Rep. Trey Gowdy, South Carolina Republican and chairman of the House select committee on Benghazi, grilled a top State Department official Wednesday over a recommendation made more than a decade ago that the U.S. Secretary of State should “personally” review and sign off on security policy decisions.
The first public hearing of the select committee dealt with recommendations issued by a State Department review panel in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, and Mr. Gowdy was trying juxtapose issues with security on that night with a history of such warnings.
Mr. Gowdy read recommendations issued from a similar review panel after embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, including one saying the Secretary of State should “personally review” the security situation of embassies and official posts, closing those that are highly vulnerable and where security cannot be enhanced.
“Why do you think the 1999 [panel] went out of its way to use the word ’personally?’ ” he asked Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security Greg Starr.
“No comment, sir,” Mr. Starr said.
Prodded further, Mr. Starr said ultimately the secretary, who bears responsibility for the security, needs to be brought information necessary to make decisions.
“That is my job,” Mr. Starr said. “I have gone to the Secretary of State on different occasions, and we have talked specifically about the security [in] different places.”
“If I believe we are not doing the things we need to do, then it is my responsibility to bring it to the secretary,” he said.
Mr. Starr said he could not answer specifically as to whether it happened prior to the attack in Benghazi because he was not there at the time, but that in his time previously serving under multiple secretaries of State, he’s heard every secretary talk about the importance of security. He assumed his current post on Nov. 18, 2013 — nearly a year after former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was replaced by current Secretary John Kerry.
Mr. Gowdy said in his mind, a “personal” review involves more than just talking about it and asked if the State Department still accepts the recommendation.
“Yes,” Mr. Starr said, pointing to a new “vital presence validation” process that’s been instituted to confirm national interests in operating overseas posts. “We put this process up and it goes all the way up to the Secretary.”
“I would tell you, sir, that every single day for the years that I was with the Department of State, we were weighing the safety and security of our personnel versus what our national security priorities were, and I think that’s a fundamental tenet that you will find that everybody in the department agrees with,” he said.
Mr. Gowdy said former Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens, one of the Americans killed in the attack two years ago, was “equally clear” about needing and asking for help in Benghazi that didn’t come.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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