via ABC News.
A retired U.S. Air Force brigadier general who was on duty in Germany during the deadly Benghazi terrorist attack told Congress today that commanders discussed “what we should do” as they waited for orders from the State Department to help the beleaguered Americans.Read it all here.
But the request for help never came from the State Department, Ret. USAF Brigadier Gen. Robert Lovell testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
“There are accounts of time, space and capability, discussions of the question, ‘could we have gotten there in time to make a difference?’” Lovell testified. “The discussion is not could or could not of time, space and capability. The point is we should have tried.”
Lovell was on duty at AFRICOM headquarters in Germany during the Sept. 11, 2012 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. The AFRICOM command was responsible for region that included Libya. The Pentagon take steps to move assets as the attack proceeded, but they were aimed for Tripoli, not Benghazi.
“We didn’t know how long this would last when we became aware of the distress, nor did we completely understand what we had in front of us, be it a kidnapping, rescue, recovery, protracted hostile engagement, or any or all of the above,” he added.
As the attack unfolded, Lovell, who was not in the chain of operational command, said command held discussions “that churned on about what we should do.”
“The predisposition to interagency influence had the military structure in the spirit of expeditionary government support waiting for a request for assistance from the State Department,” he said.
Why is this important? Its very important for the following reasons...
1. Several US personnel were killed. No one has been held accountable and no one has been killed or captured following this attack.
2. The USMC has participated in the lie that they didn't know this was an attack. They knew it at AFRICOM HQ. The USMC has established the bastard organization called the SPMAGTF-CR in part because of the fiction that we didn't have forces available to respond. That means that the USMC has been politicized!
3. In addition to #2, we have also heard members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff parrot the administration talking points. It now seems that they lied before Congress. This helps to erode confidence in the military and shows that they are political pawns.
4. The idea that "information" was the missing ingredient in the decision making process in this incident is a lie. The truth is that leaders vacillated and made a decision by NOT making a decision. They chose to do nothing.
We have amateurs in the State Dept and because they were the lead agency, people died. I hope that the American people remember this when Hillary decides to run for president.
There are a lot of stories regarding Benghazi. The attack target was a CIA operation under State cover, with people involved in rounding up Libyan arms and shipping them off to Turkey for use by anti-government forces in Syria. (The CIA/State diffusion of responsibility is a principal problem.) That's why Ambassador Stevens was in town, instead of at his duty station in Tripoli. He had experience working with the Muslim dissidents, the same people who did the attack which resulted in his death by smoke inhalation (apparently).
ReplyDeleteRegarding the response, there are many stories. An early story by Fox News that an urgent request from the CIA annex for military back-up during the attack on the U.S. "consulate" and subsequent attack several hours later on the annex itself was denied by the CIA chain of command.
SecDef Panetta at Defense claimed they didn't have enough info. Another story is that AFRICOM's Gen. Carter Ham wanted to act but was fired when he made an issue of it. "General Ham immediately had a rapid response unit ready and communicated to the Pentagon that he had a unit ready. General Ham then received the order to stand down. His response was to screw it, he was going to help anyhow. Within 30 seconds to a minute after making the move to respond, his second in command apprehended General Ham and told him that he was now relieved of his command." Ham was replaced by Gen. David Rodriguez.
So you've got Defense, State and CIA involved. Nobody will touch CIA, nor Defense, so State took the fall. I'm no fan of Hilllary, believe me, but she's taken the fire and not ratted on the people who were more involved in this matter than State was.
Incidentally, the Republican chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., has publicly challenged the credibility of a former military intelligence official (retired Brig. Gen. Robert Lovell) who testified Thursday that more should have been done to help Americans under fire during the Benghazi attack.