Newly released transcripts of congressional testimony from nine military officers confirmed that no “stand down” order was issued during the September 2012 Benghazi attacks, again debunking Fox News' constantly-cited myth.

The Associated Press reported July 10 that previously classified testimony given to Congress from the military officers “undermines contentions by Republican lawmakers that a 'stand-down order' held back military assets that could have saved the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans killed at a diplomatic outpost and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya.” Instead, the military officers confirmed that the Special Operations team of four who were in Tripoli that night “were instructed to help protect and care for those being evacuated from Benghazi and from the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli. The senior military officer who issued the instruction to 'remain in place' and the detachment leader who received it said it was the right decision and has been widely mischaracterized.”

This new testimony confirms previous reports that debunked the false claim that someone in the Obama administration or military had denied assistance to Americans at the diplomatic facilities in Benghazi the night of the terrorist attacks. Lt. Col. S.E. Gibson, the former commander of a four-member Army Special Forces unit in Tripoli, Libya, and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, both told congressional committees over a year ago that no stand down order was given. Multiple CIA senior officers have repeatedly denied the false charge. In early 2014, a House Armed Services Committee report and a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report put the myth to rest.

As Media Matters previously noted, Fox News was a primary force behind the false “stand down” story claim. Just a month after the attacks they repeatedly suggested that the Obama administration had made a “political decision” to allow Americans to be killed, and pushed variations on the false “stand down” narrative in 85 primetime segments in the following months. The network has continued to push the myth long after it was debunked, citing questions of why military aid was supposedly withheld as a rationale for the establishment of the House select committee on Benghazi.

A six-member quick reaction team and 60 Libyan militiamen in Benghazi responded to the attack, and reinforcements from the embassy in Tripoli arrived the same night.