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Press Release Published: Jan 29, 2013

Foreign Affairs, Oversight Seek Answers on Incomplete State Department Benghazi Report

WASHINGTON- Three Congressional leaders sent a letter yesterday evening to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, seeking documents related to the incomplete Department of State Accountability Review Board (ARB) report on the failures that led to the fatal attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya that resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
 
“Unfortunately, the ARB did not address some important questions about the attacks in Benghazi, which we believe may contain crucial lessons learned for other U.S. facilities abroad to follow,” the letter states, citing the board’s failure to interview the Secretary and key deputies, a lack of explanation for Under Secretary Patrick F. Kennedy’s apparent decision to withdraw the Security Support Team from Libya despite warnings from the late Ambassador Stevens and the decision to maintain an isolated outpost in Benghazi even with evidence of increasing violence in the area.
 
The letter was signed by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, R-Calif., House Oversight and Government Reform Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.
 
The Chairmen are asking for all e-mails, cables, and memoranda received by the Secretary and her deputies related to security in Benghazi, documents reviewed by the ARB, as well as video of the September 11, 2012 attack on the Benghazi compound.
 

Related Documents
Name Document
January 28, 2013 Letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Document
December 21, 2012 Issa Op-ed: “Lingering Questions on Benghazi” in Foreign Policy Document
October 10, 2012 Hearing: The Security Failures of Benghazi Document