Military response to Benghazi attack questioned

(CBS News) U.S. military forces were alerted when terrorists attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last month.

The U.S. ambassador and three other Americans were killed. It was the anniversary of 9/11.

On Thursday, the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, asked the Obama administration for details of military options that might have been considered that night. It's all become controversial in light of the election.

Two and a half hours after the attack began, an unarmed predator drone was diverted from a surveillance mission over another part of Libya to the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.

That, plus a second unarmed drone dispatched four hours and 15 minutes later, were the only U.S. military forces sent to the scene of the attack. Commandos were dispatched from Europe to an air field in Sigonella, Sicily, but by the time they got there the attack in Benghazi was over.

Speaker Boehner asks Obama for answers on Libya
Panetta: Unclear early info slowed Benghazi response
Egypt identifies Benghazi attack suspect killed in Cairo

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday defended the U.S. military response, saying the situation on the ground was too confusing.

"You don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's on, without having some real time information about what's taking place," Panetta said.

He said senior officers, including Gen. Carter Ham, the U.S. commander for Africa, and General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all opposed military intervention.

"General Ham, General Dempsey and I felt very strongly that we could not put forces at risk in that situation," Panetta said.

When asked whether they had forces on any heightened alert in that area because of the approaching 9/11 anniversary, Panetta said they did.

Gen. Dempsey added: "And let me point out, it was 9/11 everywhere in the world."

Defense officials say a general alert had been issued to U.S. forces worldwide, but no special alert had been ordered for Libya because there was no intelligence predicting an attack.

[kevcl6750]

"Defense officials say a general alert had been issued to U.S. forces worldwide, but no special alert had been ordered for Libya because there was no intelligence predicting an attack." ARE YOU KIDDING ME ???

[Wyoming1973]

Honest patriot,

The "emerging reports" are entirely from right-wing blogs (and Fox News) -- all attempting to stoke this issue for electoral gain in the closing days of the campaign. The response of so many comments on this site: "only Fox news is reporting this, so all other news outlets are part of a conspiracy." Maybe other news outlets are withholding judgment until they have some evidence of what in fact actually happened rather than reporting rumor as fact?

Live feed from a 7 hour battle with sound and video is not good enough evidence? Multiple communications with the State department during this seven hour battle? What would be better evidence that people needed help and were left behind? Do you really believe the alphabet networks have reported this story fairly? We are not hearing a lot about the video lately are we?

[jonsbrain]

I just read an excellent article by Orson Scott Card on what happened in Benghazi, it is posted at his website www.ornery.org

[luxomni]

Mr. Pannetta, even if you weren't sure enough to put someone on the ground, why did you stop them from even moving to advanced staging positions?

[luxomni]

Or is like calling 911? "Your request for help is very important to us. Please stay the line and someone will be with you shortly"

[luxomni]

""You don't deploy forces into harm's way without knowing what's on, without having some real time information about what's taking place," Panetta said."
Why didn't you know what's going on? Weren't the calls for help specific enough?

[jdbj_35m]

this is just sad reporting..general ham was releived of command because new reports are emrging that he wanted to intervene despite obama's orders not to. it makes me wonder why general ham wasnt with panetta and the other general during this news conference.

[honestpatriot]

The "emerging reports" are entirely from right-wing blogs (and Fox News) -- all attempting to stoke this issue for electoral gain in the closing days of the campaign. The response of so many comments on this site: "only Fox news is reporting this, so all other news outlets are part of a conspiracy." Maybe other news outlets are withholding judgment until they have some evidence of what in fact actually happened rather than reporting rumor as fact?

[oldvet71]

Gen. Ham has NOT been relieved. If you check on the Army's web site, he has in fact, made a public speech, and held a public news conference for foreign journalists within the last month. Certainly if he was such a "rogue" officer, he would have spoke up publicly at these and other opportunities he has had to do so. And I imagine the reason he was not at this press conference with Panetta and Dempsey is because they are in Washington and Gen. Ham is stationed in Germany.

[marekallens]

Imagine you are giving a sweet 16 party for a girl who's invited all the boys and girls from her neighborhood. All those kids are running in out of your living room,pool and yard yelling and goofing around.That's the normal message traffic of a message center and all of a sudden in runs Aaron Rodgers in full pads to the middle of the room, waving his arms and yelling at the top of his lungs, "Hey! Look at me!".... Rodgers is flash traffic. The flash protocols are specifically designed to punch through all of that back ground message noise. In short any message operator would notice the Flash over ride. There is no way in hell that the White House Situation Room did not know it had received flash traffic. There is also no way a highly trained operator like Tyrone Woods would leave his transmission set until the required acknowledgement that his Flash traffic had been received had come back. Remember, the communications staff of the situation room are dedicated career professionals. They have received many flashes before and they know exactly what to do, how damn quickly, and with whom. Certain kinds of messages are code worded, meaning a category of message has a specific code name assigned to it that mandates specified procedures and notifications. The header of a flash message will identify the code name. The code name is not necessarily classified; back in my Cold War era with just voice-telephone and radio days they rarely were. But I gather from talking to a "sparky" last night things have vastly improved since the 80's. But even lets say way back then the sender would simply say at the beginning, "This is a Blue Falcon Message" or whatever the code word was for the situation or intended recipient..in this illustrative case we use Blue Falcon, it is a well known kinder and gentler pseudonym for a Buddy Copulator...the kind of guy that puts his own importance, well being and comfort before those of his brothers in arms. I can very much assure you that code name messages cause a much higher degree of ass pucker factor at the receiving mesage station or radio... especially since the operators have memorized the code names of the kinds of messages they may handle (most messages are not code named, code names are used only for the most urgent of categories). At any rate something is going to happen and damned fast! Any message designated as Flash always receives the highest-priority handling. The operator is never to make a judgement call, regardless of it's content. There are always specified individuals within the receiving Unit, headquarters or for that matter government agency who must be notified immediately upon receipt - even before the message if it has been coded has even been decoded yet. That's how urgent Flash traffic is. Someone is lying through their pearly white teeth about who was or wasn't notified in Washington that night, and especially about any orders that were or were not given. There is a huge difference between getting a message to just someone in the chain of Blue Falcon six or to lets say Blue Falcon six Actual. The question is did just the Blue Falcon six communications officer get the message and sit on it (real doubtful) or were the Flash protocols followed and implemented as any dedicated operator would always do..especially with people at risk on the ground and have it relayed it physically and immediately to Blue Falcon six Actual. Maybe this is like what was meant by "I'll have more flexibility after the election" we will just have to wait and see until after the main stream media helps him get elected what really happened.

[gongmanyao]

my comments are disappearing from the most web site. How about yours? website dealing "Bengazy: bengjazi, bengazi attack...." all related websites are disappearing from this afternoon.

[Levendiman]

The propaganda and deception from CBS, NBC, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and the rest of the media has crossed the line and is legitimately hurting America. This cover up is beyond insane. Obama, his press secretary, Clinton, Ambassador Rice all came out for a full three weeks after the event and said it was a YouTube video and the media has given them all a pass. This is Treason. The highest office flat out lying to the American public about something so crucial, our security.