Diplomat: U.S. Special Forces told "you can't go" to Benghazi during attacks(edited)

AreteCourage said:

I'm getting so sick of this circus. What happened was tragic to say the least, but this is getting ridiculous.

They seemingly have no plan to get real definite answers. It is like they are just on a witch hunt to make politicians look bad. They have NO regard for the lives lost and it is sickening.

Get REAL answers or shut the hell up already.

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jmotivator said:

Per CBS News, one of the previously muzzled survivors of the Benghazi attack confirms that Special Forces in AFRICOM were ordered not to go to Benghazi during the attack.

The Administration swore up and down that a "stand down" order was not given during the 7 hour siege on the Consulate and that all available forces were rallied in aid... except that they lied through their teeth. The truth is somewhere nearer to the opposite of that account, it appears.

More over, one of the Senators who managed to track down a consulate survivor found that he was checked into the hospital under an alias. He had to find then man through his parents.

How can anyone defend this administration?

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MaggieD said:

Getting to the unvarnished truth here is going to be like herding cats. If the powers that be in all departments involved can't be brought down, it'll be just another he-said-she-said. I will tend to believe the witnesses because I know they are testifying at great personal cost.

It just makes sense we left them twisting in the wind. Not being able to rally a defense force in seven hours is completely and totally unbelievable. For whatever reason? Our government didn't want to. Somebody said "No."

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j-mac said:

I agree, we need real answers..So far we have been lied to....Those fallen deserve better.

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Threegoofs said:

I'm outraged at the cover up
of....something.

I can't believe they tried to do that thing.

It's very clear the mob was motivated by ...something, and the administration was clearly saying it was...the other thing. But they changed tgeir mind several times, which can only mean...something.

And Obama was campaigning for President! That clearly was wrong because it interfered with....something.

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Fenton said:

Hillary, to the Father of the Seal who was killed in the attack..." We will make sure that the person who made that video is arrested and prosecuted "

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Middleground said:

Exactly. I feel bad for all the dead and injured in Iraq... all on lies.

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Fenton said:

" If Saddam rejects Peace, and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Saddams WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION PROGRAM " Bill Clinton, Feb 17, 1998

" He will use those WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION again, as he has 10 times since 1983 " Sandy Berger , Feb 18 1998

" Saddam Hussien has been engaged in the development of WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION technology, which is a threat to neighboring Countries in the reagion and has made a mockery of the weapons inspection " Nancy Pelosi 1998

Lol...Libz are so irritated with the victims of Benghazzi. " Why did they have to die RIGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION !!"

I guess they like being lied to.

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AreteCourage said:

I'm getting so sick of this circus. What happened was tragic to say the least,
but this is getting ridiculous.

They seemingly have no plan to get real definite answers. It is like they are just on a witch hunt to make politicians look bad. They have NO regard for the lives lost and it is sickening.

Get REAL answers or shut the hell up already.

Click to expand...

MaggieD said:

First time I've seen those quotes. Thanks
for that.

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jmotivator said:

Per CBS News, one of the previously muzzled survivors of the Benghazi attack confirms that Special Forces in AFRICOM were ordered not to go to Benghazi during the attack.

The Administration swore up and down that a "stand down" order was not given during the 7 hour siege on the Consulate and that all available forces were rallied in aid... except that they lied through their teeth. The truth is somewhere nearer to the opposite of that account, it appears.

More over, one of the Senators who managed to track down a consulate survivor found that he was checked into the hospital under an alias. He had to find then man through his parents.

How can anyone defend this administration?

Click to expand...

Fenton said:

" If Saddam rejects Peace, and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Saddams WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION PROGRAM " Bill Clinton, Feb 17, 1998

" He will use those WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION again, as he has 10 times since 1983 " Sandy Berger , Feb 18 1998

" Saddam Hussien has been engaged in the development of WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION technology, which is a threat to neighboring Countries in the reagion and has made a mockery of the weapons inspection " Nancy Pelosi 1998

Lol...Libz are so irritated with the victims of Benghazzi. " Why did they have to die RIGHT BEFORE THE ELECTION !!"

