Issa wants more info on Benghazi
attack
Nathan
Max 11:59 A.M.JAN.
30, 2013
Rep. Darrell Issa is among a group of three House committee
chairmen requesting more information from the State Department about the Sept. 11, 2012 , terrorist attack at
the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi , Libya .
Issa, Edward Royce and Jason Chaffetz co-wrote a letter
Tuesday to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that asks for the State
Department to provide emails, cables and memorandums sent or received by her
and several others that pertain to security in Benghazi, a complete list of
every individual interviewed by a special review board and video footage of the
attack by Feb. 11.
Issa, R-Vista, is the chairman of the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee. Royce, R-Brea, chairs the House Foreign Affairs
Committee. Chaffetz, R-Utah, chairs the Oversight and Government Reform’s
Subcommittee on National Security.
Four Americans — Ambassador Chris Stevens, information
officer Sean Smith, a San Diego native, and security contractors Tyrone Woods
of Imperial Beach and Glen Doherty of Encinitas — were killed after terrorists
attacked a compound that was home to a U.S. consulate and then a U.S.
government annex less than a mile away.
A State Department Accountability Review Board sent its findings
and recommendations to Congress on Dec. 18. However, Issa, Royce and Chaffetz
remain unsatisfied, the letter states.
“Unfortunately, the (review board) did not address some
important questions about the attacks in Benghazi ,
which we believe may contain crucial lessons learned for other U.S.
facilities abroad to follow,” the congressmen wrote.
The letter states the board failed to interview several
senior officials at the State Department, including Clinton, and calls it a
critical omission of the facts leading up to the attack. The letter also
questions why a security support team was withdrawn from Libya .
“Additionally, questions remain as to why the Department
maintained an independent and isolated post in an increasingly volatile and
dangerous city, and whether there are facilities in other countries facing
similar circumstances,” the letter states. “It is our understanding that the
answers to such questions may exist in many unclassified documents reviewed by
the (review board), but not divulged in its report or provided to congressional
committees.”
I find it encouraging that Sen Paul and Rep Duncan wrote a
letter, but nothing will happen, as my constituents have a mighty low opinion
of the cesspool in DC. It's like this folks, if D.C was a toilet and I knew
where the handle was..........yup!
Sen. Paul and Rep. Duncan Issue Dear Colleague Letter
Calling for Congressional Investigation of Benghazi
Attack
WASHINGTON, D.C. - January 29, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)
and Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) issued a Dear Colleague letter to
members of House and Senate leadership requesting immediate action from both
chambers of Congress to fully investigate the facts surrounding the Sept. 11,
2012, attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
The Honorable Harry Reid
Senate Majority Leader
522Hart Senate Office Building
Washington , DC 20510
Senate Majority Leader
522
The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker of the House
H-232,U.S.
Capitol
Washington , DC 20515
Speaker of the House
H-232,
The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Senate Minority Leader
317 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Senate Minority Leader
317 Russell Senate Office Building
The Honorable Nancy
Pelosi
House Democratic Leader
H-204,U.S.
Capitol
Washington , DC 20515
House Democratic Leader
H-204,
Dear Mr. Reid, Mr. McConnell, Mr. Boehner, and Ms. Pelosi:
We write to respectfully urge immediate action from
the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to fully investigate the
facts surrounding the terrorist attack against the U.S.
consulate in Benghazi , Libya
on September 11, 2012 ,
which resulted in the deaths of four Americans including U.S. Ambassador
Christopher Stevens.
The FBI has led an ongoing criminal investigation into the
events in Benghazi , relying on
cooperation from local and national police in Libya ,
Tunisia , and Egypt .
Incredibly, this investigation has proceeded very slowly with the FBI only
reaching the scene of attack weeks afterwards due to the Libyan government's
lack of approval. The FBI has also been conducting its investigation in Tripoli
- more than 500 miles from the scene of attack. Worsening the situation, the
Tunisian authorities recently released Ali Ani al-Harzi, the only suspect in
the attack to have been taken into custody. To-date, the U.S. Government has
yet to bring to justice any of the terrorists responsible for the attack in Benghazi .
On December 30,
2012 , the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental
Affairs (HSGAC) released a report on the Benghazi
terrorist attacks entitled, Flashing Red: A Special Report on the Terrorist
Attack in Benghazi . Among its
findings, it stated that "the State Department failed to take adequate
steps to fill the resulting security gap, or to invest in upgrading the Libyan
security forces" and that "the Department of State did not adequately
respond to security requests from its personnel in Benghazi ."
Last week, Secretary Hillary Clinton testified before the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee on the
finding of the Accountability Review Board's (ARB) report on the attacks and on
the State Department's performance leading up to, during, and following the
attack. The ARB found that "systematic failures and leadership and
management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State
Department resulted in a Special Mission security posture that was inadequate
for Benghazi and grossly inadequate
to deal with the attack that took place."
In a CNN interview last October, Secretary Clinton stated,
"I take responsibility [for the security of American diplomatic outposts].
I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world,
275 posts." Yet, Secretary Clinton was not interviewed by the ARB, and she
has chosen not to relieve those responsible for gross negligence in the State
Department from their posts. Instead, these individuals have only been placed
on administrative leave, and they continue receiving paychecks from the
American taxpayers.
The Administration's explanation to the American people
about what occurred in Benghazi on September 11, 2012 reveal stunning
discrepancies between the falsehood that was propagated for weeks on end by
Ambassador Susan Rice that the attack was "spontaneous," the outcome
of a protest "spun out of control" and the truth validated in the ARB
that "the Board concluded that there was no protest prior to the
attacks." The American people do not take lightly to being misled about
what really happened in Benghazi ,
and we believe that those decision-makers responsible for such action should be
held accountable.
Further, we find Secretary Clinton's attempts to shift the
blame for the State Department's mismanagement and poor leadership to a lack of
funding from the U.S. Congress extremely troubling. Secretary Clinton's own
Deputy Assistant Secretary Charlene Lamb testified to the House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform on October
10, 2012 that budgetary considerations played no role in the State
Department's refusal to send additional security personnel to Benghazi .
This is not a money problem - it is a leadership and
management problem entrenched within the State Department. Last year, instead
of ensuring that Americans in high-risk areas had adequate security, the State
Department and USAID spent $322,000 to build dog kennels in Iraq, $750,000 to
restore a sixteenth-century tomb complex in India, $700,000 to conserve ruins
in Tanzania, and $20 million to spark "private sector
competitiveness" in Ethiopia. While some of these programs may support U.S.
interests in some capacity, shouldn't the State Department consider the lives
of American diplomats more valuable when prioritizing funding?
On May 7, 2012 ,
the State Department denied a request by a group of Special Forces assigned to
protect the U.S.
consulate in Libya
to continue their use of a DC-3 airplane for security operations. Yet four days
later, the State Department authorized the U.S.
embassy in Vienna to purchase a
$108,000 electric vehicle charging station for the embassy Chevrolet Volts as
part of the "Energy Efficiency Sweep of Europe" initiative.
We find that these priorities in expenditures in light of
the deteriorating security environment in Benghazi
a matter that requires full accountability by those responsible.
We believe that the U.S. Congress has a responsibility to
the American people to conduct appropriate oversight over this issue. We are
not satisfied by the testimony given by Secretary Clinton last week, nor do we
believe the complete picture was given by the ARB.
In light of all of this, we feel there is a compelling
reason for Congress to open its own investigation into what happened in Benghazi .
We appreciate your timely consideration of this matter.
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