Benghazi by Brandon Webb Read Free Book Online Page A

radioed by the officer in the TOC and asked to secure the ambassador. He grabbed his rifle and headed to the villa. Once there, he instructed Stevens and Smith to put on body armor, and then led them to a secured area in the back of the building. He locked the door and radioed back their position and that they were secure for the moment. The DSS agent was armed with an M4 assault rifle, handgun, and shotgun. Surprisingly, no shots were fired by the DSS security; this may have been due to their lack of experience and training, and, most importantly, to bad odds. The DSS agent gave his cell phone to the ambassador, who began making calls to the US embassy in Tripoli. They could hear the attackers destroying everything in their path in the adjacent rooms.
    One of the remaining DSS agents ran up to the TOC while the other two, upon encountering the attacking force, barricaded themselves in a separate villa with one of the February 17 guards, whom they had run into. Still no shots had been fired in any effort to repel the attackers, most of whom were unarmed.
    The attack continued, and the militia members found a stockpile of fuel containers and began to light several vehicles in the compound on fire. They entered the Ambassador’s Villa and started destroying and looting the contents. They then found the locked door behind which the Americans were hidden, and, after unsuccessful attempts to gain entry, they retreated and began pouring diesel fuel into the room. Soon a raging toxic fire was underway as the fuel was lit and burning tires were added to the blaze. None of the fires would be visible to the TOC’s security cameras until 10pm.
    The Ambassador’s Villa became immersed in a thick cloud of rubber smoke. It was too much for the Americans inside, and they were forced to crawl on their hands and knees into one of the bathrooms in the rear of the building. The DSS agent attempted to ventilate the room with fresh air by opening a window, but it had the opposite effect, and essentially sucked smoke onto their position at an alarming rate. Visibility in the room was at zero, and the security agent yelled for the ambassador and Smith to follow him out of the room to another exit point. They all must have known that staying inside would mean certain death. They had no choice but to take their chances in the open, at the mercy of the attackers.
    The security officer made it out of the building only to find himself alone in a hail of gun fire. He yelled for Stevens and Smith, but there was no answer. He reentered the building several times to try to locate them both, but found neither. In a last, desperate attempt to ventilate the smoke, he broke several windows before calling for help. The ambassador and Sean Smith could not be found. They wound up getting separated from each other amid the chaos, and within minutes each would suffocate from smoke inhalation.
    The frenzied looting then overtook the other villas in the compound. The attackers tried but were unsuccessful at gaining entry to both the main space of the TOC and the villa safe room, where the other two DSS agents and a local guard were secure.
    T HE R EGIONAL S ECURITY Officer (RSO) sounded the alarm and placed calls to the Benghazi CIA annex (a fortified base) and the embassy in Tripoli. In a panicked voice, he said, “We’re under attack, we need help, please send help now . . .” The call cut off. The CIA’s Global Response Staff (GRS) Team Leader (TL) and Ty Woods conferred. The TL respected Ty’s experience and listened intently as he made his case for the rescue mission. Ty was the senior security operative among them, with over twenty years of Special Operations experience as a Navy SEAL. He was a seasoned GRS agent, respected and loved by all who knew him. To Ty it was a matter of principle: Americans were at risk, and it was their job to help out. He would go alone if need be, and the TL knew it.
    The GRS is one among many CIA