Benghazi hearingsRancorous congressional hearings on Benghazi attack marked by partisan rift

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform yesterday held hearings on the events surrounding the 11 September attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, and the subsequent handling by the State Department of information released to the public. The hearings were marked by rancor and bitter political acrimony, with Democrats on the committee charging the Republican majority with political grandstanding.

At one point in the hearings, the State Department displayed a photo of the compound in Benghazi and the surrounding area in order to highlight the security measures the department was implementing, such as a higher fence around the facility. Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) objected to the photo being displayed, insisting it was classified. Representative Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), the panel’s ranking Democrat, said his staff would find the photo on Google and display it. The panel then accepted that the State Department had the authority to declassify its own materials, but Darrell Issa (R-California), the panel’s chair, asked that it be taken down.

Republicans charged that the two sets of decisions by the State Department – not beefing up security at the Benghazi consulate, and initially saying that the attack was the result of a spontaneous reaction to the YouTube video – were motivated by the desire to show that the Obama approach to the post-Arab Spring Arab world was working: the United States could rely on local governments to secure U.S. interests, and al Qaeda-inspired terrorism was on the retreat.

Democrats charged that the Republican majority on the committee was motivated less by an urge to know what happened on the ground in Benghazi and more by the desire to embarrass the Obama administration on the even of the presidential election. The accused Darrell Issa and his Republican-controlled panel of refusing to make witnesses available, withholding documents, and effectively excluding Democrats from a fact-finding trip to Libya.

The Democratic staff also noted that House Republicans had voted for an embassy security funding package which was $459 million less than what the Obama administration had requested (the funds were restored by the Senate).

The Benghazi consulate security
Two security officers who served in Libya criticized the Department of State and said they were arguing with higher-ups in an effort to try to secure more staffing, but were rebuffed. State Department officials said that nothing proposed by these and other witnesses would have changed the bloody outcome in Benghazi.