September 5, 2014

"New Book Says C.I.A. Official in Benghazi Held Up Rescue."

The NYT reports on "13 Hours," which comes out next week.
Five commandos guarding the C.I.A. base in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012... say 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.

“If you guys do not get here, we are going to die!” a diplomatic security agent then shouted to them over the radio, the commandos say in the book, and they left the base in defiance of the chief’s continuing order to “stand down.”...

[F]ully armed, they found themselves waiting inside their armored vehicles, making small talk. “Hey, we gotta go now! We’re losing the initiative!” [John] Tiegen says he complained to the station chief, who he says replied, “No, stand down, you need to wait.”

32 comments:

Hagar said...

I still want to know why the U.S. installations in Benghazi were attacked, and who hired the attackers.

I suspect the "wait" and "stand down" commands were because the military units had for some time been told that Benghazi was none of their business and don't get curious. So, when something did happen, they naturally were hesitant about interfering and went looking for confirmation before acting.

In short, I think this was a kind of "The Looking Glass War" without a George Smiley.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

If true, was the station chief ordering them to stand down based on his own decision, based on a standing order that he could not legally violate, or based on a direct order issued while events were unfolding?

( Note that while I'm using the terminology of orders this was CIA, not military, so I'm not sure what the correct terminology is, or if it is legally binding in the same way as a military order. )

Wince said...

How does this square, if at all, with the Senate Intelligence report that was reported to say "nothing to see here, move along"?

Is it the technicality that those ordered to "stand down" were not in Tripoli but Benghazi itself?

Fox Benghazi Myths Dispelled By New Bipartisan Review

Fox Benghazi Myth: "Stand Down" Order Was Given To Benghazi Response Teams

Fox Pushed Myth That Forces In Libya Were Given A "Stand Down" Order At Least 85 Times. In the ten months following the Benghazi attacks, Fox News claimed at least 85 times that troops in Tripoli, Libya, were ordered to "stand down" and not assist those under attack that night in Benghazi. [Media Matters, 6/27/13]

David said...

And why was this so?

Nichevo said...

Is there a secret investigations menu like the menu at Arbys where you get the eight meat sandwich? I mean, how do you order "one investigation with no bullshit this time, please?"

Ignorance is Bliss said...

EDH-

The timeline is somewhat complex. This quote is dealing with a delay in sending help from the CIA annex to the consulate. After a 20 minute delay, that help did go, and was able to get the survivors from the consulate back to the CIA annex. After that, there was a much longer fight at the annex, and most of the questions regarding Benghazi are in regards to why wasn't help send to the people at the CIA annex. Since that fight lasted much longer, there would have been a lot more time to send help.

madAsHell said...

This is whitewash for Hillary.

Some spooky-spook made all the decisions, and we had no control over unnamed spooky-spook.

Original Mike said...

There's a Bret Braier hour long report with these guys tonight on Fox that's probably worth watching.

Hagar said...

The guys that went, disobeyed orders and went.

Bob Boyd said...

This was back when we were the benefactor for those who would become ISIS. Good times. Good times.
But what difference at this point does it make?

holdfast said...

Reagan Admin: "Peace through strength." "Trust but verify."


Obama Admin "No, stand down, you need to wait."

Yep, that's about right.

Anonymous said...

I start off leery of the accuracy of any article that calls SEALs "special forces", the same as I do when the caption on a photo of an M109A3 calls it a "tank".

there are some interesting nuggets in there though.

1. The State Diplomatic Security team at the Consulate, (whose primary job was to protect the consulate and the Ambassador) didn't fire a shot. This is the team that would have hired the feckless guards. No that's not fair. They willfully hired unarmed guards who ran in the face of auto fire, and they, who were armed, abandoned the Ambassador.

- I suspect that the CIA chief was under orders from State to generally keep a low profile and stay away from his betters at the consulate. After all, the Dip Sec guys were in charge there.

RecChief said...

I didn't read the article, as I refuse to support the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party in any way, even with clicks.

Having said that, it seems mighty convenient that the NYT is claiming it was the CIA (it's always the CIA to Democrats isn't it?) that gave a stand down down order. Wait a minute....I remember hearing something about how there was NO stand down order. NOW there was in fact a stand down order? Assuming there was, did the CIA station chief do it on his own hook, or was that relayed from somewhere else? And if so, are we expected to believe that the State Department had no knowledge?

There has been enough time to fabricate all kinds of stories, this will grabbed onto by all the leftist organs as "proof" that there is really nothing to see hear regarding the administration, just that dastardly CIA, so we should gut the intelligence service as well as the armed services. watch and see

PB said...

