Officers Say No ‘Stand-Down Order’ for Benghazi
One more time we see that Benghazi is a great big nothing burger of Issa’s political animus against Hillary Clinton’s coming presidential run. His constituents probably should deselect him since it’s likely that he’s spent more taxpayer money on his infamous political theater sideshows than he has in his district during his career.
Also for the record this will be my final post regarding Benghazi, because pretty much anything is more newsworthy.
Military officers testified that there was no “stand-down order” that held back military assets that could have saved the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans killed at a diplomatic outpost and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya. Their testimony undercut the contention of Republican lawmakers.
The “stand-down” theory centers on a Special Operations team — a detachment leader, a medic, a communications expert and a weapons operator with his foot in a cast — that was stopped from flying from Tripoli to Benghazi after the attacks of Sept. 11-12, 2012, had ended. Instead, it was instructed to help protect and care for those being evacuated from Benghazi and from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.
The senior military officer who issued the instruction to “remain in place” and the detachment leader who received it said it was the right decision and has been widely mischaracterized. The order was to remain in Tripoli and protect some three dozen embassy personnel rather than fly to Benghazi some 600 miles away after all Americans there would have been evacuated. And the medic is credited with saving the life of an evacuee from the attacks.