Posted on 10/08/2012 1:04:32 PM PDT by Mount Athos
The former head of a Special Forces "Site Security Team" in Libya tells CBS News that in spite of multiple pleas from himself and other U.S. security officials on the ground for "more, not less" security personnel, the State Department removed as many as 34 people from the country in the six months before the terrorist attack in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others.
Speaking to CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson, Wood said when he found out that his own 16-member team and a six-member State Department elite force were being pulled from Tripoli in August - about a month before the assault in Benghazi - he felt, "like we were being asked to play the piano with two fingers. There was concern amongst the entire embassy staff."
He said other staffers approached him with their concerns when the reduction in security personnel was announced.
"They asked if we were safe," he told Attkisson. "They asked... what was going to happen, and I could only answer that what we were being told is that they're working on it - they'll get us more (security personnel), but I never saw that."
Wood insists that senior staff in Libya, including Ambassador Stevens, State Department Regional Security Officer Eric Nordstrom, and himself, all wanted and had requested enhanced security.
"We felt we needed more, not less," he tells Attkisson.
Asked what response their repeated pleas got from the State Department in Washington, Wood says they were simply told "to do with less. For what reasons, I don't know."
"We tried to illustrate... to show them how dangerous and how volatile and just unpredictable that whole environment was over there. So to decrease security in the face of that really is... it's just unbelievable," Wood tells CBS News.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
Amazing, singing Kumbaya didn’t work!
He really thought we was making friends with terrorist!
What a fool!
Ah, “doing more with less” - same crap I’ve heard for 27 years in the military. Apparently we have finally reached the stage where we’re doing everything with nothing...how’s that workin’ out, BTW?
A complete travesty.
Ex-Security Team Leader In Libya: "Multiple Pleas" For "More, Not Less" Security Staff
What is a Special Forces “Site Security Team”? What unit are they in? Do they fall under SOCOM, CENTCOM, JSOC? Please elaborate.
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