Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has picked up where his predecessor left off, and that includes having to answer lingering congressional questions about the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) now wants Hagel to turn over the unredacted version of events from the Pentagon point of view that night to his committee.
“I am writing to request your assistance in providing to the committee the classified version of the Department of Defense’s time line for the attack that occurred in Benghazi, Libya on September 11-12, 2012,” McKeon wrote to the former senator.
“The committee has requested this timeline from The Joint Staff. However, The Joint Staff has indicated that there would be delay in delivery of this timeline due to a requirement to coordinate it within the interagency.”
McKeon stressed that the DoD document is “critical to ensuring that the committee has a comprehensive understanding of the events that transpired” that day when four Americans were killed.
“It is also critical for the committee’s ongoing oversight activities. A delay in providing this classified timeline to the committee would hamper both of those requirements. Therefore, I request that this timeline is provided to the committee immediately,” he wrote.
The full-court press comes as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced it will resume hearings next month into the deadly Benghazi consulate attack.
“Next month, the Oversight Committee will convene a hearing on the Benghazi terrorist attacks to examine evidence that Obama Administration officials have attempted to suppress information about errors and reckless misjudgments,” said Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) yesterday. “The American people still don’t have the full truth about what happened both before and after the murders of four brave Americans.”
This round will focus on information revealed to the committee by administration whistleblowers.
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