Page 2 - Leafing Benghazi News Today

Illinois. the chair now recognizes the gentlelady from alabama, ms. roby. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> my colleagues have focused on your relationship with the ambassador, chris stevens, and why you sent him into benghazi in 2011 as part of your broader libya initiative. but its not so clear from everything that weve reviewed that you had a vision in benghazi going forward into 2012 and beyond. it appears that there was confusion and uncertainty within your own department about libya. an...

Reassess, but it could have been ten days, it could have been sixty days depending upon what he found and what he reported back to us. >> and possibly what was determined about the danger of benghazi. who were those officials, secretary -- >> well, there were a number of officials -- >> that were advising you on the security specifically. >> well, with respect to the security, this was a particular concern of the assistant secretary for the bureau in which chris worked. >> im sorry, what was tha...

We have lost nonamericans with some of these attacks on facilities. weve lost our locally-employed staff. they never want to see any successful attack. so they have to be right 100% of the time. the terrorists only have to be right once. and, you know, thats why this is really at the core of what i tried to do before even i got the accountability review board, going back to the qddr, to come up with a better way of trying to make those assessments. >> madam secretary, if i may, just a few final ...

Counterpart, secretary carter at the defense department, are continuing that, because i think it was very useful. certainly, it was useful for our security professionals and our diplomats to be partnered in that way with the defense department. you know, historically the only presence at some of our facilities has been marines. and as you know well, marines were there not for the purpose of personnel protection, they were there to destroy classified material and equipment. and so part of the cha...

Its a fair and important question. the facility in benghazi was a temporary facility. there had been no decision made as to whether or not it would be permanent. it was not even a consulate. you know, our embassy was in tripoli. obviously, much of the work that we were doing was going flu the em bass -- through the embassy. there was a very vigorous discussion on the part of people who were responsible for making a recommendation about benghazi as to what form of consulate, what four of facility...

From the defense department to get a better idea of the 19 high threat posts. and thats exactly what we did. and it gave us some guidance to try to have better planning ahead of time. i know admiral mullen testified that it would be beyond the scope of our military to be able to provide immediate reaction to 270 posts, but thats why we tried to narrow down. and, of course, we do get help from our military in war zones. the militarys been incredibly supportive of our embassy in kabul and our emba...

Myself in some dangerous places, i understand the dedication of our men and women who choose to serve this country overseas. i have a special affinity for the diplomatic corps because these are folks who go in without the benefit of weapons, without the benefit of military might armed only with americas values and diplomatic words and a handshake to forward our nations interests globally. so i am absolutely determined to make sure that we safeguard in the name of our heroic dead our men and wome...

Of 2011 and that months later we come to find out that you didnt even know if we had a presence there? >> well, i cant comment on what has been reported. of course i knew we had a presence in benghazi. i knew that we were evaluating what that presence should be, how long it should continue, and i knew exactly what we were doing in libya. and i think its important since you have some very legitimate questions about what we were doing, you know, the united states played a major role in the first e...

That goes out initially looked at the 19 posts, thats great that they come back with a report. its kind of like, you know, the seven reports, and now we have another committee. we keep having committees to look into benghazi, but we never act on them. it doesnt help our men and women on the ground, and thats what im focused on. so what i want to know is when they came back with their recommendations to them, have they been resourced? are they institutionalized? what has been done with this proce...

No knowledge of -- >> please turn to tab 31. >> well, i trust that you have read it, but i also tell you that we had a presence in benghazi. we had members of the administration and congress visiting benghazi, so of course i knew we had a presence in benghazi. i cant speak to what someone either heard or misheard. but i think whats important -- and i understand that the underlying point of your question is what were we doing about -- >> right. and ive heard, ive heard -- >> thats what im trying ...