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Email from a former Department of Defense chief of staff to the leadership of the State Department counters the government mantra on Benghazi – the one that said the United States wasn't able to send help in time to save American lives during the terrorist attack – and makes clear: The Pentagon was actually poised to send in the military.
The email, Judicial Watch found, was sent from Jeremy Bash, the then-Department of Defense chief of staff. And as Judicial Watch wrote: "Bash's email seems to directly contradict testimony given by then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta before the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2013. Defending the Obama administration’s lack of military response to the nearly six-hour-long attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Panetta claimed that 'time, distance, the lack of an adequate warning, events that moved very quickly on the ground prevented a more immediate response.'"
The first attack took place at 9:40 p.m. local time. The second attack took place about 12 a.m. local time, at the CIA annex down the road.
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And the email, addressed to "State colleagues," reads: "I just tried you on the phone but you were all in with S [apparent reference to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton]. After consulting with General Dempsey, General Ham and the Joint Staff, we have identified the forces that could move to Benghazi. They are spinning up as we speak. They include a [REDACTED]. Assuming Principals agree to deploy these elements, we will ask State to procure the approval from host nation. Please advise how you wish to convey that approval to us [REDACTED]."
As Allen West writes, on his AllenBWest.com blog: "More than two years later, the ugly truth about Benghazi continues to trickle out. Like this critical email – just released – that shows the Pentagon urgently offering help to the unfolding attack in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. And although it came after the first wave of the attack at the consulate, it occurred before a mortar strike on the CIA annex killed Ty Woods and Glenn Doherty."
Judicial Watch issued a scathing assessment of the new email, making clear in just a few short words how it indicates American lives could have been saved had the White House and State Department acted in time.
"[The email] leaves no doubt military assets were offered and ready to go, and awaiting State Department signoff, which did not come," the watchdog nonprofit reported.
The email could prove a bombshell for Clinton's presidential campaign.
Both Clinton and Leon Panetta, who served as CIA director from 2009 to 2011 and as secretary of Defense from 2011 to 2013, said the United States did not immediately unleash a military strike against the Benghazi attackers because no U.S. forces were available in the vicinity to deploy.
"In other words," West wrote, of the Judicial Watch assessment, "the Pentagon was offering military assets that potentially could have saved the lives of American citizens, if only the State Department had signed off. Of course, we all remember who was leading the State Department at that time. Everyone's favorite leading Democrat candidate for president, Hillary Clinton."
Hot Air goes into more detail.
"Newly released emails show that a senior Defense Department official offered the State Department 'forces that could move to Benghazi' immediately during the deadly 2012 attack there on the American consulate," Hot Air's Guy Benson wrote. "Jeremy Bash, the former Pentagon chief of staff, offered to provide forces at 7:19 p.m. on the evening of the attack, 'only hours after they had begun,' according to Judicial Watch, which disclosed the email on Tuesday. 'We have identified the forces that could move to Benghazi. They are spinning up as we speak.' Bash wrote. Portions of the email remain redacted by the Obama administration ... The newly disclosed email contradicts testimony to Congress by Obama administration officials who cited the inability to immediately provide forces in response to the attack."