Who Disobeyed the President?

President Obama recently claimed in an interview that...

“The minute I found out what was happening [in Benghazi] . . . I gave the directive,” he said, “to make sure we are securing our personnel and doing whatever we need to do. I guarantee you everybody in the CIA and military knew the number-one priority was making sure our people are safe.”

Did we do "whatever we need[ed] to do" to "[make] sure our people [were] safe"?  According to Adm. James A. Lyons (USN, Ret.), the answer is "no".

The Obama national security team, including CIA, DNI, State Department and the Pentagon, watched and listened to the assault but did nothing to answer repeated calls for assistance.
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At our military base in Sigonella, Sicily, which is slightly over 400 miles from Benghazi, we had a fully equipped Special Forces unit with both transport and jet strike aircraft prepositioned. Certainly this was a force much more capable than the 22-man force from our embassy in Tripoli [Tripoli is also about 400 miles from Benghazi ~ OS].

I know those Special Forces personnel were ready to leap at the opportunity. There is no doubt in my mind they would have wiped out the terrorists attackers. Also I have no doubt that Admiral William McRaven, Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, would have had his local commander at Sigonella ready to launch; however, apparently he was countermanded—by whom? We need to know.

Our fighter jets could have been at our Benghazi mission within an hour. Our Special Forces out of Sigonella could have been there within a few hours. There is not any doubt that action on our part could have saved the lives of our two former Navy SEALs and possibly the ambassador.

 In other words, we did not do "whatever we need[ed] to do" to "[make] sure our people [were] safe".  Which means that, if in fact President Obama gave the order to do everything possible to secure our people on the ground, somebody disobeyed his order.

Somebody high up in the administration made the decision that no assistance (outside our Tripoli embassy) would be provided, and let our people be killed. The person who made that callous decision needs to be brought to light and held accountable. According to a CIA spokesperson, “No one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need.”

All right; so the CIA denies making the call, and no one in the Administration has contradicted them, so who did?  Why hasn't the Administration said who made the call?  Is it possible that the president doesn't know who disobeyed his order and denied our people in Benghazi the assistance they requested?  Adm. Lyons's conclusion:

Having been in a number of similar situations, I know you have to have the courage to do what’s right and take immediate action. Obviously, that courage was lacking for Benghazi. The safety of your personnel always remains paramount. With all the technology and military capability we had in theater, for our leadership to have deliberately ignored the pleas for assistance is not only in incomprehensible, it is un-American.

Whoever made the call deserves prison.