Posture that was inadequate for benghazi this is from the most recent one. I want to know if you agree with this. Inadequate for benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place. Do you agree with the statement from the current arb . I accepted the recommendations of the current arb. My question is if you agree with it. I dont think thats a relevant question, congressman. I think the question is, i accepted their recommendations, and obviously their recommendations were based on their very thorough investigation and analysis. So, clearly i endorsed the entire boards work. In january 2014 senator feinstein noted conservative said, quote, in her report, the incidents at the tmf and cia were likely preventable end of quote. Do you agree with that statement from senator feinsteins report . Well, i would like to think that anything of that magnitude and the loss of life could have in some way been preventable. I think that what the arb recommended were steps to try to enhance our ability to prevent future attacks. Lets go back i want to go back now i have the right poster up. In 1998 heres what the arb said. It said, quote, the secretary of state should personally review the security situation of embassy, and other official premises closing those which are highly vulnerable and threatened, end of quote. Youve told us all day today that you dont think you should have been involved, quoting again from the arb, personally reviewing security. How do you square that . Well, there are a couple of important points to make about this, congressman. First, i made a number of decisions to Close Embassy and other official premises based on security. I closed the embassy in tripoli. I had to evacuate all of the americans out of libya. We had to, you know, lease ferries that came from malta. We closed embassies and other facilities when we had a strong consensus recommendation that it was necessary to do. So, that is that is a statement of secretarial responsibility. Now, with respect to looking at every security request, how high should the wall be, whether there should be barricades ba s placed on the east or the west side, that is handled by the Security Professionals. So, clearly, i closed embassies. I recommended that embassies and other facilities be closed. So i understand what that point is. Madam secretary, this is a yesorno question, do you think you complied with the arb in 1998 said and personally reviewed the security at benghazi . Well, thats that is not what my understanding of the 1998 arb. Its just words, madam secretary, theyre there. And i just answered. I personally reviewed other official facilities that were recommended because they were highly vulnerable and threatened to be closed and we closed some. Some we were able to reopen, which is kind of part of the process. With respect to the 1998 arb recommendations, by the time i became secretary, having succeeded two secretaries who served during very dangerous and threatening times, there was an assessment made that i certainly was briefed into that we had to look at how best to professionalize the security and the expert advice that we were receiving. That was exactly what i did, and i went further than that. I created a new position, a deputy secretary for resources and management. I also had recommended after our arb the Deputy Assistant secretary for high threats. So, this was a constant discussion about how to make us secure. But not whether or not the secretary of state should decide on the height of the barricades. I think thats where we may not be fully understanding one another, congressman. I think we understand each other perfectly. Of course, specific questions about closing embassies and other official premises that were vulnerable and threatened, of course, they came to me. I had to make the decision. Deciding whether the wall would be 10 feet, 12 feet, whether there would be three security agents or five, that was the province, as it should have been, of the professionals. Heres another one from the 1998 arb, first and foremost the secretary should take a personal and active role in carrying out the responsibility ensuring the security of the u. S. Diplomatic personnel abroad. Do you believe you complied with that requirement from the 1998 arb . Yes, i do. I believe that i had established a process, and i you know, i said earlier today state department and our Security Professionals have to be 100 right, and i think that, you know, what happened in benghazi was a tragedy and something that, you know, we all want to prevent from ever happening again. But there were many, many situations, many Security Issues that we had to deal with during the four years that i was secretary of state. And i did leave what i hope will be a very important additional position, namely the deputy for high threat posts, that now will focus solely on what are considered the highest threat places in the in the world for our personnel. Madam secretary, i hope you can understand the difference between creating a deputy under assistant secretary and americas senior diplomat getting involved in personal security. The amount of resources can be moved, the speed at which they will move rested only in your hands. Ive led organizations myself. Well, i respectfully disagree with that, congressman. Its been my experience that you want to find people who are dedicated 100 to security. You dont want a secretary or anyone dipping in and out, maybe making decisions based on factors other than what the professionals decide, at least that is my very strong opinion. Yes, maam, leaders lead. I want to ive just got a few seconds. In all the materials that have been produced to us today, i have not yet found the document that was prepared at your request for postgadhafi planning. Did you have such a document prepared prior to the time that mr. Gadhafi was removed . We had a number of documents. We had a long list of areas that we were working on and the process for following up on those areas. I dont know if it was one document or a dozen documents, but we had a lot of work that was ongoing. Both at the state department and at usaid. And did you ask for those documents to be prepared . Do you know if you had a team working on that or if it was something that was happening of its own accord . We had a number of people that were working on it. As i said, i sent both of my deputies out to libya to meet with the libyans. You know, we can do all the planning we want in washington, but its very important to did the libyans both what they want and what they expect from us. And so we had an ongoing dialogue that lasted over many months. Yes, maam, i agree with that. Well get a chance to talk about that in a bit. I yield back. The chair will now recognize the gentle lady from illinois, miss duckworth. