No one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate.It turns out I completely missed something in my reading of this statement, see this analysis from Power Line:
Interesting choice of words, “nobody told anybody NOT to help.” That is a little different from saying they did tell somebody to help. If an order is NOT given to help, you did not tell somebody not to help, you just ignored their plea.Pretty darn clearly the CIA may have decided to ignore a request for airborne assistance from drones or Spectre gunships in the region, or an intervention by military special warfare forces. Their statement doesn't cover ignoring a request. It doesn't say they did ignore it either, only that we don't know from what they said.
I'm guessing the CIA assets on the ground in Libya were sent to help, but air assets and special warfare military were withheld in the hope of not escalating the conflict. It can be argued that by not shooting up the neighborhoods where the violence was happening, the "not escalating" goal was achieved. Libyans ended up acting against the people suspected of doing the original harm.
