What the Military Did While Benghazi Burned

[Valin]

Real Clear Defense:

Could Two American Lives Have Been Saved?

Connie Cass

7/12/14

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- One by one, behind closed doors, military officers explained what they did and didn't do the night the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, burned.

 

Together their 30 hours of testimony to congressional investigators gives the fullest account yet of the military's response to the surprise attacks that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans the night of Sept. 11, 2012, and early the next morning.

 

Transcripts of the interviews, with some names and classified information blacked out, were released Wednesday

 

The nine officers, including retired Gen. Carter Ham, then the head of the military's U.S. Africa Command, described making on-the-fly decisions with only sparse information about the crisis unfolding at a diplomatic post and the nearby CIA compound.

 

None of them was in Benghazi. The closest? Some were 600 miles away in Tripoli, the Libyan capital; others gave orders from command headquarters in Germany or Washington.

 

(Snip)

 

 

H/T Hot Air