WP: Special Ops Halted From Responding To Benghazi Attacks, U.S. Diplomat Says

[Purveyor]

By Ernesto Londoño, Updated: Monday, May 6, 5:39 PM

As the weakly protected U.S. diplomatic compound in eastern Libya came under attack the night of Sept. 11, 2012, the deputy head of the embassy in Tripoli 600 miles away sought in vain to get the Pentagon to scramble fighter jets over Benghazi in a show of force that he said might have averted a second attack on a nearby CIA complex.

Hours later, according to excerpts of the account by the U.S. diplomat, Gregory Hicks, American officials in the Libyan capital sought permission to deploy four U.S. Special Operations troops to Benghazi aboard a Libyan military aircraft early the next morning. The troops were told to stand down.

Defense Department officials have said they had no units that could have responded in time to counter the attack in Benghazi, but Republicans on Capitol Hill have questioned whether the Obama administration could have saved lives with a nimbler, more assertive response. They say that the reluctance to send the Special Operations troops may have, at the very least, deprived wounded Americans in Benghazi of first aid.

Congressional investigators released a partial transcript of Hicks’s testimony Monday ahead of a hearing Wednesday at which he is scheduled to appear. His remarks are the first public account from a U.S. official who was in Libya at the time of the attacks about the options that were weighed as militants mobbed the American diplomatic outpost and CIA station in Ben­ghazi, killing U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other government employees.

The new details are certain to reignite a debate over whether the Obama administration has been sufficiently forthcoming in its public accounting of the events and missteps that resulted in the first death of a U.S. ambassador in the line of duty in a generation. If Republicans in Congress succeed in portraying the administration’s response as feckless, the episode could dog any future political aspirations of Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was secretary of state when the attacks happened.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/special-ops-halted-from-responding-to-benghazi-attacks-us-diplomat-says/2013/05/06/c3f311d4-b677-11e2-aa9e-a02b765ff0ea_story.html

[PSPS]

1. LOL. "reignite a debate"

Yeah, it's sure to "reignite a debate" in the corporate RW media and The Romper Room exclusively. Maybe they think this will sell a few more papers, but nobody outside their little bubble cares about this at all.

[kelliekat44]

2. I think they are going to try to impeach the President over this..it worked so well for them WJC

But there is just too much going on in the world to pay attention to this. I hope Obama ignores them.

[progree]

3. It's a distraction from THE Real Scandal: SOLYNDRA (LOL) nt

Last edited Tue May 7, 2013, 09:39 AM - Edit history (1)