Democratic Presidential frontrunner and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to spar this morning with Republican members of the House Select Committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Washington observers and political junkies have been fixated on this
testimony -- beginning at 10 a.m. -- for months, waiting in anticipation
to see what impact it may have on her campaign.
The pressure is on Committee Chairman Rep. Trey Gowdy to produce results
or information that differs from Clinton's full day of Congressional
testimony on the attack nearly 3 years ago.
The lead-up to today's testimony has seen vicious political sniping from
Democrats on the committee, who have seized on remarks in recent days
from two Republican congressman and one former committee staffer, each
of whom suggested publicly that the committee has disproportionately
focused its attention on attacking Clinton.
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Gowdy has vehemently denied those claims, calling on his colleagues to
"shut up" about what they don't know. Last Sunday Gowdy said in an
interview with CBS he plans to question Clinton about her role in
denying requests to increase security at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi
prior to the attack. He says thousands of previously unseen emails to
and from Stevens obtained by his committee will help inform those
questions.
The House Select Committee on Benghazi was created in May of 2014 with
the purpose of conducting a full and complete investigation of the 2012
attack. Prior to Clinton's testimony today, the committee had held only
three public hearings. Most of the testimony it has received so far has
come in private sessions.
The aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on a U.S. consulate in
Benghazi and the nearby CIA annex instantly became a source of political
tension. President Obama faced questions about the military response,
allegations he misled the public about the nature the attack, and lax
diplomatic security in a war zone, all as he awaited a vote on his
reelection the following month.
Numerous investigations and reports were written about what happened
both on that night and in the lead up to the attack, and what needed to
be done to ensure it wouldn't happen again. Two of the higher-profile
reports were conducted by the Accountability Review Board (ARB),
convened by Clinton herself who was Secretary of State at the time, and
another later on by the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee.
In December of 2012, the ARB concluded that there was no protest before
the attack (which the Obama administration has previously alleged), that
the terrorist bore sole responsibility for the loss of life, and that "systematic failures of leadership and management deficiencies" at the State Department led to an "inadequate" security posture.
Clinton was never directly implicated in the report. Clinton has
admitted that the State Department could have done more to address
security needs in Benghazi prior to the attack, but said those decisions
were left to other people and she has denied any wrongdoing.
The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence focused on the
CIA's response to the attack following accusations personnel on the
ground were instructed to delay their response to the consulate, which
was being overrun by militants less than one mile way. The report
concluded that no such order had been given, despite contradictory
witness accounts given by some contracted security officers who were
there that night. It also concluded that a mixed group, including Al Qaeda
affiliates, were responsible for the attacks. It found that there had
been intelligence to support the administrations claims that the attack
was borne out of a protest, but said there was early intelligence to
counter that false assessment as well. The report declared itself as the
"definitive House statement" on the Intelligence Community's
involvement in the Benghazi attack.
