Also, on the table you've got USMC FAST company europe in Rota, Spain. We trained with them. Those guys know how to kick ass.
Nothing. Not a damn thing happened.

One of my biggest unresolved questions about this whole thing is this...

Where and what were the five DSS agents doing when the attack on the mission and the ambassador was going down?

These guys are very much (wannabe) like us...they are heavily armed with M4s, 249 SAW, pistols and other special weapons as needed. I would think everything they had access to was needed!

Having performed protective detail missions in my past, they should have been stacking bad guys like cordwood at the gate and around the grounds, never given them access to the building where the ambassador and Mr. Smith sought refuge, killed everyone with an RPG or five gallon can of fuel and/or all died in the process of doing exactly that.

It appears all of them got rescued an hour later by the CIA and they didn't even know where the ambassador was...

Something doesn't add up for me!

Did they all hide under the bed? :confused:

Sir,
it must have been a considerably tall bed. Or they were spooning real tight.
Sad humor apart, I see your point. Your train of thought definitely adds on to the list of stuff that doesn't add up.
Media reported FAST being sent on the 12th. How in the blue hell could those guys be useful a day AFTER the attack? For what. Evidence collection? A local national additional force protection/qrf/protection detail team hired locally?
REALLY? In what lysergic stupor does that make sense?
That's dumber that the stereotypical fox guarding the coop. I could go on for hours.
That was a majestic goatfuck. To be hopeful.
Or a well devised plan if one wants to be a conspiracy theorist. Or just an outside-the-box thinker.

Given the timeline that's generally being circulated the comment "U.S. special forces team arrives in Sigonella, Sicily, becoming the first military unit in the region" (24 hrs later) still has me wondering where this AFRICOM USMC AirGnd TF's dets were that were already supposed to be at Sig.

Lots of questions. Answers... not optimistic.

Seems like a single F-18 from NASSIG would have done wonders. ETA of under an hour, right?

I hope some on this BB are listening to the Benghazi Consulate Attack on C-Span. I am most interested in General Dempsey's stance on putting forces in motion and the reasons for halting.

Listening to this become a discussion more about the budget / sequester is a distraction from the reason they are there. Perhaps those on the Hill, lead by the President, should have taken the agreed upon actions when the 'deal' was made.

General Dempsey stated that the quickest they could have had assets on the ground was 13 to 15 hours (best case scenario). It appears that they did not consider (as some have suggested) having a F16 to fly over. I recall Rep. Kinzinger (of IL) who is a former Airforce Pilot stating that F16s can do many things outside of firing to provide a show of force.

Sorry that's a bold faced lie.

There's a reason we have Military Free Fall teams. All CIF's are airborne, some specialize in Military Free Fall. The CIF's are prepared to respond 24/7, that's their job. I know I was a CIF member. Jets should have been dropping flares within the hour over the embassy, and breaking the sound barrier with low level flyovers. We have AFB's in Turkey and Italy that could have responded. I also find it hard to believe we didn't have assets floating in the Mediterranean that could have responded.

We also could have called the Israelis, they are professionals in hostage rescue.

Bottom line, the "current" administration was not going to kill hundreds of bloodthirsty muslims over 3-4 Americans. Ain't going to happen. So if you're curently serving as a civilian in a muslim country you can expect no US military assistance if teh shit hits the fan, you are on your own, period. Stupid American sheeple forget the Iran hostage situation? 444 days. Who cares now, no one.

But as the witch said, "Who cares now?"

Panetta just said that some of the FAST teams did not have 'air lift' capability. If that is in fact true, I find that surprising. Of course, they immediately took measures following the attack to resolve this issue.

I don't know what a FAST team is and don't care. If he's talking the CIA teams they are civilians, period. There were hundreds of islamic combatants on the ground. No FAST team would ever go into a situation knowing some of them WILL be killed. The Special Operations CIF's would, that's their job. They could have jumped in, secured the Americans and defended until relieved. That's what we're trained to do, recover Americans. But hundreds of islamists would have been killed had the CIF's arrived. Picture that on the news and the uprising afterwards.

No "airlift" is a joke...... a poor excuse from civilians. So what you cant get out, secure the good guys and defend yourselves until the cavalry arrives.

CIA is civilians, they CAN quit at anytime, no law or oath holds them to serve. No gov civilian is going to go to a gunfight knowing they might in fact die.

This is your elected civilian government and they really don't care.

TS, a FAST (Fleet Antiterrorism Security Team) is the U.S. Marines. :p

And they should have already been on the ground in Tripoli and the Ambassador should have been there with them...

But all this "prior intelligence and threat info" is being swept under the rug, because the current admin failed big time to read a calendar (9/11).

And look at a map...using minimal common sense in connecting the two.

IMO, a big leadership failure no matter what Panetta, Clinton or Dempsey say.

I know they were also talking about a CIA response team.

The Marines would have also been a great choice. And again, there would have been hundreds of dead islamists in the streets.

I doubt they stood down because of no airlift out of the target area...... Marines don't stand-down. They would have gone in, secured the Americans and defended until airlift arrived.

It appears from Panetta's testimony, not only did the President not bother to "stick around" as the events unfolded, he never even called for a Sit Rep on the attack. That seems shocking to me...........

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...zi_700405.html

Probably he was still tired from taking out Bin Laden.....