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So the buck has been passed to (Secretary of Defense Leon) Panetta and
(General Martin) Dempsey and (General Carter) Ham. Dempsey is a
soulless administration toady and Ham is deeply invested in Libya.
Panetta is a Clintonite who is completely expendable, especially if the
charges get pinned to Hillary. But Panetta still seems filled with self-
loathing and Dempsey looks disgusted with him. Daniel Greenfield
Wanted for Manslaughter and Treachery(Daniel Greenfield October 2012)
CharlesWoods,thefatherofTyroneWoods,saidinan
interview, And apparently even the State
Departmenthadalivestreamandwasawareoftheir
calls for help. This was my son, he wasnt even
there.Hewasatasafehouseaboutamileaway.He
gotthedistresscall.Heheardthemcryingforhelp.
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ThatswhyheandGlennriskedtheirlivestogothatextramile just to takecareof thesituation.AndIm
sure that shewasnt theonly one that received that
distresscall:Comesaveourlives.
WhenIheardthattheresaverygoodchancethatthe
WhiteHouseaswellasothermembersofthemilitary
knewwhatwasgoingon,andobviouslysomeonehad
tosay,Dontgorescuethem.Becauseeveryperson
inthemilitary,theirfirstresponseis,Weregoingto
gorescuethem.Weneedtofindoutwhoitwasthat
gavethatcommand.
Sowhogavethatcommand?
FoxNews has learned from sourceswhowere on the
ground in Benghazi that three urgent requests from
theCIAannexformilitaryback-upduringtheattackon
theU.S.Consulateandsubsequentattacknearlyseven
hourslaterweredeniedbyofficialsintheCIAchainof
commandwhoalsotoldtheCIAoperatorstostand
down rather than help theambassadors teamwhen
shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. inBenghazionSept.11.
Former Navy SEALs TyroneWoods and Glen Doherty
werepartofasmallteamwhowereattheCIAannex
about a mile from the U.S. Consulate where
Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under
attack.
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Whentheyheardtheshotsfired,theyradioedtoinform
theirhigher-ups to tell themwhattheywerehearing.Theywere told tostand down, accordingto sources
familiarwith theexchange.Anhour later, they called
again to headquarters andwere again told to stand
down.
Woods,Dohertyandatleasttwoothersignoredthose
ordersandmadetheirwaytotheConsulatewhichat
thatpointwasonfire.Shotswereexchanged.Thequick
reactionforcefromtheCIAannexevacuatedthosewho
remained at the Consulate and Sean Smith, who had
beenkilledintheinitialattack.Theycouldnotfindthe
ambassador and returned to the CIA annex at about
midnight.
At that point, they called again for military support
andhelpbecausetheyweretakingfireattheCIAsafe
house,orannex.Therequestwasdenied.Therewereno
communications problems at the annex, according
those present at the compound. The team was in
constantradiocontactwiththeirheadquarters.Infact,
atleastonememberoftheteamwasontheroofofthe
annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortarswere fired at the CIA compound. The security officer
hadalaseronthetargetthatwasfiringandrepeatedly
requested back-up support from a Specter gunship,
which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations
forces to provide support to SpecialOperations teams
onthegroundinvolvedinintensefirefights.
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The fighting at theCIAannexwent on formore than
four hours enough time for any planes based inSigonellaAirbase,just480milesaway,toarrive.
FoxNewshasalsolearnedthattwoseparateTierOne
Special operations forces were told to wait, among
themDeltaForceoperators.
Now we know who is taking responsibility for
denyingsupporttotheconsulateandthesafehouse.
Thephoto,whichistheofficialoneputoutbyDOD,
from the press conference held by Panetta and
General Dempsey is horribly eloquent in terms of
bodylanguage.
DefenseSecretaryLeonPanettadefendedthe failureto go in by claiming that the issue was a lack of
reliableintel,despitethefactthattheyhadmultiple
distresscallsandadroneoverhead.
Blamingalackofreliableintelisfineifyouwantto
pullawayfrominterveninginSyria,butnotwhena
US diplomatic facility and its personnel are under
sustained attack. And how much intel was reallyneededtosendtwojetstobuzztheareaandpossibly
scareoffsomeoftheattackers,whowouldnothave
posedanythreattotheaircraft?
