Fox News has learned from sources who were on the ground in Benghazi that three urgent requests from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. Consulate and subsequent attack nearly seven hours later were denied by officials in the CIA chain of command — who also told the CIA operators to “stand down” rather than help the ambassador's team when shots were heard at approximately 9:40 p.m. in Benghazi on Sept. 11.
Former Navy SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were part of a small team who were at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. Consulate where Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When they heard the shots fired, they radioed to inform their higher-ups to tell them what they were hearing. They were told to “stand down,” according to sources familiar with the exchange. An hour later, they called again to headquarters and were again told to “stand down.”
Woods, Doherty and at least two others ignored those orders and made their way to the Consulate which at that point was on fire. Shots were exchanged. The quick reaction force from the CIA annex evacuated those who remained at the Consulate and Sean Smith, who had been killed in the initial attack. They could not find the ambassador and returned to the CIA annex at about midnight.
At that point, they called again for military support and help because they were taking fire at the CIA safe house, or annex. The request was denied. There were no communications problems at the annex, according those present at the compound. The team was in constant radio contact with their headquarters. In fact, at least one member of the team was on the roof of the annex manning a heavy machine gun when mortars were fired at the CIA compound. The security officer had a laser on the target that was firing and repeatedly requested back-up support from a Specter gunship, which is commonly used by U.S. Special Operations forces to provide support to Special Operations teams on the ground involved in intense firefights. The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours — enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, amo
ng them Delta Force operators.
A Special Operations team, or CIF which stands for Commanders in Extremis Force, operating in Central Europe had been moved to Sigonella, Italy, but they too were told to stand down. A second force that specializes in counterterrorism rescues was on hand at Sigonella, according to senior military and intelligence sources. According to those sources, they could have flown to Benghazi in less than two hours. They were the same distance to Benghazi as those that were sent from Tripoli. Specter gunships are commonly used by the Special Operations community to provide close air support.
According to sources on the ground, the special operator on the roof of the CIA annex had visual contact and a laser pointing at the Libyan mortar team that was targeting the CIA annex. The operators were calling in coordinates of where the Libyan forces were firing from.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday that there was not a clear enough picture of what was occurring on the ground in Benghazi to send help.
“There's a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking going on here,” Panetta said Thursday. “But the basic principle here … is that you don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's going on.”
Fox News has learned that there were two military surveillance drones redirected to Benghazi shortly after the attack on the Consulate began. They were already in the vicinity. The second surveillance craft was sent to relieve the first drone, perhaps due to fuel issues. Both were capable of sending real time visuals back to US officials in Washington, D.C. Any U.S. official or agency with the proper clearance, including the White House Situation Room, State Department, CIA, Pentagon and others, could call up that video in real time on their computers.
Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, were part of a Global Response Staff or GRS that provides security to CIA case officers and provides countersurveillance and surveillance protection. They were killed by a mortar shell at 4 a.m. Libyan time, nearly seven hours after the attack on the Consulate began — a window that represented more than enough time for the U.S. military to send back-up from nearby bases in Europe, according to sources familiar with Special Operations. Four mortars were fired at the annex. The first one struck outside the annex. Three more hit the annex.
Wait for a ”clear enough picture of what was occurring on the ground” during a battle?????
Is Leon Panetta an idiot?
He should be taken out to the next unclear battle ground and left with just his phone and a loaded gun.
Just like he did to those men in Libya.
UPDATE:
Report: Hillary Asked For More Security in Benghazi, Obama Said No
http://nation.foxnews.com/hillary-clinton/2012/10/26/report-hillary-asked-more-security-benghazi-obama-said-no
Obama White House Goes Into Information Lock Down
http://theulstermanreport.com/2012/10/26/obama-white-house-goes-into-information-lock-down/
They left them to die. No doubt about it now. They thought they could minimize the fallout before the election and they were wrong.
@Nan G: No! He should be left with one (1) round that he uses on himself before he would allow the ultimate BOHICA indignity.
@Hard Right: There was no doubt about it before!
@Nan G: Yes! — God where are the George S. ‘s when we really need them
@Budvarakbar: And maybe a Grant and Sherman, Sobieski, Martel, Cromwell and of course — Vlad the Impaler — all we got are a bunch of McClellands and Girly men — witness Colin Powell just endorsing the a-hole in chief.
Is that the Obama-Panetta doctrine-We’ll go when it’s safe! Panetta ought to resign in shame as should the two general officers that sat with him and announced that they left good men on the field to die alone.
