New Light on Benghazi in ’13 Hours’
A first-hand account from men who were there.
Despite the high number of still unanswered questions about what happened in Benghazi, most of the media has been all too willing to ignore the story.
Last night on FOX News, Bret Baier presented a special investigation called 13 Hours: The Inside Story.
The title is taken from a book about what happened that night which was written by men who were there. Bret provided a preview on his blog this week:
Behind the Scenes: 13 Hours–The Inside Story
I wanted to share a few photos from my 4.5 hour interview with the men behind our special–13 Hours: The Inside Story. For the documentary, Fox News was granted exclusive access to the yet to be published book “13 HOURS: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi” by New York Times bestselling author Mitchell Zuckoff with the Annex Security Team. The book is available September 9th–
It was a pleasure getting to know these men and to hear their story–this is a firsthand account of what the annex security team witnessed and experienced in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012. Their story is one you won’t want to miss–they have been through a lot and say they are now as close as brothers.
Here’s a promo video:
The program will air again at 9 pm ET Saturday night and 8 PM Sunday night.
Reactions to the special have been emotional.
Twitchy has a round up of tweets from viewers:
#13Hours this is heartbreaking…and it's as bad as we thought it was… #Benghazi #13HoursOfHell
— Sher (@ZephyrK9) September 6, 2014
As I'm watching this, I can't stop thinking about Hillary's "What difference, at this point, does it make?" #13Hours #Benghazi
— Doc (@Doc_68W_) September 6, 2014
Riveting account of #Benghazi take down. Excellent and heart breaking reporting @BretBaier Thank you.
— su.su (@allthattweet) September 6, 2014
Featured image via YouTube.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Thank you for posting this. I was upset watching this program, yet grateful for their selflessness and Baier’s expertise. It is the first time I felt that truth was being told. The competence and expertise of these men were impressive, all highly articulate. Listening to their on-the-ground recaps, it was clear to me that they made a difference, at that point.
I hope that Trey Gowdy really lets loose in the hearings. Who told them to stand down, and why?
Another website (theconservativetreehouse “Benghazi Brief”) has a fairly good synopsis on Benghazi
The Benghazi mission was pursuant to Obama’s signing two separate intelligence directives that may have been exquisitely stupid in hindsight, but not illegal. Chris Stephens was CIA operating under State Department cover. His mission in Benghazi was retrieving all the unused armaments the US had supplied the Libyan rebels to unseat Qaddafi and redirect them to Syria under operation “Zero Footprint” This joint CIA/State operation was carried out through NATO under Greek General of Turkish descent James Stavridis, totally outside of any US DOD participation, with the exception of Chairman of the Joint Chief’s Martin Dempsey’s knowledge of the op and General David Petraus in charge over at CIA. Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, and Nancy Pelosi were in the loop as well. The general feeling is that if knowledge of the op had been widespread at DOD, it would have been opposed. A brawl broke out between a Muslim Brotherhood group and Free Syrian Army group dockside where an Arab flagged freighter carrying 400 tons of arms from Libya had just docked in a Turkish harbor near the Syrian border close to a US military base where Free Syrian Army fighters were being trained. The site also notes that a piece of a surface to air missile bearing a missile serial number signed out by the CIA was pulled out of the wreckage of a helicopter shot down, with US casualties, by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Qatari intermediaries had decided the missile would be better used in Afghanistan.
The desire to keep the Benghazi CIA op under the radar was what lead to employing an al Qaeda linked group for mission security. Getting multiple CIA people killed would have blown the secrecy wide open. State didn’t have to issue any direct orders to stand down, it was understood
Unseat Ghadaffi? I think you mean murder him & bomb his soldiers.
ignorance is bliss and shows you have no understanding of the dynamics. Gaddafi was unseated. I continue to have no sympathy for Gaddafi and I am not one who believes that he had backed off his terror activities.
Hey they are in need of a pool cleaner .in Tripoli . Ghaddaffi’s unseating has opened up a job for you . You should be nice to your new employers though- they stick rifles up your azz..
Tyrant Obama the Liar replaced an ally, Ghadaffi, with our enemies in Libya. Ghadaffi was a bad guy, but at least he was an ally. The Al Qaeda terrorists who are taking over are our enemies.
Bitterlyclinging – Interesting that what you write is pretty consistent with what the late Barry Rubin wrote in May 2013.
The entire interview was riveting.
I was left with a question, though. The team members said it was a quiet night in Benghazi. Yet gamer Sean Smith, in a chat with a fellow gamer that night, said “I’ll see you tomorrow…if we don’t die tonight.” (That’s a rough paraphrase but accurate.)
Smith evidently had some hint of trouble but the security force did not.
You don’t know what time these events happened. Also, those at the consulate had seen their security people taking pictures of the compound earlier.
Dear Hillary: My tiny Sicilian Firefly wife has a lovely saying which she heard the old timers in her childhood city of Bosier City, LA. saying: TIME WOUNDS ALL HEELS.
May it, in your case, be true.
I pray, among many things regarding 2016, that David Petraeus doesn’t remain mum any longer on your involvement in the immediate lying about that debacle. And that the families of the Benghazi dead be out there and open about yours and Obama and Biden’s mendacity.
Firstly can someone help me here. Who exactly are these guys?
– Are they the security team for the ‘ consulate’ that hid throughout the attack .?
-Are they the CIA peeps in the annex .
-Were they part of the alleged team that went to the Consulate after tge attack & found the guy hiding in the closet ? The ones that could not find Stevens ?
– if they were hired as security for US personnel in Libya they were along way from both Tripoli & seem to have no connection to the consulate .
