever you want to call it. His view that America is to blame, his view that it's always America's fault, and that's what enabled him to so easily swerve into blaming an American-made video, when he knew that's what it was not, by the way.
Everybody knew it was not the video. They were lying on purpose to prevent the dots from being connected that Obama's action created an Al-Qaeda beachhead in Benghazi.
And, by the way, Benghazi, the government, the head of Libya is in Tripoli, and we learn here Tripoli has no control, the government has no control over what's going on in Benghazi. Benghazi's a rogue, renegade place, and it's now Al-Qaeda's. I mean, it is utterly devastating.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here is John Bolton. So he was again with Martha MacCallum today on Fox and talking about the way the regime handled the aftermath of the attack. (interruption) No, I don't... (interruption) I'm not in the... (interruption) I'm being asked a question here. If people would leave me alone, you know, I could probably get this show done in an hour. But since everybody wants to know what I think, they ask me even when I'm in the middle of a monologue.I don't think Obama's "optimal" comment is that big a deal, but there is a point to be made about it. He has no trouble whatsoever excoriating an American citizen over a video. He'll describe that person in the most despicable terms. But when it comes to the death of the ambassador, "Well, yeah, the death of four Americans, it's not optimal." He does have a different set of values.
I don't think that thing as a stand alone is that big a deal. You might disagree. We'll talk about it. Anyway, back to John Bolton. MacCallum said to him, "It seems to me to some extent if you were in the [regime], you felt uncomfortable about the way it was handled initially, one thing that you could do you is sort of make it very clear to the American people that the investigation is ongoing.
"Potentially hear from John Brennan, for example, other people who are very high up in this operation who are supposed to be watching over counterterrorism activities around the world. That would give people some reassurance about what's happening to avenge the deaths of these four American citizens." She's basically asking, "Why didn't they just say, 'We don't know what happened yet; we're looking into it,' instead of blaming the video?"
Well, you know the answer now, but I want you to hear what Bolton said.
BOLTON: Some say, of course, there's a cover-up going on and that the administration's lying. I'm afraid there's actually a more disturbing explanation. The president's ideology has put a screen over his consciousness. And when the real world tries to intrude on it, it can't get through. Because after all: The War on Terror is over, Al-Qaeda's been defeated, the Arab Spring has brought democracy to Libya. And a terrorist attack that brutally kills four Americans is wildly inconsistent with that ideology and worldview. The president can't process reality, and his aides can't get through to him.RUSH: Now, that's being charitable, but you get the point. Okay, in Obama's bubble -- in this bubble in which they live, in this alternate universe/this alternate reality -- he got rid of bin Laden and that got rid of Al-Qaeda and there isn't any more terrorism and the Arab Spring is a great democratic outgrowth. So anything that happens that challenges that has either gotta be covered up or erased.
Bolton is saying that Obama's ideology is such that he actually lives the belief that Al-Qaeda's been destroyed; that he believes there is no terrorism. Because his ideology is such that all he -- The Messiah! The One! -- has to do is say, "It's over," and it's over. We had a caller yesterday say, "You know, these guys are amazing. They have a two-hour meeting on creating jobs and think the problem's fixed. They authorize spending $800 billion to create jobs and move on. They think the problem's fixed." That's living somewhere other than Realville.
Bolton says it's Obama's ideology. Yeah, that's true. I don't think there's any question about that. But I also believe that he does know, and I think he purposely covers this stuff up because he doesn't want the lies exposed. He doesn't want the lie that he lives exposed. So Martha MacCallum then said, "Okay, when you look at the world with regard to the last presidential debate Monday night, what is the most important foreign policy question that needs to be asked," Mr. Bolton?
Now, Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air has really done a good job of putting a lot of this together.
"Earlier this morning, McClatchy asked why the Obama administration changed its story on the Benghazi terrorist attack after three days from an initial, vague reference to terrorist attacks to a demonstrably false narrative about a 'spontaneous demonstration' that never took place, and a YouTube video that had been on line for two months. That question got more pressing this morning, as the Associated Press reports that the CIA linked the attack to 'militants' in eastern Libya."
So he had the CIA linking it in a way that the Obama administration did not, along with the State Department. They knew the truth. CIA, State Department knew the truth. Obama was trying to cover it up. This is the AP story: "The CIA station chief in Libya reported to Washington within 24 hours of last month's deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate that there was evidence it was carried out by militants, not a spontaneous mob."
Now, this is devastating because the regime immediately blamed intel. Remember? They said the intelligence was bad. "Well, the first thing we got, the intel said it was a spontaneous --" The intel never said that. Folks, we've got a lie and a cover-up here that is bigger than Watergate. In my mind, there's no question about it. If you go back and recall the early days of this, the administration, Biden in the debate with Ryan, (paraphrasing) "Well, the best we knew at the time, the best we knew at the time, our intel at the time was, it was a spontaneous protest that got out of hand." No intel ever said that, folks. And none other than Administration Media says that today. The Administration Press. The intel never reported what the regime attributed to them. And Biden's in the debate with Ryan, and he said, "The best intel we had at the time, and nobody told us that there was a request for more security," and that's not true, either.
