BENGHAZI

Some American media are reporting on a new timeline for the attack on the Benghazi Consulate in which Ambassador Stevens was killed that has been released by the CIA itself.

And this timeline refutes the allegation that a stand down order was given.

Dr Webster Tarpley had earlier suggested that a secret CIA protection team (possibly with an allegiance to a faction within the CIA which he calls the CIA Mormon Mafia) that was located in what was initially called an "annex" was for some reason AWOL during the attack.

From subsequent references to an “other government agency” or “other government entity,” it became clear that the additional building shown on the photo was in fact a CIA base, the home of a CIA “rapid response force” with between seven and 12 members. This force was comparable to the Site Security Team which Lt. Col. Wood said he had requested in vain. It emerged from the hearings that these CIA personnel were not under State Department command. As Dana Milbank noted on October 11 in the Washington Post, “the victims may have been let down not by the State Department but by the CIA.” So where had this considerable CIA force been during the attack on the consulate? Why had the CIA failed to defend the American Ambassador’s life? Could the CIA Mormon Mafia somehow have been responsible for this failure? Was this why the Mormon loyalist Chaffetz was so anxious to hide the evidence?

[source : Romney campaign, CIA Mormon Mafia both responsible for Benghazi attack, Press TV, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/10/14/266560/benghazi-attack-cia-mafia-in-action/, 14th October 2012]

But according to this timeline this CIA protection team tried to rally additional local support, but this failed. There were no stand down orders given.

The timeline provided by a senior U.S. intelligence official gives the first precise account of how CIA security teams provided the first response to the Sept. 11 attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, which killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens.

...“There were no orders to anybody to stand down in providing support,” said the official. The official’s comments appeared to be a direct rebuttal of a Fox News report that CIA teams on the ground had been told by superior officers to “stand down” from providing security support to the consulate.

According to the official, upon learning of the attack at the consulate, the security team at the annex responded “as quickly and effectively as possible.” The official described how the security team tried to rally additional support from local Libyan forces and heavier weapons, but that when that could not be accomplished “within minutes” they moved out to the compound. The official called the security team “genuine heroes” who risked their lives to save those at the compound.

[source : New Detailed Account of Benghazi Attack Notes CIA’s Quick Response, ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/new-detailed-account-of-benghazi-attack-notes-cias-quick-response/, 1st November 2012]

Whether Dr Tarpley got the precise details correct initially is up for debate (but he was not far off), but what is not up for debate is that the event at Benghazi cannot be isolated from the film that was released just days before which provoked protests and riots across the Muslim world, not just in Libya. The film itself has disappeared down the memory hole in some particular media.