Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced on
Sunday that General Carter Ham Commander of GOC Africa Command
(Africom), headquartered in Stuttgart, Germany has been relieved of his
assignment for refusing to obey orders not to assist the US personnel in
Benghazi on the night of September 11. Army General David Rodriguez has
been appointed by President Obama to replace him. U.S. Africa Command
is one of six unified geographic commands within the Department of
Defense unified command structure.
Gen. Ham refused to take responsibility for the decision not to provide
essential air coverage and other support for the beleaguered personnel
at the Consulate. After the information was leaked last week that three
urgent requests for support were denied to the Americans trapped in the
Consulate and the Annex, President Barack Obama said on Sunday, "The
minute I found out what was going on, I gave three very clear directives
- Number 1, make sure that we are securing our personnel and doing
whatever we need to." According to the highly decorated, four-star General, Carter Ham, the President is lying.
The Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, another official, and two CIA
assets and former NAVY SEALS disregarded repeated orders to stand down,
and rescued several people from the burning Consulate under heavy fire.
They requested assistance at least three times and were summarily denied
each time. They had AQ mortars painted with laser pointers and
requested a C130 attack on the target or a missile strike with a F-22 or
F-35. They had laid the groundwork for a military response that would
create minimum collateral damage. In return for their heroism, their
urgent requests were denied and they died defending America.
According to our sources, General Ham received copies of the
e-mails that had been sent to the White House from Benghazi, requesting
military support at the Consulate and the Annex after the attacks began.
General Ham had a rapid response unit ready to deploy and communicated
that to the Pentagon. He then received the order to stand down. His
response to the Pentagon was essentially that he could not do that.
Within a few minutes after sending that response, his second in command
told General Ham that he was relieved of his command, effective
immediately.
http://gerarddirect.com/2012/10/28/head-of-africom-fired-for-wanting-to-assist-personnel-in-benghazi/
On Saturday, October 27, Panetta confirmed that General Ham had been relieved of his assignment.
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