Friday, September 05, 2014

Benghazi Bombshell: Help Delayed

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The Cover-Up Exposed?

September 11, 2012 attacks against an American facility in Benghazi, Libya left four Americans dead.  Three Navy SEALS and U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens lost their lives because of the refusal by the Obama administration to beef up security or remove the ambassador from the location on the anniversary of Muslim terrorist attacks against targets on American Soil, and then as the fighting erupted, the Obama administration refused to send support, and then to protect Obama's narrative regarding the "end of the war on terror" blamed the event on an anti-Islam video that had not even been viewed yet in the Middle East or North Africa.

Those that have been accusing the White House of refusing to protect those lives in Benghazi have charged the Obama administration with covering up the truth, and refusing to send support to protect the lives of those in danger in Benghazi when those lives could have been saved, and failing to act for the purpose of protecting a political agenda.

Evidence, and now testimony, that a U.S. security team in Benghazi was held back from immediately responding to the attack on the American diplomatic mission on orders of the top CIA officer there, has emerged.

Bret Baier of Fox News helped reveal the incriminating testimony in an interview that has become a bombshell in the effort to get to the bottom of the Benghazi affair.

The of CIA personnel in Baier's interview provides a dramatic revelation regarding a tale that the Obama administration and its minions have worked so hard to shuffle under the rug, and dismiss as an attempt by the White House's political opposition to dig up what they consider to be an “old story.”

Speaking out publicly for the first time, the three individuals that have revealed this incredible information were security operators at the secret CIA annex in Benghazi, a facility Republicans have claimed existed, but had been originally denied to exist by the Obama administration.  Some have speculated that the secret CIA annex was there to oversee a gun running operation that would connect the Obama administration to arming the terrorists fighting against the Syrian government.

Based on the new book "13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi" by Mitchell Zuckoff with the Annex Security Team, the television special with Brett Baier sets aside the political spin that has freighted the Benghazi issue for the last two years, presenting a vivid, compelling narrative of events from the perspective of the men who wore the “boots on the ground,” and who could have been put into action to assist the men who died under the terrorist onslaught of Muslim aggressors.

The security contractors -- Kris (“Tanto”) Paronto, Mark (“Oz”) Geist, and John (“Tig”) Tiegen -- spoke exclusively, and at length, to Fox News about what they saw and did that night. Baier, Fox News’ Chief Political Anchor, asked them about one of the most controversial questions arising from the events in Benghazi: Was help delayed?

“Five minutes, we're ready,” said Paronto, a former Army Ranger. “It was thumbs up, thumbs up, we're ready to go.”

But the team was held back. According to the security operators, they were delayed from responding to the attack by the top CIA officer in Benghazi.

“It had probably been 15 minutes I think, and … I just said, ‘Hey, you know, we gotta-- we need to get over there, we're losing the initiative,’” said Tiegen. But they were told “Stand down, you need to wait.”

“We're starting to get calls from the State Department guys saying, ‘Hey, we're taking fire, we need you guys here, we need help,’” said Paronto.

After a delay of nearly 30 minutes, the security team headed to the besieged consulate without orders. They asked their CIA superiors to call for armed air support, which never came.

Now, looking back, the security team said they believed that if they had not been delayed for nearly half an hour, or if the air support had come, things might have turned out differently.

“Ambassador Stevens and Sean [Smith], yeah, they would still be alive, my gut is yes,” Paronto said. Tiegen concurred.

“I strongly believe if we'd left immediately, they'd still be alive today,” he added.

In a statement to Fox News, a senior intelligence official insisted that, “There were no orders to anybody to stand down in providing support.”

Baier put that assertion directly to the operators.

“You use the words ‘stand down,’” Baier noted. “A number of people now, including the House Intelligence Committee insist no one was hindered from responding to the situation at the compound…so what do you say to that?”

“No, it happened,” said Tiegen.

“It happened on the ground-- all I can talk about is what happened on that ground that night,” added Paronto. “To us. To myself, twice, and to-- to Tig, once. It happened that night. We were told to wait, stand-- and stand down. We were delayed three times.”

In a statement to Fox News, a senior intelligence official did allow that the security team was delayed from responding while the CIA’s top officer in Benghazi tried to rally local support.

In the special, Baier also asks about the infamous YouTube video that was blamed for the violence in Benghazi.

Paronto laughed at the suggestion that the video played any role in the events of that night, saying he did not even know of the video until he was out of Libya and on his way home. “I didn't know about the video ‘till I got to Germany,” he said. “(I had) no idea about any video, no. No, sir.”

Hesitation, in war, kills.  This administration has been all about hesitation, stalling, and trying to judge the political winds, in order to convince the voting public that the war does not exist.  It is all about agenda, and has nothing to do with saving lives, dealing properly with any enemy, or what is best for America.  Either, this president is too stupid to take quick and decisive actin as the Commander in Chief must do, or he has purposely done the things necessary to go against what is best for American lives, and ultimately, what is best for the United States.  To cover it up, they lie.  They lie about their actions, or lack thereof, and they lie about the fact that everything they do is about politics first.  The thing about lies and deception is it is all a house of cards when the truth finds its way into the narrative.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

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