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2016-05-13 Government

Continued from yesterday: New Benghazi Witness Says U.S. Could Have Saved Lives That Day

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Posted by Besoeker 2016-05-13 00:00|| || Front Page|| [6 views ] Top

#1 It is not the first time this Experienced Man has made whiz bang comments. It really changed my view on this whole ordeal.

Posted by newc 2016-05-13 00:22|| 2016-05-13 00:22|| Front Page Top

#2 With respect, Mike tells us why a close air support couldn't have been launched, presuming all the protocols.
Point is, nothing else was done, either. Not even any flyovers with aircraft not loaded for CAS, which, as it happened, were requested. The time to load out a strike is only an issue if you presume the thing will be over by the time you get there. How did anybody know? And you don't even start?
Panetta said you don't go in without intel, hoping nobody would remember that State and DoD were on the horn with the guys in real time. Nobody's had that much intel in war, ever.
Vehicles on the runway? That's why they make bulldozers. Presuming the Italians even had a clue.
Thing is...forget the time issues. NOBODY EVEN STARTED. Nobody got the word to try to get ready. Whether some folks started to prepare aid of whatever kind they could and were told to actually "STOP" what they were doing is one question. That's "Stand down". But where were the Start orders which, ultimately but--here is the point, unpredictably--were too late? It would be different if a couple of appropriately-loaded F16s came over the city an hour late. You do your best and perhaps you'll be in time. Sometimes you're not.
Here, NOBODY WAS TOLD TO START.
That, and I say this with respect to Mike's points, is the point.

Posted by Richard Aubrey 2016-05-13 07:29|| 2016-05-13 07:29|| Front Page Top

#3 I re-read yesterday's comment "We'll never know". But this story is just as good as any of the stuff that came out of D.C. It's too bad we'll never know.

Posted by Bobby 2016-05-13 07:31|| 2016-05-13 07:31|| Front Page Top

#4 I concur Richard. I might further add that the U.S. gov't inaction continued even after the successful exfiltration of the remaining U.S. survivors from Benghazi.

Ambassador Stephen's journal was found by a CNN reporter 3 days after the attack.

Link

Siting 'security concerns', U.S. investigators did not arrive at the Benghazi facility for several days following the attack.

Posted by Besoeker 2016-05-13 07:43|| 2016-05-13 07:43|| Front Page Top

#5 MK, thank you for your contribution.

I am not an expert of military procedures or readiness. I do find it hard to believe that the US Military does not have aircraft on standby for a "hot" situation in that part of the world. I'm not saying you are wrong, just saying it's hard to believe.

But all this is just secondary to the real issue as to the why Ambassador Stevens was in Benghazi. He was running Libyan guns to AQ. The press knows it, they just won't report it. Who gave him the orders and who was working with him locally and in DC?

Posted by jvalentour 2016-05-13 08:30|| 2016-05-13 08:30|| Front Page Top

#6 Amb. Stevens met with Turkish Consul on the date of the attack. No one to my knowledge has ever tried to interview the Consul. He was a remarkably experienced diplomat to be located in the Libyan backwater. In fact, he was the cutout between the Americans and the Turkish vessels that delivered the military goods to Turkish ports.

Posted by Gomez Clunk9535 2016-05-13 10:06|| 2016-05-13 10:06|| Front Page Top

#7 RA interests me with his "they didn't bother to start" kinda think that part might angle might have.

I am a born civilian, and not at all familiar with ready getting a strike force together under intense pressure. I am a race fan though, pretty familiar with F1 crew tactics. We're the ground crews getting ready for a pit? Or did the call never come? Did they get a heads up?

Posted by Shipman 2016-05-13 18:30|| 2016-05-13 18:30|| Front Page Top

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