"Before we wrote this book and long before the movie, we had seen Benghazi become a shorthand for all kinds of Washington shenanigans or allegations," says journalist and 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened in Benghazi co-author Mitchell Zuckoff. Sharing credit with him are the five surviving members of the Global Response Staff military contractors who provided security for the diplomatic outpost, which also housed a Central Intelligence Agency facility in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.
"When I talked to the guys about what they experienced, it was so clear to me that nobody had any sense of what happened that night on the ground: what these guys had gone through, what they had experienced, very few of us could have imagined."
The book inspired director Michael Bay's film, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which comes out on home video next week. Bay is best known for making Transformers films about extraterrestrial robots who turn into earthbound devices like trucks and the Bad Boys movies that feature Martin Lawrence and Will Smith trading wisecracks and neutralizing criminals. His escapist fare has made a lot of money at the box office and enemies of most film critics.
If the filmmaker seems an unlikely choice to handle a real-life incident where four Americans including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens (played in the film by Matt Letscher) died, Zuckoff says the director and screenwriter Chuck Hogan were as eager to get the story right as he was.
"As soon as I started talking to Michael, it was clear to me that he got it. He had read the book several times, and as much as he consulted with me, he consulted with the guys I worked with. He listened to them. He invited all of us. He invited us to the set. We were all together in Malta during the filming. To Michael's great credit, Michael told me on our first phone conversation, 'This is going to be my most real movie,' and he lived up to it," Zuckoff claims.
Land of Confusion
The print and film versions of 13 Hours reveal a situation where the occupants and defenders of the compound had little idea of what was happening or who their attackers were. The confusion in Washington with conflicting accounts simply reflected how chaotic the evening was in Libya's second largest city.
"With these guys, friend or foe was a constant question in their minds," Zuckoff says. "They knew they had each other, but after that they had no idea who they were facing. They were in the dark, they had an ongoing series of firefights, and you have somebody who seems friendly, who looks just like somebody who has just taken over the diplomatic compound, somebody using the same weapons, maybe somebody from the same neighborhood."
The turmoil was multiplied because the local February 17 Martyrs' Brigade -- who were supposed to be defending the compound -- provided fitful assistance. According to Zuckoff, the Benghazi militia had good reason for being stingy about supporting the GRS contractors.
"The February 17 Martyrs' Brigade were in the middle of a work stoppage because they hadn't been paid adequately as they were accompanying the ambassador during his moves around Benghazi. And we're going to rely on them to be a quick response force? That's crazy. The locals are just trying to figure it out in a really basic way, and then when the stuff hits the fan, it's up to guys like the GRS guys to have to decide friend or foe," Zuckoff says.
What About Bob?
When the attackers set fire to the building where Stevens and State Department communications officer Sean Smith died of smoke inhalation, both versions of 13 Hours contend the CIA official in charge who is identified only as "Bob" told the GRS team to stand down when their assistance might have helped both men escape. In a recent Washington Post interview, Bob has claimed he didn't tell GRS to stand down.
"I have great respect for The Washington Post, but they failed to point out that something he said in their interview is directly contradicted by what was concluded from what he said under oath to an investigative committee in Congress," Zuckoff says. "I have respect for Bob's career and his contributions to American interests, but I think that he is trying to rewrite history here.
"The truth of the matter is I don't want to vilify Bob. He made what he thought was the right decision because as soon as GRS goes to help the ambassador and the other Americans in the diplomatic compound, the annex is potentially vulnerable. I think we should agree that they were told to wait."
If Bob's identity is a mystery, so are those of two of the surviving GRS members, Jack Silva (John Krasinski) and Dave "D.B." or "Boon" Benton (David Denham). Two of their fellow GRS contractors Tyrone Woods (James Badge Dale) and Glen Doherty (Toby Stephens) died during the battle.
While FBI official Mark Felt's anonymous leaks were valuable to The Post's coverage of Watergate, a recent Rolling Stone article on campus rape at the University of Virginia had to be retracted when the source's assertions couldn't be verified.
"Because I teach journalism [at Boston University] and because I'm very focused on those kinds of issues, I verified in every way possible that the other two guys are who they said they are. I've seen their records. I've cross-checked them any number of ways," Zuckoff explains. "If I make these guys sound like English professors, shame on me. If I make it sound like one of my faculty meetings, that would be a complete failure."
By the Book
While Bay's film gives viewers the general idea of what Zuckoff and the GRS offices have to say about the attack, the movie makes Stevens seem naive and possibly unaware of the danger the city posed for him and the other Americans there.
"In fairness to Chris Stevens and his legacy, he was the guy who was asking repeatedly for more security in Benghazi," Zuckoff says. "But I would say that I had the great good fortune of getting to write a 300-page book, 80 or 90,000 words, and in a screenplay, you have a fraction of time, and you have to paint with very broad strokes at the time.
"I joked that the book is called 13 Hours, the movie is two hours, so something had to go. If Michael had come in with a movie that started with the Abyssinians and the Babylonians and the Greeks taking over the early Benghazi, I think the executive at Paramount would have come down with their own army against it."
MovieStyle on 06/03/2016