Some officials are disputing a key plot point in a newly-released film about the 2012 terror attack in Benghazi.
The movie, “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi,” suggests a security team was told to stand down rather than intervene at a nearby U.S. diplomatic compound as militant extremists overran the facility on the 11th anniversary of 9/11.
However, Democrats on the House Select Committee on Benghazi and the former CIA chief in charge of a covert annex near the diplomatic compound have spoken out against the resurgence of the “stand-down” narrative, which was a popular talking point among Republican critics of the administration in the wake of the attack.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the select committee, said Wednesday several witnesses had confirmed that high-ranking officials did indeed order a security team to stand down on the night of the raid. The South Carolina Republican said other witnesses had dismissed that claim as false.
But other congressional panels have failed to find evidence of the stand-down order in the past.
The House Intelligence Committee, for example, wrote in Dec. 2014 that its investigation “supports the conclusion that the security team did not depart without authorization or contrary to orders.”
In Feb. 2014, the House Armed Services Committee found that “[t]here was no ‘stand down’ order issued to U.S. military personnel in Tripoli who sought to join the fight in Benghazi. However, because official reviews after the attack were not sufficiently comprehensive, there was confusion about the roles and responsibilities of these individuals.”
A spokesman for Democrats on the Benghazi committee did not return a request for comment.
But the panel’s ranking Democrat reportedly said the movie’s portrayal of an alleged stand-down order was “inconsistent” with the investigation so far.
“I think all the evidence has been overwhelming that there was no stand-down order — everybody says that,” Rep. Elijah Cummings said, according to a report by Politico.
The Maryland Democrat reportedly called that part of the film an “exaggeration” of talking points.
Similarly, the official in charge of the CIA annex near the State Department’s temporary facility spoke on condition of anonymity to the Washington Post Friday and disputed aspects of the storyline in “13 Hours.”
“There never was a stand-down order,” the CIA chief said, according to the Post report. “At no time did I ever second-guess that the team would depart.”
The tensions over whether a stand-down order was issued on the night of Sept. 11, 2012 resurfaced last month when Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act an email that suggested Pentagon forces were “spinning” and ready just a few hours into the drawn-out attack.
Democrats on the Benghazi committee quickly responded by publishing the unredacted version of the same email in an effort to debunk the claim that military assets were anywhere near the site of the terror strike. The unredacted email showed the forces in question were positioned in Croatia and Spain.
Three security officers who were present in Benghazi during the attack said earlier this week during an appearance on Fox News that the team was told to stand down more than once.
The blockbuster film has generated buzz on the 2016 campaign trail among Republicans ahead of its release Friday, with Donald Trump renting a theater to screen the movie in Iowa and Sen. Ted Cruz using his closing statement in the sixth GOP debate to encourage voters to see the film.