I don’t think this is a battle of semantics any longer.
What is going to be interesting is how Greg, Lib1, Tom and Larry try to spin this absolute criminal failure on the part of the Obama administration.
These decisions, like to one to deny assistance to our FSO in Libya, are not made by those low level “security advisors” that Hillary tried to blame the lack of security on. Those decisions are made at the very top of the food chain, in the Oval Office. But hey, don’t look at that, will say the leftists here, look over here at what Romney said about GM. Odd how the left was so interested in flag draped coffins returning from the Middle East during the Bush administration. Now? Not so much.
Anyone who has listened to Mr. Woods’ interviews with Lars Larson, Glen Beck or Megyn Kelly, and was not absolutely sick at their stomach is as cold and heartless as the bastard in the Oval Office. All Mr. Woods wants to know is who gave the orders that allowed his son to be murdered by radical, 7th century Islamists. Is that too much to ask when you have given so much to your nation? I think not.
Do I hate this administration? You becha. When we have become a nation that no longer protects the lives of those who serve us in the most difficult of situations, I not only hate the administration that enacts those policies, I hate the people that put that administration in power. Yeah, that includes you Greg, Lib1, Tom and Larry. You, and your sick view of what this nation should be are destroying the very nation that allows you to be idiots.
My prayers have been for Mr. Woods, and the other family members of those sacrificed on the alter of political correctness in Libya.
@retire05:
It’s already started here and here and here.
Aye This news is EXTREMELY TROUBLING. I want to know the exact timeline from attack on the Consulate to the messages sent from on the ground,particularly from the Seals, and IF or WHEN they were received in the Situation Room by which decision makers It appears up to 4 separate requests were made from the ground for backup. EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED during those 6-8 hours. The answers exist. Let’s hear them.NOW
Semper Fi
It gets worse.
http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2012/10/26/ac-130u-gunship-was-on-scene-in-benghazi-obama-admin-refused-to-let-it-fire/
The wagons have been circled.
From the White House Insider:
The White House Insider adds this:
If this is, in fact, some of what happened, then this should be a huge nail in the coffin on Obama’s re-election hopes.
And if it is true, and people still vote for him, then it says quite a bit about how bad our society has declined and how little honesty and integrity mean to the American people.
@Retire,
Oh do you hate me? LOL. The day I start worrying about what some bigoted old toothless bearded hag from East Donkeyfart, TX thinks of me, i’ll let you know. If it makes you feel better, I couldn’t hate an amusing little muppet like you if I tried.
Interesting to see the same people running around blaming Obama for this the night it happened now acting as if “reporting” actually matters in what they choose to believe. Like most of the educated world, I await the facts when they come out and are reported by a credible journalistic organization, not the propaganda wing of the Republican party, who have been desperately trying to manufacture scandal for several weeks now:
http://mediamatters.org/mobile/research/2012/10/26/foxs-new-low-accusing-obama-admin-of-abandoning/190948
@Tom:
Do I hate you? YOU BET, YOU AND EVERY OTHER AMERICAN LEECH WHO VOTED FOR THIS OBAMINATION.
And how brave you are when you can hide behind your keyboard. I guarantee you would not talk to me that way to my face. To begin with, liberals are cowards when actually called down. You would be no different.
Waiting for what evidence? Are you waiting for CNN to tell you what to think? No wonder you come off as a brain dead loser. You really believe that we don’t have all the information needed to form an opinion? Do you really think that the order to “stand down” given to Ty Woods came from anywhere but the top?
Now, jerk, why don’t you share with us where you purchased your crystal ball that allows you to know that I am what you think I am, a “old toothless bearded hag?” I am sure a number of posters here would like to get one. MediaMatters? And you can come here and honestly accuse others of using “biased” sources? What a clown you are. Lucky for you you won’t have to dress up for Halloween. I am sure your nose is already red. I know your politics are.
@Hard Right:
This is beginning to look more and more like an “October Surprise” gone wrong. A kidnapping, then a hostage exchange. Who knew that there were two former SEALs there who would turn it into a gun battle and the would-be hostage would be killed?
I think if FOX News is going to put out an article like this only a little more than a week from the presidential election, they had better be prepared to identify their “sources who were on the ground in Benghazi” so that the truth or falseness of their story can be confirmed.
Their details are too specific and the implications of their allegations are too important not to demand that the sources names be made public and that sworn testimony be obtained.
