Lara Logan of CBS News interviewed a Benghazi survivor going by the name Morgan Jones, a British soldier who snuck into the al Qaeda-controlled hospitable where the body of Ambassador Chris Stevens was being held.
Over the past decade, Morgan Jones has been tasked with keeping U.S. and military diplomats alive, but when he first arrived in Benghazi five months earlier, he noticed the black flags of al Qaeda displayed openly throughout the streets. Instantly I thought we’re going to have to get rid of all these guys,” he says in the interview.
It was no secret — except maybe to the blind voters who bought the Obama campaign’s “Osama bin Laden is dead and al Qaeda is on the run” narrative — the reality was al-Qaeda was very much alive and present, and American personnel were in fear of their lives.
It was just hours earlier that Ambassador Chris Stevens had sought Morgan Jones out, another American visibly scared and concerned about the security at the U.S. Special Mission Compound where Morgan was in charge of the Libyan guard force. But now, he was missing after what was clearly an organized attack on Americans left helpless by the Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the White House.
Morgan frantically search in and around the hospitable for who he calls “a friend,” the late Chris Stevens. “It didn’t take long to get to the room. And I could see in through the glass. And I didn’t even have to go into the room to see who it was. I knew who it was immediately.” As Logan prods he says, “It was the ambassador, dead. Yeah, shocking.”
Despite earlier reports, Morgan told Logan that the armed Libyan guards had fled the battle, leaving the Americans behind just as Morgan had predicted they would months earlier. “If this place is attacked these guys are not going to stand and fight,” he questioned. “We had one option. Leave Benghazi or you will be killed.”
The few Libyans that were present because of being trapped in the heat of battle were given a pass by the al Qaeda terrorist assaulters, who said “we are here to kill Americans, not Libyans,” and proceeded to give them a minor beating before simply letting them go.
And it was no great surprise to the Libyan forces, either. Al Qaeda had stated in an online posting they would attack the Red Cross, the British and then the Americans in Benghazi. “As they did each one of those,” said Green Beret Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Andy Wood. “They made good on two out of the three promises. It was a matter of time till they captured the third one,” he added.
However, the British soldier’s story corroborates past testimony given by Gregory Hicks, the highest ranking State Department official who was on scene the night of the attack. The White House and Democratic lawmakers have tried to discredit Hicks, even demoting him for telling congressional investigators the truth behind the Benghazi attack. Hicks, and now Morgan Jones, have both said that the attack was a coordinated assault by highly trained al Qaeda affiliated personnel, and was carried out in waves over a span of hours throughout the night, with ample time to send rescue forces.
A small CIA attack force ignored orders to stand down and wait for further instructions, opting instead to run on foot through the streets to the compound in an attempt to rescue the Ambassador, his security detail and other American personal. They were successful in repelling the first wave of attackers, recovering the body of Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith and saving 5 American lives.
They were unable to locate the Ambassador, being forced to fight their way out of the CIA Annex. But moments later, the British soldier dubbed Morgan Jones, scaled the 12-foot wall of the compound to find Ambassador Chris Stevens. Joined by a small response force who had previously in Tripoli, the defenders took defensive position atop rooftops to attempt to propel waves of “sophisticated” attackers.
That’s when the mortar fire came from above, smashing through the roof of the building where former Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were positioned, killing them instantly. The attackers hit the roof with mortar fire three times in the dark, which as Lieutenant Colonel Andy Wood put it, “that’s getting the basketball through the hoop over your shoulder.”
For Wood, Morgan and other Benghazi attack witnesses, the Obama administration flat-out lied about the attack to cover up the truth. “Coordination, planning, training, experienced personnel. They practice those things. They knew what they were doing. That was a– that was a well-executed attack,” Wood definitively added.
The final wave of the attack that took the lives of Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty came at 5:00 A.M., which was sufficient time to mobilize more assets to rescue American personnel. When Hicks had the last conversation with the defense attaché during the night he asked when assets would be coming, to which they responded, “effectively, they’re not.”
“And I– for a moment, I just felt lost. I just couldn’t believe the answer. And then I made the call to the Annex chief, and I told him, ‘Listen, you’ve gotta tell those guys there may not be any help coming,'” Hick told Logan.
As more witnesses recount the events leading up to and during the Benghazi attack, it becomes clearer that the Obama administration lied about the cause of the attack, who was responsible, and whether or not they made a calculated decision to let Americans die. Hicks, who spoke directly with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier that night said, “We–, for us, for the people that go out onto the edge, to represent our country, we believe that if we get in trouble, they’re coming to get us. That our back is covered. To hear that it’s not, it’s a terrible, terrible experience.”
The morning following the attack, Morgan Jones went back to the compound to document the attack, where he took the photos that were given to the FBI and circulated in the media. He was, and still is, haunted by the conversation he had weeks before with Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, who was visibly and justifiably worried about his safety in Libya.
He told Logan, “I didn’t want to worry him anymore, you know? He’s a nice guy. I sort of promised him he’d be OK.”
