by WorldTribune Staff, July 3, 2017
The White House, State Department and Pentagon were watching in real time when a mortar strike killed two Americans at the CIA’s annex in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, the House Select Committee on Benghazi said last week.
The terrorists’ mortar strike killed CIA contract security officers Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty as the two former Navy SEALS where defending the annex.
“The drone was in place at the time of the mortar attacks,” the committee said in a June 27 report, adding it did not “know the degree of granularity and particularity of the drone video footage.”
In addition to Woods and Doherty, Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and IT specialist Sean Smith were killed earlier in the attack.
In a report published on June 28, 2016, Reps. Jim Jordan and Mike Pompeo noted:
“When the first wave of the assault in Benghazi started at 9:42 p.m. on Sept. 11, State Department officials in Washington and Tripoli knew almost immediately that it was a sophisticated and coordinated terrorist attack. Eyewitness accounts confirmed that fact for decision makers at the White House and the Pentagon.
“Despite this knowledge, no military assets reached Benghazi during the fight. They did not arrive in Benghazi for nearly 24 hours; no military man or machine (except two unarmed drones) were even launched before the fighting was over.”
Jordan and Pompeo said “five conclusions” were reached during House Benghazi investigations:
“First, the Obama administration misled the American public about the events in Benghazi. Second, security in Benghazi was inadequate given the risk to the facility, and Secretary Clinton had missed the last clear chance to protect her people. Third, when things went badly, America did not move heaven and earth to rescue our people. Fourth, the administration broke its promise to the American people to bring the terrorists responsible for the attack to justice. Finally, we make note of the disappointing fact that the administration did not cooperate with our committee’s investigation from the very beginning. In fact, they obstructed our work from day one.”
The Benghazi panel’s chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican, said when he spoke to family members of the four men killed in Benghazi, they ask him a different set of questions than the ones reporters ask him.
“When you meet with the families privately,” he said. “There are incredible personal questions. While these are ‘four fellow Americans’ to us, they are sons and husbands and brothers to people we talked to in the very beginning and the last group that I talked to – the questions are very, very different.”
Gowdy said, “Even though it is not in the report, I am also happy that we were able to answer some of the intimate questions that were asked by the families.”
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