I suggest that Mr. Issa subpoena whoever he must at FOX to get the names, and then subpoena those individuals to provide sworn statements. The truth is what he’s interested in, isn’t it?
@Greg:
The press is not required to reveal their sources, or didn’t you learn that when the NYSlimes was revealing that we were tracking ObL through his cell phone?
I want to remind all you losers on the left that if you think this is going away in the event that the kid of the Kenyan Marxist is reelected, you’re wrong. A sitting president was brought down over a burglary where no one was hurt and no one died. Four Americans died in Benghazi, and it is going to all come out how it was do to orders that came right from the top of the food chain, and the cover-up is what is going to destroy Obama and Hillary.
What I really think, of course, is that this is a blatant effort to turn a close election using a false story released through what has become a national right-wing propaganda outlet. I think the timing of the story is extremely suspicious, calculated to allow only enough time for political use of the story to be maximized, but not enough time to conclusively confirm or discredit it.
It would NOT have taken “sources who were on the ground in Benghazi” 6 weeks to come forward with details like this, when the events in question have been front and center in the media for much of that time, and when the House Oversight Committee has already conducted a very high-profile investigation of those same events.
This story stinks like a week-old dead fish.
Greg says:
Does the name Deep Throat ring a bell or were you too young for that scandal. I never heard on person on the left call for the source to be outed and paraded before congress. Now that the shoe is on the other foot lets please violate confidential sources.
@Greg: “You don’t deploy forces into harm’s way without knowing what’s going on, without having some real-time information about what’s taking place,” Sec Defense Leon Panetta said.http://news.yahoo.com/us-knew-too-little-deploy-troops-benghazi-pentagon-060316307.html
He said it himself!
So, if the story stinks, it stinks because that is such a dumb thing to say when in battle.
As soon as enemy combatants meet any previous plans go out the window.
Some famous general said it better than I just did.
@Nan G, #23:
I don’t doubt for a moment that he did say it. What he said is correct. You can ignore that fundamental principle and so deploy forces, of course. And you can get them all killed in the process.
Now we have Obie declining to answer when directly asked if the SEALs’ repeated requests for assistance were denied…
@Greg: Not all ”forces” are people on the ground, Greg.
Panetta had other options.
This is what was ready to go:
There were two AC-130Us deployed to Libya in March as part of Operation Unified Protector.
The AC-130U is a very effective third-generation fire-support aircraft, capable of continuous and extremely accurate fire onto multiple targets.
has even been credited with the surrender of the Taliban city of Kunduz
It was purpose-built for a select number of specific mission types, including point-defense against enemy attack. It was literally built for the kind of mission it could have engaged in over Benghazi, if the administration had let it fire. As the excerpt above clearly shows, we had assets on the ground “painting” the targets with the laser.
An AC-130U flies in a counter-clockwise “pivot turn” around the target, with the weapons all aimed out the left side of the aircraft.
We had the forces in the air and on the ground to have stopped the attack at any point, eliminating the terrorists and saving American lives.
@Nan G, #26:
Yeah, I knew it’s grandpa, the AC-47.
Had everything that’s known now about the events in Benghazi been known then, things might have worked out differently. It’s always easy to figure out what could or should have happened in retrospect.
@Greg:
Greg, the assets should have been airborne as soon as possible after the attacks began. That way they would have been on the spot when/if the decision was made to use them.
It would have been an easy decision to make, as an attack on any nation’s embassy is, by international law, an act of war against that nation. The use of force in reaction would not only have been justified, it would have been legal.
The fact that our assets were not even started on their way tells us that the decision had already been made… to not respond.
As one God-awful disclosure follows another, all we are going to get out of this crew of Obama apologists is desperate shrieks of “Fox News,” i.e. no response other than an attempt to poison the well. It’s all they have. The Obama administration has been notably and consistently thin-skinned snd reactive over the last four years, and has a long track record of instant vigorous denials of negative stories. They also have a history of revealing highly secret national security information when they think it will help them politically. But now for some reason, weeks before an election, they suddenly have nothing to say in response. Nothing at all. What does that tell us?
What has already come out so far from multiple news sources is highly, highly damaging. When the information in this particular story is corroborated by other sources, and it will be, where will the Flopping Aces Obama Damage Control Squad turn next? They’ll attack Romney for putting a dog on the roof of his car 25 years ago or something.
We didn’t do this to the Obama administration. Fox News didn’t do this to Obama administration. They did it to themselves. Four people died of (at best) a cynical and idiotic faculty-lounge theory. It may be something much worse than that.
