Chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi Trey Gowdy wasted no words while explaining clearly and convincingly the purpose of the committee’s investigation and the reason former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was called to testify on Thursday.
“Madame Secretary, I understand some people — frankly in both parties — have suggested this investigation is about you,” Gowdy said. “Let me assure you it is not. And let me assure you why it is not. This work is about something much more important than any single person. It is about four U.S. government workers, including our Ambassador, murdered by terrorists on foreign soil. It is about what happened before, during, and after the attacks that killed these four men.”
If looks could kill… @HillaryClinton glares at Rep. Trey Gowdy during #Benghazi hearing http://pic.twitter.com/nmsxeLTqAu
— Jim Hoft (@gatewaypundit) October 22, 2015
The chairman was clearly seeking to refocus the public’s attention on why the committee was established following Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s gaffe late last month, which Hillary Clinton and supporters used to argue the Republicans are mainly seeking to hurt her presidential bid through the investigation.
“Not a single member of this Committee signed up for an investigation into you or your email system. We signed up because we wanted to honor the service and sacrifice of four people sent to a foreign land to represent us – who were killed – and do everything we can to prevent it from happening to others,” he said.
The former federal prosecutor went on to point out, “Our Committee has interviewed half a hundred witnesses, not a single one of them has been named Clinton until today. You were the Secretary of State for this country when our facility was attacked. So, of course this Committee is going to talk to you. You are an important witness, but you are just one important witness, among half a hundred important witnesses.”
The chairman chronicled some of the shortcomings of previous investigations, including the Accountability Review Board (ARB), which Clinton referenced numerous times when she testified before Congress in 2013. He pointed out the ARB did not review her emails, nor was the transcript made available of the interviews conducted, so the committee has no way of knowing if all the relevant questions were asked.
As for previous congressional investigations, Gowdy raised several issues:
If those investigations were serious and thorough, how did they miss Secretary Clinton’s emails? If those previous congressional investigations were serious and thorough, why did they fail to interview dozens of key State Department witnesses including agents on the ground, who experienced the terrorist attacks firsthand?
Just last month, three years after Benghazi, top aides finally returned documents to the State Department. A month ago, this Committee received 1500 new pages of Secretary Clinton’s emails related to Libya and Benghazi. 3 years after the attacks. A little over two weeks ago, this Committee received roughly 1400 pages of Ambassador Stevens’ emails. 3 years after the attacks.
It is impossible to conduct a serious, fact-centric investigation without access to the documents from the former Secretary of State, the Ambassador who knew more about Libya than anyone else, and testimony from witnesses who survived the attacks.
The chairman began to draw his opening statement to a close saying, “There are certain characteristics that make our country unique in the annals of history. We are the greatest experiment in self-governance the world has ever known. And part of that self-governance includes self-scrutiny – even of the highest officials. Our country is strong enough to handle the truth. And our fellow citizens expect us to pursue the truth, wherever the facts take us.”
“We are going to write that final, definitive accounting of what happened in Benghazi. We would like to do it with your help, but we are going to do it nonetheless,” he promised.
In her opening statement, Clinton said that the State Department must send people to “dangerous places” like Benghazi to do their job. She encouraged the committee to follow the example of State Department employees who serve abroad by putting national interest above of “politics and ideology.”
h/t: TheBlaze
via Before It's News | Popular ALTERNATIVE NEWS http://ift.tt/202C7XF
No comments:
Post a Comment