US Officials Refute Right Wing Conspiracy Theories About Benghazi Attack
The LA Times has a detailed look at the crazed conspiracy theories pouring out of the right wing and Fox News about the Benghazi attack — and the truth, which bears no resemblance to the wingnuts’ increasingly bizarre fever dreams: U.S. Officials Counter Criticism in Benghazi Attack.
Last week, Fox News alleged that CIA managers told security officials at an agency facility known as the Annex — which was a mile from the State Department compound in Benghazi — not to go to the aid of their American counterparts when the diplomatic buildings first came under attack. Fox said the team was delayed an hour before going to help, in contravention of orders. Ambassador Stevens and computer technician Sean Smith were killed when attackers set fire to the compound.
The Fox report also alleged that, hours later, when the Annex itself was under attack, officials in the CIA chain of command refused to pass along requests for military assistance. And it said that one of the CIA security officers had laser sights pointed at some of the attackers that could have allowed them to be targeted by a precision bomb. Two CIA security officers, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, were killed when mortar rounds struck their position on the roof of the Annex.
In fact, CIA security officers responded to the attack on the State Department compound within 25 minutes, U.S. officials said, though it took them 50 minutes to arrive. CIA officers did not have laser targeting equipment, they said.
And Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta “ordered all appropriate forces to respond to the unfolding events in Benghazi, but the attack was over before those forces could be employed,” said Little, the Pentagon spokesman.
“There were no orders to anybody to stand down in providing support,” a senior intelligence official said.
Armed drones were not nearby. Even if they had been, it’s not clear that they would have done any good, officials say.
“People think ‘armed drones’ are some sort of magical robot wizards that can materialize out of thin air and identify a terrorist through facial recognition software from 20,000 feet,” a senior congressional official said. “It doesn’t work like that.”
