Inside over nearly eight hours. Four americans were killed, including ambassador Chris Stevens and diplomat sean smit along with glen doherty and ty woods, both former navy seals. In recent days, the House Benghazi Committee heard from key figures in closeddoor testimony. They include former cia director David Petraeus and former defense secretary leon panetta. And later this week, they ll hear from a third official that few have probably heard of jeremy bash, former Defense Department chief of staff, whose email happens to be central to our report today. It s an email he sent from the military to the state department the night of the benghazi attacks one that s been kept from public view for three years and lends evidence t allegations of a rescue interrupted. We need immediate assistance. We are overrun. If you do not get here soon we are all gonna die. Secretoldiers of benghazi opens later this week. But we are the only help they have. Sharyl it s the harrowing account of six cia team member in an annex about a mile fm the benghazi compound when it fell under attack. They cla when they tried to go to the rescue, their boss delayed them. You re not t first responders, you re the last resort. You will wait. Sharyl now, an email hidden from public view for three years reveals another rescue attempt was apparently interrupted. The military offered to deploy special forces to benghazi during the assault long before the attackers killed cia contractors and former Navy Seals Glen doherty and ty woods. Three and a half hours into the eighthour long siege, the military s chief of staff jeremy bash emails Top State Department officials we have identified the forces that could move to benghazi. They are spinning up as we speak. They include a special was in croatia. Col. Wood they re spun up as we speak means that he s made contact with them, they ve confirmed that they ve been given that order, and they re making progress toward going to that location. Sharyl retired Army Green Beret cololnel andrew wood commanded a special forces Antiterrorism Team protecting ambassador Chris Stevens and other diplomats in libya. In 2012, wood told congress his team was removed from libya by the obama ministration a month before the attacks, despite warnings of terrorist violence to come. For the first time, wood s speaking out with a startling claiaim that those special forces offered in the military email were on their way to benghazi but were turned back. Col. Wood those individuals i know loaded aircraft and got on their way to benghazi to respond to that incident. They were not allowed to cross the border, as per protocol, until they get approval from the that authority has got to come from him. Otherwise, they re not allowed they re not allowed to go further into the country. I have a high de oee of confidence that that happened, based on information that i ve heard from individuals that were there. Those forces were put into motion. They simply were not allowed to go further. Sharyl the white house has refused to detail the involvement of president obama, the commander in chief, while americans were under attack on foreign soil. Following a short briefing at the beginning of the assault, he virtually disappears from the public narrative. The white house deusclined to comment for this report, but has long denied any assets were available or ready, and said Everything Possible was done. Yet the email indicates special forces were ready and highranking Obama Administration officials, or principals, were to weigh in. Assuming principals agree to deploy these elements, we will ask state to secure the approval from host nation, the military please advise how you wish to convey that approval to us. Inexplicably, nobody did seek libya s approval for the u. S. Forces to fly in to help. The availability of special forces is news to greg hicks, the top u. S. Diplomat in tripoli during the assault. In 2013, hicks testified he was repeatatedlyold there was no military help available. Mr. Hicks i asked the Defense Attache who d been talking with africom and with the joint staff is anything coming . Will they be sending us any help . Is there something out there . Sharyl responding to the newly public email, hicks tells full measure an aggressive interpretation of the military options presented would have tasked me with obtaining flight and landing clearances from the libyan government. I have no doubt they would have been granted. Sharyl the significance of ththis memo, would you say . Significant, and you would understand why the administration wouldn t want people to see that those elements within the government that were tasked with the protection of lives and property, actually started the process d were stopped. Sharyl Gary Berntsen is a former cia Senior Operations officer and chief of station. He commanded Counterterrorism Missions and led the Response Team after islamic extremists bombed u. S. Embassies in east africa in 1998. Like wood, berntsen says Quick Reaction military teams are tasked to handle emergencies exactly like benghazi and automatically spin up unless and until they re stopped. Gary berntsen you proceed because if there s an emergency and americans are at risk americans have died or are under the threat of death or a threat violence we re moving. Sharyl a military source familiar with some of the night s events also confirms military options were provided. There were both conventional and assigned to africom offered up by general ham on a video teleconference. Based on what i know, the forces they were talking about could have gotten there pretty quickly. Gary berntsen only political instructions from above would have stopped them. There is, you know, no one is going to wait. That is my experience, of having done this for most 25 years, having led the teams myself, you re proceeding, you re going sharyl when we come back whatat obama officials have said about the military response