by Brandon Webb
Five minutes later, at 10:05pm, the men were fully briefed and loaded up in two of their up-armored indigenous vehicles, all most likely fitted with stolen local plates—a common practice. To the casual observer, they looked like regular Toyota Land Cruisers, but the initiated knew they were outfitted with mods and armor that could survive a direct IED blast and small arms fire. Each vehicle was equipped with a special encrypted communications suite, a heavy weapons platform, grenade launchers, and more. The TL, Ty, and four others went; they left one agent to man the radios—not much action but a very important job nonetheless.
Less than 30 minutes after the initial attack, two vehicles and six GRS agents sped off for the State Department compound. The drive lasted only a few minutes, but with smoke billowing from the compound visible in the distance, it must have seemed an eternity.
They kept a tight defensive driving formation while en route to the compound. Each GRS agent goes through extensive offensive and defensive driving schools, and they would give most professional race drivers a run for their money. “In at six out at nine,” the front car called out on the inter-team radios as they entered the last roundabout. Less than two blocks away, and they could practically taste the smell of burning tires and the unmistakable odor of spent gunpowder in the air.
“It’s pure survival when dealing with large crowds and you have to set harsh consequences for any threatening behavior. Kill everyone who isn’t a friendly. Lighten up and you put yourself and your teammates at risk and the mob mentality takes over,” said a former GRS agent.
They arrived outside the compound without much of a fight, then set up their vehicles along the perimeter wall, locked the doors, and phoned the agents in the TOC as planned, letting them know they were coming over the wall and to hold their fire. Why leave the vehicles? Because they had no choice; it was a hasty plan, and in reality the armored cars were virtually impenetrable left alone. Worst case scenario, they would have to hump it through the streets back to their base. No time to waste: up and over the wall.
MEANWHILE, BACK AT the CIA base, the communicators were busy passing email and cable traffic notifying their chain of command about current developments. Everyone at the CIA base worked relentlessly to support one another that day, including a small CIA and JSOC element in Tripoli who were itching to get in the fight to support their fellow Americans. This included Glen Doherty, who had volunteered to go back to Libya for a second time. We know that his decision was based on his friendship with Ty Woods, and the knowledge that his experience would be appreciated and meaningful in the Agency’s mission to round up the remaining WMD wandering the black markets of Libya.
The element in Tripoli consisted of two active-duty JSOC operators and five CIA personnel. Unknown to the public until now, the CIA and JSOC element led by Glen practically commandeered a small jet in Tripoli and forced the pilots to fly them to Benghazi so that they could get in the fight. They used cash they had on hand and paid the crew $30,000 US for the flight. Money talks in Libya, and soon they were on their way.
Here it’s important for the reader to understand the complexity of the situation. Events were developing extremely rapidly—by the minute—and Libya is not an established theatre. Having the Department of State, the CIA, and the US Military (Africa Command among others) in the mix, with no clear command structure, added new snags to an already-complicated and volatile situation. It’s widely known by insiders that intense rivalries among these agencies exist. CIA, JSOC, and State do not talk to one another on a regular basis, nor do they share information well.
AT THE STATE Department compound, Ty’s team set up and started to unleash everything they had on the attacking force. His guys had one MK46 machine gun between them, and individual H&K 416s complimented with GLMs (H&K 40mm grenade launchers). One of Ty’s team members was a USMC veteran of Iraq and the bloodbath in Fallujah. Ty’s agents unloaded on the enemy and soon had them on the run. The former Marine, armed with a bandolier of “golden eggs” (40mm grenades), would lob them as Ty directed; they worked with such efficiency that their teammates would later compare the sight to witnessing a conductor working with a master musician. Within minutes, the small, six-man team had turned the tide: dead enemy littered the compound, and the rest were confused and running for cover. At this point, Ty signaled for the team to head for the main TOC building.
The GRS agents fired and maneuvered their way to the DSS agents. It was the efforts of Ty’s team that enabled a lull in fire long enough for the remaining DSS in the outlying villa to join up with the main element. It was here that Ty and the TL made the decision to send the DSS team back to the CIA compound. The DSS guys were too inexperienced to be of much help, but Ty and the GRS team were another breed and would stay a bit longer to search for the ambassador and Sean Smith.
The GRS agents called back to the CIA base and let them know to expect one inbound vehicle containing State Department personnel. Ty gave the DSS agents a quick lay of the land outside the gate and was explicit in his instructions for them to make a hard right turn out of the gate. “Do not go left into bad guy land,” he said. The instructions were ignored, unfortunately, and the State vehicle made a left, immediately encountering a hail of gunfire. Lucky for them, the armored windows held up, and they eventually made it back to the CIA base unharmed.
Wasting no time, the elite GRS team worked their way to the ambassador’s burning Villa. Small arms fire was starting to pick up again, and they had to shoot their way to the burning building as several RPGs exploded nearby. Woomp BOOM! Woomp BOOM! Passing through a hail of bullets, they entered into the blazing building and began searching for the ambassador. Ty’s instructions in the burning building saved at least one man who almost took a wrong turn into the flaming maze. They located Sean Smith, who was unconscious and would later be declared dead. They spent a few more precious minutes searching for the ambassador before deciding that the compound was at risk of being overrun by enemy forces. They no longer had the element of surprise working for them. With their finite supply of ammunitions running low, they radioed that there was no sign of the ambassador and they were on their way back. It was the best they could do in an almost impossible situation.
