Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Benghazi on Thursday. The committees stated purpose is to find out why four Americans, including our ambassador, were killed in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, just seven weeks before Barack Obama was re-elected to the presidency of the United States.
Though we don’t know yet what triggered the attack, who was involved or why there was no U.S. response to try to defend our own, the committee has been accused by Democrats and by Mrs. Clinton herself of being a partisan witch hunt out.
Hillary once famously asked “What difference does it make anyway?” as to how, why and by whom the Americans were killed. A shocking response from the woman who was Secretary of State, responsible for our embassies and the safety of State Department employees worldwide. The answer to her question is that it makes a great deal of difference. The death of four Americans could have been prevented. In order to assure it never happens again, we must have a clear understanding of how and why the 2012 attack happened. In order to have a full picture, we certainly need to hear from the then-Secretary of State. There is nothing partisan about that.
But Hillary won’t be the one asking the questions on Thursday. The questions will be directed at her by the members of the committee. The mystery is what will they ask her? It may be tempting to spend a great deal of time on how and why she set up her own server and not only used it for her own email, but also assigned email on the server to her top aides as well. The email questions, under the banner of national security, have some merit. But the bulk of the questions should focus on Benghazi and the secretary’s role.
Among the questions Hillary should be asked are:
1) Did Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens request additional security for himself, his team and American locations in Libya?
2) Why did the State Department turn down those requests?
3) Where were you when you first heard of the attack on Benghazi? Was a request made for back-up to quell the attack? Did you communicate with President Obama and/or other members of the administration that evening? If so, with whom and by what means? Phone? Text? Email? In person?
4) When did you hear of Ambassador Stevens’ death? From whom?
5) When did you first hear of the YouTube video? From whom?
6) When did you first learn the YouTube video was most likely not the cause of the attack?
7) When did you first hear of the Ansar Al Sharia terrorist group’s potential involvement?
8) Did you promise the families of the four victims that you’d get the maker of the YouTube video? Even if the YouTube video had been what stoked the attack, which we now know it was not, why is the video maker to blame for their actions?
9) Was Chris Stevens talking, communicating in any way, with Syrian rebels? Were they al Qaeda? What was the purpose of those conversations?
10) During your time as secretary, did the State Department approve the sale of weapons to any rebel groups in the Middle East? What groups? How did you establish contact with them? Were any of these groups al Qaeda-affiliated?
11) Did you communicate with anyone via email or text message about the attack in Libya. If yes, with whom?
12) As Secretary of State, did you understand how to recognize classified information, even if it wasn’t marked as such? Did you understand what information you might send yourself, which obviously wouldn’t be marked at the time you initiated it, would be considered classified? Please elaborate. Did you ever send classified information on your home server?
13) You have stated that you deleted more than 30,000 emails. Were any emails deleted that work-related?
14) Who reviewed the emails for content before being deleted? Was that person (or persons) cleared to handle classified information?
15) It has been reported that your attorney, David Kendall, had a USB flash drive with a copy of your emails. Is that true? If so, did any of the emails on the USB flash drive contain classified information? Does Mr. Kendall have the proper security clearance to handle Top Secret, or other classified information?
16) In addition to yourself, it is reported you set up email accounts for top aides of yours at the State Department on your home server. Is that true? Who did you set up accounts for? Why did you establish email addresses on your home server for your chief of staff and top aides? Have those aides turned over all work-related emails for retention in the public record?
17) As Secretary of State, who is ultimately responsible for the safety of State Department employees around the globe? Who in our State Department bears responsibility for the policies in Libya? Who in our State Department bears responsibility for the attack in Benghazi?
The list is no where near complete, but it includes important questions that are factual in nature and fill in a lot of the blanks. Despite Mrs. Clinton’s claims that she has answered all the questions about this, first, no she hasn’t and second, she has avoided allowing many questions on Benghazi.
Let’s hope the members of the House Select Committee take their job seriously and ask fact-based questions. Further, let’s hope Mrs. Clinton actually answers them.
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