13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi

This book did NOT focus on the decisions in Washington, D.C. that occurred on September 11, 2012, when the U.S. Special Mission compound in Benghazi was attacked and set ablaze. It focused on the efforts of the CIA-contracted security forces to repel the attackers, and to recover the Americans who were holed up at the compound, and their battle throughout the night at their own base against these same attackers.

The biggest questions surrounding this event have less to do with the response as the attacks raged, and more to do with the security posture in the first place--why we were still there when everyone else had left, and why we weren't prepared for such an attack? Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, who lost his life in Benghazi, made several requests for additional security resources for the diplomatic compound. His requests were denied. General Ham of the U.S. Africa Command offered to extend the assistance of a military unit that was preparing to leave, but having been rebuffed by the State Department, he thought it best not to risk angering anyone by going around the decisions made, and declined General Ham's assistance, leaving the compound reliant on local, unreliable militias for their security--a decision that would prove deadly.