The
U.S. House of Representatives' Benghazi investigation needs to talk
with Marine Corps Colonel George Bristol who was in a key position in
our Africa Command (AFRICOM) on September 11, 2012, the night of the
attacks on our Benghazi "Special Mission." Bristol's AFRICOM superiors
Rear Admiral Brian Losey (still on active duty) and General Carter Ham
(now retired) have been questioned by the House, but Bristol is nowhere
to be found. He is missing in retirement.
CBS reporter, Sharyl Attkisson, indicates that the Defense Department, perhaps, is not allowing Bristol to testify, although that is not a clear point:
Bristol,
a martial arts master, was commander of Joint Special Operations Task
Force-Trans Sahara based in Stuttgart, Germany until he retired last
March. In an article in Stars and Stripes,
Bristol is quoted at his retirement ceremony as telling his troops that
"an evil" has descended on Africa, referring to Islamic militant
groups. "It is on us to stomp it out."
At the time of his retirement, Colonel Bristol was the Joint Special Operations Task Force-Trans Sahara Commander.
STUTTGART,
Germany — Marine Corps Col. George Bristol, a trained sniper and
martial arts master who for the past year has overseen a U.S. special
operations task force in Africa, had a message for his troops before
heading off to retirement.
“An evil” has descended on Africa, Bristol said. “It is on us to stomp it out.”
For
all the talk of the U.S. military’s pivot to the Pacific, it is Africa
and the growing threat posed by Islamic militant groups there that now
has the attention of the special operations community...
“Africa
is not the next ridgeline,” Bristol said in an interview before
Wednesday’s ceremony. “It is where the enemy is going now. And we are
going to do something about it.”
Rear
Adm. Brian Losey, commander of Special Operations Command Africa, which
oversees the Trans Sahara task force, credited Bristol with shepherding
the understaffed task force through a tumultuous year, dealing with “a
number of crises that didn’t quite hit the press,” suggesting not all
were as high-profile as the situation in Mali that sparked a French
intervention.
Over
the past two years, AFRICOM has been steadily building up its forces to
deal with emerging terror threats in the Horn of Africa, Libya,
Algeria, Nigeria and Mali. Source: Stars and Stripes, March 13, 2013
What
this tells me is that our Military is doing its job, while the Obama
administration is doing everything it can to keep the focus away from
Islamic countries.
According
to Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) the DOD is using Bristol's
retirement as a scapegoat. General Ham is now retired, but was still on
active duty at the time he testified. Bristol was already retired at the
time of the House request, however, Chaffetz says the committee will
talk to him "at some point." "All this raises concern when there's so much resistance to letting...
What
would keep Bristol from simply showing up and telling what he knows? Is
he threatened with losing his pension or losing his medals? He doesn't
sound like a man who would issue a "stand down" order without being
ordered to do so.
Colonel
Bristol was on active duty with the Marines for thirty-eight (38) years
- eighteen (18) of them "overseas," with sixty (60) months in combat in
Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia and Somalia. He created the Marine Corps
martial arts training program. H/T BadBlue
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