Sources who have debriefed the team that was at the CIA annex
the night of the attack in Benghazi say that the CIA operators from the
Global Response Staff, or GRS, were equipped with Mark 48 machine guns
and had two types of laser capability. Each weapon had both a “passive”
as well as a “visible” laser that could be used against the Libyan
attackers.
Fox News has learned the guns were fitted with PEQ-15 lasers. The
“passive” laser is not visible to the naked eye but can help team
members identify hostile forces when the shooter is wearing NODS, or
Night Observation Device attached to their helmet. The visible laser
system places a red dot on the attacker and warns the attacker not to
shoot, encouraging them to flee the scene. US troops often use the
visible laser to scare children or other civilians who find themselves
in the middle of combat activity. When civilians see the laser they
often back off in order not to be shot.
The GRS team that was present at the CIA annex provided security for
the CIA station, as they do around the world. They are highly trained in
countersurveillance, close target reconnaissance and in depth
reconnaissance. Enemy fighters have learned in Afghanistan and Iraq to
use their cell phones to follow or intercept these “passive” lasers
without having night vision or NODS.
The Annex team also had Ground Laser Designators, or GLD. This kind
of laser equipment emits code and signal when there is overhead air
support, unmanned aerial surveillance, drones or Spectre gunships, for
instance.
A source present the night of the attack says that the GRS team that
was defending the annex asked where the air support was at midnight.
Former SEALs Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed 5 hours and 15
minutes later.
The military is preparing a timeline from the night of the Benghazi
attack and plans to outline what assets were available to commanders in
the region, including AFRICOM commander General Carter Ham, who was
visiting Washington, DC on September 11 and was in the Pentagon
overseeing the operation that night.
Pentagon spokesman George Little says, “On the night of the attack on
American personnel and facilities in Benghazi, there were no armed
unmanned aerial vehicles over Libya, and there were no AC-130s anywhere
close.”
On Thursday, the CIA excluded Fox News from a briefing for a small
group of reporters in which they provided a timeline from the night of
the attack in which they explain that at 5:15 a.m. (7 hrs and 28 minutes
after the attack on the consulate began) five mortars are fired at the
annex, three of them striking the roof and killing Woods and Doherty.
The CIA told the Washington Post’s David Ignatius that “the rooftop
defenders never ‘laser the mortars’ as has been reported,” a reference
to an earlier Fox News report. The CIA added the “defenders have focused
their laser sights earlier on several Libyan attackers, as warnings not
to fire.”
The US military says that two unarmed Predators were overhead
Benghazi that night and providing one stream of video back to Washington
beginning at 11:11 p.m. (1 hr and 24 minutes) after the attack began.
US military sources say that the second Predator was not armed even
though it took off from Sigonella Air Base in Sicily after the attack
began to provide back up to the first Predator which was at the end of
its orbit and running low on fuel. US commanders say that in reference
to the drones positioned at Sigonella: “Not all aircraft are armed. Ours
are not.”
According to military sources, Libyan authorities have not given the
US military permission to fly armed drones over populated areas like
Benghazi. However, for some time the unmanned aerial drones that have
been watching Libya’s chemical weapons sites did have permission to be
armed.