the agency reacted quickly during the terrible evening in benghazi. >> three security a little make their way to the main residence. they crawl into the residence on hair hands and needs to three to find their two colleagues. they find smith. they pull him out of the building. he is dead. just before 11:00 p.m., at the annex, former seal to say reason woods is said to go on nor orders and race to the consulate. they bring with them 16 libyans and the brigade militia. some surround the compound, unable to find stevens. by 11:00 p.m. libyan forces can no longer hold the perimeter. >> attack was stow strong, we were calling for back-up. even the back-up didn't came. >> they carried stevens to the

main gated. they head to the annex but almost immediately the crowd fires upon them and throws two grenades under the vehicle. they take direct fire from ak-47s. despite two flat tires they keep rolling. several blocks away they hit more traffic and a busy benghazi neighborhood. car careens over the middle divider and pushes forward and finally makes it to the annex and again hope for safety. midnight some two hours after the attack begin, a quick reaction force from embassy leaves for benghazi on a chartered aircraft. on that plane is former navy seal glen do her at this will be fending off highway heavy fire. the battle is on again. they are hitting with fire and rocket propelled grenades, forcing them to retreat further back. yet another call is made for military back-up.

they say their requests is refused. special forth are ready in italy but pentagon officials later express concern by putting them in harms away. stationed thousand miles away are attack helicopters. strafing the street was not an option for fear of civilian casualties. back at the mission, they enter the building and find the body of stevens slumped on the floor. >> they don't know who he is. they drag him out threw a window. his eyes are did a dazed. someone says she is breathing. crowd is relieved. cheering, allah akbar. god a great. around 1:00 a.m. ambassador stevens is brought by car here to the benghazi medical center where doctors tried to resuscitate him for 45 minutes. he dies of severe asphyxiation. the fight has been going on for

over four hours and drone overhead is running out of fuel. a second is sent. officials delay them for 45 minutes. negotiating over who will escort them. they arrive at c.i.a. annex around 3:00 a&m. around 4:00 a.m. this annex compound is hit by another wave of attacks. it's described as planned and precise. a round of mortar fire targeting a roof well behind the gate. that turns out to be dangerous and deadly. blade injured in that attack, is david ubin. the man that tried to save the lives of stevens and smith. two other americans are killed. former navy seals glen do her at this and tyrone woods that man a gun position. they were hit by a mortar. they didn't go down without a fight. fox news national security correspondent jennifer griffin. >> we know from witnesses and

sources that spoke to those witnesses that glen doherty and the machine gun they were sharing on the roof was caked in blood. it was said they continued firing and they continued fighting after they were hit. >> a decision is made to evacuate the whole enterprise. >> libyan militia make a convoy to escorted them to the airport. september 12th, the americans evacuate on two flights. it leaves with the remaining americans on board and bodies of stevens, smith and agents doherty and woods. >> bret: chris steechx was the first u.s. ambassador killed on duty in more than three decades. the story moves back to washington. up next, new details on the obama administration's reaction. was it the following of war? was it an attempted cover-up or something else? special reports investigates

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firestorm. here is chief white house correspondent ed henry. >> september 11th, as the attack in benghazi was playing out, e-mails cascaded into the intelligence community and pentagon and even white house. 4:00 eastern time the diplomatic mission is under attack. 49 minutes later, firing at the u.s. diplomatic mission in benghazi has stopped and compound has been cleared. at 5:00 p.m. the president, vice president and defense secretary meet in the oval office. >> an hour after the attack begin, at that time they would have had a drone and video feed being fed back to washington. >> fox news security correspondent jennifer griffin. >> problem is, don't forget video from a drone is taken from an incredible distance, you don't have clarity as to who on

the ground. you see figures moving. it's hard to tell friendly from foe. >> another e-mail states that a terror group with ties to al-qaeda claimed responsibility on facebook and twitter. administration officials later say a posting on social media is not in and of itself evidence. >> 11:57 another e-mail, benghazi shelter location also under attack. next morning, president obama addresses the nation from the rose garden. what he says or doesn't say will become a hotly debated issue over the next days and weeks. >> since our founding, the united states has been a nation that respects all faiths. we reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others. there is absolutely no justification for this type of senseless violence. >> with those words the president seems to be saying that ambassador chris stevens and three others were killed in

