WASHINGTON (AP) — New Pentagon details show that the first U.S. military unit arrived in Libya more than 15 hours after the
attack on the consulate in Benghazi was over, and four Americans, including the ambassador, were dead.
A Defense Department timeline obtained by The Associated Press underscores how far the military response lagged behind the
Sept. 11 attack, due largely to the long distances the commando teams had to travel to get to Libya.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and his top
military adviser were notified of the attack about 50 minutes after it
began and
were about to head into a previously scheduled meeting with
President Barack Obama. The meeting quickly turned into a discussion
of potential responses to the unfolding situation in Benghazi,
where militants had surrounded the consulate and set it on
fire. The first wave of the attack at the consulate lasted less
than two hours.
Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed in the attack. Intelligence, State Department and military officials have released details
on the response in an effort to answer Republican criticism that the administration was holding back what and when it knew
about the assault.
Panetta and other defense officials have repeatedly said that they did not have armed aircraft or military teams near Benghazi
that could have gotten there quickly.
But there have been persistent questions about whether the Pentagon should have moved more rapidly to get troops into Libya
or had units closer to the area as the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on America approached. In particular, there was at
least a 19-hour gap between the time when Panetta first ordered military units to prepare to deploy — between midnight and
2 a.m. local time in Tripoli — and the time a Marine anti-terrorism team landed in Tripoli, which as just before 9 p.m.
A senior defense official on Friday said
forces were at the ready around the globe, but it took time to assess
the murky situation,
evaluate the threats, put plans in place and get the teams there.
With the situation on the ground rapidly evolving, military
officials have said there were a number of potential scenarios
that had to be evaluated, including concerns that the violence
could continue for some time or there could be a hostage situation
to which commandos might have to respond.
In a letter to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Friday, Panetta specifically addressed the claim that the military could have
dispatched armed unmanned aerial vehicles, AC-130 gunships or fighter jets to thwart the attack. Such aircraft were not in
the region and not an effective option, he said.
Panetta said that based on a continuous
evaluation of threats, military forces were spread around Europe and the
Middle East
to deal with a variety of missions. In the months before the
attack, he noted, "several hundred reports were received indicating
possible threats to U.S. facilities around the world" and noted
that there was no advance notice of imminent threats to U.S.
personnel or facilities in Benghazi.
His explanation, however, did not satisfy
McCain. In a statement Friday, McCain said Panetta's letter, "only
confirms what
we already knew — that there were no forces at a sufficient alert
posture in Europe, Africa or the Middle East to provide
timely assistance to our fellow citizens in need in Libya. The
letter fails to address the most important question — why not?"
The attack began at about 9:40 p.m. local
time in Benghazi. Less than 20 minutes later, the U.S. military began
moving an
unarmed drone to a position over Benghazi, so it could provide
real time intelligence to the CIA team on the ground. The CIA
team went to aid the Americans at the consulate. The drone arrived
shortly after 11 p.m. By 11:30 p.m., a CIA team was able
to get all the Americans out of the compound.
As that was happening, Panetta and Army Gen.
Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, left the Oval
Office and
went into a series of meetings in the Pentagon with senior leaders
to discuss how to respond to the Benghazi attack and assess
the potential for other outbreaks of violence in the region.
Between midnight and 2 a.m., Panetta began
to issue verbal orders, telling two Marine anti-terrorism teams based in
Rota,
Spain, to prepare to deploy to Libya, and he ordered a team of
special operations forces in Central Europe and another team
of special operations forces in the U.S. to prepare to deploy to a
staging base in Europe.
As the military units begin moving, just
before dawn, the Americans in Benghazi, who were now at the CIA base
less than a
mile away from the consulate, again came under attack around 5:15
a.m. when five mortars were fired at the building. Two missed,
but three hit, killing two CIA security officers who were on the
roof.
The Americans fired back and soon afterward
fled the CIA base for the airport. By 10 a.m., they had flown out,
heading to
Tripoli. Shortly after 7 p.m., the Americans, including the bodies
of the four dead, were flown out of Tripoli on a military
aircraft.
Not until just before 8 p.m., however, did
the first U.S. military unit arrive in the region, as the special
operations team
landed at Cigonella Naval Air Station in Sicily. An hour later,
the Marine team landed in Tripoli. The defense official noted
that even if the military had been able to get units there a bit
faster, there was no way they could have gotten there in
time to make any difference in the deaths of the four Americans.
"The U.S. Armed Forces did everything they were in position to do to respond to the attack in Benghazi," Panetta said in the
letter, obtained by The Associated Press. "The department's senior leaders and I spared no effort to save the lives of our
American colleagues, as we worked to bolster security in response to a series of other threats in the region occurring at
the same time."