Page 6 - Fest Team News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Literally begin to get the embassy function again despite many staff had been murdered in the terrorist attack. it was our judge the fest team was not needed, was not appropriate for benghazi. >> but you really didn't know what was going on at that point when you could have pulled -- >> we did know. we knew from the reports we were getting back from the diplomatic security officers they had to abandon the facility, that it had been set on fire. and it was -- they were forced to take refuge with our cia colleagues at the cia annex and remember, the fest team is not an armed reaction force. that...

Fest team. and i think they may have talked to mr. sullivan or it was somebody that got an e-mail and they said they would pass it up the chain. and somebody made the decision not to send the team, which would have been as secretary of state i would think since it was a state department led mission that that would have been the first thing that you would have wanted to get out. but instead, if i understand correctly from the e-mail chain, your first request was to see how soon the fbi could get over there. is that a true statement? >> well, congressman, the fest went to east africa to help reb...

Behind that and we were very appreciative. as you know, they didn't get there in time because the attack on the compound was very swift. it was over in less than an hour. but they did help eventually to evacuate, and it was just an additional tragedy that mr. doherty lost his life in attempting to stave off the attack on the cia annex. with regard to the fest recommendation, everything you read was no longer applicable to our compound in benghazi. unlike the fest team responding in nairobi, where we were going to have an ongoing embassy presence, that was our embassy, the fest team was very mu...

Begin to get the embassy function again despite the fact that the americans and many of the locally employed staff had been murdered in the terrorist attack. it was our judgment that the fest team was not needed, was not appropriate for benghazi. >> but you really didn't know what was going on at that point. when you could have pulled -- >> well, we did know. we knew from the reports we were getting back from our diplomatic security officers that they had had to abandon the facility, that it had been set on fire. and it was -- they were forced to take refuge with our cia colleagues at the cia ...

And his colleagues were behind that and we were very appreciative. they, as you know, didn't get there in time because the attack on the compound was very swift. it was over in less than an hour, but they did help eventually to evacuate and it was just an additional tragedy that mr. doherty lost his life in attempting to stave off the attack on the cia annex. with regard to the fest recommendation, everything you read was no longer applicable to our compound in benghazi unlike the fest team responding in nairobi where we were going to have an on going embassy presence, the fest team was very m...