If you jagoffs aren’t getting paid for defending this pile of crap, there’s something seriously wrong with you. Nobody could be that much of a genuine apologist for something this stupid and evil, unless they’re just not hooked up right. Serious mental illness in play.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/petraeus-throws-obama-under-bus_657896.html
CIA director David Petraeus, has put out this statement:
Did Petraeus just send Obama under the bus???
@Wm T Sherman, #29:
You wouldn’t question information from a media outlet having an obvious political agenda, which suddenly turns up just before a close election, that they attribute to unnamed sources that may not even exist?
Sorry. I won’t go for it, unless those sources are disclosed and come forward to confirm the story. Which any patriot American would surely feel compelled to do, given the seriousness of the allegations and the importance of the election.
Where the hell were these supposed “sources on the ground in Benghazi” when Darrell Issa was conducting his investigation and holding his Congressional hearing? They figured they’d just keep mum for 6 weeks, and then tell FOX News all about it?
@Greg:
There were a number of others “on the ground” in Benghazi who managed to escape the CIA annex. One of them, another CIA operative who worked with Ty Wood, was wounded. How seriously, I don’t know, but we can assume that when Issa held the hearings, that operative was still under medical treatment. Also, the hearings were not to determine WHAT happened (we know what happened, four Americans were slaughtered) by why they happened and who was responsible for the lack of security in the most volitile city in the Middle East.
You simply discount anything said by Fox. Yet, you will believe anything published by CNN, MSNBC, DailyKos or Huffington Post and claim it as gospel.
I think we can assume nothing–other than that there are some who sell their grandmother’s soul to the devil, if they thought it might win their candidate the White House.
I discount much of what FOX says. I have yet to see any other major news outlet try anything as brazen as this.
Pressure should be brought to bear on FOX until their sources are revealed and the truth is clearly stated in the form of testimony. Let the pieces fall where they may. It’s Darrell Issa’s job to make that happen. Assuming he is anything more than the dishonest political weasel that I’ve always taken him for, he’ll do so.
@Greggie: You said:
Here, here!! How selfish of those four Americans to get killed this close to the election!! Shame on them.
/sarcasm off
The Benghazi consulate attack was over 6 weeks ago.
That’s the thing about imaginary sources. They’re ever so much more compliant when asked to withhold critical information until the political timing is right.
Personally I think it’s shameful to politically exploit 4 deaths as the right is doing, but it was already established that they don’t give a rat’s ass about that sort of thing weeks ago.
@Greggie: Quit pissing and moaning about some manufactured outrage; you are just seeing the writing on the wall that your hero is at least an incompetent boob and at most accessory to the deaths of four brave Americans.
@Greg:
You keep proposing to out off-the-record news sources and exposing them to the inevitable retribution that would follow. This is a desperate tactical diversion, it’s spin, not a practical or realistic response, as the real effect would be to discourage anyone else from disclosing what they know. How to force it to happen? Perhaps you propose to haul the reporters in front of the grand jury and jail them if they don’t reveal their sources. If this were something that hurt rather than helped your preferred cause, you would scream bloody murder at the idea. You clumsy, obvious dick.
You are a person who actually quotes Media Matters as an authoritative source. Enough said.
I’ll ask you again about Deep Throat. The Watergate Break-in happen 2 years prior to the kerfuffle. If 6 weeks was too long a time frame for your sensibilities what say you about two years. That was political also but again it was a GOP administration.
@Wm T Sherman, #37:
Assuming they exist, if what they say proved true, the retribution wouldn’t be falling on their heads, would it?
Most Americans don’t hold with the idea of public attacks by anonymous accusers–a point that’s apparently lost on some people.
@chemman, #38:
Watergate was 40 years ago, but I remember those days well enough. The reason the Nixon administration folded wasn’t because of Deep Throat’s anonymous information; it was because the anonymously provided clues led to specific, verifiable facts. There’s a word for the sort of information FOX is pushing as though it were fact: RUMOR.
@Greg: 6 weeks is also a long time for Obama to provide no answers regarding the chain of command. I don’t blame you for being skeptical, but you would at least agree that these new claims should be verifiable by Obama and should be explicitly denied by Obama if they are false, right?
@Greg: You said:
Unless they are accusing Herman Cain of sexual misconduct…then you have no problem with it. In fact, you tried to preach to us here at FA that we ought not go after the accusers.
Let me remind you of your words:
In the case of Mr. Cain, the identity of the accuser wasn’t kept secret. She stood up and said what she felt she had to say in the full view of the public, exposing herself to whatever criticisms might follow.
