Thursday, July 10, 2014

I DON'T THINK THIS WILL SWAY BAGGERS

The AP reports that the rightwing obsession with a "stand down order" in relation to Benghazi is bogus:
APNewsBreak: No 'Stand Down' Order in Benghazi
WASHINGTON — Jul 10, 2014, 5:14 PM ET
By BRADLEY KLAPPER and DONNA CASSATA Associated Press

The testimony of nine military officers undermines contentions by Republican lawmakers that a "stand-down order" held back military assets that could have saved the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans killed at a diplomatic outpost and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya.

The "stand-down" theory centers on a Special Operations team of four — a detachment leader, a medic, a communications expert and a weapons operator with his foot in a cast — who were stopped from flying from Tripoli to Benghazi after the attacks of Sept. 11-12, 2012, had ended. Instead, they were instructed to help protect and care for those being evacuated from Benghazi and from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.

The senior military officer who issued the instruction to "remain in place" and the detachment leader who received it said it was the right decision and has been widely mischaracterized. The order was to remain in Tripoli and protect some three dozen embassy personnel rather than fly to Benghazi some 600 miles away after all Americans there would have been evacuated. And the medic is credited with saving the life of an evacuee from the attacks.

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