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The Benghazi Transcripts: US Military Woefully Unprepared for Attack, Documents Show

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Hundreds of pages of declassified transcripts from the U.S. military’s top commanders present a picture of a woefully ill-postured military force whose assets were not in a position to quickly respond to the Benghazi terror attack — or other hot spots across Africa and the Middle East.

The 450 pages of newly declassified transcripts detail testimony from secret, closed hearings last year before Congress. They provide fresh insight into the military’s decision-making that night from the very commanders who staged the rescue efforts, including the top commander in Africa at the time Gen. Carter Ham.

Among other details, they reveal gaps in the military’s positioning of assets around the world.

For example, no attack aircraft were placed on high alert on Sept. 11, and the closest F-16 fighter planes to any of the trouble spots in North Africa were in Aviano, Italy. None were armed, and the closest air refuellers were positioned 10 hours away at a base in Great Britain.

No Defense Department AC-130 gunships were within a 10-hour flight to Libya, according to committee members who heard commanders’ testimony over the past 15 months. And the commander’s in-extremis force, which included a unit of 23 special operators who are used at the commander’s discretion, were training in Croatia that day. They did not make it to a staging base in Sigonella, Italy, for another 19 hours after the attack began, according to committee members.

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‘Completely False’: Sources on Ground in Benghazi Challenge NYT Report

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Photo Credit: Fox News

Photo Credit: Fox News

Fifteen months after the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, the narrative of the attack continues to be shaped, and reshaped, by politicians and the press.

But a New York Times report published over the weekend has angered sources who were on the ground that night. Those sources, who continue to face threats of losing their jobs, sharply challenged the Times’ findings that there was no involvement from Al Qaeda or any other international terror group and that an anti-Islam film played a role in inciting the initial wave of attacks.

“It was a coordinated attack. It is completely false to say anything else. … It is completely a lie,” one witness to the attack told Fox News.

The controversial Times report has stirred a community that normally remains out of sight and wrestles with how to reveal the truth, without revealing classified information.

Fox News has learned that the attack on the consulate started with fighters assembling to conduct an assault.

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Susan Rice Calls Benghazi ‘A False Controversy’ (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

“I don’t have time to think about a false controversy,” National Security Adviser Susan Rice told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in an interview that aired Sunday.

Rice was talking about the September 11, 2012 terror attack in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans, including the U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, and her insistence five days later — on all five Sunday talk shows — that the attack was a spontaneous event arising from a little-known anti-Muslim video.

“In the midst of all of the swirl about things like talking points, the administration’s been working very, very hard across the globe to review our security of our embassies and our facilities. That’s what we ought to be focused on,” Rice told “60 Minutes” correspondent Leslie Stahl.

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Widow of American Teacher Gunned Down in Benghazi has Surprising Message for Husband’s Attackers (+video)

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Screen-Shot_SmithThe widow of the American teacher who was slain in Benghazi says she forgives the attackers that gunned down her husband earlier this month.

“I just envision the black Jeep driving up to him and I don’t know their faces,” Ronnie Smith told CNN. “I just want them to know that God loves them and can forgive them for this,” Anita Smith tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview.

With a quavering voice, she continued to explain how she can forgive her husband’s attackers.

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CIA Benghazi Team Clash Led to ‘Stand Down’ Report

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

CIA officers who testified privately to Congress about the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, revealed a disagreement among them about how quickly they could go help the besieged U.S. ambassador and others as well as a standing order for them to avoid violent encounters, according to a congressman and others who heard or were briefed on the testimony.

Complaints that the White House, Pentagon and State Department may not have done enough before and during the attack to save U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other men, along with accusations that it engaged in a cover-up after the attack, have continued to dog the Obama administration. One of the allegations was that U.S. officials told the CIA to “stand down” and not go to the aid of the embattled Americans — charges that top CIA and Defense and State Department officials have denied.

The testimony from the CIA officers and contractors who were in Libya that night bolster those denials but also shed light on what may have led to the delay of less than 30 minutes. None of those who testified said that a quicker response would have saved the lives of Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods and Glenn Doherty.

The CIA officers in charge in Libya that day told Congress of a chaotic scramble to aid Stevens and others who were in the outpost when it was attacked by militants on the 11th anniversary of 9/11. Those CIA leaders decided they and the security contractors working for them should wait before rushing from their annex into the violence roughly a mile away. They testified that they were trying to first gather intelligence and to round up Libyan militia allies armed with heavy weapons, according to the testimony by the CIA officers in charge, including both the head of the CIA security team and the CIA chief of the Benghazi base.

