Benghazi Attack Survivor
Waited on a Roof Top for 20 Hours Before Help Came
Diplomatic
Security agent David Ubben has been receiving treatment at Walter Reed Military
Medical Center after being severely wounded on September 11, 2012 when the U.S.
consulate in Benghazi was attacked by terrorists. According to Fox News, Ubben waited for help on top of a roof for 20 hours. What difference does
waiting that long make? The lives of two Navy SEALs.
During
the second wave of attacks on Benghazi, David Ubben was on the rooftops with
the Navy SEALS. Eventually, several rounds of mortar attacks found their mark,
killing Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty while shredding David Ubben’s right leg.
Ubben was stuck on the rooftop for 20 hours before help arrived.
The House Oversight Committee is planning to hold a series of
hearings about the 9/11 Benghazi terrorist attack in the Fall. During the last Oversight hearing about the
attack, the Obama administration's entire narrative about what happened that
night was blown out of the
water by State Department Whistleblower Gregory Hicks. Hicks was in Tripoli the
night of the attack and was the last person to speak with U.S. Ambassador Chris
Stevens before he was killed.
Comment to the above article written by usmcpgw
Wrote:
We're the Battling Boys of Beghazi
no
fame, no glory, no paparazzi,
Just a fiery death in a blazing hell,
defending the country we loved so well.
It wasn’t our job, but we answered the call,
fought to the consulate, and scaled the wall.
We pulled twenty countrymen from the jaws of fate,
led them to safety, and stood at the gate.
Just the two of us, and foes by the score,
but we stood fast, to bar the door,
Three calls for reinforcement, but all were denied,
so we fought and we fought, and we fought till we died.
We gave our all for our Uncle Sam,
but Barack Obama didn’t give a damn.
Just two dead SEAL’s, who carried the load,
no thanks to us — we were just “bumps in the road.”
Just a fiery death in a blazing hell,
defending the country we loved so well.
It wasn’t our job, but we answered the call,
fought to the consulate, and scaled the wall.
We pulled twenty countrymen from the jaws of fate,
led them to safety, and stood at the gate.
Just the two of us, and foes by the score,
but we stood fast, to bar the door,
Three calls for reinforcement, but all were denied,
so we fought and we fought, and we fought till we died.
We gave our all for our Uncle Sam,
but Barack Obama didn’t give a damn.
Just two dead SEAL’s, who carried the load,
no thanks to us — we were just “bumps in the road.”
NOTE: Here is the earlier Guy Benson article
linked in the article above by Katie Pavlich.
The Damning Dozen: Twelve Revelations from the Benghazi
Hearings
Much of the
media and liberal establishment simply ignored yesterday's Benghazi
hearings. They were content to see, hear, and speak no evil -- which is typically
the fastest way to kill a story in Washington. Others framed the
proceedings as just another quixotic, partisan effort to hype a long-resolved
story. Selling that template requires adherence to two fallacious
assertions: First, that no major questions remain regarding the 9/11 terrorist
assault on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya -- and second, that no new
information emerged from the whistle-blowers' hours-long testimony. The
former claim is outright insulting. The latter betrays either
aggressive ignorance or wishful thinking. House Oversight Committee
Republicans' focused questioning extracted quite a few nuggets of relevant
information. For their part, many committee Democrats were focused on
unseemly efforts to attack, distract and smear -- all employed as they
cynically groused about Republicans "politicizing" the
investigation. Cutting through the nonsense and dissembling, here's what
we now know:
(1) Murdered US Ambassador Chris Stevens' second in command, Gregory Hicks, was instructed not to speak with a Congressional investigator by State Department lawyers.* Hicks said he'd "never" faced a similar demand at any point during his distinguished 22-year diplomatic career. When he refused to comply with this request, the State Department dispatched an attorney to act as a "minder," who insisted on sitting in on all of Hicks' discussions with members of Congress (higher quality video is available here). Sec. Hillary Clinton's chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, later excoriated Hicks for cooperating with the investigation and permitting himself to be interviewed without a chaperone.
(1) Murdered US Ambassador Chris Stevens' second in command, Gregory Hicks, was instructed not to speak with a Congressional investigator by State Department lawyers.* Hicks said he'd "never" faced a similar demand at any point during his distinguished 22-year diplomatic career. When he refused to comply with this request, the State Department dispatched an attorney to act as a "minder," who insisted on sitting in on all of Hicks' discussions with members of Congress (higher quality video is available here). Sec. Hillary Clinton's chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, later excoriated Hicks for cooperating with the investigation and permitting himself to be interviewed without a chaperone.
(2) When Hicks began to voice strenuous
objections to the administration's inaccurate talking points with State
Department higher-ups, the administration turned hostile. After being lavishly
praised by the president and the Secretary of State for his performance under
fire, Assistant Secretary of State Beth Jones instantly reversed course and
launched into a "blistering critique" of Hicks' leadership. He
was subsequently "effectively demoted." Hicks called
Rice's talking points "stunning" and "embarrassing."
(3) Secretaries Clinton and Rice (the
president's hand-selected messenger on Benghazi to the American people)
repeatedly stated
that the attack arose from "spontaneous protests" over an obscure
YouTube video. This was never true. Hicks called the YouTube a
"non-event" in Libya. He and others
on the ground -- including Amb. Stevens -- recognized the raid as a coordinated
terrorist attack from the very beginning. Hicks testified that he personally
told Sec. Clinton as much at 2 am on the night
of the attack, along with her senior staff. [UPDATE - Rep. Trey Gowdy
also revealed an email sent on 9/12 in which Assistant Sec.
