Lucylastic
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WASHINGTON — There was nothing the military could have done on the night of Sept. 11, 2012, to stop the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, but the special House committee investigating the terrorist incident will continue to probe the Pentagon’s actions that night, the committee's chairman said Tuesday.
“Whether or not they could have gotten there in time, I don’t think there is any issue with respect to that. They couldn’t," Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told Fox News.
That concurs with previous congressional investigations that concluded the military could not have responded quickly enough to stop the 2012 attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
But the issue of the military’s response, one of the few Benghazi-related controversies that appeared to be settled, has resurfaced as a key investigative point for Gowdy's special House committee, formed two years ago.
Gowdy and the panel's other GOP members have requested documents and witnesses for months about the military response. Most recently, they've sought info about a handful of military servicemembers who stated — sometimes anonymously — that resources could have been deployed effectively, but weren’t.
Those allegations, which have not been verified by Gowdy’s investigators, would contradict testimony from multiple civilian and military leaders who for years have said proper personnel and equipment could not have arrived fast enough to change the outcome of the attacks.
In a recent clash with the Pentagon over locating such witnesses, Gowdy said there was still more to uncover about how the Pentagon responded that night.
“Talking to the generals and the admirals is important. So too is talking to the service members actually on the ground making preparations to carry out orders," Gowdy wrote to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on May 6. "I would rather risk interviewing a witness in good faith, who ultimately produces little probative information than risk not interviewing one who does.”
Democrats, who have labeled the special investigation a politically motivated waste of taxpayer money, said Gowdy’s comment Tuesday echoes those made by his former chief counsel during closed-door witness interviews in January.
“Chairman Gowdy has finally admitted what we have all known for years: the central Republican allegation that the military was told to withhold assets that could have saved lives in Benghazi for political reasons is wrong,” Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/17/benghazi-committee-renews-focus-militarys-response/84507742/
From the military times
on the night of the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, according to leaked testimony from a retired, three-star Army general who served as chief lawyer for Republicans on the House committee investigating the attacks.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Dana Chipman "repeatedly commended the military's actions on the night of the attacks during closed interviews with Defense Department officials," including a Jan. 8 interview with former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Democrats on the committee say.
Chipman, a former judge advocate general for the Army, served as chief counsel for Republicans on the House Benghazi panel from August 2014 until January.
Top Democrats on the committee — Reps. Elijah Cummings of Maryland and Adam Smith of Washington — released the testimony Sunday in a letter to the panel's chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. The letter is the latest volley in an escalating, election-year fight over the House Benghazi investigation, which has lasted more than two years.
Democrats have called for panel to disband and say it is a thinly veiled excuse for Republicans to undermine Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the attacks.
Republicans say the Obama administration has dragged its feet, failing to produce needed documents or interview subjects, delaying a final report in the twin assaults on Sept. 11, 2012, that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
The Democrats' letter quotes Chipman as telling Panetta: "I think you ordered exactly the right forces to move out and to head toward a position where they could reinforce what was occurring in Benghazi or Tripoli or elsewhere in the region. And, sir, I don't disagree with the actions you took, the recommendations you made and the decisions you directed."
Chipman later told Panetta that he was "worried" that U.S. officials were caught by surprise during the Benghazi raids, which occurred on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Still, Chipman told Panetta: "Nothing could have affected what occurred in Benghazi," the letter said.
http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2016/05/16/former-gop-lawyer-military-acted-properly-benghazi/84460670/
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