Some of the CIA security contractors, however, disagreed with their bosses and wanted to move more quickly.

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Report: American Teacher Killed in Benghazi

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Photo Credit: Fox News An American citizen who was working at an international school was shot and killed in the Libyan city of Benghazi Thursday morning by unknown assailants, a school board member told Fox News.

The State Department identified the victim as Ronald Thomas Smith II, and confirmed that he was a teacher at an international school in Benghazi.

“We can confirm that a U.S. citizen was shot and killed in Benghazi,” a State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in the statement.

“We offer our condolences to the victim’s loved ones. We are in contact with the family and are providing all appropriate consular assistance. Out of respect for the privacy of those affected, we have no further comment at this time. For questions on the investigation, I refer you to the Libyan authorities,” the statement said.

School board member Adel Mansouri said the teacher was shot around lunchtime near his home.

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Lawmaker: Benghazi Operatives Likely Communicated with Al Qaeda Leaders Before, After Attack

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Photo Credit: REUTERSSome of the main operatives in the Benghazi terror attack were part of the Al Qaeda network and likely sought to communicate with Al Qaeda leadership in Pakistan leading up to and after the strike that killed four Americans, according to the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

“I can tell you we know the participants of the event were clearly Al Qaeda affiliates, had strong interest and desire to communicate with Al Qaeda core and others, in the process — we believe before and after the event,” Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., who has access to classified information and receives regular briefings, told Fox News in an exclusive interview.

Last month, Fox News was first to report that at least two of the key suspects in the Benghazi terror attack were at one point working with Al Qaeda senior leadership. Sources familiar with the investigation said one suspect was believed to be a courier for the network, and the other a bodyguard in Afghanistan prior to the 2001 terror attacks.

The direct ties to Al Qaeda senior leadership undercut early characterizations by the Obama administration that the attackers in Benghazi were isolated “extremists” with no organizational structure or affiliation. After the attack, the former bodyguard — Faraj al Chalabi — traveled to Pakistan, where he was detained, returned to Libya and eventually released before the FBI was granted access.

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Benghazi Witnesses: ‘Personnel were Not Armed’

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Photo Credit: WND Testimony by Benghazi witnesses and victims stating personnel inside the U.S. special mission were not armed directly contradicts the State Department report on the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, WND has learned.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., chairman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee, told Fox News that State Department employees inside the mission “were not armed, not kitted up and there hadn’t been any shots fired from our side as far as the testimony reveals.”

Westmoreland was commenting on closed-door testimony given to his intelligence committee.

In contrast, the extensive report released by the State Department-sponsored Accountability Review Board, or ARB, specifically states personnel inside the mission protecting the compound and Ambassador Chris Stevens were armed and had their security kits.

The ARB states all assistant regional security officers, or ARSOs, were armed during the attack.

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Benghazi Staffers Told: ‘You are on Your Own’

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Photo Credit: WND A congressman has revealed a new detail about the 2012 Benghazi attack, disclosing that staff members at the besieged U.S. special mission were told in a directive, “You are on your own.”

In an interview with CNN yesterday, Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., chairman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee, charged the State Department, then run by Hillary Clinton, was culpable in the attack and ensuing cover-up.

While CNN.com focused on a different aspect of Westmoreland’s interview, running the headline “GOP Rep: Benghazi Not A ‘Complete Cover-Up,’” other statements made in the nine-minute sit-down may be more significant.

Westmoreland’s committee recently questioned CIA agents and contractors who were on the ground during the attack.

The lawmaker told CNN his committee learned a directive was issued Aug. 11 – one month before the attack – telling Benghazi staff they were on their own.

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CIA Personnel Asked to Sign Additional Non-Disclosure Form After Benghazi Attack

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Photo Credit: Fox News At least five CIA personnel, including government contractors, were asked to sign a second non-disclosure agreement after the Benghazi terrorist attack, Fox News has learned.

While the three-page NDA, obtained by Fox News, does not contain specific references to the 2012 attack which killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, it does contain standard language that unauthorized disclosures could lead to “temporary loss of pay or termination” and “in some circumstances, constitute a criminal offense.”

Sources not authorized to speak on the record, given the sensitivity of this week’s closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, said the five CIA personnel did not feel pressure to sign the document. But they felt the request for a second non-disclosure agreement after the terrorist attack was odd and not standard practice because their original NDA’s were still in effect, and only some in the group were undergoing contract modifications that might require a new NDA.

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