WASHINGTON Lawmakers on a House panel were hearing testimony on diplomatic security in Libya leading up to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that left Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead.
The committee hearing followed assertions Tuesday night by the State Department that it never concluded that the Sept. 11 attack stemmed from protests over an American-made video ridiculing Islam and was instead a terrorist attack.
One of the key issues centered around whether diplomatic mission in Libya were provided with the necessary security personnel to safeguard staff in a country struggling to control heavily armed militias.
The committee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has alleged that the State Department turned aside pleas from its diplomats in Libya to increase security in the months and weeks before the attack in Benghazi. One witness, Eric Nordstrom, is the former chief security officer for U.S. diplomats in Libya, who earlier told the congressional investigators his pleas for more security were ignored.
Nordstrom's prepared testimony struck a different tone, however. He told the panel that the "ferocity and intensity of the attack was nothing that we had seen in Libya, or that I had seen in my time in the Diplomatic Security Service. Having an extra foot of wall, or an extra-half dozen guards or agents would not have enabled us to respond to that kind of assault."
He also testified that he was "impressed with the plans that would send our team into Libya-a massive show of well-organized resources. I felt that resource requests would be considered seriously and fastidiously by [Diplomatic Security] and the [State] Department. I believe that the vast majority of my requests were considered in that manner."
A memo Tuesday by the Oversight Committee's Democratic staff provided details of Nordstrom's interview with the panel's investigators. In that interview, Nordstrom said he sent two cables to State Department headquarters in March 2012 and July 2012 requesting additional diplomatic security agents for Benghazi, but he received no responses.
He stated that Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary for international programs, wanted to keep the number of U.S. security personnel in Benghazi artificially low. He said Lamb believed the Benghazi facilities did not need any diplomatic security special agents because there was a residential safe haven to fall back to in an emergency.
Nordstrom's Oct. 1 memo to the congressional investigator said, "You will note that there were a number of incidents that targeted diplomatic missions and underscored the GoL's (government of Libya) inability to secure and protect diplomatic missions.
"This was a significant part of (the diplomatic) post's and my argument for maintaining continued DS (diplomatic security) and DOD (Department of Defense) security assets into Sept/Oct. 2012; the GoL was overwhelmed and could not guarantee our protection.
"Sadly, that point was reaffirmed on Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi."
Nordstrom, who served in his role as regional security officer until July 2012, also provided the committee with a list of 230 security incidents between Sept. 2011 and July 2012.
Lt. Col, Andrew Wood, the former head of the 16-member U.S. military team in Libya, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that U.S. security was so weak that in April, only one U.S. diplomatic security agent was stationed in Benghazi.
Wood, who is a member of the Utah National Guard, said, "The security in Benghazi was a struggle and remained a struggle throughout my time there," which ended in August, roughly a month before the attack.
"The situation remained uncertain and reports from some Libyans indicated it was getting worse. Diplomatic security remained weak. In April there was only one U.S. diplomatic security agent stationed there," he said. "The RSO (regional security officer) struggled to obtain additional personnel there but was never able to attain the numbers he felt comfortable with," Wood added.
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[h=3]Issa on State Dept official's testimony: "Doesn't seem to ring true"[/h]
Lamb, who approved security requests, told the panel, "We had the correct number of assets in Benghazi at the time of 9/11," which prompted Issa to say that explanation didn't "ring true" in light of the deadly attacks.The hearing struck a largely partisan tone from the beginning. Ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., took issue with Issa saying the committee was working on a "bipartisan basis," charging that Republicans on the panel had withheld documents and refused access to witnesses. He also said that the House itself had cut funding for diplomatic security by "hundreds of millions of dollars" in recent years.
The early administration explanations of the attack as a "spontaneous" outgrowth of anti-American protests sparked by a film mocking the Prophet Muhammad were also scrutinized.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and GOP members of Congress have increasingly sharpened their criticism of the administration's initial explanation of the attack, which has evolved into an acknowledgment that it was a terrorist act.
