Left to right: State Department officials Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism Mark Thompson, Foreign Service Officer and former Deputy Chief of Mission/ChargÈ dÃAffairs in Libya Gregory Hicks, and Diplomatic Security Officer and former Regional Security Officer in Libya Eric Nordstrom are sworn in to testify before a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the September 11, 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Wednesday, May 8, 2013. (Andrew Geraci/The Washington Times)
===================
The White House on Wednesday stood by its story that the Obama administration remained unsure exactly who was responsible for the attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi nearly five days after it occurred even though new revelations show Ansar al-Sharia's direct involvement.
Gregory Hicks, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya and a self-described whistleblower, testified before a Congressional committee Wednesday that the body of Ambassador J. Christpher Stevens was missing for hours during the attack after being dragged out of the diplomatic post in Benghazi.
He said a Libyan official eventually called him that night to inform him Mr. Stevens had died and that his body was at a hospital run by Ansar al-Sharia. Mr. Hicks said it was the saddest phone call of his life.
Terrorists set fire to the diplomatic post to try to force Mr. Stevens and his staff out of a "safe house" part of the post. It was a petroleum fire, which produces deadly cyanide gas.
White House spokesman Jay Carney cautioned that he could not immediately respond to live testimony from the committee but went on to say that the administration remained unsure of the identity and affiliations of the attackers, noting that Ansar al-Sharia had taken credit for it on Twitter but then later recanted.
No comments:
Post a Comment