Posters on other conservative sites are being blindsided & bowing down as if these guys are above questioning . Are these guys Academi – mercenaries or CIA bureaucrats ? They look a bit old for the rough stuff of fighting so …
WTF were they doing there ? .
If you had actually done your research you would know that there were 2 separate sites in Benghazi. The one that Ambassador Stevens was using and a separate compound a couple of miles away. These men were part of a private security team contracted by the state department.
Also, there was no team that “hid” anywhere that night. These mean were part of the security team at the separate compound who asked to go fight to get the Ambassador out, they were denied that permission. These men put their lives on the line to provide security in some of the worst areas of the world. Yes they are mercenaries, God forbid they should actually get paid what their skills are worth, instead of wasting away in an American Military that no longer believes it needs them.
You question the honor and honesty of men with no reason to lie. Anyone with military experience saw that attack for what it was from the first hours of the reports. Because random protests don’t engage in a 2 pronged assault under the cover of RPG fire. Though we did train to do that in the military.
Yes they are older than the average soldier, that is usually because to be hired by one of the legitimate security/military companies you have to have considerable military training and experience, something you obviously lack.
How do I know there was a “stand down order” even after all the denials, its simple experience is how I know.
You are doing nothing but flinging crap against the wall hoping something actually sticks. Your insults and accusations show you are nothing more than an honorless coward. Perhaps instead of whining about who they are you should go find out before you start questioning their integrity.
My post outlines that I did know there were 2 sites. The consulate also had several American security people plus the contracted Libyans ( of whom Saun Smith wrote about being suspiciously edgy that day.
So what became of those us security guys during the attack ? They hid I one of the Buildings . They did not defend Stevens nor did they hop 50 metres to look for him after the attacking rabble had left. ( a later Senate submission had the 3rd man with Smith& Stevens being found in a closet – a different story to the original one where he alone escaped through a roof window. – but I grant you this could be false also ).
Again do these guys explain what they doing?
The only thing your post did was to outline that you aren’t willing to actually do any research yourself (as in below where Rags gave you a link to which you just refused). Instead you case insults, questioned the character of the men, and did so without actually being acquainted with facts.
Here is a tip if you want to be taken seriously around here do some actual reading and at least have some idea what you are talking about.
Oh and to answer your question, if I am reading things correctly these guys were private contractors that were part of a rapid response team at the other site. Wish they would have been allowed to actually rapidly respond.
Rapid response team to what? What activity were they paid to ‘ secure’ ?
In Bret Baier’s interview, one or more of the men stated they contracted to provide security for state department staff on site.
“Rapid response team to what? What activity were they paid to ‘ secure’ ?”
Boy you really don’t have any idea what you are talking about do you?
A Rapid Response Team isn’t paid to secure anything, they are paid to rapidly respond to emergencies, such as evacuating important principles. I.E. think of them as a very well trained, equipped, and paid SWAT team and even that doesn’t do them justice.
I suggest that you actually inform yourself of tactics and how forces are organized, because all your question did was make you look ignorant.
Banned, you really need to watch the videos instead of asking remarkably stupid questions.
Seriously. It’ll save you a LOT of well-earned skinning here and anywhere people know WTF they are talking about.
I can’t . I don’t pay for Fox .
wtf does paying for fox got to do with it?
you getting proxied out maybe?
All you had to do is ask, binky…
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/09/06/fox_news_reporting_13_hours_at_benghazi.html
You watch it for me & tell me the big points Rags . I got me a new puppy who does not like the iPad making noise. It is a mute world for me .
Chiefly I am interested in why they were there . And what on earth really happened at the ‘consulate’ .
.
What? Seriously?
So basically you have no interest in the actual facts and are just being a troll. Thanks for playing and goodbye.
It is all. Over Red Rover . Unless it can be twinned to ISIS or maybe why the pool in the US Embassy was un chlorinated for the Islamic balcony jumping – what difference does it make?
I assume you are talking about an actual dog. They do sleep, and they do need to accommodate YOU, not the other way ’round.
Gawd, I DO hope you are talking about a dog…
Yep & he is very smart . Pretty soon he will be posting .
For some reason I am betting that Rover’s postings will be more informed than yours.
A national leftist was removed from power. Only to create a larger, deadlier international leftist. This progress could have been curbed with a trial and full complement of soldiers. Instead, the national leftist was assassinated and even our own people are left to face retributive change.
The missing chunk . The pics of the blood dripping down the walls above the toilet. The bloodied finger marks on the pillars where someone was trying to hang on . The cleaned up body of Stevens being ‘found’ by curious locals hours after the attack. He was supposed to have been taken to the hospital at 4am yet his still limp body was being dragged in early daylight . These guys did not look like the attackers & may well have found him . However the rooms were alleged to have been secured. These locals just walked on in with no steel cutters ? What did the ‘Chris back from the dead ‘ mean?
The FBI did pay a visit . Surely they have DNA samples of the blood from all the markings . Whose was it? I think we would have been better served by CIS Los Vegas.
Btw not everyone in the world bows down to CIA . Some of us don’t believe them either .
Something is seriously awry with you. Seek professional help before it’s too late.
No, I’m not trying to be funny.
The security guys above are another part of the story but the crux is the consulate attack , The after effects photos were available & once seen will not be forgotten. IMO they are not indicative of a random attack . Not altogether unsurprisingly vicious because Benghazi was the venue for the most brutal acts of revenge on Libyan soldiers . That the CIA based themselves in such an evil place is worrying . ( it was also the region of most common origin for anti US recruitment in the Iraq Insurgency) .
But it appeared very personal also. The signs were that of torture . If that & everything else does not bother you , you maybe need help.