DomKen
Posts: 19457
Joined: 7/4/2004 From: Chicago, IL Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Phydeaux Here's a few quotes First from the Deputy Chief of Mission: Hicks went on to say he believes "if we had been able to scramble a fighter or aircraft or two over Benghazi as quickly as possible after the attack commenced" -- around 9:30 that night -- "I believe there would not have been a mortar attack on the annex in the morning because I believe the Libyans would have split. They would have been scared to death that we would have gotten a laser on them and killed them." The CIA mission chief believed help could get there in time. (Abc news). Hicks said that four U.S. Special Forces troops in Tripoli -- led by the leader of the U.S. Special Operations Command Africa, SOCAfrica -- planned to hitch a ride on the Libyan plan to travel to Benghazi to help. "We fully intended for those guys to go, because we had already essentially stripped ourselves of our security presence, or our security capability, to the bare minimum," Hicks recalled. But the four were informed by someone with SOCAfrica that they didn't have the authority to go, Hicks said. "So Lt. Col. Gibson, who is the SOCAfrica commander, his team, you know, they were on their way to the vehicles to go to the airport to get on the C-130 when he got a phone call from SOCAfrica which said, 'you can't go now, you don't have authority to go now,'' Hicks said. "And so they missed the flight." "They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it," Hicks said. "I still remember Col. Gibson, he said, 'I have never been so embarrassed in my life that a State Department officer has bigger balls than somebody in the military.' A nice compliment." Another quote: Fighter jets and Specter AC-130 gunships were also available at nearby bases, military sources told CBS. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought clearances from Libya to fly in their airspace, CBS reports. But the Obama administration won’t reveal further details on that front. Retired CIA officer Gary Berntsen tells CBS that help could have arrived sooner. Those 4 men had no gear. All they had were handguns. they would have been useless in a firefight and the flight they missed is the one that brought our guys out. it arrived after the battle was over. The flight that left hours earlier is the one that guys with actual firepower were on and they got there just in time for the mortar attack that killed the 2 guys which marked the end of the battle.
|