a spontaneous riot over the video and not a planned terror attack. a few paragraphs later, he does use the term terror, but in a more general sense after he recalls a september 11th, 2001 al-qaeda attack. >> no acts of terror will shake the resolve of this great nation. >> it's a huge distinction to obama critics like best selling author mark stein. >> there are always reasons to riot. >> he believes the president was trying to dodge responsibility for the attack by chalking it up to the sudden out of proportion outrage we here in the muslim world. >> i happened to be in the oval office once, president bush says it's always something, it's the crusades, it's the cartoons. and danish cartoons over a

sudanesse teddy bear. there is always a reason to riot. >> we've got an election going on. >> that afternoon the president leaves for a campaign trip to las vegas. >> president of the united states did not postpone a campaign event even though we had been hit. >> i said at that time, i thought it was the biggest strategic political mistake. >> dana perino was press secretary during the bush administration. >> just imagine as we say it's important for me to stay at the white house. >> once he made a statement, i'm not sure what he should have done. >> democratic eleanor holmes norton represents the district of columbia. >> to city in morning for several days and not go about our daily business. >> september 13th, hillary

clinton citizen it was spontaneous demonstration about the anti-islam video. >> there is no justification for responding to this video with violence. >> white house press secretary jay carney blames the video the next day. >> the protests were reaction in to a video. we have no information it was a preplanned attack. >> and later that day, at the transfer of remains known at joint base andrews, clinton talks again about the video. >> we've seen rage and violence directed at american embassies over an awful internet video that we had nothing to do with. >> the father of one of those killed later tells fox news clinton told him personally they were going to arrest and prosecute the producer of the video. next day, september 15th, california authorities haul a

man who produced the video in for questioning and march him in front of tv cameras. september 16th. u.s. ambassador to the united nations susan rice goes on five sunday talk shows repeating the same story each time. >> there was not a premeditated attack. what happened any initially it was a spontaneous reaction to what had transpired in cairo as a consequence of the video. >> they panicked. >> former white house chief of staff john sununu is senior advisor to mitt romney's campaign. >> this is purely political reaction in a white house that had prepared itself to establish a narrative of a president getting rid of the threat of terrorism using the death of bin laden to focus on that and waking up one morning and finding out that terrorism on 9/11 of this year was back full-fledged and even killing a

u.s. ambassador. >> former obama state department spokesman p.j. crowley. >> i don't see a political agenda. i see the fog of war. the fact that we still do not know, it's not about politics. it's about the difficult task of reconstructing what happened and having full access to the site and to all the people that played a role in this. >> september 18th. >> did the administration have any sort of heads up that violence was increasing specifically in libya before the attack? >> i'm not aware of any. this is matter that is under investigation in terms what precipitated the attack. that night on the late show with david letterman, president obama gives his more elaborate explanation of what happened in benghazi. was it a spontaneous riot or planned attack. a combination of two he suggests. >> you have a video that was released by somebody who lives

here, sort of a shadow character. it caused great offense in much of the muslim world. what also happened extremists and terrorists used this as an excuse to attack a variety of our embassies including the consulate in libya. >> on september 25th at the united nations the president mentions the video six times. >> there is no video to justify an attack on an embassy. >> september 27th, producer of that video is order detained without bail by a federal judge for allegedly violating the terms of his probation. he remaining in custody to this day. >> the attack on our consulate can't be blamed on a video insulting islamic. >> the republican presidential ticket is hitting obama hard, sake he is ducking responsibility for the attack. >> what we are watching on our tv screens is the unraveling

