Posted on 10/20/2012 4:55:25 AM PDT by maggief
(CBS News) The closer we get to the election, the harder Republicans in Congress are pushing for answers to a big question: What really happened in the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya last month that killed the U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans?
Some lawmakers are asking why U.S. military help from outside Libya didn't arrive as terrorists battered more than 30 Americans over the course of more than seven hours. The assault was launched by an armed mob of dozens that torched buildings and used rocket propelled grenades, mortars and AK-47 rifles.
CBS News has been told that, hours after the attack began, an unmanned Predator drone was sent over the U.S. mission in Benghazi, and that the drone and other reconnaissance aircraft apparently observed the final hours of the protracted battle.
The State Department, White House and Pentagon declined to say what military options were available. A White House official told CBS News that, at the start of the attack, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta "looked at available options, and the ones we exercised had our military forces arrive in less than 24 hours, well ahead of timelines laid out in established policies."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
No, military couldn’t help and what?
CBS is the only lib network reporting on this.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2947603/posts
Incommunicado: House Armed Services chairman blocked from getting answers from senior military...
Washington Free Beacon ^ | 10/19/12 | Bill Gertz
Posted on Saturday, October 20, 2012 7:02:55 AM by markomalley
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee is demanding answers from four senior United States military officers about whether there was advance warning of terrorist threats and the need for greater security prior to last month’s terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
However, an aide to the chairman, Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, (R., Calif.), said the office of secretary of defense Leon Panetta blocked the senior officers from providing the answers last night.
(more on thread,)
Are we learning anything new pieces of the timeline here?
*CBS News has been told that, hours after the attack began, an unmanned Predator drone was sent over the U.S. mission in Benghazi, and that the drone and other reconnaissance aircraft apparently observed the final hours of the protracted battle.
*A White House official told CBS News that, at the start of the attack, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta “looked at available options, and the ones we exercised had our military forces arrive in less than 24 hours, well ahead of timelines laid out in established policies.”
*CBS News has been told Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did seek clearances from Libya to fly in their airspace, but the administration won’t say anything further about what was said or decided on that front.
For God’s Sake, we have an Amphibious Readiness Group on station in the Mediterranian with a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) consisting of a Reinforced Marine Infantry Battalion, a composite Marine Aircraft Squadron (light & heavy Helos, Ospreys, Harriers), and a Marine Logistics Support Unit with 30 days supply of materiel and associated combat service support equipment.
Remember, this attack on the US Consulate/Embassy took place at about 9:30 PM (Local). That was 3:30 or 4:30 PM Eastern Standard Time. We had people in positions of authority to land the MEU just watching this debacle unfold.
Atkisson has some credibility because she was the only one willing to report on Fast and Furious.
Put what happened here into context with, say, “Black Hawk Down”, and you’ve got 2 SEALs holding off 200 militants for 6 hours because they received a call for help, and you’ve got everybody else in the Pentagon and intel agencies watching the whole thing going down with a live feed, the particular kind of military equipment meant to disperse crowds like the one there that are only an hour’s flight away, and nobody in DC doing a dang thing. Send a drone to take pictures? Why not a drone that could have actually done something to help?
Maybe the military people can make sense out of this for me, but this just seems wrong. Very wrong.
Why do we have readiness groups, if we would never use them? If there was ever going to be a need to use them, wouldn’t it look just like Benghazi?
Predators fly about as fast as a car driving down the highway. If we could get a Predator on station in time to monitor,”the final hours”, we could have gotten a lot more of military response in place in time to make a difference.
As soon as the Predator was in place we would have had a pretty good idea who and where the bad guys were, and US jets carrying JDAMS could have taken them apart with minimal collateral damage to our people on the ground or to Libyan civilians.
As soon as the the Embassy was over run and our people were already dead, we should have bombed the Embassy compound into oblivion to keep any classified information from getting into the wrong hands and killing the terrorists who attacked it.
This is the very minimum we should have done and it was a no brainer.
http://paktribune.com/news/CIA-seeks-expansion-in-drone-fleet-254334.html
CIA seeks expansion in drone fleet
Butter, that question needs to asked of the President and Sec Def Leon Panetta. Depending on the ARG’s location, the MEU could have had a company of Marines on the ground with in an hour or two.
I “floated” in 78 - 79. We also use to practice “NEOPS”... that is: “Non-combatant Evacuation Operations.” These ops are specifically used to help evacuate embassies when it looks like security is going down hill... like maybe in the previous August leading up to this 9-11.
Panetta should be fired!
Because the ambassador was marked for assassinations and the CnC didn't want any survivors.
[ Could U.S. military have helped during Libya attack? ]
The Chauncy Gardener White House was helpless..
Because they have a Chauncy Gardener President..
A Chauncy Gardener first lady and Chauncy Gardener mini-me’s all over the place..
Little doubt many Chauncy Gardener Officers were promoted to General and Admiral..
The Military seems to be a Chauncy Gardener Military generally.. but not completely.. YET..
Chauncy Gardener type people are not good boots on the ground people..
Otherwise you have an Army guided by idiots.. like France.. or the Sand Monkeys..
Our officials watched the fire and destruction for hours. They did not interfere, since they had orchestrated the attack. Ambassador Stevens was supposed to have been kidnapped and then heroically ransomed by Obama. Our officials were not alarmed, since they thought Stevens was safe in the arms of Satan’s Servants.
Note that CBS is still using words like "mob" to give Obama cover for his "video tape" lie.
"Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did seek clearances from Libya to fly in their airspace, but the administration won't say anything further about what was said or decided"
She also waited 18 DAYS for visas before the FBI was sent in.
When a weak government like Libya can't defend any foreign embassy, you don't seek permission, you inform the weak government that you are taking control. Unless, of course, your own foreign policy is as weak as Libya.
This is not on Panetta.
This is on the political strategists (who really call the shots in this WH) and the POTUS who listened to them.
Most likely Panetta wanted to do the right thing.
For God’s Sake, we have an Amphibious Readiness Group on station in the Mediterranian with a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) consisting of a Reinforced Marine Infantry Battalion, a composite Marine Aircraft Squadron (light & heavy Helos, Ospreys, Harriers), and a Marine Logistics Support Unit with 30 days supply of materiel and associated combat service support equipment.
Remember, this attack on the US Consulate/Embassy took place at about 9:30 PM (Local). That was 3:30 or 4:30 PM Eastern Standard Time. We had people in positions of authority to land the MEU just watching this debacle unfold.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
This is not a kind of crisis you can prevent using military power. Consulate massacre is clearly a failure of intelligence and security. You can’t fix it by military if you aren’t about to start a full-scale war about it.
Somalian Mogadishu disaster and earlier Russian adventure in Grozny, Chechnya are quite recent events to prove it.
So you want to toss the Marines , into Libya, with no intel, no plan, and no strategic or tactical objective within hours of the event? The REASON that embassies have a guard staff on site. AND DEPEND on the local government for security is because what you propose is impossible.
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