Special forces ordered to stand down in Benghazi?

[Oldstyle]

I'll reserve judgement until all hearings and investigations have been completed and reported.

it will not matter to people like you what happened .the left will back Obama and Hillary no matter what happened.

No matter what happened? We all know what happened. There was a terrorist attack, and 4 men got killed. Geez, that's not even close to the 9/11 scenario where Bush and Rice ignored warnings and more than 3000 people died, and I don't see Republicans hashing that over and over.

There is a MAJOR difference between the 9/11 attacks and what happened in Benghazi...the Bush Administration wasn't given the chance to save half the people killed and had it's military stand down. That is EXACTLY what the Obama Administration did.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Could that person be Petreaus? Of course Hicks will have to provide proof, whoever he names, if he will even do that. I have a feeling that it is all hoopla and these 3 Amigos won't be providing anything we haven't heard already.

Thank you for demonstrating how stupid you are,

Petreaus retired from the military in July of 2011, care to explain how someone who is not in the military can issue orders to the military?

Ha,ha, now we can see who the stupid one is. Petreaus just happened to be Director of the CIA at the time of Benghazi, and they were adamant to claim that they did not give the stand down order.
So, if they had given the stand down order, who do you think it would have been, genius?

This from a right-wing source, even:
The CIA made it clear that it was NOT they who issued the “Stand Down” orders to their people.
thenationalpatriot.com » Blog Archive » Weekend Edition: Petraeus ? A 4 Star Scapegoat

Moreover, no one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need: claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate.” So if not the CIA…then who did issue the stand down orders?
Benghazi Stand Down Denials Don't Stand Up To Reason - Forbes

So mr not stupid, if the CIA is not able to issue stand down orders, why is the CIA being so adamant to let everyone know that they didn't? Wouldn't it have been obvious if we used your "intelligent" logic?

The problem with right-wingers is that they think they are so much smarter than everyone else, and then they show their ass!

Your links actually make my point, Petraeus did not issue any stand down order.

As for your question, the rumor is that those forces were employed by the CIA even though they were part of State Department security. Frankly, I have no idea if that is true or not, nor do I care, this thread is about a stand down order that went to military forces, not to a CIA or State Department response team.

Doubling down on stupid only makes you more stupid. The chain of command for the military does not go through the CIA. Care to triple down and prove that you are not even qualified to discuss books like See Spot Run?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Oh come on, don't tell me that you don't know that the GOP's agenda is to keep the wealthy from paying more taxes while stabbing the middle-class and below in the back, while the Democratic agenda is to end all the subsidies to the rich/corporations and save the programs that help the middle-class and the poor.

And, I didn't say the agenda has changed now that Obama is in office, so you must be seeing things that are not there.

I was wrong, you have no imagination, there is nothing there but delusions.

No, you don't know what you are talking about, you probably don't even know what agenda means.

This from the guy that posted links that argue that Petreaus did not give orders as proof that he did.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Elijah Cummings (Ranking member) slammed the Chairmain (Issa (R)) about his so-called, facts and motives.

Dem Rep. Cummings Tears Into GOP Rep. Issa For ?Politicizing? Benghazi During Congressional Hearing | Mediaite

Imagine that, a politician claiming that another politician is being political.

I do have a serious question for you, wouldn't you actually like to know what happened? Can you explain why Obama went with an obvious lie, contradicting the President of Libya on national TV, and kept up with the lie weeks after the attack? If there were actually no forces in the area, can you explain why there were not? After all, it was well known that that part of Libya is a hotbed of terrorist sympathizers, and it was the anniversary of 9/11. Would you have exactly the same position if Bush was President when this happened?

 

[Oldstyle]

If it were up to the progressives on this board, Benghazi and the names of the four dead Americans would NEVER be brought up again!

If this had happened while W. was still in the White House...Deanie, TM, Sallow and the rest of the progressive "choir" would literally be foaming at the mouth they'd be so upset.

 

[Clementine]

Who gave the order?

No one was told to stand down. The second rescue team was told to stand by. They had to wait for permission from the Libyans to fly their C-130 in Libyan airpace and that took time.