That was not an attack by an anonymous accuser. No one had to wonder whether or not Mr. Cain’s accuser actually existed, and everyone was free to draw their own conclusion about her credibility.
To this day, I still think that no one really knows the truth expect for the parties involved.
@Kevin, #40:
There’s a problem with denials; they can focus attention on and lend credibility to an accusation, which–true or false–can be very damaging in the days leading up to an election.
I suggested what I thought should happen. Darrell Issa should subpoena names from FOX, and then obtain sworn testimony from their supposed Benghazi sources. That could be done with a grant of full immunity, with protection from political reprisals, and possibly even without publicly revealing the identities of the parties involved.
Of course, if the story is concocted, doing that could be politically disastrous.
@Greg: That’s not true, Greggie. The Politico ran with the story, despite the fact that the woman did not want to come forward. In fact it was some time before she finally did reveal her identity. If I remember correctly, her reason for desired anonymity was that she didn’t want to become another Anita Hill.
Nice try.
@Greg:
Well, except for the ones who wanted us to believe Harry Reid’s accusations about Romney’s tax returns.
Hey Greg… would you like to remind us all of your position on Reid’s accusations? I distinctly remember what you had to say and I am most certain that you do. Perhaps you’d like to save me the time of perusing the archives for the exact quotes.
the lies from OBAMA AS PRESIDENT are taking AMERICANS directly to him
being the commander in chief, he is responsible, for denying the help calls
desperately send till the end,
and the fact that OBAMA COULD BE SHOWN WITH COMEDIAN SHOW LAUGHING HI MOUTH WIDE OPEN ,
WHEN he could not stand to that part of the drama and tell AMERICANS NOTHING BUT LIES MORE LIES,
when FOX is searching for clues they did not give any bullshit, they came with GENERALS AND OTHER SOURCES , SOMETHING RARELY SEEN IN A MEDIA, TO ANSWER THE QUESTIONS WHICH AMERICA WHERE DEMANDING FOR LACK OF HAVING NONE BUT LIES FROM OBAMA AND HIS MINIONS,
he wanted to forget by hanging with comedians,
DID HE THINK REALLY THAT THE AMERICANS WOULD FORGET THAT TRAGEDY? IT SHOW HOW HE MISS JUDGE THE AMERICANS, THIS IS ANOTHER, BUT TRAGIC LESSON TO HIS FACE, THAT AMERICANS DON’T HIDE FROM THE TRUTH,
THEY DON’T LIKE THOSE BRAVES TO BE ABUSED BY THE
ADMINISTRATION’S DECISION TO LET THEM DIE WITHOUT BEING HELP, THIS UNFORGIVABLE, AND HE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS OWN ORDERS, TO DO OR TO NOT HAVE DONE THE EXTREME EFFORT TO RESPOND TO MANY EXTREME CALLS FOR HELP,
I can think of what was the AMBASSADOR AND SEALS LAST THOUGHTS, THEY COULD HAVE IN THEIR SOUL YELLED
AMERICA WHY, WHY DID YOU LET US DIE, WE FOUGHT,
WE DID ALL WE COULD WHILE WAITING FOR YOU,
WHY DID YOU LET US DOWN??????
@Greg: While he’s at it, Issa should also subpoena the sources of the intel leaks since it is quite apparent there is a cover up going on about that as well. And the minute Issa were to subpoena them, he would be accused by the left of playing politics.
@Greg: Using this point of view, there would never be a situation where you would send help to those needing it because you will never have real time information on what is going on on the ground other than what you are getting from those who are actually there calling for the help. Between the time you send the QRF and the time they get there, the situation will have changed again regardless. The civilian equivalent would be if someone called the police about a robbery in progress and they didn’t send anyone because they don’t have any “real time information”.
Have you ever been in a situation involving a QRF? Having been on both sides, the receiving end and the QRF itself, I can tell you that when someone requests help because their lives are in danger, you don’t leave them to hang out to dry.
@another vet:
When your own men on the ground have been ”painting” enemy targets for air support to take out, what rational excuse can be given for NOT sending in that air support and taking out those targets?
Why allow those ”painters” to get killed?
I know ex-Navy SEALs who ”painted” targets on the ground during the first Bush’s Iraq involvement.
They were not left out in the cold!
Shame on Obama for abandoning these brave souls.
@Aye:
And we have a knockout! That will end Greg’s debate on this thread, he’ll not come back to address this.