Disturbing: Requests for back-up during the Benghazi attack on Sept 11, 2012 seem to have been denied by higher ups . . .

UPDATE: Tyrone Woods' dad speaks

also, USMC Col. Oliver North

It has been quite disturbing to learn that the Sept 11, 2012 attacks on the US Embassy Consulate in Benghazi Libya, were apparently pre-planned terrorist attacks.

Now, it seems to be emerging that repeated requests for assistance and initiatives to put such help within reach were blocked, across the course of an attack that took altogether some seven hours, more than enough time for help to reach Benghazi from Italy (~ 500 mi away).  

The AC-130, not called on at Benghazi, which raises pointed questions given the US
Administration's claims in the first weeks after the attack, that the matter was a case
of a spontaneous protest against a movie that got out of hand. (Source: Knoxnews)

{U/D, Oct 27: it should be clear that (i) drones were circling and (ii) that gunships and/or relief teams could have been brought in in 1 - 2 hrs, indeed (iii) such teams were mobilised and rushed to forward bases but (iv) received orders that had to come from very high levels, to stand down. Orbiting CA-130 Spectre gunships would have made all the difference in terms of Mortar attacks. Such gunships orbit at altitudes that would make a Blackhawk down "RPG used as anti-aircraft weapon" scenario -- itself an Al Qaeda signature -- unlikely, and if there was a credible threat of antiaircraft missiles in numbers likely to make the area too dangerous for aerial response, then the claims about spontaneous riots pushed by the US Administration are even more patently false, and would make the blame- the- movie exercise a blatantly cynical propaganda exercise that exposes millions of Copts in Egypt to credible threats against their lives. For, Jihadist extremists will eagerly latch on to community-blame terms in Sharia that can easily be used to subject Dhimmis -- subject, conquered communities under Islamic domination put under discriminatory law that is often worse than the provisions of Apartheid -- to group blame, punishment and retaliation. Failure to stand up for the Copts then would compound the problem. All of this is further multiplied by the US Administration's refusal to reinforce the security detail on the ground ahead of time. As it is, the spontaneous action (let us not forget: against repeated orders to stand down) of several trained persons -- which eventually cost two of them their lives -- seem to have saved some thirty Embassy personnel, but by then the Ambassador could not be found. Cf. commentary here, here, here. This suggests an AC-130 and possibly an armed -- hellfire guided missile? -- drone may have been in reach, which makes sense of the target-painting of the mortar that seems to have eventually fired the mortar bomb(s) that killed the defenders on the roof of the safe house besieged after the attack on the Benghazi consulate, for four hours.}

Fox news (with video):



Report:

Former Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods was part of a small team who was at the CIA annex about a mile from the U.S. consulate where Ambassador Chris Stevens and his team came under attack. When he and others heard the shots fired, they informed their higher-ups at the annex to tell them what they were hearing and requested permission to go to the consulate and help out. They were told to "stand down," according to sources familiar with the exchange. Soon after, they were again told to "stand down." 

Woods and at least two others ignored those orders and made their way to the consulate which at that point was on fire. Shots were exchanged. The rescue team from the CIA annex evacuated those who remained at the consulate and Sean Smith, who had been killed in the initial attack. They could not find the ambassador and returned to the CIA annex at about midnight. 

At that point, they called again for military support and help because they were taking fire at the CIA safe house, or annex . . . .

The fighting at the CIA annex went on for more than four hours -- enough time for any planes based in Sigonella Air base, just 480 miles away, to arrive. Fox News has also learned that two separate Tier One Special operations forces were told to wait, among them Delta Force operators. [Also cf. here.]

Some serious questions need to be asked and answered soundly; questions that go to the heart of the significance of Western responses to the wave of upheavals across North Africa and beyond, and to the significance of the upheavals themselves and signs (such as this attack) pointing to the role being played by IslamIST radicals in these upheavals. 

In looking at these patterns, we also need to take off rosy tinted glasses and  reckon with the strong tendency since the French Revolution of 1789 of radical, violent revolutions and associated overthrows of existing regimes to end up in the hands of ruthless extremists who are essentially nihilistic and therefore dangerously destructive. The repeated, almost predictable result of such revolutions that end up in ruthless hands like that is mass-killings and war. Which is exactly where I fear the so-called Arab Spring across the Middle East is headed, given what has been happening. END