A riveting account from diplomat right on the scene
http://israel-commentary.org/?p=6563
By John Rossomando •
Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) – Steven Emerson, Executive Director
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 of the Departments of
State and Defense. (Obama, H. Clinton, Hagel, Susan Rice and loyal Democratic Party Associates and Enablers) jsk
II Diplomat Airs Benghazi Attack Details in Riveting Account of Libya Raid, Official Knocks Administration Response
Article
Redacted from article by SIOBHAN HUGHES And ADAM ENTOUS
WASHINGTON—A high-ranking American diplomat delivered an emotional reconstruction Wednesday of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, providing the first detailed public account from an American official who was on the ground in Libya.
Gregory Hicks told a House hearing of the harrowing attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
The testimony from Gregory Hicks, the No. 2 U.S. official in Libya at
the time, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
also drew new attention to key questions about the attacks, and how the
administration handled the aftermath.
The diplomat said he believes the U.S. military could have
done more to assist U.S. personnel on the ground. He also said top
officials in Washington overlooked information in their early
conclusion, since abandoned, that the attack began as a protest.
The riveting narrative from Mr. Hicks, a career
diplomat, could revive an issue that had begun to fade after the
re-election of President Barack Obama and the confirmation this year of
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of State John Kerry.
Mark Thompson, the deputy coordinator for operations at the State
Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism in Washington, and Eric
Nordstrom, who was in charge of U.S. security in Libya until shortly
before the attacks, also testified.
Mr. Hicks recounted his last conversation with U.S. Ambassador
Christopher Stevens, his own desperate appeals for help, and the moment
he received “the saddest phone call I’ve ever had in my life.” Mr.
Stevens and three other Americans died in the attacks.
Mark Thompson, Gregory Hicks and Eric Nordstrom of the State
Department give testimony to Congress about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks
on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Photo: Getty Images.
Republicans charge the Obama administration hasn’t told all it knows
about the periods before, during and after the assault. The
administration and Democrats say that dozens of hours of public
testimony and thousands of pages of documents, along with an exhaustive
independent investigation, have settled the outstanding questions.
Pentagon officials rebutted Mr. Hicks’ testimony Wednesday, saying
the military wasn’t in position to mount a rescue that night, and on
that critical matter, the hearing didn’t shed new light. The
administration’s allies have called the Republican-led House
investigations, under way in five different committees, politically
motivated, aimed at discrediting former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, a leading candidate for the 2016 Democratic presidential
nomination.
Mr. Hicks alleged he was demoted for challenging the official
line, specifically the picture painted during TV interviews by United
Nations Ambassador Susan Rice, who said the rampage grew out of a
protest over a U.S.-made, anti-Islamic video that sparked anti-American
demonstrations across the Mideast and Europe.
“I was stunned, my jaw dropped and I was embarrassed,” Mr. Hicks said of his reaction to Ms. Rice’s statements.
During a return to Washington to attend a funeral for one of the men
killed, Mr. Hicks said he was summoned to the office of an
undersecretary “and she delivered a blistering critique of my management
style.” Based in part on the criticism, Mr. Hicks said he agreed to
curtail his employment in Libya. Mr. Hicks said he wound up as a foreign
affairs officer.
“I’ve been effectively demoted from deputy chief of mission to desk officer,” Mr. Hicks said.
The State Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Hicks also criticized Mrs. Clinton for minimizing debate about when the administration realized the attacks were terrorism. In
January, questioned by lawmakers, she threw up her arms and, noting
there were four dead Americans, asked, “What difference at this point
does it make?”
Mr. Hicks said Libya’s new leader, Mohamed Magariaf, who was trying
to establish credibility after the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi, had
already declared that the attack resulted from terrorism. Mrs. Clinton’s
statement, Mr. Hicks said, was an affront to the Libyan leader.
“His credibility was reduced,” Mr. Hicks said. “And I definitely
believe that it negatively affected our ability to get the FBI team
quickly to Benghazi” to investigate the attacks.
Mr. Hicks, by turns calm and emotional, told lawmakers his story of
the night of last Sept. 11. He said he was at home in Tripoli watching
television when a foreign-service officer ran in at 9:45 p.m. local
time, yelling, “Greg, Greg, the consulate’s under attack.”
Checking his cellphone, Mr. Hicks said he saw two missed phone calls,
one from Mr. Stevens and one from a phone number he didn’t recognize.
Mr. Hicks said he called the number he didn’t recognize and Mr.
Stevens answered. “Greg, we’re under attack,” Mr. Stevens said before
the call cut off. It was the first stage in a frightening and chaotic
episode for State Department staffers in Libya.
Just before 11 p.m., Mr. Hicks said he asked the embassy’s defense
attaché, who was in contact with the Pentagon’s Africa Command in
Stuttgart, Germany, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, whether
any military aircraft were on the way.
“Is anything coming? Will they be sending us any help? Is there something out there?” Mr. Hicks said he asked.
The defense attaché told him that the nearest fighter jets were based
in Italy, and it would take two to three hours for them to “get
on-site”—but there were no air-refueling aircraft available so they
could make the trip.
“I said, ‘Thank you very much.’ And we went on with our work,” Mr. Hicks testified.
At about 12:30 a.m. local time, diplomats in Tripoli learned of a new
threat by Islamists—to attack the embassy complex in the Libyan capital
city. The 55 diplomatic personnel in two facilities began to prepare to
evacuate.
Through the night, Mr. Hicks and his team frantically decided they
needed to send a second team from Tripoli to Benghazi to secure the
airport for the withdrawal of personnel. They decided that a team of
special-operations forces should go. But the team was told to stand
down, a call Mr. Hicks said he believed came from the military.
Mr. Hicks quoted a lieutenant colonel as telling him: “This is the
first time in my career that a diplomat has more balls than somebody in
the military.”
At 2 a.m., Mrs. Clinton and her top advisers called Mr. Hicks for an
update. “She asked me what was going on and I briefed her on
developments,” Mr. Hicks said, adding that most of the call was about
the search for Mr. Stevens.
Mr. Hicks said that he didn’t discuss whether the attack was
terrorist-related with Mrs. Clinton, because he had already reported
that assertion.
Mr. Hicks said during the night, the embassy received several calls
from Mr. Stevens’s phone in which a caller said: “We know where the
ambassador is. Please, you can come get him.”
Mr. Hicks said the Americans feared the calls were a hoax, designed to lure the Americans into “a trap.”
Then, around 3 a.m., Mr. Hicks received a call from the prime
minister of Libya, informing him that Mr. Stevens was dead. “I think it
was the saddest phone call I’ve ever had in my life,” Mr. Hicks said,
choking up. He said he immediately called the State Department to inform
them.
Mr. Nordstrom said the Accountability Review Board didn’t properly
delve into the matter because it didn’t talk to the right people. “They
stopped short of interviewing people who I personally know were involved
in key decisions,” he testified.
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