The committee hearing followed assertions Tuesday night by the State Department that it never concluded that the Sept. 11 attack stemmed from protests over an American-made video ridiculing Islam and was instead a terrorist attack.
One of the key issues centered around whether diplomatic mission in Libya were provided with the necessary security personnel to safeguard staff in a country struggling to control heavily armed militias.
The committee's chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has alleged that the State Department turned aside pleas from its diplomats in Libya to increase security in the months and weeks before the attack in Benghazi. One witness, Eric Nordstrom, is the former chief security officer for U.S. diplomats in Libya, who earlier told the congressional investigators his pleas for more security were ignored.
Nordstrom's prepared testimony struck a different tone, however. He told the panel that the "ferocity and intensity of the attack was nothing that we had seen in Libya, or that I had seen in my time in the Diplomatic Security Service. Having an extra foot of wall, or an extra-half dozen guards or agents would not have enabled us to respond to that kind of assault."
He also testified that he was "impressed with the plans that would send our team into Libya-a massive show of well-organized resources. I felt that resource requests would be considered seriously and fastidiously by [Diplomatic Security] and the [State] Department. I believe that the vast majority of my requests were considered in that manner."
A memo Tuesday by the Oversight Committee's Democratic staff provided details of Nordstrom's interview with the panel's investigators. In that interview, Nordstrom said he sent two cables to State Department headquarters in March 2012 and July 2012 requesting additional diplomatic security agents for Benghazi, but he received no responses.
He stated that Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary for international programs, wanted to keep the number of U.S. security personnel in Benghazi artificially low. He said Lamb believed the Benghazi facilities did not need any diplomatic security special agents because there was a residential safe haven to fall back to in an emergency.
Nordstrom's Oct. 1 memo to the congressional investigator said, "You will note that there were a number of incidents that targeted diplomatic missions and underscored the GoL's (government of Libya) inability to secure and protect diplomatic missions.
"This was a significant part of (the diplomatic) post's and my argument for maintaining continued DS (diplomatic security) and DOD (Department of Defense) security assets into Sept/Oct. 2012; the GoL was overwhelmed and could not guarantee our protection.
"Sadly, that point was reaffirmed on Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi."
Nordstrom, who served in his role as regional security officer until July 2012, also provided the committee with a list of 230 security incidents between Sept. 2011 and July 2012.
Lt. Col, Andrew Wood, the former head of the 16-member U.S. military team in Libya, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that U.S. security was so weak that in April, only one U.S. diplomatic security agent was stationed in Benghazi.
Wood, who is a member of the Utah National Guard, said, "The security in Benghazi was a struggle and remained a struggle throughout my time there," which ended in August, roughly a month before the attack.
"The situation remained uncertain and reports from some Libyans indicated it was getting worse. Diplomatic security remained weak. In April there was only one U.S. diplomatic security agent stationed there," he said. "The RSO (regional security officer) struggled to obtain additional personnel there but was never able to attain the numbers he felt comfortable with," Wood added.
[h=3]Issa on State Dept official's testimony: "Doesn't seem to ring true"[/h]
Lamb, who approved security requests, told the panel, "We had the correct number of assets in Benghazi at the time of 9/11," which prompted Issa to say that explanation didn't "ring true" in light of the deadly attacks.The hearing struck a largely partisan tone from the beginning. Ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., took issue with Issa saying the committee was working on a "bipartisan basis," charging that Republicans on the panel had withheld documents and refused access to witnesses. He also said that the House itself had cut funding for diplomatic security by "hundreds of millions of dollars" in recent years.
The early administration explanations of the attack as a "spontaneous" outgrowth of anti-American protests sparked by a film mocking the Prophet Muhammad were also scrutinized.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and GOP members of Congress have increasingly sharpened their criticism of the administration's initial explanation of the attack, which has evolved into an acknowledgment that it was a terrorist act.