Leafing Benghazi News Today

Communications. you would send diplomats and envoys into places and not hear from them for maybe months. this was, obviously, not of that kind, but it was not that different in degree from what we had done before, and it was a risky undertaking and one which chris volunteered for and was anxious to undertake. >> and it was so risky id like to pull be up another e-mail from the op center that was forwarded to you from ms. abedin on sunday, april 10th. so he had been there about five days. and it ...

Leaders, business leaders in benghazi. so he felt very comfortable. it was his decision. ambassadors do not have to seek permission from the state department to travel around the country that they are assigned to. he decided to go to benghazi. by taking two security officers with him and having three there, he had the requisite five that had been the subject of discussion between the embassy and the state departments security professionals. im not going to in any be -- in any way suggest that he...

To say its frustrating for us here on this panel asking these questions to hear you in your opening statement talk about the responsibility you took for all 70 plus thousand employees, yet ill read you an e-mail that is a conversation between two of those employees, and it seems as though youre just brushing it off as not having any knowledge. >> im just saying i have no recollection of it, and it doesnt core respond with the facts of what we were doing on a regular basis. >> ive got a few secon...

The least we could do would be to actually focus on the four brave americans who were killed, why they were killed and focus on benghazi. and we have not. i mean, mr. process couples questions i found to be the most interesting. it was like he was running for president. he wanted to debate you on overall libya policy as to why we got in there in the first place. thats debatable, and i think you will argue that quite well. but thats not about the attack on benghazi. thats not about what we could ...

Appropriate for him to stay for a long time or a short time. that was very much going to depend upon chris own assessment. we knew we were sending someone who understood the area, who understood the language, who understood a lot of the personalities because of the historical study that he used to love to do, and we were going to be guided by what he decided. >> id like to draw your attention to an e-mail, its an e-mail found at tab one. its an op center e-mail that was forwarded to you from hum...

Why did you not acknowledge because of your interest in 2011 the importance of having those security officers there to do what was so important to you, which was the political reporting then in 2011, 10 and when an ambassador was there three, and he brought two of his own the night of the attack which would meet the requisite five, but there was really only three there at any given time. if you could address that, again, im running a little short on time. >> well, he did have five with him on se...

Testified emerging security challenges were addressed. why did you partner with the department of defense to conduct such a high priority review, and was it effective in addressing the shortfalls in benghazi and applying it for other locations? >> congressman -- congresswoman, thank you very much. and thanks for your service and particularly your knowledge about these issues arising from your own military service and the service on the committees here in the house. its very challenging to get mi...

From talking to your senior advisers that they knew -- and many of them are here today seated behind you -- they knew to send you important information, issues that were of importance to you. and i can only conclude by your own records that there was a lack of interest in libya in 2012. so lets first focus, though, on this pile and what was happening in libya in 2011. we had an ambassador to libya, ambassador cress, but youve told us -- and you told us in your opening -- you hand picked chris st...

But all of that begs the question as to why weve spent the $4.7 million that we have spent on this. even in the chairmans opening remarks, it was primarily a defense of the committees existence. not any new information, not heres what we in those 17 months and $4.7 million have figured out that is new and different. nothing. in fact be, weve heard nothing -- in fact, weve heard nothing. even todays hearing, not a single, solitary thing that hasnt already been discussed repeatedly. so weve learne...

We were combating the proliferation of weapons. thats one of the reasons why there was a cia presence in benghazi, because we were trying to figure out how to get those weapons out of the wrong hands and get them collected in a way and destroyed. and, in fact, we began reducing those heavy weapon stocks. we were, you know, working on providing transition assistance to the libyans. i met with the libyans, i telephoned with the libyans, i saw the libyans all during this period, and it was hard bec...