that night and we ask why a rescue would have been n interrupted. Was any dod asset ever deployed to help these people sharyl we continue with questions over whether benghazi involved a rescue interrupted and a newlyrevealed email showing the u. S. Military had offered up a special forces team to deploy to benghazi during the attacks long before the last two ericans were murdered. But the Obama Administration never sought approval for their planes to fly into libya. Is under attack. Let s go, man. Sharyl the upcoming film 13 hours the secret soldiers of benghazi recounts the story of cia agents who say they were prevented from going to the immediate rescue of the americans under attack a mile away. And no outside mililitary came to help. Email shows u. S. Special forces not far away had spun up during the attack. And sources say, they were headed to benghazi but were stopped. The new details may help explain why congress had so much trouble getting direct answers from obama officials who insisted a rescue attempt was imposble. When questioned in 2013, general martin dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and secretary leon panetta of the department of defense or dod gave no hint that special forces had actually spun up. Graham was any dod asset ever deployed to help these people before the end of the attack . Dempsey would you rephrase, would you . Graham was any dod asset , aircraft or individual soldier, ever sent put in motion to help these people before the dempsey let let let if i could as soon as we knew Mission Force and the fast teams began. Graham my question is did anybody leave any base anywhere to go to the aid of the people under attack in benghazi, libya before the attack ended . Panetta no beuse the attack the ground. Wasn t enough time at that point to bring u. S. Military forces. Hillary clinton their assets were too far away to make much difference in any timely fashion. Admiral mullen there simply was not enough time for u. S. Military forces to have made a difference. Sharyl adding to the claims of a rescue interrupted the leader of a Foreign Emergency Support Team in the u. S. Earlier testified his squad, too, was stopped from responding and a small u. S. Military team in tripoli was ordered not to board a a plane for benghazi during the attacks. Wood says it all implies a decision at the highest level. Military would position to respond five hours before the benghazi attacks when the u. S. Faced a related crisis islamic extremists overran the American Embassy in cairo, egypt. Col. Wood their compound had been breached and there were people now inside their buildings under protection of marine guards waiting for someone to bust into the rooms. To me, that would signal somebody should be getting those Reaction Forces ready to stand by and perhaps move. And then five hours later, when things occurred in bghazi, and again, the alarmell went off, and there was no apparent response that s that s a pretty tough one to explain with with events transpiring in cairo, at the embassy in cairo, i think the decision not to react may have been made very early on in the day, when those when ththose events were so that by the time that benghazi happened, it wasn t going to happen because that decision was made early on. T clear. But the attacks came eight weeks before the 2012 election. President obama had campaigned d sent terrorists running. Pres. Obama alqaeda is on the path to defeat and Osama Bin Laden is dead. Sharyl critics say deploying the military to terrorist attacks could have been viewed as more harmful to the campaign than the incorrect explanation the administration gave that protesters attacked after being whipped up by an antiislamic youtube video. I know, i understand. Sharyl a special forces soldier for 24 years, wood says his team and u. S. Diplomats in libya were briefed that if they ever got into trouble, those special forces in europe were tasked with coming to the rescue. Col. Wood they re kept in a high state of readininess just for that purpose. So they re willing and able and ready to jump, they re like the any city in the United States. Sharyl to illustrate how close the u. S. Special forces in croatia were, a commercial flight taking off at the start of the benghazi attacks with an hour and a half layover in turkey, still could have arrived in libya before woods and doherty were killed. But the special forces offered up by the military ended up at the u. S. Naval base atat sigonella, italy instead of benghazi. And in a delay that remains unexplained, it took 17 hours from the time the military said they d spun up for them to make that hour and a half flight from croatia to italy, far too late to help. Col. Wood i operated there under the belief that those Reaction Forces would be there for us if we got into some kind of trouble like what happened. Sharyl two groups of testimony given under oath by government officials were there were no forces that could have responded quickly, and that even if they had scrambled more people, they t believe either of those reflect the truth of what occurred on the moving, they could have intervened, they should have intervened, and had they, we likely would have been in a position to save the second two men who bravely sacrificed their lives. Sharyl the state department has said, the notion that it did not do Everything Possible to protect our people that night is there s one piece of evidence that could help in the debate the military after action reports dissecting the military response. But the pentagon has refused congressional and media requests to see them. Still ahead on full measure the president calls for action on guns and gets a tremendous reaction. Sharyl president obama began the new year with a sign that he would not go gently into his lame duck year. His call to action on gun control signals what may be a busy year to further what he considers key issues to his administration