John Rossomando
http://www.investigativeproject.org/4009/whistleblowers-high-level-bureaucratic-errors
Three State Department whistleblowers told the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee Wednesday that bureaucratic wrangling led to
the tragedy in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012 that left four
Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, dead.
The whistleblowers included Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of Mission and Charge d'Affairs in Libya; Eric Nordstrom, diplomatic security officer and former State Department regional security officer in Libya; and Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant secretary for Counterterrorism.
Inadequate security, combined with substandard building requirements
at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, resulted in the tragedy, Hicks'
testified.
A seven-member security team was dispatched from Tripoli to Benghazi
as soon as reports emerged that the diplomatic mission was under attack.
Stevens was reported missing by the time the team arrived, according to
a timeline provided by the Defense Department last year.
As the assault unfolded, four Army Special Forces members, part of a
second team, were told not to go although they were poised to board a
Libyan C-130 bound for Benghazi as early as 1:45 a.m.
"They were told not to board the flight, so they missed it," Hicks said.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., pressed Hicks on whether Stevens had told
him about a demonstration outside the consulate the afternoon before his
death.
Stevens had made no mention of any demonstration before the consulate
was attacked, Hicks said. He was "shocked and embarrassed" when U.N.
Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on five Sunday morning talk shows the
following Sunday to say that the attack had been the result of protests
against the "Innocence of Muslims" video.
Gowdy then disclosed the contents of an email sent to top State
Department officials the day after the attack saying Ansar al-Shariah
was responsible. The email from Beth Jones, acting Assistant Secretary
of State for Near Eastern Affairs, was sent to then-Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"When he (the Libyan ambassador to the United States) told me that
former elements of the Gaddafi regime was responsible, I told him that
the group that conducted the attacks, Ansar al-Shariah, is affiliated
with Islamic terrorists," the email said.
Rice's comments hindered the FBI investigation into the Benghazi
attacks because it made getting the Libyans to cooperate more difficult,
Hicks said.
Fellow whistleblower Nordstrom testified that the Benghazi consulate
was considered temporary and was not built to the specifications needed
for a high-risk area.
Nordstrom blamed Clinton for the less-than-secure design of the
Benghazi consulate, saying she was the only person who could grant
waivers to except it from the standards put in places following the 1998
embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
All three witnesses placed responsibility for the inadequate security
at the Benghazi mission on the higher ups at the Departments of State
and Defense.
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