Former U.S. official describes Libya attack

“It matters. It matters personally, it matters to my colleagues. My colleagues at the Department of State. It matters to the American public to whom we serve. Most importantly, it matters to friends Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty, Tyrone Woods who were murdered on Sept. 11, 2012.”

Eric Nordstrom, a former regional security officer in Libya, on the continuing investigation

“It looks pretty clear that there was some catastrophic decision-making that in some way contributed to the death of those four Americans.”

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich.

“What we have seen over the past two weeks is a full-scale media campaign that is not designed to investigate what happened in a responsible and bipartisan way, but rather … unfounded accusations to smear public officials. I am not questioning the motives of our witnesses. I am questioning the motives of those who want to use their statements for political purposes.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

“I don’t think there’s a smoking gun today. I don’t think there’s a lukewarm slingshot.”

Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis.

A State Department official on Wednesday delivered a riveting minute-by-minute account of the chaotic events during the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi last September, offering the first public testimony from an American official who was on the ground in Libya that night.

In a slow, halting and sometimes emotional voice, Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission who was in Tripoli, described for a House committee how a routine day on Sept. 11, 2012, quickly devolved as insurgents launched two nighttime attacks on the facility in eastern Libya, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Hicks and two other State Department witnesses shed little new light on the key questions at issue in the hearing: whether there was anything more the U.S. military could have done to thwart the attack and whether the Obama administration intentionally misled the American people when officials initially said the attacks stemmed from a protest.

The Republican-controlled House is pressing ahead with the investigations, with particular interest in the role of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who may run for president in 2016. Democrats condemn what they see as the politicization of a national security issue.

A scathing independent review in December faulted the State Department for inadequate security at the mission, but it has not been the final word. Nor has congressional testimony from former Obama Cabinet officials and military leaders.

All three witnesses criticized the review conducted by former top diplomat Thomas Pickering and retired Gen. Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Their complaints centered on a report they consider incomplete because many individuals weren’t interviewed and the focus was on lower-level employees.

In a jam-packed hearing room where Republicans and Democrats traded charges, the soft-spoken Hicks presented a lengthy recollection of the events and expressed frustration with a military that he argued could have prevented the second attack.

Hicks said he was watching television at his villa in Tripoli when he first got word of the initial attack. He listened to two messages on his cell phone and Stevens’ chilling words.

“Greg, we’re under attack,” the ambassador said.

Hicks described a series of phone calls to the State Department and Libyan officials, frustrating efforts to find out what was happening in Benghazi, and a call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“Secretary of State Clinton called me along with her senior staff … and she asked me what was going on. And I briefed her on developments,” he said. “Most of the conversation was about the search for Ambassador Stevens. It was also about what we were going to do with our personnel in Benghazi, and I told her that we would need to evacuate, and that was — she said that was the right thing to do.”

He recalled another phone call from the Libyan prime minister with word that Stevens was dead.

“I think it is the saddest phone call I have ever had in my life,” Hicks said.

Republicans at the hearing focused on the talking points used by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice on the Sunday talk shows in which she said the attacks appeared to be associated with demonstrations in Egypt and Libya over an anti-Islam video.

Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said Rice’s comments contradicted statements by Libyan leaders and others who called the attacks premeditated assaults by terrorists.

Gowdy said Rice’s comments “perpetuated a demonstrably false narrative.” Hicks, asked his reaction to the Rice’s remarks on the talk shows, said: “I was stunned. My jaw dropped and I was embarrassed.”

Democrats countered with a video clip of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper telling a Senate panel earlier this year that the hit on Rice was unfair.

“She was going on what we were giving her,” Clapper said of the talking points.

Hicks insisted that the second attack in Benghazi could have been prevented if the U.S. military had scrambled jet fighters or sent in a C-130 cargo plane to scare off the insurgents with a show of force. He said he learned in conversations with veteran Libyan revolutionaries that they understood decisive air power after the U.S.-led NATO operation that helped oust Moammar Gadhafi.

“The defense attache said to me that fighter aircraft in Aviano might be able to” get to Benghazi in two to three hours, Hicks said.

Democrats pointed out that this contradicted the testimony of former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who testified before a Senate panel on Feb. 7.

“The bottom line is this: That we were not dealing with a prolonged or continuous assault which could have been brought to an end by a U.S. military response,” Panetta testified. “Very simply, although we had forces deployed to the region, time, distance, the lack of an adequate warning, events that moved very quickly on the ground prevented a more immediate response.”

Also testifying at Wednesday’s hearing were Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism, and Eric Nordstrom, a former regional security officer in Libya who testified before the panel in October.