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Althoughforceswereonalertandreadyto launchan
operation if needed, the US military commander forAfrica, General Carter Ham, the chairman of the US
Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, and
Panetta all decided against any intervention as they
hadnoclearpictureofeventsunfoldinginBenghazi,he
said.
SothebuckhasbeenpassedtoPanettaandDempsey
andHam.Dempseyisasoullessadministrationtoady
and Ham is deeply invested in Libya. Panetta is a
Clintonitewhoiscompletelyexpendable,especiallyif
the charges get pinned to Hillary. But Panetta still
seems filled with self-loathing and Dempsey looks
disgustedwithhim.
Not doing something because there is no intel is a
commonexcuseinthesecircleswhentheydontwant
todosomething.JustaswithIran,therewouldnever
havebeenenoughintel.
Andhowmuchintelwasneededreally?Benghazihad
an extended profile andwas the causeof theentire
Libyan war. The consulate had an extensiveintelligence apparatus and the declassified cables
weve seen are a fraction of the actual classified
cablesthatwouldhavebeenatPanetta,Dempseyand
Hamsdisposal.
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They knew about the Islamist militias and had
descriptions of their armament from the RSOsreports. They didnt know the exact number of
attackersoreverysinglepossibledetail,butyoucan
neverreallyknoweverythingbeforegoingin.
Theresabasicprinciplehere,andthebasicprinciple
isthatyoudontdeployforcesintoharmswaywithout
knowingwhats going on, without having some real-
time informationaboutwhats taking place, Panetta
toldanewsconference.
But there were already forces in harms way, who
weretryingtoprovidesomerealtimeintelfromtheir
pointofview.WhatPanettameansisthatthedecision
wasmadenottosendaidtothem,anditwasntaboutrisking more lives, but about the politics of
interveninginLibyaandoffendingtheLibyans.Itwas
done for the same reason that US soldiers have at
times been abandoned without air support in
Afghanistan.
I feel confident that our forces were alert and
responsivetowhatwasaveryfluidsituation,GeneralDempsey said, which is one of those strange
statementsthatleadersissueafteracompletescrew
up.
The full transcript of the conferencewas fairly well
hiddenonthesite,butturneduphere,itshowsthe
fullexchanges.
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Q:CanIfollowuponthat?Oneofthereasonsweve
heardthat therewasntamore robust responserightaway is that therewasnt a clear intelligence picture
over Benghazi, to give you the idea of where to put
whatforces.
Butwhentherewas,infact,adroneovertheCIAannex
andtherewereintelligenceofficialsfightinginsidethe
annex, I guess the big question is, with those two
combinedassets,whytherewasntaclearintelligence
picturethatwouldhavegivenyouwhatyouneededto
makesomemoves,forinstance,flying,youknow,F-16s
over the area to disperse fighters or or dropping
morespecialforcesin.
SEC. PANETTA: Youknow, letme letme speak tothat,becauseImsuretheresgoingtobetheresa
lotofMondaymorningquarterbackinggoingonhere.
Wewequicklyresponded,asGeneralDempseysaid,
intermsofdeployingforcestotheregion.WehadFAST
platoons in the region. We had ships that we had
deployedoffofLibya.Andwewerepreparedtorespond
toanycontingencyandcertainlyhadforcesinplacetodothat.
Butbutthebasicprincipleherebasicprincipleis
that youdont deploy forces intoharmswaywithout
knowingwhats going on; without having some real-
timeinformationaboutwhatstakingplace.
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Andasaresultofnothavingthatkindofinformation,
the commanderwhowason theground in that area,GeneralHam,GeneralDempseyandIfeltverystrongly
thatwecouldnotputforcesatriskinthatsituation.
Q:Sothedrone,then,andtheforcesinsidetheannex
werentgivingenoughofaclearpictureiswhatyoure
saying.
SEC. PANETTA: This this happened within a few
hoursanditwasreallyoverbefore,youknow,wehad
theopportunitytoreallyknowwhatwashappening.
ThisarticlebyDanielGreenfieldwaspublishedinFRONTPAGEMAGonOctober262012.
Itisreproducedwithoutpermission.