Benghazi Hearing: 3 State Department Employees Testify On What Happened During 2012 Attacks That Killed 4 Americans

Today marks the first day of a House hearing on the Obama administration's response to the 2012 attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya which killed four Americans, including the US Ambassador to Libya. Three current State Department employees are expected to testify against their leaders: Mark Thompson, State Department acting deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism, Eric Nordstrom, diplomatic security officer and former regional security officer in Libya, and Gregory Hicks, state foreign service officer and former deputy chief of mission/charge d'affairs in Libya. Republicans who claim that possible military options which could have helped save American lives went unexplored are praising the three men as "whistleblowers" who will reveal that the Obama administration claimed that the attacks were led by angry demonstrators even when they knew that they were authored by al-Qaeda. They also say that an earlier State Department probe into the incident failed to hold senior leaders accountable for lapses in security.

According to the Washington Post, the State Department has defended its probe, known as the Accountability Review Board. The review said senior department officials were responsible for a lapse in judgment which had US diplomats occupying buildings which did not meet security standards. The two heads of the review board have declined invitations to testify in the House.

A Foreign Emergency Support Team (FEST) was not activated in the case of the Benghazi attacks. The team can deploy within four hours after orders are given to do so. The Pentagon issued a statement defending its actions.

"The interagency response was timely and appropriate, but there simply was not enough time given the speed of the attacks for armed U.S. military assets to have made a difference," a statement read. "Senior-level interagency discussions were underway soon after Washington received initial word of the attacks and continued through the night.

"By the time the FEST would have arrived in Benghazi, all (government) personnel were gone from there and the facility closed," it said.

Gregory Hicks told Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina that it was widely believed in US diplomatic circles in Libya during and shortly after the attacks that al-Qaeda was the author. The State Department initially said demonstrators angered by an anti-Islamic video were responsible before later revising its view, calling it an act of terrorism. Hicks said that US Ambassador Susan Rice did not correspond with him before she engaged in a televised interview and told reporters the demonstrators were responsible. Rice says that she relied at the time on official talking points based on information the administration said it had at the time.

The State Department says House Republicans are attempting to use the tragedy for political gain and rejects accusations that it has tried to attempt "whistleblowers" from speaking out.