Fox claims Embassy pleas for help denied. 10/26/12 Sorry Fox. Following an investigation into the embassy attack in Benghazi, Libya last September, U.S. Intelligence has revealed in their report that the CIA was dispatched from their Benghazi
November 2, 2012

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Fox claims Embassy pleas for help denied. 10/26/12

Sorry Fox. Following an investigation into the embassy attack in Benghazi, Libya last September, U.S. Intelligence has revealed in their report that the CIA was dispatched from their Benghazi office within just 25 minutes, followed soon after by a second team sent from their Tripoli office (in Western Libya) to the embassy in Benghazi (in Eastern Libya, 400 miles away), quashing Republican accusations that the Obama Administration ignored the embassy's pleas for help and whose "delayed response" cost the lives of four Americans.

From McClatchy News:

WASHINGTON — A CIA security team rushed to the U.S. consulate in Libya’s eastern city of Benghazi less than 25 minutes after receiving the first call that the mission was under attack, while a second squad was dispatched by air from the capital, Tripoli, according to a timeline released on Thursday by U.S. intelligence officials.

The timeline is the most detailed accounting to date of the U.S. response to the attack on the consulate and was released to rebut news reports that U.S. officials had delayed a rescue.

“The officials on the ground in Benghazi responded to the situation . . . as quickly and as effectively as possible,” said a senior intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “There were no orders to anybody to stand down in providing support.”

The timeline also revealed that a nearby CIA annex came under attack twice during the events, with the second assault coming more than seven hours after Islamist extremists first stormed the consulate.

[detailed timeline follows]

Naturally, Republicans will scoff at this report, asking "why did it take so long to release the report?" and dismiss it outright as being devised simply to help President Obama. And indeed, I know such a report would carry more weight with additional sources to corroborate it, but I wanted to get the report out there while it is still news.

A little reminder that Republican accusations of The Obama Administration being slow to respond is nothing new. Barely one year in the Obama presidency, following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, Republicans accused the White House of failing to respond right away, when in fact, as I documented in a video I created at the time, the Coast Guard was on the scene "within minutes" of the explosion. Then, as now, Republican accusations that the Obama Administration was slow to respond were pure fantasy and made up of whole cloth.

But that doesn't stop them from saying it.

(ThinkProgress has more here.)

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