House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.), delivers his opening statement on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 10, 2012, during the committee’s hearing on the attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the death of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens. (AP)
This past Wednesday an investigation into what appears to be a cover-up of the situation surrounding the attack on our embassy in Benghazi, Libya began in earnest in the House of Representatives.
All of this started a month ago Thursday when violence broke out in several U.S. embassies in the Middle East on the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Many embassies were attacked, including in Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia and others, but it was the deadly attack in Benghazi, Libya which left our U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens among the four dead and two wounded.
The initial explanation given by the Obama administration was that this attack was the result of a despicable, bigoted anti-Muslim video, and they propagated this story for more than two weeks following the initial attack. UN Ambassador Susan Rice was sent on Sunday talk shows the first weekend after the attack to explain that current intelligence suggested this explanation, but it was soon discovered that this was false.
By the time Rice made this statement, she already knew the information she was giving was false. Within the first 24 hours after the attack it was made clear to those in power that the attack, at least in Libya, was preplanned by al-Qaeda affiliates in the area.
The White House press secretary made similarly misleading statements, attempting to brush this all away as a movie review gone wrong, a distraction for Barack Obama while he tries to campaign. Obama himself declared this entire situation just a “bump in the road,” showing that his priorities are not where they need to be on this issue.
The administrations priorities are actually part of what the investigation headed by the House Oversight committee. It came out recently that the embassy had requested several times for additional security, and were never granted it despite being in a country on the heels of a civil war.
But no, the administration decided that one security guard was enough and instead, as it was reported on Thursday, thought their resources were better spent sending the embassy in Vienna a garage full of Chevrolet Volts and an expensive charging station for them as well. Thats right, the administration decided that buying expensive electric cars for the embassy in Austria was more important than providing requested security measures to an embassy which had just recently had a crudely designed improvised explosive device thrown at it.
In light of all this chaos, mismanagement and evidence of a cover-up, a congressional proceeding is long over due. The mother of one of the slain agents working at the embassy offered a tearful plea for answers on CNN yesterday. She had gotten the comforting calls from everyone in the administration involved in the situation, from Obama, Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Rice, and all of them told her to trust them. They said they would get to the bottom of this and bring justice for her son.
But since they first contacted her in the few days after the attack, they have not given her nor the American people any additional information about how or why her son died. Every time she’s tried to contact them, they’ve done nothing but obfuscate the situation, and she said it’s getting more and more difficult to trust them.
She’s not alone on the trust issue. As it becomes clear to the American people that the Obama administration didn’t want this situation made clear, they should be held accountable for that.
Keene is a junior majoring in political science, economics and public policy.
