Thursday, November 1, 2012

Intelligence official offers new timeline for Benghazi attack

A senior U.S. Intelligence official discounted a Fox news report from last Friday that said officials within the CIA chain of command denied repeated requests from its officers on the ground to assist during the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.
The official insisted that the CIA operators on the ground were in charge of their movements and the safety of those who were preparing to respond was also an important consideration.
"There were no orders to anybody to stand down in providing support," the official said.
The official detailed the minute by minute account of what they say happened that night. There was a roughly 25 minute gap between when the officers at a nearby annex received the call for help from the mission to when the officers were able to get on their way to assist. During that time the officers at that annex location were getting their weapons loaded into vehicles, while others were on the phone trying to get local "friendly" militias with heavier weapons to help.
The FOX report also suggested that the officers on the ground asked for military back-up but the CIA denied those requests. The official again said this report was wrong. The military, the official said, provided drone surveillance and a tactical security team to assist.

Read more: http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2012/11/01/intelligence-official-offers-new-timeline-for-benghazi-attack/

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