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Secretary clinton, i apologize. My line of questioning will probably be a little bit boring because im going to get into some details that actually have to deal with security and how we can better safeguard americas diplomats now and onwards. From, you know i have to say that the arb conducted by admiral mullen, a man of great military pedigree and long service to this nation, quite honorable, brave service, as well as ambassador pickering i thought was well conducted and well thought out. And, in fact, dont just take my word for it. Im a pretty lowRanking Member of the house, but the republican chairman, longtime republican chairman of the House Armed Services committee, also, you know, and never once in our Committee Hearing did i hear him malign the work that was done in that arb as we on our Committee Also looked at what happened. So, i want to look at some of the findings from the arb. And i want to examine the failures of the Blue MountainLibya Security guards and the february 13 militia on that exact day, september 11, 2012. My understanding is benghazi neither the host countrys militia forces nor the state departments private local guards were capable of defending our personnel. These poorly trained forces either did not show up, they retreated in the face of danger or simply lacked the necessary tools to fight back effectively. I want to learn the lessons in benghazi and hold everyone accountable, not just the state department, but every agency involved as well as congress, ourselves. And this committee itself. For implementing significant comprehensive reforms that will prevent future tragedies. So, you know, looking at the work that ive done on Armed Services committee and on oversight government reform ive been consistently concerned with the cost and consequences of federal contract mismanagement. Costs american taxpayers a lot of dollars, so i want to look at the state departments policy of awarding local guard contracts using a very inflexible contract vehicle known as the lowest price technically acceptable or lpta vehicle. I think that should have raised red flags here in congress. When life and limb are at risk, such as when buying body armor for our troops overseas or barriers for our embassies, i dont know that lowest price technically acceptable is the right vehicle. So, can you discuss a little bit, why is it that the state department appears to have awarded local guard contracts in libya using this contracting method . Congresswoman, i think thats another very important question. I think the state department, like much of the rest of the government, often feels under pressure to go to lowest price, whether or not that lowest price is the best contract. And we had a lot of challenges, not just in libya, but in many places around the world, trying to work to find the right contractors to provide static security for a lot of our posts and facilities, to find more kinetic contractors who could be the front line of defense since we as we discussed earlier, were stationed in so many places where there were not American Military that could be called and quickly respond. So i would like very much, and perhaps there could be a working group with Armed Services and Foreign Affairs and others to look to see whether we couldnt get a little more flexibility into this decision making. Because the february 17th militia was viewed by the cia, which had vetted it as well as by our diplomats, as a reliable source for kinetic support. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didnt. And the static support proved to be not very useful at all on that night. So, i think youre really raising an important issue about how to get more flexibility into the contracting, because were not going to be able to bring American Military forces to every place where we are in a highthreat post either because the military cant afford to do that for us or because the host country wont invite us in. And the other problem, as you pointed out, is that if the host country doesnt have any real resources, its hard to know how much they can produce. That night i was calling the president of libya and demanding that he find any friendly militia, any friendly anybody, to show up and to support us. When our reinforcements, the security reinforcements from tripoli landed, a militia showed up and, in fact, kept them there until they had a big enough group to accompany them to the cia annex. So, its a very unpredictable and even erratic process. And it starts with in many instances the lowest price. And i dont think thats always the best way to get a contract for security. I happen to agree with you, and i think actually the lpta that im talking about that actually sets very inflexible standards for specifically the department of state is actually a law passed by congress in 1990. So, when you talk about maybe some sort of a working group, Congress Needs to do our part and maybe amend a 35yearold law that actually forced the state department to go with the lowest price. Secretary clinton, can you address what Actions Congress can fix problems that have to do with host country instituted stringent policies given the use of private security guards . My understanding is that the country of libya, the host nation in this case, did not allow your security contractors to carry firearms. The Blue Mountain guards. I think the Blue Mountain guards were not allowed to