Pentagon denies claims general was fired over Benghazi attacks

[txradioguy]

On Monday, U.S. military officials denied claims from a Washington Times blog that Gen. Carter Ham, former head of U.S. Africa command, may have been fired due to an intent to disobey defense secretary Leon Panetta's order to "stand down" while the Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi were underway.

This story is gathering steam as Charlie Woods, father of slain Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, went on the Glenn Beck show this past weekend to claim that President Barack Obama had shown no remorse for his son's death during their meeting.
 
Over the weekend, a source inside the Pentagon informed Times reporter James Robbins that Gen. Ham wanted to send special forces units to help Americans under siege in Libya despite orders from Sec. Panetta to stand down. Ham was supposedly relieved of his command by a junior officer just before Ham was to order the rescue mission.


On Oct. 18, defense secretary Leon Panetta and the Army announced that Pres. Obama "had nominated Gen. David M. Rodriguez to succeed Gen. Carter F. Ham as the commander of U.S. Africa Command." Gen. Ham retired after nearly four decades of distinguished military service. He is a few years short of the mandatory retirement age of 64, fueling speculations that the general was fired.
 
On Monday, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, released the following statement to the Washington Times:
 

“The speculation that General Carter Ham is departing Africa Command (AFRICOM) due to events in Benghazi, Libya on 11 September 2012 is absolutely false. General Ham's departure is part of routine succession planning that has been on going since July."

The speculation that General Carter Ham is departing Africa Command (AFRICOM) due to events in Benghazi, Libya on 11 September 2012 is absolutely false. General Ham's departure is part of routine succession planning that has been on going since July.
 
On Sunday, former House speaker New Gingrich appeared on ABC News and suggested that Panetta may have disobeyed Obama's direct order to send in military help to the American consulate in Libya.
Obama has maintained that he ordered security aid to the trapped Americans. However, it now appears that Sec. Panetta never carried out those orders. Many Republicans are charging that either the commander-in-chief lied about his response to the incident or the secretary of defense disobeyed a presidential order.

http://www.examiner.com/article/pentagon-denies-claims-general-was-fired-over-benghazi-attacks

[docstew]

The irony here is this: had the Oministration been completely honest all the way through in everything dealing with Benghazi, NO ONE would be questioning any of this. Just further proof that the coverup is always worse than the actual offense (although in this case, the offense is pretty damn bad)

[Eupher]

Bullshit.

"Routine succession planning?"

GEN Ham was assigned as AFRICOM commander on 9 March 2011.

The previous commander, GEN William "Kip" Ward served from 1 Oct 08 till 9 Mar 2011, a period of 2.5 years.

I believe it's customary for these types of assignments to last 2 or more years.

Ham's assignment lasted a little over 1.5 years.

I'll say it again - bullshit. Ham was fired because he chose to disobey Panetta's order to stand down.

The blood of those four Americans is on Panetta's hands and perhaps indirectly, Barry's.

[Carl]

Can someone tell me what qualifications Panetta ever had to be Secratary of Defense?

[DefiantSix]

Can someone tell me what qualifications Panetta ever had to be Secratary of Defense?

Friend of Hillary?  Faithful Defender of Bill?  Geez, Carl, don't you know anything?? 

[Eupher]

Can someone tell me what qualifications Panetta ever had to be Secratary of Defense?

He served as an MI officer from 1964 to 1966 and left the Army as a 1LT?

[txradioguy]

Can someone tell me what qualifications Panetta ever had to be Secratary of Defense?

Liberal yes man.

[wasp69]

Can someone tell me what qualifications Panetta ever had to be Secratary of Defense?

Clintonoid place holder to keep an eye on little barry.

[Freeper]

Bullshit.

"Routine succession planning?"

GEN Ham was assigned as AFRICOM commander on 9 March 2011.

The previous commander, GEN William "Kip" Ward served from 1 Oct 08 till 9 Mar 2011, a period of 2.5 years.

I believe it's customary for these types of assignments to last 2 or more years.

Ham's assignment lasted a little over 1.5 years.

I'll say it again - bullshit. Ham was fired because he chose to disobey Panetta's order to stand down.

The blood of those four Americans is on Panetta's hands and perhaps indirectly, Barry's.

Oh hell yeah Barry has blood on his hands. His people his fault.

[vesta111]

Oh hell yeah Barry has blood on his hands. His people his fault.

ER ------just a question  here what happend to General MacArthur the hero of the WW2  war. ? was he getting too uppity with Thurman and wanting to cross the 38 parell zone ???? 

Is it possible that the men in the thick of a fight see much more then those thousands of miles away riding a desk see ????

 Politics be damn, when our men are sent into battle and ordered to protect America, this is their job.   When they find they have orders to stand down from a conflict that involves American lives, What to do.   Do they obey orders or stand and fight for America and it's people.?     

[DumbAss Tanker]

What, they'd never do that, would they?

 

Two years is customary, but then again the transition story is not completely implausible, it depends on where he went, whether that was really where he was programmed to go, and whether the guy there is gone or about to go on to his next tour.  They're normally two-year tours, but there is a LOT of variation in that, up and down, when you get into the general officer assignments.  The brass will zip their lips on the real story, it's part of the clubhouse rules, but the real thing tends to backchannel its way out onto the internet, so rumors from inside military sources on this kind of thing tend to be a whole lot more truthful and accurate than the official story.

[Eupher]

What, they'd never do that, would they?

 

Two years is customary, but then again the transition story is not completely implausible, it depends on where he went, whether that was really where he was programmed to go, and whether the guy there is gone or about to go on to his next tour.  They're normally two-year tours, but there is a LOT of variation in that, up and down, when you get into the general officer assignments.  The brass will zip their lips on the real story, it's part of the clubhouse rules, but the real thing tends to backchannel its way out onto the internet, so rumors from inside military sources on this kind of thing tend to be a whole lot more truthful and accurate than the official story.

I know you've got some backchannel sources, so I'm sure you'd be happy to 'splain the real deal when you hear it.

A couple of items that could confirm the DoD version of events -- when a change of command was scheduled (or not); when the noob was selected to take the gig, that sort of thing. That kind of info may or may not be available on the web -- I dunno.

[txradioguy]

For this story to be plausible...that means that General Ham would have been planning his change of command in July.  Never met a commander at any level that starts planning to hand over command only 15 months into his current job.

Also...Gen. Rod has been at FORSCOM for even less time than Ham's been at AFRICOM.  He was the 3-Star in charge of IJC when I was in Afghanistan.  So this wasn't a natural succession thing.  IRRC FORSCOM a higher level command than AFRICOM. I know they are both MACOM's (major commands) but I mean in the pecking order of things.

And if Ham was slated for another command...then where?  Every other MACOM CG has been in their position about the same amount of time.  There was no place for him to go.

For anyone that's been in and around the military for more than a minute and has paid attention....there's too many gaps in credibility in the official story for this to make sense.

[5412]

Hi,

I sent the information about the general and the admiral that got canned to some folks and got nary a peep in response.  The consensus is both the general and admiral disobeyed orders. 

The story I read was the general pushed back and within less than a minute the second in command was at his side telling him he had been relieved of command.

regards,
5412

[Dori]

Like everything else, we'll never know.  Just one more thing that will get swept down the government's black hole of infomation.

[txradioguy]

Like everything else, we'll never know.  Just one more thing that will get swept down the government's black hole of infomation.

It will get flushed for good if he's re-elected.  I thnk the only hope the AMerican people and the families of those killed will ever find closure is if Romney gets elected.