Patterico's Pontifications

9/5/2014

U.S. Security Team In Benghazi Told “Stand down, you need to wait.”

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:30 am



[guest post by Dana]

Adding another layer to the Benghazi story, three U.S. Security Team members claim they were told to stand down and wait on that fateful night.

Word of the attack on the diplomatic compound reached the CIA annex just after 9:30 p.m. Within five minutes, the security team at the annex was geared up for battle, and ready to move to the compound, a mile away.

“Five minutes, we’re ready,” said Paronto, a former Army Ranger. “It was thumbs up, thumbs up, we’re ready to go.”

But the team was held back. According to the security operators, they were delayed from responding to the attack by the top CIA officer in Benghazi, whom they refer to only as “Bob.”

“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,’” said Tiegen. “And Bob just looks straight at me and said, ‘Stand down, you need to wait.’”

“We’re starting to get calls from the State Department guys saying, ‘Hey, we’re taking fire, we need you guys here, we need help,’” said Paronto.

After a delay of nearly 30 minutes, the security team headed to the besieged consulate without orders. They asked their CIA superiors to call for armed air support, which never came.

Now, looking back, the security team said they believed that if they had not been delayed for nearly half an hour, or if the air support had come, things might have turned out differently.

“Ambassador Stevens and Sean [Smith], yeah, they would still be alive, my gut is yes,” Paronto said. Tiegen concurred.

“I strongly believe if we’d left immediately, they’d still be alive today,” he added.

In a statement to Fox News, a senior intelligence official denied their claim, yet acknowledged in a statement that the “team was delayed from responding while the CIA’s top officer in Benghazi tried to rally local support.”

Also, a team member laughed about the infamous video that the administration claimed sparked protests – he wasn’t even aware of such a video until he was outside of Libya and on his way home.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is wondering why this story just won’t die already.

–Dana

In The Name Of “Art”!

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:27 am



[guest post by Dana]

In a stunning bit of hypocrisy, a Florida art gallery will debut a show called “No Delete”. The exhibit will include the leaked photos of Kate Upton and Jennifer Lawrence. The rationalization being offered is that the show will provide a platform to continue the debate on privacy rights in a digital age. Uh-huh.

The controversial pictures will be displayed unaltered on life-sized canvas prints as part of artist XVALA’s “Fear Google” campaign. The show features images from the past seven years of celebrities caught “in their most vulnerable and private moments, that were comprised by either hackers or the paparazzi,” according to the Cory Allen Contemporary Art gallery’s website.

Other images will include Britney Spears with a shaved head and hacked naked pictures of Scarlett Johansson.

And without an ounce of shame, viewers leering at the beautiful naked women will be righteously indignant while they huff and puff about the loss of privacy Americans now face.

–Dana

Woman Beheaded In North London

Filed under: General — Dana @ 6:06 am



[guest post by Dana]

Just horrific.

An 82-year-old woman was beheaded in a north London suburban garden by a man with a machete.

Palmira Silva, a widow and grandmother described as “such a sweet lady” by one neighbour, was killed outside her home in Edmonton in a random but frenzied assault by a 25-year-old.

Witnesses said they saw the man, wielding a foot-long blade, attack a passing vehicle and a cat before roaming back gardens looking for a victim.

Police believe he also tried to attack two people at another home in the street, but they were able to escape without injury.

The man was arrested after armed officers, who had distracted him to prevent further attacks, cornered him in a house and brought him down with a Taser stun gun. Some officers were injured.

Mrs Silva, who was of Italian descent, was pronounced dead at the scene.

One line of inquiry for detectives is understood to be that the man was inspired by recent footage of terrorists beheading two American journalists in Syria.

Some residents claimed last night that the suspect was a local man who had converted to Islam last year, but those claims could not be verified. Detectives said they had ruled out terrorism.

Terrified neighbors described the scene:

Freda Odame, 30, a catering worker, said she heard a commotion and pulled back her curtains to see a man in his mid-20s with a knife.

“Someone was shouting and the door was banging. I could hear the screaming but I could not hear what he was saying,” she said.

“I could see that he had a big curved knife, about the size of an arm’s length and he was crouching as if frantically searching for something. He had a crazed look in his eyes so I closed my curtains because I was scared.

Det Chief Insp John Sandlin, leading the investigation, stated:

“We are confident that we are not looking for anyone else at this stage. Whilst it is too early to speculate on what the motive behind this attack was I am confident, based on the information currently available to me, that it is not terrorist related.”

–Dana

Update: The identity of the suspect has been released: Nick Salvadore, 25 years old, an aspiring cage fighter who converted to Islam five years ago.


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