Retired CIA officer Gary Berntsen believes help could have come much sooner. He commanded CIA counterterrorism missions targeting Osama bin Laden and led the team that responded after bombings of the U.S. Embassy in East Africa.
"You find a way to make this happen," Berntsen says. "There isn't a plan for every single engagement. Sometimes you have to be able to make adjustments. They made zero adjustments in this. They stood and they watched and our people died."
-- From October 20 CBS News report Could U.S. military have helped during Libya attack?
I touched on the controversy in a post yesterday and updated it with links to the following reports and the one above.
October 25, CBS News TV: Military response to Benghazi attack questioned
October 25, The New York Times: Panetta Says Risk Impeded Deployment to Benghazi
During his conversation last night with John Batchelor, former CIA analyst and State Department counterterrorism officer Larry C. Johnson backed up Gary Berntsen's observations and provided details about the kind of military help the Pentagon could have directed to the Americans under attack at the annex -- help that could have saved the lives of Tyrone Woods and Chris Doherty, who were reportedly killed around 4:00 AM Libya time.
Here is the flash player replay of the conversation.
5 comments:
DARLINK,
In late 1995: I remember Trains backed up on a border with backed up toilets, people choking and getting ill off their own waste. It was the Austrian/Hungary border, and they hadn't gotten diplomatic clearance for the trains. There was an entire Battalion quarantined from whatever they cooked up in their own waste.
I think that's the perfect metaphor for the Clinton's, you choke to death on your own shit while waiting for a decision.
Be it POTUS or SECSTATE. or SECDEF patsy Panetta. They might as well have put Roger Clinton as SECDEF.
DARLINK -- There was no blogosphere in 1995. We need to put a stop to "business as usual" because it's now beyond the pale. Wait until you see my next post.
DARLINK [Darling Link],
I was on the train BTW. It was far from the only instance of not realizing people aren't little pieces on the RISK board.
In 7 hours you can get planes over from the States.
There's more, much more. Wait'll you see my NEXT post.
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