Politics trumps law, order, ethics and morality. This is all you need to know about the crew in power here in the US.

Insufficiently Sensitive said...

And our good Presidential administration has shouted from the rooftops that no 'stand down' order was given, to be perfectly clear.

Hillary had better not try running for President, unless she owns the entire MSM, lock, stock and barrel.

AustinRoth said...

Hillary may not 'own' the MSM, but the MSM has sworn it's fealty to the Democratic Party, so she is safe.

Unless, like in 2008, they find a Democratic candidate more to their liking that they feel can win. Then she is screwed.

traditionalguy said...

When the Mayor orders the Fire Department not to respond to a fire he has set at my house, then it becomes clear that the Mayor wants me dead.

That is the same message sent to US forces since 2009: That when fighting Islam, the President wants you dead.

SteveR said...

There was a local militia, Feb 17 hired to do the job of protecting the consulate. The Station Chief wanted to use them and not reveal his American support. So he said wait. What is to be found out is who told him to not take action.

garage mahal said...

Obama didn't issue a stand down order and watch the attack in real time through goggles? LOL

paminwi said...

No, he (Obama) was busy practicing for his fundraising speech in Las Vegas and then pulling up the covers over his head because he needed his beauty sleep. He told those silly people who stay awake all night at the White House looking out for his sorry ass "under no circumstances are you to wake me up, I have to do some fundraising to do tomorrow!"

Why the hell would he care about an attack on US personnel any where in the world?

Drago said...

I see Field Marshall Generalissimo Garage Mahal of the Wisconsin Fightin' "askers of free s***" is still laughing about the dead Americans in Benghazi.

Easy to do from your back porch in nowhere-ville WI.

Not hard to understand really.

The very existence of men like that probably cause garage to question much about himself and his life.

Drago said...

You know who else is laughing about the dead Americans in Benghazi?

Garages pals in Hamas.

President-Mom-Jeans said...

Bitchtits The Uneducated strikes again.

I wish diabetes was fatal faster.

Alan said...

I suspect there was some serious gun running going on down there which somebody is trying to cover up and we won't know the truth for decades. The fact that this report is on Fox news will make it easy to sidestep.

mtrobertsattorney said...

The rescuers say a CIA chief named "Bob" told them to stand down. So let's just ask Bob what he said. Simple.

But there's a problem. It seems like good old Bob has disappeared somewhere deep in the caverns of the CIA. And unless the CIA can find Bob and make him available, we'll never know what Bob says he ordered the rescue team to do. And worse, we'll never know who directed Bob to issue the order in the first place.

As of now, the CIA is still searching for Bob, or so they say.

Dan Hossley said...

Commandos? Who talks like this? They were CIA contractors.

The author of the piece betrays a fundamental ignorance of the subject matter. Much the same way most in the media do when they write things like "high capacity clips" or "assault rifles".

Can't the NYT find someone with a baseline of subject matter knowledge.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Maybe the CIA station chief judged the annex to be more important than the consulate. From Season 2 Episode 10 of Hell on Wheels (aired October 7, 2012):

- How is it you decided to defend the bridge and not the town?
- I learned in the war to protect strategic assets.
- The town.
- The town ain't nothing but wood and canvas. Replaceable.
- And its inhabitants?
- Replaceable.

cubanbob said...

Forget the CIA. What was our ambassador doing that was so important at that consulate? A consulate that was unsecured in a town that was essentially lawless and where every other country had pulled their people out? That is the question that hasn't been addressed. One can suspect gun running to the rebels in Syria. To be determined.

Once the shit storm started and Washington was informed whatever other BS that is now bring peddled goes out the door as well. A consulate is US soil. An attack on the consulate is indistinguishable from an attack on the US itself. The attack lasted enough time for the chain of command to have issued orders and have had those orders executed giving those at consulate a chance. Obama and Clinton were derelict in their duties and this excuse being peddled does not change that fact.

Ignorance is Bliss said...


Dan Hossley said...

Commandos? Who talks like this? They were CIA contractors.

From the linked article:

The contractors say they raced so quickly to arm themselves when they heard the alarm that one failed to put on underwear.

So at least one of them was, by definition, commando.

American Liberal Elite said...

Clearly, this was part of a carefully orchestrated plot to ensure the reëlection of the socialist pretender.

Rusty said...

According to ARM no one gave the order to stand down.
guess he was wrong,huh.

Jupiter said...

"What was our ambassador doing that was so important at that consulate?"

Do you think it might have had something to do with why a handsome, wealthy man never married?