I guess they like being lied to.

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Fenton said:

Hi Maggie

Type into Google " Democrats who believed Saddam had WMD " and you'll find a list of Democrats stating Saddam had WMD.

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President Clinton, Madelina Albright, Sandy Berger, Sens. Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, Madeline Albright again, Bob Graham, Carl Levin again 2002, Al Gore 2002, Al Gore again 2002,Ted Kennedy 2002, Robert Byrd 2002, Jay Rockefeller 2002, Henry Waxman 2002, Sen. Hillary Clinton 2002, Kerry 2003

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Middleground said:

Good golly, well that just proves everything! :roll:

The decision to go into Iraq was on false, made-up premises. The evidence is all there and not difficult to find out. You can choose to bury your head in the sand or seek the truth. If you choose to live off those quotes, then by golly, you chose to stay uninformed.

What I see in the thread is false outrage and I can't help but roll my eyes when so many Republicans are up in arms about Benghazi, but choose to remain silent when it comes to Iraq. The hypocracy is just too much for me.

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Middleground said:

Good golly, well that just proves everything! :roll:

The decision to go into Iraq was on false, made-up premises. The evidence is all there and not difficult to find out. You can choose to bury your head in the sand or seek the truth. If you choose to live off those quotes, then by golly, you chose to stay uninformed.

What I see in the thread is false outrage and I can't help but roll my eyes when so many Republicans are up in arms about Benghazi, but choose to remain silent when it comes to Iraq. The hypocracy is just too much for me.

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MaggieD said:

Whoa -- it also brings up a Snopes list saying, "All True." Here's a list from the Snopes link:



Some of these were letters and all names in the signature line weren't included. snopes.com: Weapons of Mass Destruction Quotes

I am so glad to see this. Thank you, Fenton! Good job.

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Hicks told congressional investigators that if the U.S. had quickly sent a military aircraft over Benghazi, it might have saved American lives. The U.S. Souda Bay Naval Base is an hour's flight from Libya.

"I believe if we had been able to scramble a fighter or aircraft or two over Benghazi as quickly as possible after the attack commenced, I believe there would not have been a mortar attack on the annex in the morning because I believe the Libyans would have split. They would have been scared to death that we would have gotten a laser on them and killed them," Hicks testified. Two Americans died in the morning mortar attack.

"The Libyans that I talked to and the Libyans and other Americans who were involved in the war have told me also that Libyan revolutionaries were very cognizant of the impact that American and NATO airpower had with respect to their victory. They are under no illusions that American and NATO airpower won that war for them. And so, in my personal opinion, a fast-mover flying over Benghazi at some point, you know, as soon as possible might very well have prevented some of the bad things that happened that night."

Obama administration officials have insisted that no military resources could have made it in time. A White House official told CBS News that, at the start of the attack, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta "looked at available options, and the ones we exercised had our military forces arrive in less than 24 hours, well ahead of timelines laid out in established policies."

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As the weakly protected U.S. diplomatic compound in eastern Libya came under attack the night of Sept. 11, 2012, the deputy head of the embassy in Tripoli 600 miles away sought in vain to get the Pentagon to scramble fighter jets over Benghazi in a show of force that he said might have averted a second attack on a nearby CIA complex.

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The new details are certain to reignite a debate over whether the Obama administration has been sufficiently forthcoming in its public accounting of the events and missteps that resulted in the first death of a U.S. ambassador in the line of duty in a generation.

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After the attacks ended without planes being scrambled or special forces dispatched, the lieutenant colonel in Tripoli who commanded the Special Operations team told Hicks he was sorry his men had been held back.

“I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life that a State Department officer has bigger balls than someone in the military,” the officer told Hicks, according to the diplomat’s account. Hicks called that “a nice compliment.”

