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Originally Posted by The Dad Fisherman
Banghazi was a "Crazy Conspiracy Theory" I prefer to think of it as a failure of leadership, unless you are trying to throw a tape into the mix, then Maybe.
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House Benghazi Committee Republicans: No new evidence that Clinton, secretary of state at the time of the attack, is to blame for the facility’s vulnerability or the U.S. response to the attacks.
House Benghazi Committee Democrats: Clinton never personally denied U.S. diplomats’ requests for more security in Benghazi
"During the attack, a stand-down order was given, and our troops were told to change their clothes four times, and we needed, you know, permission from the Libyans to actually save Americans, and that's what they were discussing" in Washington, Hannity said on his program that evening.
For this fact-check, we'll look at the alleged stand-down order and whether troops were told to change their clothes four times while the attack was under way.
The short answers, based on the committee's report: The stand-down order was actually an order to wait while CIA officials tried to make sure its security team didn't get into a firefight with friendly militia. The order for troops to change clothes was unrelated and came hours after everyone had already been evacuated from Benghazi, not "during the attack."
We'll go through this chronologically. All times are Libyan. Washington was six hours behind.
The ‘stand-down’ order
The attack on the mission compound began at 9:42 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2012, when seven American staff members were inside, along with five diplomatic security agents. In addition, the United States was using local militia to help provide protection, so there were three armed members of the February 17 Martyrs Brigade, who lived on the compound and helped provide security, and five unarmed members of the Blue Mountain Guard Force.
According to the Benghazi committee report, a frantic call for help immediately went out to the CIA annex about a mile away. The annex security team, known as the GRS, started getting their gear together as annex officials made fruitless calls trying to contact the local groups, including the February 17 militia, they had been working with. Their goal: find out who was involved in the fight and whether they could get additional equipment.
With the sounds of gunfire in the distance and occasional tracer bullets flying overhead, the security team was eager to get going. Yet the officer in charge — the chief of base — was telling them to wait because the calls to the militias were not being answered. He and his deputy, who are unnamed, said they didn't want the team mistakenly getting into a firefight with friendly militia forces. Although sending the security squad and all the heavy weaponry from the annex to the mission would leave the annex defenseless, according to the report, the top officials at the annex gave them the green light, according to the testimony.
At 10:05 p.m., 23 minutes after the frantic call from the mission, the annex team was rolling.
Kris Paronto, a former Army ranger, is one of the men who rushed to the compound from the CIA annex to help bring people back. "Thirty minutes we were told to wait," he told Hannity June 28. "Twice the word 'wait' was used. Once the words 'stand down' was used. But to me that's semantics."
Not exactly. The dictionary definition of a stand-down order means your force is no longer on alert or operational. The chief of the annex was adamant that he never told the security team to actually stand down — only to wait. While members of the security team reported hearing the phrase "stand down," the narrative in the GOP report offers no evidence that, contrary to Hannity's claim, the team was told it wasn't going to be sent to help.