obama foreign policy. >> october 16th. at the second presidential debatey and obama face off. they highlight the charges and counter charges over whether president obama took the benghazi attack and by implication the terror threat seriously enough. >> as soon as we found out benghazi consulate was overrun. i was on the funny. >> the president the day after flies to a political fund-raiser. >> day after the attack, governor, i stood in the rose garden and i told the american people that this was an act of terror and the suggestion that anybody in my team would play politics or mislead when we have lost four of our own is offensive. >> mr. president, 14 days he called it an act of terror. >> six days later. >> the first question, it

concerns libya. >> october 22nd, the final presidential debate. >> governor rom you said this is an example of an american policy in the middle east that sun raveling. >> if anyone was hoping to see another done any brook over benghazi they would be disappointed. >> we see in libya, an attack by terrorists. >> whatever the reasons, both candidates seemed ready to move on. >> my first job as commander in chief is to keep the american people safe. that is what we've done over the last four years. >> the story is not going away. >> could the terrorist attack in benghazi have been prevented? it could have been stopped? special report investigates after the break. copies of my acceptance speech. great! it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here.

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>>. >> bret: on september 12th, 2012 four americans died in benghazi. this week brought a new set of questions, among them should the military have responded more quickly and forcefully, or was that impossible under the circumstances. october 24th, the state department. >> we are intent on figuring out who did this and bringing them to justice but i'm not going to get in the details. >> bret: details are trickling out. a suspect jailed in tunisia, another killed by egyptian police, another flee in benghazi. meantime, a number of benghazi officials from republican administrations to be sure are asking about the response to the attack. >> you don't passively allow to americans remain in attack for

eight hours of time when you have forces within range and do nothing. >> bret: one is bud mcfarland, national security advisor to president reagan. >> the secretary of defense was in the white house within an hour of attack started. he could have told them, yes, we have special operations people that could be deployed right away. to have known what he had available and to have known americans have been under fire is dereliction of duty to president of any party. >> bret: that is stroke stuff? >> it is stuff. i wouldn't say that if there was any ambiguity about the conditions on the ground. there really wasn't. americans were being killed. you must respond, that is your duty. you are the commander in chief. >> there is a lot of monday

morning quarterbacking going on. >> october 25th, leon panetta responds to the growing chorus of criticism. >> basic principle is that you don't deploy forces into arms way without knowing what is going on, without having realtime information about what is taking place. >> he declined a request for an interview. so did national security advisor tomdonalin. >> good morning guys. >> in fact a special reports investigates interview request for any white house official went unanswered. >> we're not harry potter, with a wand we can appear in libya sudden. >> i we turned to joe sestak, a pennsylvania democrat who is a retired three star admiral. >> you have the navy did i destroyers. >> logistics to have people from the airfield to move them over there.

you have a whole thing to work from. i read the accounts and people that were there would have done anything to get there, but it does take some planning. >> october 26th the father of former navy seal tyrone woods who was killed in benghazi went on fox news america live to respond to reports that the c.i.a. operators requested help during the fire fight and were denied. >> these people who made the decision and who knew about the decision and lied about it are murderers of my son. >> bret: then president obama does an interview with a local denver reporter. >> were they denied requests for help during the attack? >> well, we are finding out exactly what happened. i guarantee you that everybody in the state department, our military, c.i.a., you name it had number one priority make sure that people were safe. these are our folks. >> i find it astounding.

>> john mccain says the military should have been prepared to respond long ago? >> why in the world after two previous attacks on the embassy with deteriorating security and alarms being sounded by the ambassador on september 11th, why wouldn't we have our forces on an alert status so they could respond? >> you think the white house is covering something up? >> i think they are grossly incompetent or covering and i don't know which is worse. >> bret: in the democratic primary, hillary clinton ran her 3:00 a.m. ad. message was simple, late at night when we are asleep, it's the president who gets the call when a crisis erupts in the world. it's the president who must decide what to do. it's impossible to know what would have happened in libya if we had done things differently. it seems painfully clear that not enough was done before,

during a or after the attack in benghazi to make us truly feel safe in this dangerous world. that is our program. i'm bret baier, thanks for watching.