Jones confirmed to a Libyan official that the attack had been carried out by
terrorist organization Ansar al-Sharia]. Days later, Rice recited bogus
talking points on five American television networks, and Clinton denounced the video while standing next to the
flag-draped coffins of the fallen. Hicks said that he never mentioned any
"spontaneous demonstrations" related to a video in his phone call
with Clinton.
Questions: How, why, and by whom did the administration's talking points
get scrubbed and re-written? Why did the
president refuse to identify the attack as terrorism in
an interview with CBS News on September 12, and why did he allow Sec. Rice to
disseminate patently false information on his behalf?
(4) A small, armed US force in Tripoli was told it did not have the authority to deploy to Benghazi in the midst of the attack. Twice. Flight time between the two cities is less than an hour. Members of the would-be rescue contingent were "furious" over this obstruction. The witnesses said they did not know who ultimately gave the "stand down" orders, or why. If it was not the Commander-in-Chief calling the shots, why not, and where was he? Whistle-blower Mark Thompson, a career counter-terrorism official at State, said he called the White House to request the immediate deployment of a Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST) to Benghazi. He was told it was "not the right time" to do so, then was cut out of the communications loop.
(5) The US' security chief in Libya, Eric Nordstrom, averred that Sec. Clinton "absolutely" would have been briefed on his (and Stevens') repeated requests for an increased security presence in Libya. This claim undercut committee Democrats' nitpicking over whether Clinton's signature appeared on the memo denying those requests:
Furthermore,
the Benghazi compound was operating below the bare minimum global security
standard for US diplomatic missions -- despite being in an exceedingly
dangerous place, and having been subjected to previous attempted attacks. Only the Secretary of State has the authority to grant
exemptions for minimum security requirements.
(6) Amb. Stevens was stationed at the vulnerable Benghazi compound on a dangerous symbolic date at the behest of Sec. Clinton, who wished to make that diplomatic mission a permanent outpost. This detail should only intensify questions as to why the consulate was so poorly protected (see item #7).
(7) Nordstrom stated that elements of the lightly-armed Libyan militia group tasked with protecting the consulate were "certainly" complicit in the attacks. No US Marines were present at the time. Hicks estimated that at least 60 terrorists swarmed into the compound during the attack. Eight months later, zero arrests have been made.
(8) A mortally wounded Amb. Stevens was taken to a hospital controlled by the Islamist extremist group (Ansar Al-Sharia) primarily responsible for the assault. Administration officials initially pointed to locals rushing Stevens to a local hospital as evidence of local goodwill from protesters who didn't approve of the mob spinning out of control. Hicks said the American contingent did not go to retrieve Stevens from said hospital during the fight because they were fearful that it was a trap.
(9) The US government did not seek permission from the Libyan government to fly any aircraft into Libyan airspace, aside from a drone. The witnesses testified that they believe the Libyan government would have complied with any such request. The fact that none was even made indicates that there was never a plan or intention to rush reinforcements to Benghazi. This renders the "would they have made it on time?" argument largely irrelevant -- the facts in item #4 notwithstanding. Another important point about the "they wouldn't have made it" defense: The assault lasted for eight hours and took place into two waves at two different compounds. How could anyone have known how long the fighting would last? How could they have anticipated that ex-Navy SEALs Woods and Doherty wouldn't have been able to stave off the enemy for a few more hours? Help was not on the way. It was never sent.
(10) Despite
committee Democrats' repeated claims and leading questions, reduced funding or
"austerity" had absolutely nothing to do with the inadequate security
presence on the ground. The State Department itself made this fact crystal clear at previous hearings, as did the
administration's internal "ARB" review. Why did multiple
Democrats flog an obsolete, thoroughly-debunked explanation, if not to muddy
the waters?
(11) Oversight Democrats tried to cast doubt on Mark Thompson's credibility,
suggesting that he'd declined to participate in the administration's ARB
probe. Thompson corrected the record, noting that he "offered his services" to those
investigators, who in turn did not invite him to testify. Democrats also
claimed that the House hearings were slanted because the leaders of the ARB
investigation were not invited to participate. In fact, Chairman Issa
explicitly did invite them, as confirmed by letters obtained by ABC
News. They chose not to participate. Democrats were dead wrong on
both counts.
(12) During her Congressional testimony on Benghazi, Sec. Clinton memorably
asked, "what difference does it make?" in regards
to the provenance of the administration's incorrect talking points.
Gregory Hicks and Eric Nordstrom both attempted to answer that question.
Hicks did so in granular detail (the false explanation opened
a nasty rift between the US and Libyan governments, impeding the FBI's
investigation for weeks). An emotional Nordstrom was more general (we lost
friends; the truth matters):
One of the few points of bipartisan
agreement was that the number of unresolved issues merit additional
hearings on Benghazi.
* An earlier version of this post stated that Cheryl Mills directly instructed Hicks not to meet with Rep. Chaffetz. Though Mills likely had a hand in that edict, Hicks testified that unnamed higher-ups at State actually issued it. Both Mills and Beth Jones subsequently dressed Hicks down for defying the effective gag order.
,
repeated his position that the administration’s decision will be “based on
whether or not this is going to significantly contribute to carbon in our
atmosphere.”