Q: I just wanted to ask, you mentioned permission from the Libyans. Why is that important? What did you mean by that?
A: Well, it's their country. And for an American military aircraft to fly over their country, we have to have permission from them to do so.
Q: So you had mentioned that the first team from Tripoli to Benghazi arrived at 1:15?
A: Right.
The two men killed at the annex were from this first rescue team.
Q: And was there a second team that was organized? Could you tell us about the second team?
A: Right. The second team -- the Defense Attache worked assiduously all night long to try to get the Libyan military to respond in some way. Early in the morning -- sorry, after we were formally notified by the Prime Minister, who called me, that Chris had passed, the Libyan military agreed to fly their C-130 to Benghazi and carry additional personnel to Benghazi as reinforcements. Because we at that time -- at that time, the third attack, the mortar attack at 5:15, had not yet occurred, if I remember correctly.
Q: So what time did the second rescue team ??
A: Well, again, they flew -- I think that flight took off sometime between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m.
The second attack was over by then. And notice he says the aircraft was the Libyan's aircraft. It was not ours.
Now I would like everyone to note that tinydancer said in the topic title that the second team was told "you can't go".
This feeds into the bullshit meme of a "stand down order".
However, here is what the guy actually said:
So Lieutenant Colonel Gibson, who is the SOCAFRICA commander, his team, you know, they were on their way to the vehicles to go to the airport to get on the C-130 when he got a phone call from SOCAFRICA which said, you can't go now, you don't have authority to go now. And so they missed the flight. And, of course, this meant that one of the ...
You can't go
now. That is not a stand
down order. That is a stand
by order.
Permission was needed from the Libyans. It was their aircraft.