-By Warner Todd Huston
A report from operatives on the ground during the 2012 terror attacks in Behghazi, Libya claims that the top CIA official in the region delayed the rescue attempts that could have saved the lives of the four Americans killed during the attacks, one of whom was our Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens.
The reports say that this was a “stand down” order, something that all democrats in Congress and the Obama administration claim was never ordered during the attacks.
Fox News’ Bret Baier recently spoke to three security operatives stationed at the secret CIA annex in Benghazi who were involved in the incident. The trio claim that they were ordered not to respond as soon as they could have to save American lives.
These men say they were prevented from rescuing the Americans ultimately killed by terrorists in Benghazi.
The three private security contractors, Kris “Tanto” Paronto, Mark “Oz” Geist, and John “Tig” Tiegen, spoke at length to the Fox News reporter about their experiences during that terrible day. All three said they were ready to go to Ambassador Stevens’ rescue.
One of the operatives, Kris Paronto, a former Army Ranger said, “Five minutes, we’re ready. It was thumbs up, thumbs up, we’re ready to go.”
But the three were told to stand down by a CIA operative they refer to as “Bob.”
“The team was held back,” Fox News reported on September 4, “According to the security operators, they were delayed from responding to the attack by the top CIA officer in Benghazi.”
“It had probably been 15 minutes I think, and … I just said, ‘Hey, you know, we gotta– we need to get over there, we’re losing the initiative,'” Tiegen told Baier. “And Bob just looks straight at me and said, ‘Stand down, you need to wait.'”
The three insist that they were delayed a full 30 minutes from going to the aid of the Americans under siege in Benghazi.
Paronto said that if they had been allowed to leave immediately, Stevens and the three other Americans who lost their lives that day would still be alive today.
Baier noted that several investigations have claimed that there were no stand down orders given.
“It happened on the ground–all I can talk about is what happened on that ground that night,” Paronto said. “To us. To myself, twice, and to–to Tig, once. It happened that night. We were told to wait, stand– and stand down. We were delayed three times.”
The three security men also insisted that the Youtube video that President Obama and Hillary Clinton blamed for the attacks that day had nothing whatever to do with the terror attacks.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
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Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, Wizbang.com, among many, many others. Huston has also appeared on Fox News, Fox Business Network, CNN, and many local TV shows as well as numerous talk radio shows throughout the country.
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