They then shot their way back to the cars, again coming under heavy enemy rocket and AK–47 fire. They returned fire with well-aimed shots—only in Hollywood do you see guys spraying on full auto. In Special Ops, it’s all about well-aimed, effective fire and conserving ammunition. They arrived back at the vehicles, after sending a few more attackers to Allah while remaining virtually unscathed under the leadership of Ty Woods.
Once inside the vehicle, the team called back to base “Five minutes out.”
Ty’s team sped through the Libyan neighborhood. Their cars were rattled by small arms fire, their tires flattened and windows filled with the spider cracks that come with embedded lead. But the Agency’s armored vehicles held up. Driving armored cars is tricky; it requires skill to deal with the added gross weight. Take a turn too sharply and you dig a rim-and-roll because of the weight of the vehicle. These agents were professionals with decades of experience driving under hostile conditions. “One minute out,” they called back to base. The gate closed at approximately 11:50pm, and a small wave of relief must have overcome the team, but they were too seasoned not to know the fight was far from over. Things were relatively calm, at least for the next hour.
Meanwhile, local militia leaders were busy coordinating their next move. They repositioned for an attack on the CIA base just after midnight. The Americans would soon come under a barrage of machine gun, rocket, and mortar fire.
The attackers quickly found out that the CIA base was heavily fortified and prepared for an attack, with fighting positions, heavy weapons, skilled paramilitary professionals, high-intensity floodlights (blinding to any would-be attacker), and highly paid indigenous security personnel. Unlike State’s foreign security, the Agency’s were well ar
med. This would end up giving the Americans a tremendous advantage and ultimately ensure their safe evacuation.
The fight started just after midnight. It would be a sleepless night as the GRS and DSS agents, along with their local security, fended off attacks throughout the early morning hours. They would rack up dozens of enemy KIA. The intensity would never get to the point where the CIA thought they were at risk of being overrun; however, that would change as the sun came up on the 12th.
EARLY IN THE morning, the jet carrying Glen Doherty and his team from Tripoli landed in Benghazi. The US team was initially held up at the airport for a few hours. It’s unclear whether this was intentional or not, but the Americans eventually forced their way through. Just after 5:00am, the seven-man support team arrived to aid their countrymen at the CIA annex. Minutes after their vehicle drove through the gate, the base came under heavy fire. Glen and his fellow Americans were quick to take up defensive positions and join in the fight. At this point, several of the enemy tried coming over the wall but were dispatched with lethal accuracy. All told, the handful of Americans would kill just under a hundred enemy attackers.
When the fighting lulled, Glen began searching for his good friend Ty. He was told that Ty was on the rooftop, manning the MK46 machine gun with two others, directing the main defending element. Glen climbed onto the rooftop to join his friend without knowing the gravity of that decision.
On the roof of the CIA base, the two long-time SEAL friends briefly embraced like brothers, and both quickly filled each other in. Soon they retook defensive firing positions to engage the enemy along the outer perimeter. Ty yelled out a quick endorsing introduction of Glen—whom he referred to by his call sign, “BUB”—to the other two guys on the roof. During a lull in fire, the three men—Ty, another GRS operative, and a DSS agent—told Glen how glad they were to have more capable bodies in the fight, and how much they appreciated his efforts to get to Benghazi.
They fought together on that rooftop half a world away from their homes for only a few more minutes. Meanwhile, the attackers’ skilled mortar team was using a common tactic of “bracketing” to find their mark. They would fire a couple rounds, adjust based on where they landed, and then send two more mortars. The rounds were getting closer with each shot.
WREESHHH . . . BOOM! Ty’s position was hit with a French 81mm mortar round, fatally wounding the veteran warrior. Ty’s body shielded the other GRS agent—saving the man’s life, though still leaving him critically wounded. As Glen attempted to reposition and take cover, a second round dropped onto his position, killing him instantly. A third round hit the DSS agent’s position, wounding him and shredding his leg with fragments.
Glen’s and Ty’s deaths severely impacted their fellow teammates and influenced two GRS agents, long after the fight, to quit as a result of their deaths. They were the type of men people looked up to and loved. They were exemplary in all aspects of their personal and professional lives. With no time for personal reflection, they died with a gun in their hands, defending their fellow Americans.
Without hesitation, and clearly putting themselves at risk, several more agents, including one JSOC guy, ran up to the roof to assess the damage and give aid to the wounded. This quick action unquestionably saved two men’s lives. They lowered the bodies down with rope they had cut from gym equipment. The GRS agent was able to make it down the ladder on his own, and the JSOC guy literally strapped the wounded DSS agent to his back before climbing down the ladder under a hail of incoming fire.
At this time, another JSOC operator was monitoring the situation from his handheld ROVER, a device used to display sensor data from a General Atomics MQ–1 Predator overhead.
