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Tale of the six Annex Security Team: 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi

Unsung Benghazi Heroes


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By —— Bio and Archives September 6, 2014

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Unsung Benghazi Heroes, Tale of the six Annex Security Team: 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi
"Five minutes, we're ready. It was thumbs up, thumbs up, we're ready to go." Kris "Tanto" Paronto, member of the six man Annex Security Team in Benghazi on 9/11/12 After a delay of nearly 30 minutes, the security team headed to the besieged consulate without orders. They asked their CIA superiors to call for armed air support, which never came.
Now, looking back, the security team said they believed that if they had not been delayed for nearly half an hour, or if the air support had come, things might have turned out differently. "Ambassador Stevens and Sean [Smith], yeah, they would still be alive, my gut [says] yes," Paronto said. Tiegen concurred.
--Fox News report "Was it because of a protest or because of guys out for a walk one night who decide to kill some Americans -- what difference at this point does it make?" --Then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking about the Muslim attack on the Benghazi annex Bret Baier's special on Benghazi was a real eye-opener--at least it was for me. Like most of us, I had long accepted the narrative that former SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods held off an attack by Muslim extremists, while the US government let them hang on the vine until they, along with Foreign Service officer Sean Smith and Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, were killed. No disrespect to Woods and Doherty, who beyond a doubt acted heroically during the attack in Benghazi, but apparently they were not the only Americans who responded to the attacks with vigor and valor. Turns out that six other men fought the Muslim attackers, and although they were left to twist in the wind and perish by the Pentagon, CIA, State Department, and the Obama Administration at large--they didn't die. They were quietly flown home, swept under the rug, and ignored. Their bravery and self-sacrifice were hidden from "we the people" -- unreported, unknown, and unsung. The tale of the six Annex Security Team members is told in Mitchell Zuckoff's book "13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi," due to go on sale shortly. Bret Baier interviewed three of the men from the security team for his Fox News Special: Kris "Tanto" Paronto, John "Tig" Tiegen, and Mark "Oz" Geist. (Let me mention David Ubben as well, who nearly died from a severe wound he received while fighting the Muslim attackers, and security agent Scott Strickland, who moved Stevens and Smith to the annex's "safe haven," and tried to help them escape). The story that Paranto, Tiegen, and Geist told Baier left me even more disgusted with, and ashamed of, our deceitful, corrupt, supercilious U.S. "leadership" than I was before--and that's saying something.



Jim ONeill -- Bio and Archives | Comments

Born June 4, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Served in the U.S. Navy from 1970-1974 in both UDT-21 (Underwater Demolition Team) and SEAL Team Two.  Worked as a commercial diver in the waters off of Scotland, India, and the United States.  Worked overseas in the Merchant Marines.  While attending the University of South Florida as a journalism student in 1998 was presented with the “Carol Burnett/University of Hawaii AEJMC Research in Journalism Ethics Award,” 1st place undergraduate division.  (The annual contest was set up by Carol Burnett with money she won from successfully suing a national newspaper for libel).  Awarded US Army, US Navy, South African, and Russian jump wings.  Graduate of NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School, 1970).  Member of Mensa, China Post #1, and lifetime member of the NRA and UDT/SEAL Association.


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