Ralph E WallSrAdmin started the discussion "LETTER FROM CONGRESSMAN GRIFFITH" in the group Commonwealth of Virginia on Tea Party Command Center
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Thank you for contacting me regarding events in Benghazi, Libya. I appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts.
I remain very disturbed by the attacks on both U.S. citizens and officials in Libya. Our prayers go out to the families of the four Americans killed in these attacks. Following the attacks, the American people were assured of the importance of bringing the terrorist attackers to justice. Since that time, however, we have not been provided with sufficient answers as to what happened prior to, during, and after the attacks, nor have we brought to justice those who executed Americans.
The Obama Administration's preparedness for and response to this attack are currently the subject of an ongoing investigation by numerous congressional committees, including both the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Then- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before each of these committees on January 23, 2013, regarding the Benghazi attack.
It is now apparent that the security situation in Benghazi had been deteriorating for some time, and personnel on the ground there had advised the State Department of the situation and requested additional security assets. Of note, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) reports that it has found no CIA officer who has been punished for or dissuaded from speaking to Congress. Testimony so far has not indicated that the CIA was engaged in sending weapons from Libya to Syria, as some have alleged. HPSCI is still collecting documents and testimony regarding the terrorist attacks in Benghazi.
One witness who has testified before Congress was Eric Nordstrom, the former regional security officer in Libya. Mr. Nordstrom said that he wanted to get the truth out. "What happened prior to, during, and after the attack matters," he said in his opening remarks. "It matters to me personally and to my colleagues at State. It matters to the American people and it matters to the friends and families" of those killed in the attack.
He's right – the truth matters.
Unfortunately getting to the truth has been difficult. The Obama administration originally began blaming a video for inciting the attack. "The YouTube video was a non event in Libya," Gregory Hicks, the second-highest diplomat in Libya at the time of the attack, testified. He later said "The video was not an instigator of anything that was going on in Libya. We saw no demonstrations related to the video anywhere in Libya. The only event that transpired was the attack on our consulate on the night of Sept. 11."
ABC News obtained documents making clear that State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland requested that references to al-Qaeda and prior warnings about terrorist threats in Benghazi be removed from a memo on the attacks. Ms. Nuland emailed that the description "could be abused by members (of Congress) to beat up on the State Department for not paying attention to warnings." That memo, stripped of some very important information, is what Susan Rice, who was at that time Ambassador to the United Nations, used in her Sunday Show appearances in which she only blamed the YouTube video.
Everyone makes mistakes. But as I tell my children, if you make a mistake, don't lie about it. It only makes it worse. Very serious mistakes were made, which led to the murder of four Americans. But even worse, there was a cover-up about it as well – a concerted effort to conceal the truth. Some have argued these untruths were intended to protect the President during an election, and then-Secretary Clinton for future elections.
Motivation doesn't matter. We cannot tolerate being knowingly and willfully misled by the Administration. I don't care if it is a Republican, Democrat, or Independent President. The truth doesn't have a political party. The American people deserve to know the truth. We must continue seeking that truth, and determine who authorized or acquiesced in the cover-up.
You may also be interested to know that I am a cosponsor of H. Res. 36, a resolution introduced by Representative Frank Wolf (R-VA) that would establish a select committee to investigate all aspects of the attack in Benghazi. Please know that I will continue to follow this issue closely as it unfolds.
For more information on what is happening in Congress, please visit my website at www.morgangriffith.house.gov (https://iqconnect.lmhostediq.com/iqextranet/iqClickTrk.aspx?&cid=VA09MG&crop=14411.7274968.7264593.9152445&redirect=http%3a%2f%2fwww.morgangriffith.house.gov). If I may be of further assistance to you on this, or any other issue, please feel free to contact me in my Washington, DC office at (202) 225-3861. I remain
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