The Washington Times reports that contrary to what Barack Obama and Leon Panetta have said, there were 8 special forces commandos in Tripoli the night of the attack, just 400 miles away. They were made up of Delta Force, the country’s leading counterterrorism force and Green Berets. Two of the Delta Forces volunteered to go to Benghazi, along with 5 private contractors. Both have been quietly awarded medals for their bravery for turning back the attackers.
Delta Force is trained as a quick response force and assuming they could be ready in an hour, they could have been in Benghazi within three hours. This bolsters testimony given by Gregory Hicks that Lt Steve Gibson was prepared to relieve Benghazi, but was told to stand down. Pentagon spokesman, Major Rob Firman, stated:
“They weren’t told to stand down. They were simply told not to go to Benghazi. They were told to go to the airport in Tripoli to provide security there.”
The administration was able to hide the involvement of Delta Force using vague wording. The timeline mentioned that the relief flight from Tripoli contained ” two Department of Defense ” employees. The official State Department report on Benghazi mentioned “2 Department of Defense workers”, but conveniently left out the fact that they were special forces.
The Washington Times reports that sources directly familiar with the attack, told them there was a force of eight men made up of Delta Force and Green Berets, who were in Tripoli to confiscate weapons and to abduct terrorists, as well as helping to train Libyan forces.
The two special operations soldiers arrived in time to drive the terrorists back and to avoid further casualties. Both men were awarded medals for valor for the engagement.
One source told the Times:
“Yes, we had special forces in Tripoli, and two in fact did volunteer and engaged heroically in the efforts to save Americans. The others were asked to stay behind to help protect Tripoli in case there was a coordinated attack on our main embassy.
“The remaining [forces] were ready to dispatch the next morning, but by that time American personnel had been evacuated to the airport, local militias had provided additional security and it was determined there was no need for them to be dispatched at that point.”
The Pentagon claims that they did not disclose the actions of the two commandos because we didn’t have a Status of Forces Agreement in place. But the Libyan government warned of the attack and at that time was amendable to aiding the United States.
That night has become famous for what the administration and the Pentagon did not do, which is to send troops and warplanes from outside the country.
The fact that the two did make it to Benghazi, undercuts the carefully controlled message from the White House in the weeks leading up to the election. The administration has already admitted that parts of the story they told was “misleading.” What else is there we don’t know?