Clinton’s Decision May Have Doomed Ambassador Stevens
A security decision made personally by Hillary Clinton may have ultimately doomed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans the night of September 11, 2012, charges a book released this week.
This reporter’s new book, The REAL Benghazi Story: What the White House and Hillary Don’t Want You to Know, reveals that Clinton herself signed waivers that allowed the facility to be legally occupied – waivers necessary since the facility did not meet the minimum official security standards set by the State Department. One waiver in particular may have been game-changing regarding the ultimate outcome of the deadly attacks.
The REAL Benghazi Story documents that while some required waivers technically could have been issued by lower-level State Department officials, several other waivers could only have been approved by Clinton herself, including what is known as the “co-location” requirement.
The “co-location” requirement refers to the unusual housing setup in Benghazi in which intelligence and State Department personnel were kept in two separate locations. The waiver legally allowed the CIA Annex to be housed in a location about one mile from the U.S. Special Mission.
According to new accounts from Benghazi survivors, the delayed response time by those at the CIA Annex may have cost the lives of Stevens and the three other Americans killed at the Special Mission. If the CIA Annex had been co-located with the U.S. Special Mission, a rapid response team would have been on site during the initial assault in which Stevens was killed.
Last week, Fox News’s Bret Baier interviewed three security operators who were at the separately located CIA Annex. The three essentially served as first responders to any attack on the Mission.
The security contractors – Kris (“Tanto”) Paronto, Mark (“Oz”) Geist, and John (“Tig”) Tiegen – told Fox News they wanted to depart for the Mission but were delayed by the commanding CIA officer in Benghazi, whom they referred to as “Bob.”
The three said that after a delay of about 30 minutes, the security team departed without orders and asked their superiors to request air support, assistance which never arrived. The team told Fox News the delay may have cost Stevens his life.
“Ambassador Stevens and Sean [Smith], yeah, they would still be alive, my gut is yes,” Paronto said, with team member Tiegen agreeing. “I strongly believe if we’d left immediately, they’d still be alive today,” he continued.
U.S. Used Mission In Benghazi To Ship Arms To Jihadists
The U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi and nearby CIA Annex were utilized in part to coordinate arms shipments to the jihadist rebels fighting the Syrian regime while Ambassador Chris Stevens played a central role in the arms transfers, documents The REAL Benghazi Story: What the White House and Hillary Don’t Want You to Know.
Those alleged activities, which included a separate, unprecedented multi-million dollar weapons collection effort from Libyan militias who did not want to give up their weapons, may have been the motivating factor that prompted the September 11, 2012 assaults in the first place, charges the new book.
The book asserts that the arms-to-rebels scheme that ran through Benghazi “might amount to the Fast and Furious of the Middle East, the Iran-Contra of the Obama administration.”
Until the end of April 2013, the White House repeatedly denied it was involved in helping arm the Syrian rebels. However, The REAL Benghazi Story cites evidence of arms transfers throughout the summer of 2012, escalating with a major shipment from Libya to Turkey just days prior to the September 11 attack.
The book finds that members of 17th of February Martyrs Brigade, a militia linked to the Ansar al-Sharia terrorist organization, may have been used as cut outs to aid in the weapons transfers to Syrian rebels. Perplexingly, armed members of the Martyrs Brigade were also hired by the State Department to provide internal “security” at the U.S. Special Mission.