Who are you going to believe, a D.C. committee or the men on the ground. That’s always been the question.
The top ranking diplomat in Libya and the men on the ground who went public have always been clear about what happened in Benghazi. The various coverups and whitewashing has always come from various committees in Washington.
Media Matters and the media have kept referring to any criticism of what happened in Benghazi as a conspiracy theory. Their conspiracy theory is that the people on the ground who risked their lives are engaged in some sort of conspiracy and the only truth comes from Washington committees.
Now after the latest whitewashing report from the House Intel Committee, the men on the ground are standing by their statements.
During the Book TV interview, Paronto and Mark “Oz” Geist, who also co-wrote the book (along with Mark Teigen, who attended the interview but did not appear on camera), explained that it took them over an hour to get to the consulate from the time they heard about the attack. Asked why it took so long for them to reach the scene Paronto said, “That’s the million dollar question.”
Paronto stood by the claim made in the book that they were ordered to stand down, a claim that was disputed in this week’s House Intelligence Committee report. “We were told to stand down. We were delayed for approximately 27 minutes on our compound,” he said. “We do not know, as far as outside of our chain of command outside Libya, where that came from. We know that the stand down orders and the waits and the delays came from Libya. Came from chief of station, chief of base. Whether it came from anybody higher, we don’t answer that. We don’t know. And we’d like to know, but we have no idea.”
A caller from Sanford, Florida, accused the men of lying about the Obama administration to boost book sales, saying that House Intelligence Committee report proved they were not telling the truth.
“Ma’am,” Paronto said, “during the House intel subcommittee I looked at Mike Rogers in the eyes and I said, ‘If we would have not been delayed — which, we were delayed three times — that we would have saved the ambassador’s life and Sean Smith’s life.’” He added, “Why he came out with the report, I don’t know what to tell you on that. You’re going to have to ask him. What we said in the book is what happened on the ground and that is the truth.”
The “stand down” controversy is one of those lawyeresque arguments meant to obscure the facts. The House Intel Committee’s report concedes that rescue operations were delayed but claims that this was not standing down, but a delay.
The media never actually explains the issue because then their whole argument collapses into a Clintonesque “definition of is” technicality. So instead they claim that the “stand down order” was disproven. Meanwhile the House Intel Committee’s report largely disregards the testimony of the people on the ground and turns in the same nonsense about CIA protest talking points and “strategic delays” as before.
Business as usual in Washington D.C. where men are sent out to die and their deaths are then whitewashed.





















