Posted on 10/29/2012 12:50:08 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
As U.S. Africa Command waited for any order to rescue Americans on Sept. 11 at the besieged consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya, it was missing a key unit that the Pentagon gives every regional four-star commander — an emergency strike force.
The new command’s lack of such a unit is another piece in the unfolding Benghazi timeline that shows an overriding theme: As radical Islamic extremism swelled in the chaotic coastal city, U.S. security assets in Libya diminished.
From the State Department’s denial of diplomats’ requests for more security in Libya to Obama administration officials repeatedly saying the military-style attack on the consulate resulted from “spontaneous” protests, the events before, during and after the Benghazi assault reflect the political, diplomatic and military confusion that is post-Gadhafi Libya.
Each U.S. geographic combatant command, whether it be in the Middle East, the Pacific or, in this case, Africa, is entitled to a special operations rapid-response team — a group of Green Berets to perform instant combat in situations like the Islamist militants’ attack on the U.S. Consulate.
But on that day, AfriCom, the Pentagon’s newest geographic combatant command, which is still in the building phase, lacked what is called the “commander in-extremis force,” said a senior special operations official.
“All geographic combatant commands have one allocated to them, except AfriCom,” the senior official said. “AfriCom’s is in the process of being established.”
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Sorry Rowan, your oped stinks and smells like it came from the Outhouse and DNC:
The procedures our SpecOps, Navy, Air Force and Army set up to rescue endangered Embassy personnel have been around for decades.
They get refined and updated as our Spec Ops and their backups obtain better equipment, faster/better humint and elint.
Our military was ready and waiting for their authorization from our Faux POTUS, the traitor in the Outhouse, which never came.
Obozo refused to pull the pin and authorize the rescue. He went to bed to prepare for a hard fund raising trip to Vegas.
Then, he and his evil minions lied and good Americans died.
Below is the link to Travis McGee’s explanation of how this would work unless the POTUS Traitor doesn’t authorize the final actions.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2951160/posts?page=5#5
“Now I was only a LT for 5 years active duty in NavSpecWar, but it was imprinted deeply upon my brain that ONLY the POTUS can give cross-border permission. Probably a million living ex-military officers know this like they know 2+2=4. This Benghazi fiasco is Obama’s baby 100% and there is no way for him to wiggle out.
The system is designed to ENSURE that when a crisis is happening, (and a missing ambassador with a consulate under attack is “Crisis Level Infinity”), and military assets are already charging in to the rescue, the president must be in the loop to grant the the cross-border authorization.
Nobody else can do this. This one formality must be followed, “just put your intitials here, Mr. President, for history,” so to speak. Boiler plate, but it must be done.
(Can you imagine Reagan or either Bush saying “No. Cross border permission not granted. Stop the rescue. Stand down.”)
The POTUS has to tell the Sec. State and JCS, “Yes, do it, execute the rescue, cross the borders.” Then it WILL happen, without delay, since the military is already on the way, flying in from all directions toward Benghazi.
But if POTUS says at 5pm DC time, “No military action, no crossing the border,” and then he becomes “unavailable,” then his last standing order stands until he changes it.
So if he went to bed, for example, nobody could change his standing orders.
I imagine that a lot of extreme military, CIA and State Dept. craziness was going down while Obama was sleeping. Aircraft must be told proceed, or return to base, or they fall from the sky. I imagine many HEATED arguments around the globe on phone, text and email, subject, “Well wake the damn president up!” Followed by, “I can’t! You MUST stand down the mission!”
Just imagine dozens of inbound planes, jets and helos. Ships moving at full speed into position to be “lilypads” for long-range over-water helo refueling. Airborne refueling tankers all head to the area. It’s a complicated ballet. The Pentagon is wide awake, the military is on full alert.
The rescue is in process, from the first minutes after the alarm.
Everybody in all the planes and involved HQs knows how many minutes/miles to the Libyan border, Benghazi, and their “bingo fuel” moment, when they must turn around or run dry and crash. Ships can “loiter,” but planes fall from the sky.
