A new book titled "13 Hours" set for release on Sep. 9 cites five commandos who were guarding the CIA Annex in Benghazi, Libya with an explosive claim that the CIA Station Chief told them to "stand down" from any rescue attempt, The New York Times reports.
The book, written by Boston University journalism professor Mitchell Zuckoff, details the events of the Sep. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, which resulted in the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens, and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.
Here's the relevant portion from the Times:
In a new book scheduled for release next week and obtained by The New York Times, the commandos say they protested repeatedly as the station chief ordered them to wait in their vehicles, fully armed, for 20 minutes while the attack on the diplomatic mission was unfolding less than a mile away.
“If you guys do not get here, we are going to die!” a diplomatic security agent then shouted to them over the radio, the commandos say in the book, and they left the base in defiance of the chief’s continuing order to “stand down.”
The report comes with a big caveat: Times reporter David Kirkpatrick writes that the commandos' account "suggests that the station chief issued the 'stand down' orders on his own authority."
It's also a very different story from the one being told by multiple investigative committees. In February 2014, a report from the House Armed Services Committee said "there was no 'stand down' order issued to U.S. military personnel in Tripoli."
To the claim that commandos at the Annex were told to stand down, a Senate Intelligence Committee report in January concluded that wasn't the case either, according to The Washington Post.
"Although some members of the security team expressed frustration that they were unable to respond more quickly to the Mission compound, the Committee found no evidence of intentional delay or obstruction by the Chief of Base or any other party," read the report.
In an interview with Fox News' Bret Baier on Thursday, three of the commandos, Kris “Tanto” Paronto, Mark “Oz” Geist, and John “Tig” Tiegen, dismiss those accounts.
"No, it happened," Tiegen said.
"It happened on the ground — all I can talk about is what happened on that ground that night," Paronto added in the interview. "To us. To myself, twice, and to — to Tig, once. It happened that night. We were told to wait, stand — and stand down. We were delayed three times."