A ROVER Handheld Device. Courtesy of L3 Communications.
It was an unarmed drone equipped with multiple sensors to detect infrared (IR) and thermal signatures. The drone had been redirected to the scene by the DOD’s AFRICOM (Africa Command) at the request of the JSOC operator. It contributed to the overall situational awareness of the ground-based team, and the information was a huge factor in the next decision—which would save all of their lives.
Armed Version of the Predator. Courtesy of General Atomics.
“There’s a large element assembling, and we need to get everyone out of here now!” the JSOC man relayed to the Chief of Base and GRS TL. The footage on the ROVER’s screen was enough to convince the CIA Chief. They immediately notified everyone to gather up all their personal security items and evacuate.
To the CIA’s credit, all told, they successfully rescued six State Department personnel, recovered Smith’s body, and got approximately thirty Americans out of Benghazi alive. And they also didn’t compromise any classified material in the process. The CIA team left the compound locked, and in the hands of a trusted local.
Within minutes of the decision, the vehicles were loaded and the Americans were on their way to the airport. They encountered small arms fire on the way but arrived unscathed in time to meet the first of two aircraft that would fly them back to Tripoli.
EARLIER, WHILE THE CIA compound was under attack, the embassy in Tripoli had been trying to coordinate with an unknown caller concerning the whereabouts of Ambassador Stevens’s body. A call had come in at 2:00am from the borrowed cell phone that was loaned to Stevens by the DSS agent. They were suspicious that it was a guise to lure the Americans into incurring further casualties. The decision was made to send a trusted local, familiar with the ambassador, to the Benghazi Medical Center, where he positively identified Stevens’s body. We’re unsure about the details, but arrangements were made to transport the ambassador’s remains to the airport. We’ve heard that there was an exchange of fire in the handoff process, but it’s unconfirmed. There was likely a money exchange involved, regardless of what happened.
At 7:30am, a chartered jet took the wounded and a small number of American evacuees back to Tripoli in the first wave. A second Libyan aircraft (a C–130) would take the remaining Americans, including Ambassador Stevens’s body, which had arrived by ambulance at the airport around 8:30 in the morning. They would all land in Tripoli at 11:30am. The bodies and wounded were sent to Germany on two US Air Force aircraft (a C–130 and a C–17). The planes arrived in Ramstein Air Force Base around 10:30 at night, nearly 24 hours after the initial attack commenced.
The CIA did an exemplary job with virtually no outside support. They left Benghazi with all Americans accounted for. Ty’s leadership that day, and his refusal to sit by and allow his fellow Americans to be overrun, is a testament to his character. His willingness to stand up to his CIA boss and do what was right is an example of true American heroism. Glen Doherty ran toward the sound of gunfire, and his CIA and JSOC comrades could have waited it out in Tripoli. Instead, they practically commandeered a local plane and forced their way into the fight. Their presence and the JSOC element’s access to the Predator drone ultimately drove the decision to evacuate the Americans.
All gave some, and some gave all, during those two days in Benghazi.
5
Myth Busting
GENERAL PETRAEUS
When CIA Director David Petraeus resigned just a few weeks after the reelection of President Obama, the country was still in the throes of confusion and anger over what had happened in Benghazi. Certain media outlets had led people to believe that Obama had abandoned two former Navy SEALs in a combat zone, callously handing them a death sentence. However, even those who were skeptical of these media reports had to admit that the timing of David Petraeus’s resignation was absolutely devastating. For all intents and purposes, it appeared that he had resigned over something to do with Benghazi.
SOFREP received word that Petraeus was going to resign a full three weeks ahead of the public announcement. What we were not expecting was the reason cited for his stepping down. Not long after the Benghazi tragedy happened, Petraeus began interviewing for a job at Princeton University and was planning
to quit as Director of the CIA.
The overrunning of the consulate, and the killing of two GRS employees, must have come as a shock to him. John Brennan was running his own operations and probably briefing the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, on the bare minimum of information needed to keep these secret missions legal. Likewise, a Congress member with budget oversight responsibilities was probably being read on, with the briefings kept vague to the point of uselessness. Brennan just needed a rubber stamp.
Kept in the dark about these compartmentalized JSOC operations, the CIA was caught off guard by the Ansar Al-Sharia retaliation. They had no idea that Special Operations missions would be kicking the hornets’ nest in Libya and therefore could not prepare for the fallout that would result. Realizing this after the consulate attack, Petraeus knew for certain that he was a perpetual outsider in the administration. More specifically, he was furious about being left in the lurch by the Obama administration.
Like a good soldier, Petraeus was waiting until after the election season to resign, but CIA officials behind the scenes apparently had other ideas. The director had made plenty of enemies on the 7th floor of CIA headquarters in Langley by pursuing paramilitary operations and moving the Agency even further from its roots in intelligence collection.
The reason for this is partially that there were budget incentives to pursue paramilitary operations as the funding was there for them, but many longtime CIA officers did not appreciate the direction that Petraeus was taking their agency in. They also did not like the fact that the director was still acting like a four-star general and throwing his weight around at Langley.