Here is James Rosen’s initial take on his review, and at the bottom we’ll expand on what we feel is going to come to light.
WASHINGTON DC (VIA JAMES ROSEN) Minutes after the American consulate in Benghazi came under assault on Sept. 11, 2012, the nation’s top civilian and uniformed defense officials — headed for a previously scheduled Oval Office session with President Obama — were informed that the event was a “terrorist attack,” declassified documents show. The new evidence raises the question of why the top military men, one of whom was a member of the president’s Cabinet, allowed him and other senior Obama administration officials to press a false narrative of the Benghazi attacks for two weeks afterward.
Gen. Carter Ham, who at the time was head of AFRICOM, the Defense Department combatant command with jurisdiction over Libya, told the House in classified testimony last year that it was him who broke the news about the unfolding situation in Benghazi to then-Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The tense briefing — in which it was already known that U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens had been targeted and had gone missing — occurred just before the two senior officials departed the Pentagon for their session with the commander in chief.
According to declassified testimony obtained by Fox News, Ham — who was working out of his Pentagon office on the afternoon of Sept. 11 — said he learned about the assault on the consulate compound within 15 minutes of its commencement, at 9:42 p.m. Libya time, through a call he received from the AFRICOM Command Center.
“My first call was to General Dempsey, General Dempsey’s office, to say, ‘Hey, I am headed down the hall. I need to see him right away,’” Ham told lawmakers on the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation on June 26 of last year. “I told him what I knew. We immediately walked upstairs to meet with Secretary Panetta.”
Ham’s account of that fateful day was included in some 450 pages of testimony [<–embed by author /SD] given by senior Pentagon officials in classified, closed-door hearings conducted last year by the Armed Services subcommittee. The testimony, given under “Top Secret” clearance and only declassified this month, presents a rare glimpse into how information during a crisis travels at the top echelons of America’s national security apparatus, all the way up to the president.
Also among those whose secret testimony was declassified was Dempsey, the first person Ham briefed about Benghazi. Ham told lawmakers he considered it a fortuitous “happenstance” that he was able to rope Dempsey and Panetta into one meeting, so that, as Ham put it, “they had the basic information as they headed across for the meeting at the White House.” Ham also told lawmakers he met with Panetta and Dempsey when they returned from their 30-minute session with President Obama on Sept. 11. (continue reading)
As we go through this testimony we find absolute confirmation of our previous outlines. The attack on the Benghazi compound began at 3:40pm DC Time or 9:40pm Benghazi Time.
Immediately following the Panetta and Dempsey briefing of President Obama and Vice-President Biden (5:00pm DC), both Obama and Biden took a previously scheduled phone call with Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office (6:15pm DC).
That phone call with Netanyahu lasted just under an hour. While that phone call was taking place then policy advisor, Denis McDonough (now Chief of Staff) and Tom Donilon, were the intermediaries between the developing Benghazi crisis situation and the Oval Office advice/position of the President.
![This photo was taken at 1:28am Benghazi time. [7:28pm DC] Following a one hour phone call between POTUS, V-Potus, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu](http://theconservativetreehouse.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/white-house-9-11-12-donilon-mcdonough.jpg)
This photo was taken at 1:28am Benghazi time. [7:28pm DC] on 9/11/12 – Following a one hour phone call between POTUS, V-Potus, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
It was McDonough and Donilon calling the response shots for the Office of the President during the critical hour (6:15pm DC to 7:20pm DC approximate OR 12:15am to 1:20am Benghazi time). Both McDonough and Donilon were using the filter of political consequence to frame the perceived RISK of the President – Remember this WAS an election year and the election was less than 7 weeks away. (Full link outline)
Meanwhile in Benghazi Ambassador Stevens and his aide Chris Smith were holed up in the Benghazi Compound main building “safe room area”. The main building (lower level) was set on fire with tires and diesel fuel designed to smoke them out.
Someone, probably Stevens or Smith, opened a bathroom window, inside the secured safe area, perhaps an attempt to compensate for the toxic smoke now surrounding inside.
An RPG blast hit the wall just missing the window to the bathroom.
When the CIA (SEAL) contractor team [Doherty, Woods] arrived they could not find Stevens, he was missing. However, they did recover the body Sean Smith.
Stevens was probably already gone as video emerged of him being taken out of a lower level window. Stevens was still alive as he was dragged out. However, he did have a pulsating blood wound in the area of his collar bone.