The "stand down" myth was started by Fox News and is perpetuated by politicians who don't know shit from shinola about the military and who like to sneak that "stand down order" into soundbites. You can tell this by reading the testimony.

The order to stand by was given by their military superiors until permission could be gained from the Libyans.

A State Department official worked all night to get that permission. By the time he got it, it was too late. By the time the second rescue team left, the second attack had occured and two people from the first rescue team had been killed.

Bullshit. Obama, Hillary and Rice all stated that it was a bunch of protesters angered by a video and they claimed no one was close enough to help and that it was all over before they knew what was happening.

If there were a shred of truth to the fact that they told our troops to stand by while they waited hours for permission from the Libyan government to fly in their air space, Obama should have been condemning them for not helping and not allowing us to help our people instead of constantly condemning a filmmaker. That didn't happen, did it?

The claim was that they did not know what was happening as it happened even though drones flew in the area. Obama trotted off to Vegas to campaign without a care in the world. Not what you'd expect if we were anxiously awaiting permission to go help our people. If it were true that they knew terrorists were attacking the embassy, then Obama must be cold hearted to continue on with his campaign.

They can't change the story now. I believe the many witnesses on the ground who all knew it was a terrorist attack. There had been attacks in the area and many threats made, including some directly to the ambassador, yet security was decreased despite pleas to increase it in the face of threats.

Obama wasn't even willing to admit it was terrorists, let alone send troops in to stop them.

 

[Oldstyle]

What's really sad about the deaths of the second two Americans, seven hours after the start of the attack is that the mortar attack on our annex would have almost certainly ended in a nanosecond if one missile from one US fighter had been called down from those ex-seals begging for air support. We could have saved them. We did nothing. Why? Because the situation was politically "inconvenient". It didn't fit with the narrative that the Obama White House was pushing...that Al Queda was on the ropes. It those two men who died at the Annex were part of my family I would be looking for scalps of those who didn't respond to hang on the White House portico. It angers me deeply.

 

[Lakhota]

Special forces ordered to stand down in Benghazi?

Even Hicks debunked that.

If only Republicans hadn't cut the embassy security budget.

 

[billyerock1991]

I could have sworn that someone said no one was ordered to stand down because there was no one in the area.

American Special Forces soldiers were preparing to board the C-130 that would fly them on a mission to rescue Americans under attack by terrorists in Benghazi on Sept. 11 last year, but they were stopped by a last-minute order from somebody higher up in the U.S. government, House investigators have learned.
“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,” Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during an interview last month, The Washington Examiner has learned.
The committee released excerpts of the interview ahead of a congressional hearing that will take place on Wednesday.

Whistle-blower: Benghazi rescue team told to stand down before second deadly attack | WashingtonExaminer.com

We even have a name for a source within the State Department, he was the number 2 man in Libya.

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 South 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."
No assistance arrived from the U.S. military outside of Libya during the hours that Americans were under attack or trapped inside compounds by hostile forces armed with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47 rifles.

Diplomat: U.S. Special Forces told "you can't go" to Benghazi during attacks - CBS News

Not to worry though, we know who to blame for no one talking about it.

Benghazi returning as big scandal - Salon.com

your source was a little off here ... these special forces were 5 hours out ... there was nothing they could do at that time this has been well documented ... your source is soooooooooooo full of bullshit

 

[yidnar]

I could have sworn that someone said no one was ordered to stand down because there was no one in the area.

American Special Forces soldiers were preparing to board the C-130 that would fly them on a mission to rescue Americans under attack by terrorists in Benghazi on Sept. 11 last year, but they were stopped by a last-minute order from somebody higher up in the U.S. government, House investigators have learned.
“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,” Gregory Hicks, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee during an interview last month, The Washington Examiner has learned.
The committee released excerpts of the interview ahead of a congressional hearing that will take place on Wednesday.

Whistle-blower: Benghazi rescue team told to stand down before second deadly attack | WashingtonExaminer.com

We even have a name for a source within the State Department, he was the number 2 man in Libya.