So you can imagine why General Ham of Africom was relieved for refusing to stand down. He probably KNEW Obama was “unavailable,” and was screaming over the phone, “Well, wake him up, dammit!!”
Planes and jets and helicopters and ships and commando teams are zooming all around the central Med, keying in on Benghazi——
In that environment, OBAMA WAS ASLEEP AND UNREACHABLE!!!!! Resting up for Las Vegas! With a MISSING AMBASSADOR, in Al-Queadatown!
Anybody not furious is a vegetable.”
Grampa Dave’s closing comments: Anyone not furious about this, is an A$$hole and doesn’t belong on this site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIAE6vLct-0&feature=player_embedded
Please listen to this and Nordstrom speaking with Baier.
Obama says we can cut defense spending because we don’t need as much equipment, now that we’ve got ships that go underwater. Obama is so smart he would have just one great big ship and one big plane that can do everything. And it will be too far away from any real place that might need it, to be able to respond when needed.
The former SEALs didn’t ask for Green Berets; they asked for fire power to hit the targets that they had already marked. Is the Pentagon trying to say that our unit that handles the Middle East and Africa doesn’t have any planes that can shoot missiles?
And yet they want to cut defense spending so we have even LESS, since Obama is all about making us safer in the world? Good Lord!
There are two parties making a big mistake.
I know how you feel, I feel the same way, but they probably won’t get rid of the racist bass turd. Whorealdo has the IQ of a salt marsh fly.
That is a fair impression from all of the revelations that have come out of this. Which is pretty darned strange given the prominence of Libya in 0coward's foreign policy. Amateur Hour all the way!
There was no protest at all in Benghazi or Tripoli and the ‘video’ had nothing to do with the Cairo protest. It was the State Dept. tweeting and talking to the press that caused all of the other riots around the world IMO. Especially the deadly riots in Pakistan several days later. The day after 0coward and Hillbilly’s apology video aired there.
You think we’re whipped?
Those drones see well enough to fire missiles at dozens of houses in Pakistan. A country that hasn't given us permission to fly over it or make military strikes. Yemen too.
In otherwards, they didn’t do it because of the negative publicity if Libyans claimed they killed “innocents”.
Maybe we shouldn't have 41 people in a dangerous place where we aren't willing to do anything to protect them. If that sorry excuse is true then would we defend our people in any embassy or consulate in the world?
General Keane lied about not having any forces in the area and he sounded like a coward when he said the "fighting was over in an hour." Even if it was (and it wasn't) no one watching it unfold on their computers knew who was dead and who was still alive. The ambassador was not accounted for until the people who brought him to the hospital called a number on Stevens' phone and got the State Dept. about four hours after the attack began.
What kind of coward and idiot watches a firefight assault on their own people and when it seems to have stopped, and not knowing who is dead or alive, decides there is no need to send help?
TigersEye's amendment: Anyone not furious about this, is an A$$hole and doesn’t belong in the United States.
There was no carrier group in the Mediterranean. Still isn't AFAIK.
Was Keane saying, then, that we DID have an armed drone that could have fired, and it wasn’t allowed to fire because we didn’t know where to fire?
Like we couldn’t figure it out when the former SEALs, who were in radio contact with somebody while all this was going down, put a laser X on the spot they needed to hit?
These stories shift every time proof of the latest lie comes out.
Has the military admitted that they had the firepower, already there in Libya, to hit the X the SEALs put on the target that eventually killed those SEALs?
He thinks we are.
Malignant narcissists think a lot of delusional things. lol
It’s a sad darned day when we even have to point it out to fellow Americans.
This event has caused me to come up with a new Acronym.
AINO's - AMERICANS IN NAME ONLY
This event has caused me to come up with a new Acronym.
AINO's - AMERICANS IN NAME ONLY
This event has caused me to come up with a new Acronym.
AINO's - AMERICANS IN NAME ONLY
This event has caused me to come up with a new Acronym.
AINO's - AMERICANS IN NAME ONLY
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