CIA agent Geist at Trump’s convention:

“CIA Bob told us to wait, to stand down.”

It was “Bob,” the chief of the nearby CIA base, who gave the order that Trump & Geist blame on Clinton. The CIA’s so-called “Quick Reaction Force,” less than a mile away, was supposed to protect Amb. Stevens. But Bob made them wait, and wait some more. Click here to watch Tiegen say this at Trump’s convention (it takes only half a minute).

Bob caused such a delay that when his “Quick” Reaction Force finally arrived at the State Dept Mission, Ambassador Stevens and Sean Smith were dead. And had probably been dead for half an hour. Clinton and the State Dept were not contacted by Bob or the CIA while he delayed. This was a 100% pure CIA operatoin. But here’s the real kicker …

In spite of Tiegen’s opening accusation of Bob, at the end of their talk, CIA agent Geist blamed Clinton for the deaths — even though Geist, on that 9/11 evening, after many security warnings, was on an extended dinner assignment with a female agent from 6pm until after 10pm and missed the entire attempted rescue of Amb. Stevens. What hutzpah!

Moreover, the book and movie, 13 Hours, staring Geist and Tiegen, tells a very different story. Twice, it blames Bob (and never blames Clinton) for the deaths of Amb. Steven, Sean Smith and the two CIA agents that died eight hours later back on the CIA base.

  This story can’t be found in the press—the liberal press doesn’t read books like 13 Hours; the Alt-Right won’t tell the truth. Clinton needs your help getting this out. [Almost going viral, Aug 29: 364 views]. Thanks.

The book is pretty honest, but Geist is not. It is outrageous that he blames Clinton for any of the deaths when all of his fellow “shooters” blame CIA Bob. And it is particularly outrageous that he blames the two CIA agent deaths on her. These happened 8 hours later on the CIA base which had all of its men back, plus five armed guards from the State Dept, plus CIA and State Dept reinforcements from Tripoli. 

Clinton’s people were trying to save the incompetent CIA’s ass. In truth, the CIA had no idea of what they were doing, of the strength of the attackers or even of who their friends were. All that is in the book and the Republican Benghazi Report, as explained below.

There are two right-wing “stand-down” claims—one evil and one helpful. You just need to know a few Benghazi basics to use the one and debunk the other.

The Republicans deliberately muddle the two claims to convince people of the false meme “She lied. People died. Lock her up.” And the Democrats get confused and ignore the helpful claim. So here are the two claims, cleanly separated:

• The Evil claim: Clinton told Podesta, Sect of Defense, to stand down
• The Helpful claim: “CIA Bob” told his five CIA agents to stand down

Now here’s how the Republicans muddle these two stand-down claims:

“I have my suspicions, which is Secretary Clinton told Leon [Panetta] to stand down, and we all heard about the stand-down order for two military* personnel.”

—Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), remarks during a GOP fundraising dinner, Concord, N.H., Feb. 17, 2014

*He says “two military” because they were not admitting they were CIA for a long time, and only two CIA team members went public.

Clearly this guy is just foaming at the mouth. There is no possible connection between little CIA Bob in charge of a CIA base in Benghazi telling five CIA contractors to “stand down” or wait, and Clinton telling Panetta, Sect of Defense, to stand down.

Here’s the really quick version of what to say about the two claims:

• Clinton (Sect of State) could not possibly order the Sect of Defense to stand down.
• Clinton (Sect of State) has no power over the CIA, and Bob was on his own. The deadly Tiegen-Geist stand-down order, had nothing to do with her.

No one mentions there were two complete separate Benghazi attacks. So here’s what happened in Benghazi on 9/11 and 9/12, 2012. Keep in mind, there are two different locations about a mile apart: the State Dept Mission Compound and the CIA base (aka the Annex).

• The 1st Benghazi attack—on the State Dept—was at 9:42pm (Benghazi time) 
• It killed Stevens and Smith within about half an hour.
• CIA Bob’s “Quick” Reaction Force, a mile away, took an hour to get there.

• The 2nd Benghazi attack—on the CIA base—was at 6am the next morning 
• It killed two CIA agents and had nothing to do with Clinton or the State Dept.

In the book 13 Hours, The Quick Reaction Force blames CIA Bob as follows:

“Sean Smith wouldn’t be dead and Chris Stevens wouldn’t be missing, if only they [the CIA’s Quick Reaction Force] had rushed to the [State-Dept] Compound when they first jocked up.”  —13 Hours, p. 223

“If [CIA] Bob had let us leave the [CIA] Annex at the beginning, the ambassador and Sean would be alive.” —13 Hours, p. 292 

But on Day 1 of Trump’s convention, Geist closes the talk with this:

The Trump Lie: “Had she done her job that night, [dramatic pause] had she done her job that night, … Ty, Glen, Sean, and Ambassador Stevens would be alive today.” —Geist

Nothing in the talk even hints at this conclusion, and the book they star in, blames CIA Bob.

Conclusion

Most Democrats and much of the Left have been so upset by the evil stand-down claim that they just say “there was no stand-down” even on the CIA base. For example “Meteor Blades,” a top editor at the largest left-wing blog, Daily Kos, protects CIA Bob from this charge. In fact Blades does not even mention the CIA. That just hurts Clinton. Similarly Tiegen and Geist didn’t mention the CIA in their 22 minute talk at Trump’s convention.

Republicans babble on at length about military delays in Europe, but Stevens’ death has nothing to do with these. It was over in half an hour. Those delays only affected the defense of the CIA base much later. Again, the problem was the CIA.

The State Dept Mission should have had better security. But it was not a consulate and that made it bureaucratically difficult for Stevens to get what he wanted. (Clinton was not involved in this.) But the Mission did have five armed Diplomatic Security guards who should have made sure the gate was locked on the night of 9/11 especially after multiple warnings. But they didn’t. And the attackers simply walked in. That was not Clinton’s fault.

The CIA’s Quick Reaction Force was specifically tasked with protecting the State Dept compound. But CIA Bob was not ready, and he wasted time making calls to a Libyan militia that he had not coordinated with.

In the CIA attack, Bob looks even worse. He clearly had no idea of the danger to his own base or the State Dept Mission. Knowing such things is the CIA’s job. And when his base was about to be over-run the next morning, they were rescued by a huge Libyan militia that Bob had no knowledge of until his “Officer A” called around and discovered them at 4:30am. That saved about two dozen American lives. No thanks to Bob’s “intelligence” operation.

Here’s the story in more detail, with all the juicy quotes from 13 Hours.