carry firearms, is that right . Yeah, Blue Mountain was not. Certainly our Diplomatic Security officers were. The militia members who were supposed to be providing kinetic help for us were. So, it was only the static guards that were not. Now, i will say that, you know, some of those guards did stand their ground. They were basically run over. Several of them were injured the night of the attack. So, i dont want to cast aspersions on all of them and the service they provided. But it was not adequate for what we needed then or really at any time. Are we facing that same type of restrictions in other nations as well, in other hot spots . We talked earlier about the 19 missions that are out there. Would this type of issues with the lpta and contracting and as well as host nation requirements . Yes, we do. You know, the host nation gets to call a lot of the shots. Under the vienna convention, the host nation is responsible for providing security for diplomatic posts. But when a host nation is either unwilling to do so, as we do have in some places where we are present, or unable to do so, because i do think with the libyans there was a desire to be helpful, but not a capacity to produce what we needed. We have to really work hard to get the kind of support that is required. And, you know, in some cases weve been able to work out arrangements with the host country. Some we have just defied them and tried to be very quiet about what we were doing. And others, you know, we are prohibited, so its a constant again, it goes back to that balancing of risk and reward that were always doing. Going back to the arb conducted by admiral mullen and ambassador pickering, how many of those recommendations did you as secretary of state accept . I accepted all of them. They made 29 recommendations, congresswoman. I accepted all 29 of them. And began to implement them before i left the state department. And i note that secretary kerry has continued that work. Do you recommend for future secretaries and for this committee and other members of congress some sort of a formal review process as we go onwards . I dont want there to be a review process that is triggered by death of americans. Uhhuh. This goes back to my earlier question about institutionalization of this process so that we make sure that our men and women in embassies right now are safe and that theyre safe tomorrow and a year from now and ten years from now. What needs to be done so that we can make sure that our four heroic dead did not lay down their lives in vain . Congresswoman, before the attacks in benghazi, the Congress Never fully funded the security requests that the administration sent to congress. Following benghazi that has improved, but there are still areas where i think greater greater funding and responsiveness would be helpful. It was unfortunate that we didnt get all the resources that might have enabled us to do more in all the highthreat posts before benghazi. But i appreciate what the congress has done since. The one specific recommendation that i would like to see the congress act on expeditiously is the Training Facility that would be set up in order to train Diplomatic Security officers specifically for these highthreat situations. And i think this is overdue. I know that on a bipartisan basis representatives from virginia, which is the state where the site that has been identified is found, have urged in a recent oped that the congress act on this. I would certainly echo that as well. Thank you. I yield back. I thank the gentle lady. Madam secretary, theyve called votes but well try in get mr. Ro roskum. I made a statement previously that wed received none of under secretary patrick kennedys emails, weve received some through production of other individuals emails. Weve not received a full productionve under secretary patrick kennedys emails. I wanted to clarify we could have some, but it is through other email production. Yield back. Yes, maam. Gentlemen from illinois. Can i direct your attention to the screen . Youre familiar with that clip, we came, we saw, he died. Is that the clinton doctrine . No. That was an expression of relief that the military mission undertaken by nato and our other partners had achieved its end. And, therefore, no more american, european or arab lives would be at stake in trying to prevent gadhafi from wreaking havoc on libyans or causing more problems to the region and beyond. I want to direct your attention, and maybe direct the groups attention right now to something that hasnt really been discussed. Theres been this explils scit criticism of republicans being partisan today, but i want to direct on what is going on with you and your team, many of whom are here with you today. Jake sullivan put together the ticktock on libya memo and that was a memo that was all about you. It put together 22 different accomplishments, and you were the central figure in all 22 of those accomplishments. And ive got to tell you, its really well put together. He uses language of action and initiative and leadership. Let me just give you a couple of these. Hrc, thats you obviously, announces, directs, appoints special envoy, travels to g8, secures russian abstention, secures transition of command and control, travels to berlin, rome, istanbul, hes basically laying the foundation that the libya policy is your policy, essentially hes making the argument that its your baby. Anyou are clearly familiar with this timeline because in email exchanges with your senior staff you were not happy about it. And the part that you werent happy about, wasnt that you were the focal point. Is that it didnt include enough. So, you said, this is your email, what bothers me is that the policy office prepared the timeline but it doesnt include much of what i did. Another time you said the timeline is totally inadequate. Which bothers me about our Record Keeping and ill come back to that in a minute, secretary. For example, i was in paris in 3 19 when the attack started. Its not on the timeline. What else is missing . Go over as soon as possible. Now, this timeline was together according to your senior staff exp