I’m quite critical of these partisan House hearings and I can’t grasp the errors made in the testimony by Gregory Hicks. I hate it when a guy gets so emotional he chokes up and tears while giving testimony about the attacks. He refers to twitter accounts as a claim he knew that night it was a terror attack executed by Ansar Al-Sharia. He also stated the [El Jala] hospital where Ambassador Stevens was take was run by this terror group. This is not the information I wrote about in the days after the attacks on our Benghazi mission. The district in Benghazi where the mission was located and the responsibility for the local hospital was a militant group 17th February Martyrs Brigade. Fighters from this group were also hired by Amb. Stevens to protect the US Consulate. On essentials, the testimony by Hicks is lacking insight and facts about the mission. Highly contentious, serving a partisan debate.
Former US official describes Libya attack
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former top diplomat in Libya described a 2 a.m. call from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, and amid confusion about the fate of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and fears about the safety of additional American personnel.
“She asked me what was going on and I briefed her on developments. Most of the conversation was about the search for Ambassador Stevens,” Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “It was also about what we were going to do with our personnel in Benghazi [Hicks misspoke here as he was busy evacuating his personnel in Tripoli – Oui] and I told her we would need to evacuate and she said that was the right thing to do.”
“About 12:30 at the same time that we see the Twitter feeds that are asserting that Ansar Sharia is responsible for the attack, we also see a call for an attack on the embassy in Tripoli. And so we begin to – we — we had always thought that we were in — under threat, that we now have to take care of ourselves and we began planning to evacuate our facility. When I say our facility, I mean the State Department residential compound in Tripoli, and to consolidate all of our personnel in — at the annex in Tripoli. We have about 55 diplomatic personnel in the two annexes.”
Haltingly, Hicks recounted “the saddest phone call in my life” — getting word from a Libyan official that Stevens had been killed.
The politically charged hearing on the Sept. 11, 2012 attack is the latest in a long-running and bitter dispute between the administration and congressional Republicans who have challenged the White House’s actions before and after the deadly assault, in which Stevens and three other Americans died.
Lawmakers partisan, witnesses emotional in Benghazi hearing
(Yahoo – The Ticket) – His voice choked to a hoarse whisper, a former top diplomat in Libya walked lawmakers step by step through the harrowing Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, and the moment he learned the extremists had killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Stevens had gone missing and was thought to be in a hospital held by extremists hostile to the United States, Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
At 3 a.m., according to Hicks, Libya’s prime minister called. “I think it’s the saddest phone call I’ve ever had in my life,” Hicks said softly but clearly. “He told me that Ambassador Stevens had passed away. I immediately telephoned Washington that news afterwards.”
Hick’s recollections were not the only emotional moment in the early part of the hearing. Eric Nordstrom, a former regional security officer in Libya, teared up and his voice broke as he told the packed committee room that he wants the full story to come out. “It matters,” he said. “It matters.”
Lawmakers holding the contentious session listened quietly. But in the opening moments of the hearing, they had wasted no time before trading partisan barbs–accusing each other of dark political motives, bad faith and just plain making stuff up.
Whistle-blower: Special forces could have saved Americans in Benghazi