The CIA station chief, not some desk jockey. The head honcho, the CIA station chief in Libya reported to Washington within 24 hours of the attack that there was evidence it was carried out by militants, not a spontaneous mob upset about a video. US officials have now told this to the Administration Press. "It is unclear who, if anyone, saw the cable outside the CIA at that point and how high up in the agency the information went. The Obama administration maintained publicly for a week that the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi that killed US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was a result of the mobs that staged less-deadly protests across the Muslim world," because of the video. It turns out not to be true.
It takes us back to the McClatchy report which basically says it was a cover-up of the disastrous effects of taking out Khadafy. It was not until the 14th -- remember this all happened on 9/11 this year -- it was not until the 14th that the Obama administration went all-in on the YouTube video. They didn't do it immediately, but they also didn't assign it to a terrorist attack, contrary to what Obama and Candy Crowley tried to say at the debate. They did not attribute it to a terrorist attack specifically. They attributed it to a mob, a protest that went nuts, and then in the third day, the video story started.
Now, the Associated Press, in their story, wonders if anybody read the CIA cable that had the information. It's a good question because the CIA station chief reports to Washington that it was a planned terror attack in 24 hours. If somebody in Washington read that cable, then they purposefully went out and were telling lies. So the AP is asking in their story if anybody read the CIA cable, anybody at the regime, anybody in Washington. Now, stop and think about that for a minute.
Ed Morrissey here at Hot Air has a got a question. Let's parse that out for just a second. We've got the death of a US ambassador and three other Americans in the attack on the consulate, key area of the world. Wouldn't one of the first items to check be information from the CIA's station chief? If you're sitting in Washington, you're the president or
you're his national security team, there's an attack, your ambassador's dead, your consulate is in flames, it's natural to assume that there's going to be some curiosity at the highest levels of the administration to explain this. And indeed there was an explanation.
It was a CIA cable. And the AP, in its story, even asks if anybody in Washington even read the CIA cable because what the administration said was so different than what the CIA cable said. This is really stunning stuff here. Not to treat you like second graders, but let me run through this again. You have the attack. Within 24 hours both the State Department and the CIA report that it was a terror attack premeditated and preplanned.
Within that 24 hours, the CIA sends a cable to Washington, probably to the director of CIA and to the White House, the national security team, explaining that this was a terror attack. They have evidence, and it turned out the State Department had a video. It was not spontaneous. It was not a protest. Within 24 hours, the CIA had told the White House. The White House NEVER told that story.The White House concocted first a protest that was ragtag, that stemmed from... In fact, what they said was that the protest was inspired by what was going on at the Cairo embassy on the same day. Then three days later, two days after the State Department and the CIA had reported what really happened -- three days later -- then they start with the lie about the video. But they had in their hands after the first day, the CIA station chief explanation and the State Department explanation.
They had two different sources for what really happened, and for over a week they lied. Every administration figure that went on television -- from the president on down to Susan Rice, to Jay Carney in the White House pressroom, to the president at the UN -- lied about this being the result of a video. And the point of all this is, again... Pardon me for being redundant here, but I just have to drill this home.
CIA and the State Department, within 24 hours, had sent the truth of what happened to the White House. The AP is being generous when they ask: Did anybody in Washington read what the CIA said? Because what the White House and the administration was saying bore no resemblance to the truth. AP didn't know it at the time. Nobody knew it. We were all going on the basis that it was a video.
That's the story that's out there. Now after the fact when everything's known, the AP is wondering: Did Obama read this? Did anybody read the CIA? They can't get their arms around the fact that Obama purposefully lied, so they're concocting this possibility. "You know what? Maybe they just didn't see it." That's why when the AP wonders when anybody read the CIA cable with the information...
When you parse that, which is what I just did here, we've got an ambassador and three others dead. We have a lie being told for seven or more days with the truth on somebody's desk in the White House! Again, this is from the station chief. It's not some desk jockey. So you have to conclude one of two things: Either the people running the show in Washington at the White House are just brazenly incompetent or they are engaged in Watergate II.
The leak, the leak of this information is interesting, too. Because you see the defense from Obama himself at the last presidential debate, as well as Susan Rice in the Wall Street Journal, is that the spontaneous-demonstration story is what they were hearing from the intel community, and they never heard that. The intel community never said that! Obama and Candy Crowley lied through their collective teeth at the debate.