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 South 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."
No assistance arrived from the U.S. military outside of Libya during the hours that Americans were under attack or trapped inside compounds by hostile forces armed with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47 rifles.

Diplomat: U.S. Special Forces told "you can't go" to Benghazi during attacks - CBS News

Not to worry though, we know who to blame for no one talking about it.

Benghazi returning as big scandal - Salon.com

your source was a little off here ... these special forces were 5 hours out ... there was nothing they could do at that time this has been well documented ... your source is soooooooooooo full of bullshit

are you saying the state dept new how long the attack was going to last ??

 

[Claudette]

What's really sad about the deaths of the second two Americans, seven hours after the start of the attack is that the mortar attack on our annex would have almost certainly ended in a nanosecond if one missile from one US fighter had been called down from those ex-seals begging for air support. We could have saved them. We did nothing. Why? Because the situation was politically "inconvenient". It didn't fit with the narrative that the Obama White House was pushing...that Al Queda was on the ropes. It those two men who died at the Annex were part of my family I would be looking for scalps of those who didn't respond to hang on the White House portico. It angers me deeply.

It infuriates me as well.

Everyone knows these guys put themselves in harms way. They are volunteers and both Woods and Doherty were ex-SEALS. They knew the risks. I'm sure they also thought their bosses had their backs and would do what it took to protect the consulate.

Seems the only thing Hillary and the State Department were interested in was sloughing the attack off on a video even though they knew it was AQ from the get go.

They should have beefed up security. They had loads of warning and the threats were real. Failing that they should have shut down the embassy just like the Britts and the Red Cross did. They should have brought our people home.

As for Barry Boy? The only thing he was interested in was that fundraiser in Vegas. That right there tells me all I need to know about that ****. No honor. No integrity and he obviously could care less about four dead men. He's a ******* asshole that I have not one ounce of respect for. Same goes for Hillary. Gutless wonders both of em.

 

[HomeInspect]

Do you think Juan Williams actually watched the hearings before mindlessly trying to defend the lies?

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVnNVwKgnwo]Michelle Malkin:"Lies Lies Lies Yeah, They ARE Going To Get You, Hillary!" - Sean Hannity - 5-8-13 - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Book of Jeremiah]

I guess I should not be surprised there are umpteen topics on this already. And I expect there will be umpteen more.

The second rescue team was awaiting permission from the Libyan government to fly the C-130 in their airspace. That was the cause of the delay. The "stand down" order never existed. A stand down order, for those of you who are completely ignorant of all things military, means to stop all preparations and return to base and go back to sleep or whatever it was you were doing.

This was not a stand down order. It was a stand BY order. They were awaiting permission. They were not told to stand down. The "stand down" myth was created by Fox News and perpetuated by politicians who don't know shit from shinola when it comes to the military.

The stand by order came from their MILITARY superiors.

It was a State Department official who worked all night to finally get permission from the Libyans.

By the time they were allowed to leave, the second and last attack had already occurred.

Four people died. The ambassador and a computer information officer at the consulate in Benghazi during the first attack. Then two members of the first rescue team during the second attack which occurred at the annex seven and a half hours later.

The stand down order ( not stand by ) came from the Military Superiors alright. The State Dept. This according to Hicks testimony. As I understand it, Mr. Hicks is a registered democrat - voted for Barack Obama twice and thought very highly of Mrs. Clinton. Until now!

........ therein lies the reality for the liberal who comes face to face with the real agenda of this administration! We should start calling it Murder, Inc. Because Benghazi was cold blooded murder and Mr. Hicks is doing his level best to convey that message to the American people right now. It would behoove the liberals to listen a bit closer because you never know when it will be your turn to make a "sacrifice for your country".

Ambassador Stephens trusted Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton. His pleas for help were ignored and he is dead as a result of their decision to let him die rather than rescue him and the others. Those are the facts, folks. Mr. Hicks is one of your own people and he has no reason under heaven to lie under oath about it.

