Senator McCain: Military Was Not Prepared To Intervene In Libya Embassy Attack

Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) is one of the voices that has been critical of the White House’s handling of the September 11 attack on the American embassy in Libya that killed four Americans including ambassador Christopher Stephens.

Initially, McCain spoke in more vague terms, but, after a three-week investigation, the former presidential candidate has come to a more firm position. While military intervention should have been possible to assist the forces defending the embassy, it simply wasn’t because the US armed forces in the area were not ready.

“After three weeks of investigation we have concluded that there was no way that the military could have intervened because they were not ready,” McCain told Fox News. “They were not prepared and there was no alert of any kind that would have enabled them to reach a state of readiness that they could not have intervened.”

Just days earlier, McCain voiced his opinion to CNN.

“There was – there was clearly requests by our ambassador, not Facebook posting, but by our ambassador for better protection. His last message was about that,” McCain said. “If we knew that there was danger why didn’t we have forces on alert in case something that would happen and then why did they send out our ambassador to the UN and why did the president go on these programs and speak to the UN and continually claim that it was a hateful video that triggered a spontaneous demonstration. You can’t assume anything, but either a cover up, or colossal incompetence which is, which is absolutely ridiculous and outrageous.”

McCain, a Vietnam War veteran who flew more than 20 combat missions before serving five and a half years as a prisoner of war, has worked with and against the president since the two first served together in the US Senate.