Although there was no specific threat information against Stevens, Bob said he was already familiar with two men later implicated in the assaults on US facilities: Ahmed Abu Khattala, who was charged with plotting the attacks and has been brought to the United States to stand trial, and Sufian bin Qumu, a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay who remains in Libya.
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Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are never mentioned by name in 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Michael Bay’s film about the attack which has been affectionally dubbed “Bayghazi” by practically everyone, but Bay’s assertion that it is an “apolitical” film is bunk.
But the base chief at the time, now retired but identified by The Post only as “Bob” to maintain his still-active cover, described the issue in no uncertain terms.
“There never was a stand-down order”, Bob, speaking publicly for the first time, told the Washington Post. He said the Central Intelligence Agency chief’s comments were “not credible” but likely stem from regret over the ultimate death of the ambassador from smoke inhalation. The movie shows the contractors waiting for more than 20 minutes before bucking orders and leaving to try to save Stevens and others. (The interview has been edited for length and clarity). The agency also met with the director of the film, Michael Bay, and cited a list of concerns about the contents of the book and movie script, officials said.
Bay and his screenwriter, Chuck Hogan, adapting the nonfiction bestseller “13 Hours”, by Mitchell Zuckoff and the members of the Annex Security Team, resolutely avoid any overt political inferences.
“Mr. Trump would like all Americans to know the truth about what happened at Benghazi”, Trump’s Iowa co-chair Tana Goertz said, The Des Moines Register reported. The reenactment presentation of the true story material becomes so real that it mystifies watching our embassy and military outpost get helplessly attacked. “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about them”.
13 Hours lacks the emotional intensity of Black Hawk Down and tension of Zero Dark Thirty and at times it gets confusing in keeping up with what’s going on during the chaos of the battle. One offered to shelter the USA personnel at a nearby militia compound, Bob said, while others “didn’t necessarily want to help us and some just didn’t know what to do”.
According to the multiplex’s website, “13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” usually plays at 6:55 p.m. It’s unclear if the Trump-backed showing begins at 6 or 6:55.
The other says: “I didn’t see any protest”. “Still, the fact that there is any reminder of Benghazi in our popular culture at all is doubtless giving the Clinton campaign major headaches”.
The shooting and editing of this film reflects the style of director Michael Bay and the reality of combat. And this is a classic nightmare story. The point I’m trying to make is that no matter where you stand politically, this is not a political movie. It’s a movie that honors all first responders, from firemen to policemen to the men and women in the military that do this. I was telling their story on the ground from these guys’ point of view.
Via a deftly nerve-racking barrage of action scenes, often shot from drone and security cam POV, Bay’s film does a decent job of presenting a complex series of events, and conveying the daunting disorientation of being a marked foreigner in a hostile land where the language barrier alone is enough to get you killed.
House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz, who has questioned Benghazi witnesses in the past, told The Daily Caller he thought the movie was “exceptionally well done”.
Early reviews of film note that it is mostly apolitical. It just wasn’t covered. It was good but I wouldn’t watch it again and I’m not exactly singing its’ praises.
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AP: Will this movie appeal more to conservatives or liberals?