There was a liberal reporter - cannot recall her last name - first name Lara - she was gang raped by Egyptians while reporting the news over arab spring. She was flown back to the USA where she was quickly isolated from the press. Not even her own liberal newspaper would carry the true story of the attack and gang rape on their own employee. She was told by representatives of the Obama administration this wasn't a good time, better to not tell her story - to take a vacation - and remain out of view of american public. That was for the best. Like a good liberal, she obeyed orders.

She was forgotten and the liberals moved on. I do feel sorry for this woman and for Mr. Hicks because it took a personal encounter such as they have had to open their eyes to the reality of what this Administration is capable of and worse yet what the democrat party has unwittingly joined themselves to. I'm sure they never in a million years thought they were signing up for this level of corruption. A few know and they will pay the penalty for that one day but the rest of the democrats had no idea just how evil this administration truly is.

Until now.

- Jeremiah

 

[Caroljo]

On hannitys radio show today the guy who operated one of the drones over the consulate called in and said they provided real time video of the attack. Oops...

Yeah, right

This is all an attempt by the right to cook up a scandal for Obama, and also to smear Hillary in advance of her likely run for the presidency in 2016. Sorry, but it's not going to work. First of all, it's cooked up bullshit; second, Americans just aren't that interested in it.

OMG....Why can't you people pull your heads out of your ass? So now the "right" cooked all this up just for a scandal? This could ALMOST make me laugh if it weren't so stupid!
No...Obama and Hillary did this on their own, they screwed up now they own this thing. I wonder what you libs are going to say and do when all the proof gets out there and you find out your gods are responsible for these deaths?

I know.....DENY IT as usual.

 

[Caroljo]

it will not matter to people like you what happened .the left will back Obama and Hillary no matter what happened.

No matter what happened? We all know what happened. There was a terrorist attack, and 4 men got killed. Geez, that's not even close to the 9/11 scenario where Bush and Rice ignored warnings and more than 3000 people died, and I don't see Republicans hashing that over and over.

It always has to be Bush's fault, that record is broken, burned and not playable anymore...

Tweedy Bird, you're an imbecile...

Well according to the lefty's...Benghazi is OLD news now and we should just ignore it.
But they can't stop talking about Bush and constantly lying no matter how much proof they're given. It's a sickness.....

 

[Redfish]

No matter what happened? We all know what happened. There was a terrorist attack, and 4 men got killed. Geez, that's not even close to the 9/11 scenario where Bush and Rice ignored warnings and more than 3000 people died, and I don't see Republicans hashing that over and over.

It always has to be Bush's fault, that record is broken, burned and not playable anymore...

Tweedy Bird, you're an imbecile...

Well according to the lefty's...Benghazi is OLD news now and we should just ignore it.
But they can't stop talking about Bush and constantly lying no matter how much proof they're given. It's a sickness.....

liberalism is a mental disease---------there is no other explanation

 

[Clementine]

The story the administration is putting out now just doesn't make sense considering what happened and what their initial lies were. Does the left believe that Obama and others knew our people were in trouble and they were waiting for permission from the Libyan government to help them? Getting the okay to go ahead would have taken one ******* phone call, not hours. And apparently Obama didn't consider an effort to rescue our people during a terrorist attack as a priority since he went about preparing for his trip to Vegas to campaign.

No one in the administration said that we were waiting for the Libyan government to give us the go ahead to send in help until witnesses on the ground put them on the spot recently.

If Obama had skipped his campaign trip and stood before the American people telling us that our people were under attack by terrorists and that the Libyan government was not helping and not allowing us to help, maybe I'd believe they did everything they could. Instead, he went off campaigning and then starting blaming some unknown filmmaker for the attacks. He didn't tell us it was terrorists. We kept hearing about the filmmaker and how they would go after him, which they did.

There was no condemnation of the actual killers and no criticism of the Libyan government. Just talk about the filmmaker and Obama even talked to the Muslims and sounded regretful that our freedom of speech allowed this filmmaker to make the video.

Then there was silence for months and they refused to cooperate with the investigation. The documents handed over were so heavily edited that they were worthless in the effort to bring out the truth.

