Benghazi Security Team: Stand-Down Order Cost Ambassador Stevens His Life

Benghazi Security Team: Stand-Down Order Cost Amb. Stevens His Life (National Review Online)

Three members of the special annex team who engaged with terrorists during the siege on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012 tell Bret Baier, in the upcoming Fox News report 13 Hours at Benghazi: The Inside Story, that Ambassador Stevens and the three other Americans killed in the attack would be alive, had security forces not been ordered to stand down.

According to intelligence officials, no stand-down order was given. The three men — Kris (“Tanto”) Paronto,  Mark (“Oz”) Geist, and John (“Tig”) Tiegen — report differently, saying a stand-down order from higher-ups that cost them 30 minutes trying to protect Americans at the compound. Baier asks them, “If I gave you that 30 minutes back, would Ambassador Stevens and [U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer] Sean Smith  be alive today?”