and legacy. So we might expect a number of executive actions or executive orders. The difference makes a difference. Scott thuman has a little our reality check. Scott on his first day of his last year in office, president obama called on congress to take action on gun control. Pres. Obama we know that we can t stop every act of violence. But what if we tried to stop even one . Scott the media and politicians went into overdrive the president of the United States may come out with an executive order regarding guns. The president set to lay out a series of executive orders. I m very proud of prident obama s announcement. On my first day behind that desk, those orders are gone. Pres. Obama until we have a congress that s in line with the majority of americans, there are authority that we can take to help reduce gun violence and scott the president s plan to tighten control and increase enforcement of firearm laws in the u. S. By expanding background checks is an executive action not an executive order. And yes, there s a difference, explains stephen j. Wayne, professor of government at georgetown university. Prof. Wayne when he issues an order, it s usually a broader statemenent of in the future i want it to happen this way. When he issues a memorandum or a directive or makes a statement, it s much more specific, but and they don t have the policy impact. Scott in his action, obama is bypassing congress and earning him some criticism. Representative brian babin of texas calls it a distraction and disservice to the american people. Scott are you all just being pushed on the sidelines as the white house steers the ship . That, but it wasn e way the Founding Fathers set this and that s not the way the constititution reads. Scott some democrats, including rep. Mike thompson of s defense. Rep. Thompson the critics of president obama action say that he s overstepping his boundaries, he thinks he s the king, and then the same folks say it s okay to take arms and overrun a it s a real contradiction. Scott this isn t the first time the president has taken heat for overstepping congress. Prof. Wayne institutional and political rivalries will generate debate over executive orders. Pres. Obama the truth is, even with all the actions i ve taken this year, i m issuing executive orders at the lowest rate in more than 100 years. So, it s not clear how it is that republicans didn t seem to mind when president bush took did. Scott he has a point maybe president george w. Bush issued nearly 300 executive orders during his two terms in office. But obama isn t too far behind he s at nearly 230 so far and vowing even more. President obama has warned he will not sit idly by on the sidelines during his final year and it s a safe bet he will outline even more new actions in his state of the union speech, tuesday night. Shar thank you, scott. An update to breaking bad, our report on the billion dollar federal agency, nist, that got caught with a meth lab operating in its midst. Christopher bartley, the nist Police Lieutenant who was operating the lab when it blew up last july, was sentenced this he was sentenced to 41 months in fedel prison. Congress is investigating what one republican calls the culture of waste, fraud, abuse, and misconduct at nist Police Services from alleged timecard fraud to missing swat team gear still ahead on full measure it is mustsee tv for the campaign season. Nexta closer look at the substance of debates past and the profits of reality tv sharyl the real heat of the president ial campaigns begins in the cold of iowa. Candidates from both parties debate this week at separate events in south carolina. There was a rumor once that the debates were more for issues and ideas and less for political theater. The numbers may paint a different picture in this edition of campaign incredible. The moment of truth has arrived. Welce to the first debate night of the 2016 president ial campaign. Sharyl they re filled with memorable moments. Excuse me. One second. No. Sharyl there s a cast of colorful characters. Bernie Sanders America s sick of hearing about your damn emails sharyl and there are sudden eliminations. Howie if this is a reality show campaign, then the televised debates are like survivor with people getting kicked off the island. Sharyl but this isn t reality tv, it s 2016 president ial politics. Howie kurtz, media critic and host of Fox News Media buzz says the debates have become the grand stage for candidates and to some extent have replaced or overshadowed traditional campaigning. Primary debates have become a staple in modern day politics dating back to the 1940 s and predating perhaps the most american history. The Republican Leadership has opposed federal aid for education. Sharyl that was when a young and suntanned jack kennedy was given the win in the first televised debate over richard nixon. Nixon was awarded the win by radio listeners. Sharyl primary debates can produce memorable moments. I am paying for this microphone mr. [cheers and applause] [laughter] you re likable enough, hillary. Let s see i, i can t name the third oops. Sharyl so, how much interest have this election s debates generated . When it comes to ratings, americans are watching in record numbers. Democrats have held three of six planned primary debates with each averaging about 10. 8 Million People watching. In terms of viewers, republicans are winning by huge margins. Like democrats, the gop is also planned primary debates drawing in an average of 18. 5 Million Viewers eight million more than democrats. Howie debates have never been more important in shaping the perception of the candidates, their personas, their perceptions, and how they think and t on their feet sharyl when it comes to money, modernday debates are highly produced profit makers. Company please companies reportedlyly paid cnn 200,000 to air their ads during the september gop debate. Cnbc reportedly charged 250,000 per com