Reid claiming that it was a long time ago indicates that the administration wants everyone to just forget about it. Sorry, but the truth needs to come out. It does make a difference. The way this administration handled a terrorist attack is very important and tells us how he views enemies. He apologized to them and asked Americans not to judge. He left others to handle the situation because he had speeches to make and an election to win. Those are not the actions of a true leader.

 

[TemplarKormac]

It seems like many Republicans don't mind stooping to the level of lying, especially on this Benghazi non-issue, so why would it surprise anyone.

Mrs. Toensing, a Republican former U.S. prosecutor, told Fox News on Monday that she had been refused a clearance to represent a Benghazi whistleblower she said was a career Foreign Service officer.
The State Department replied Wednesday that it had not received any such requests for a security clearance.
That tale took another twist Thursday with department spokesman Patrick Ventrell accusing Mrs. Toensing of “lying.”
Since the State Department issued its denial, he said, Mrs. Toensing “has been in contact with us and is now going through the procedures to get a security clearance. But this individual was on TV repeatedly saying that they were being held back from getting a security clearance before they’d even picked up the phone to call us.”
“She was making false statements,” Mr. Ventrell added, “false statements are lying. … We had somebody who was on national television saying that we were blocking them from getting a security clearance, which was not true.”
For the third day in a row, Ms. Toensing declined to grant The Washington Times’ request for an interview.


Read more: Benghazi investigations included CIA activities; personnel had secret base in Libyan city - Washington Times

Hmm....., Just like Congressman Issa just caught the honorable Mrs. Maloney in an obvious lie about access to the witnesses.

That was when I had a phone call, can you tell me what was said?

Nordstrom flat owned her when he said that he had interviewed with them, the other three concurred. I laughed out loud. Caught in a lie borne of desperation.

 

[Claudette]

The story the administration is putting out now just doesn't make sense considering what happened and what their initial lies were. Does the left believe that Obama and others knew our people were in trouble and they were waiting for permission from the Libyan government to help them? Getting the okay to go ahead would have taken one ******* phone call, not hours. And apparently Obama didn't consider an effort to rescue our people during a terrorist attack as a priority since he went about preparing for his trip to Vegas to campaign.

No one in the administration said that we were waiting for the Libyan government to give us the go ahead to send in help until witnesses on the ground put them on the spot recently.

If Obama had skipped his campaign trip and stood before the American people telling us that our people were under attack by terrorists and that the Libyan government was not helping and not allowing us to help, maybe I'd believe they did everything they could. Instead, he went off campaigning and then starting blaming some unknown filmmaker for the attacks. He didn't tell us it was terrorists. We kept hearing about the filmmaker and how they would go after him, which they did.

There was no condemnation of the actual killers and no criticism of the Libyan government. Just talk about the filmmaker and Obama even talked to the Muslims and sounded regretful that our freedom of speech allowed this filmmaker to make the video.

Then there was silence for months and they refused to cooperate with the investigation. The documents handed over were so heavily edited that they were worthless in the effort to bring out the truth.

Reid claiming that it was a long time ago indicates that the administration wants everyone to just forget about it. Sorry, but the truth needs to come out. It does make a difference. The way this administration handled a terrorist attack is very important and tells us how he views enemies. He apologized to them and asked Americans not to judge. He left others to handle the situation because he had speeches to make and an election to win. Those are not the actions of a true leader.

Great Post and I agree.

All he had to do was pick up the phone. I doubt the Libyans would have denied him.

He had no problem jetting off to Vegas for that fundraiser while men were dying in Libya.

Tells me all I need to know about that man. I have not one ounce of respect for him.

He had his priorities and they sure as hell weren't four dead men in Libya or an attack by AQ.

It was all about his re-election.

He isn't worth the sweat of the balls of those very good men.

Oh and I'm sure Barry and his administration would like Benghazi to go away. Benghazi shows us all what losers he and his administration really are.

 

[Oldstyle]

Special forces ordered to stand down in Benghazi?

Even Hicks debunked that.

If only Republicans hadn't cut the embassy security budget.

The State Department head of that sector, Charlene Lamb, testified at the Senate hearings that budget cuts had ZERO to do with the security draw down prior to the attacks. Fail...