Susan Rice lied in an op-ed and on television, on five separate Sunday shows on a Sunday morning. The intel never told them it was a video. We know the State Department has testified to this under oath before a congressional committee. Nobody over there -- in Cairo, in Libya -- ever said it was a video. And yet, as recently as the debate Monday night, Obama said that at the time, the best intel they had was that it was a spontaneous demonstration inspired by the video.
Now, this makes it very clear that the Obama administration excuses are false. The State Department watched the attack unfold in real time. They have video of it. That fact was revealed at the House oversight committee hearings. And unlike Mrs. Clinton, the intel community apparently has no intention of being scapegoated for the White House's cover story.
That's what the AP story about the CIA is today. They're not gonna get scapegoated. They're not falling on Obama's sword. The McClatchy story is the one that says why. They concocted the video to cover up for the fact that they left Libya wide open for Al-Qaeda after taking out Al-Qaeda. It's stunning, literally. It's either brazen incompetence or huge, calculated, coordinated lying.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, you know what's gonna happen now that this story's out? If Obama's even asked about this, what will happen is this. Somebody -- Jay Carney or somebody -- in the regime will say, "Well, yeah, the station chief did send out a report. But, you know, that doesn't go straight to the White House. The media reports on that are not correct. What happens is these intelligence reports, these raw reports, go to analysts at the CIA and the agency then analyses it.
"So it can take a day or two before the president would even been told." That's what they're going to say. It's all the regime can do. Which is poppycock! This is the heat of the moment. You've got a dead ambassador and three other Americans. Somebody who cares is going to demand to know instantly what the heck happened there. The idea that... I'll bet you I'm right. I'll bet you that the version we get is, "Weeell, it had to go to CIA and it had to be analyzed.
"It had to be vetted, and it had to be compared against other things that we knew," blah, blah, blah. And all the while then, of course, nobody at the White House is interested. They're content to wait a couple days to find out what happened and why an ambassador is dead. It's all a crock. Now, the question is, ladies and gentlemen, what was Obama doing at that time?
What was Barack Obama doing 24 hours after the terror attack? (interruption) That's right, Snerdley. Great memory. He left for Las Vegas. Now, remember, the 24 hours afterwards the State Department and the CIA both said it was a terror attack, planned and orchestrated. It was not a demonstration, nothing protested, no ragtag bunch of people who just got out of control. It was not a video.
It was a coordinated terror attack.
They reported that the first 24 hours.
Did Obama read that, or did somebody forget to put that in the binder? We don't know if he read it 'cause he was in Vegas. He might have read it and said, "Well, I got people to deal with this." He'd left for Las Vegas! He did not call an all-hands meeting of his secretary of defense and foreign policy top staff. He didn't want to be bothered with this. We know that. He did not put everybody together to find out what the heck has happened.
He has shown complete disinterest in intelligence briefings, my friends. He doesn't even show up at half of them!
Retired CIA officer Gary Berntsen believes help could have come much sooner. He commanded CIA counter-terrorism missions targeting Osama bin Laden and led the team that responded after bombings of the U.S. Embassy in East Africa.
"You find a way to make this happen," Berntsen says. "There isn't a plan for every single engagement. Sometimes you have to be able to make adjustments. They made zero adjustments in this. They stood and they watched and our people died."
The Pentagon says it did move a team of special operators from central Europe to the large Naval Air Station in Sigonella, Italy, but gave no other details. Sigonella is just an hour's flight from Libya. Other nearby bases include Aviano and Souda Bay. Military sources tell CBS News that resources at the three bases include fighter jets and Specter AC-130 gunships, which the sources say can be extremely effective in flying in and buzzing a crowd to disperse it.
Rick Nelson, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a former Navy pilot who worked in counter-terrorism, says such missions can be very risky. "A lot can go well, right, as we saw with the bin Laden raid. It was a very successful event," he says. "But also, when there are high risk activities like this. a lot can go wrong, as we saw with the Iranian hostage rescue decades ago."
Add to the controversy the fact that the last two Americans didn't die until more than six hours into the attack, and the question of U.S. military help becomes very important.
Sending the military into another country can be a sensitive and delicate decision. CBS News has been told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did seek clearances from Libya to fly in their airspace, but the administration won't say anything further about what was said or decided on that front
U.S. 6th Fleet area of responsibility
Units
- Sixth Fleet
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- CTF 62 (Landing Force)
- CTF-63 (Logistics)
- CTF-64 (Submarines)
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- CTF-69 (Submarines)
STRIKFORSOUTH - Combined Task Force 502 (Carrier Forces)
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Flagship, De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate HNLMS Tromp (F803)- De Zeven Provinciën-class frigate HNLMS De Ruyter (F804)
Absalon-class flexible support ship HDMS Esbern Snare L17
Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate TCG Giresun (F 491)
Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Bainbridge (DDG-96)- Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate USS Halyburton (FFG-40)
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