NOBODY GAVE THE ORDER TO "STAND DOWN"
Report: Marine commander says no stand-down order in Benghazi attack
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- A Marine operations commander told lawmakers Wednesday he gave troops in Libya permission to respond to a September 2012 attack on a U.S. mission in Tripoli.
Testifying in closed session before the House Armed Services Committee, Col. George Bristol contradicted claims by some congressional Republicans he had issued a stand-down order following the attack, in which U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stephens and three other Americans were killed, The Hill reported.
Bristol, who commanded Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans Sahara at the time of the attack, said he gave the Tripoli security team leader, Lt. Col. S.E. Gibson, permission to act freely in response to the attack, The Hill said, citing a description it had received of the committee's members-only briefing.
Gibson had told Congress last month he was ordered not to send his team to Benghazi because they were needed in Tripoli in the event of an attack on the U.S. Embassy.
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So Lt Col. Gibson told Congress that he was ordered to not to send his team to Bengazi.
IS THAT TRUE?
WASHINGTON (AP) - A House Republican chairman is doggedly pursuing the question of whether military personnel were told to “stand down” during the 2012 deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, despite the insistence of military leaders and other Republicans that it never happened.
Gibson's Commander, Col. George Bristol contradicted claims by some congressional Republicans he had issued a stand-down order following the attack
Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress last June that personnel in Tripoli were never told to “stand down”!
Then "TOP REPUBLICANS" on the
House Armed Services Committee reported in February that no such order was given.
Even
Col. Gibson “acknowledged that, had he deployed to Benghazi, he would have left Americans in Tripoli undefended. He also stated that, in hindsight, he would not have been able to get to Benghazi in time to make a difference, and as it turned out, his medic was needed to provide urgent assistance to survivors once they arrived in Tripoli,” the statement said.
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So lets recap:
We have Gibson saying he was ordered to "stand down".....
His Commender says point blank "it never happened"....
The Chairman of the JOINT CHIEFS after investigating the issue says it never happened.....
Yes, we even had "TOP REPUBLICANS" on the
House Armed Services Committee reporting in February that no such order was given.
Now we have Col. Gibson himself saying that had he deployed it would have been too late and it would only have made things worse!
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OK everybody, at the top of your lungs.......BENGAZI, BENGAZI, BENGAZI......