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The administration has said the independent review of the Benghazi attack was exhaustive, and State Department officials have vowed to implement reforms to make U.S. missions abroad safer. Republicans, however, say Hicks’s account suggests the administration has not been entirely truthful.

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Middleground said:

Good golly, well that just proves

everything! :roll:

The decision to go into Iraq was on false, made-up premises. The evidence is all there and not difficult to find out. You can choose to bury your head in the sand or seek the truth. If you choose to live off those quotes, then by golly, you chose to stay uninformed.

What I see in the thread is false outrage and I can't help but roll my eyes when so many Republicans are up in arms about Benghazi, but choose to remain silent when it comes to Iraq. The hypocracy is just too much for me.

Click to expand...

pbrauer said:

Read down further where all those quotes are put into their proper context.

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Middleground said:

Good golly, well that just proves everything! :roll:

The decision to go into Iraq was on false, made-up premises. The evidence is all there and not difficult to find out. You can choose to bury your head in the sand or seek the truth. If you choose to live off those quotes, then by golly, you chose to stay uninformed.

What I see in the thread is false outrage and I can't help but roll my eyes when so many Republicans are up in arms about Benghazi, but choose to remain silent when it comes to Iraq. The hypocracy is just too much for me.

Click to expand...

On the night of Sept. 11, as the Obama administration scrambled to respond to the Benghazi terror attacks, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a key aide effectively tried to cut the department's own counterterrorism bureau out of the chain of reporting and decision-making, according to a "whistle-blower" witness from that bureau who will soon testify to the charge before Congress, Fox News has learned.

That witness is Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for operations in the agency’s counterterrorism bureau. Sources tell Fox News Thompson will level the allegation against Clinton during testimony on Wednesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

Fox News has also learned that another official from the counterterrorism bureau -- independently of Thompson -- voiced the same complaint about Clinton and Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy to trusted national security colleagues back in October.

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The deputy of slain U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens has told congressional investigators that a team of Special Forces prepared to fly from Tripoli to Benghazi during the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks was forbidden from doing so by U.S. Special Operations Command Africa.

The account from Gregory Hicks is in stark contrast to assertions from the Obama administration, which insisted that nobody was ever told to stand down and that all available resources were utilized. Hicks gave private testimony to congressional investigators last month in advance of his upcoming appearance at a congressional hearing Wednesday.

According to excerpts released Monday, Hicks told investigators that SOCAFRICA commander Lt. Col. Gibson and his team were on their way to board a C-130 from Tripoli for Benghazi prior to an attack on a second U.S. compound "when [Col. Gibson] got a phone call from SOCAFRICA which said, 'you can't go now, you don't have the authority to go now.' And so they missed the flight ... They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it."

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“They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it,” Hicks added. “So, anyway, and yeah. I still remember Colonel Gibson, he said, ‘I have never been so embarrassed in my life that a State Department officer has bigger balls than somebody in the military.’ A nice compliment.”

He added that “at that time, the third attack, the mortar attack at 5:15, had not yet occurred, if I remember correctly.”

Hicks also said that he was told repeatedly throughout the night that no military airplanes could fly over Benghazi as a show of force.

“I believe if we had been able to scramble a fighter or aircraft or two over Benghazi as quickly as possible after the attack commenced, I believe there would not have been a mortar attack on the annex in the morning because I believe the Libyans would have split,” he said. “They would have been scared to death that we would have gotten a laser on them and killed them.”

The Defense Department timeline of the attack states that two former Navy Seals, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods — medics by training — were killed during the 5:15 am attack as they defended the diplomatic team. Without Woods and Doherty, their were no medical staff on the scene. The special forces team would not have arrived before the second attack, but they wold have brought a medic to Benghazi.

Hicks is certain that the special forces team was needed. “We fully intended for those guys to go, because we had already essentially stripped ourselves of our security presence, or our security capability to the bare minimum,” he said in the interview.

When asked “what rationale” he was given to explain why the special forces team was ordered not to board that transport, Hicks replied “I guess they just didn’t have the right authority from the right level.”

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