WASHINGTON Despite two explosions and dozens of other security threats, U.S. officials in Washington turned down repeated pleas from American diplomats in Libya to increase security at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi where the U.S. ambassador was killed, Republican leaders of a House committee said Tuesday.
In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chairman Darrell Issa and Rep. Jason Chaffetz of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee said their information came from "individuals with direct knowledge of events in Libya."
Issa, R-Calif., and Chaffetz, R-Utah, said the attack three weeks ago in Benghazi that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was the latest in a long line of attacks on Western diplomats and officials in Libya in the months before the 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the U.S.
Intense questioning over the White House's handling of the situation in Libya has gained a lot of traction in Republican circles recently, perhaps as a late election-season broadside.
On Sunday on "Face the Nation ", former House Speaker Newt Gingrich suggested the ambassador was without security on 9/11, and that was a terrible mistake. (There was a small security detail in Benghazi during the attack. It was overrun.)
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said recently the handling of the situation was "unbelievable." GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan called the incident "part of a bigger story of the unraveling of (the Obama administration's) agenda all over the world."
In the most recent push back against the Obama administration's actions in Libya, the House committee's letter listed 13 incidents in all that should have given the White House concern, but Chaffetz said in an interview there were more than 50. Two of them involved explosive devices: a June 6 blast that blew a hole in the security perimeter. The explosion was described to the committee as "big enough for 40 men to go through"; and an April 6 incident where two Libyans who were fired by a security contactor threw a small explosive device over the consulate fence.
"A number of people felt helpless in pushing back" against the decision not to increase security and "were pleading with them to reconsider," Chaffetz said. He added that frustrated whistle-blowers were so upset with the decision that they were anxious to speak with the committee.
Paul Ryan attacks Obama over Libya: "Not just an isolated incident"
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