The “explosive” hearing at which State Department whistleblowers are expected to reveal new details surrounding the Benghazi attacks and the administration’s role before and after has been set for a week from today.
“Benghazi: Exposing Failure and Recognizing Courage” will be May 8 at 11:30 a.m., House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) announced this morning.
“This Administration has offered the American people only a carefully selected and sanitized version of events from before, during, and after the Benghazi terrorist attacks” said Issa. “Not surprisingly, this version of events casts senior officials in the most favorable light possible.”
“Last October, the Oversight Committee exposed State Department denials of security requests made by our diplomats in Libya and forced the Obama Administration to concede that there never was a protest of a YouTube video. Next week’s hearing will expose new facts and details that the Obama Administration has tried to suppress.”
Witnesses are to be announced.
Asked about a report that State Department employees were being warned not to testify on Benghazi, Obama said at a press conference yesterday he was “not familiar” with what the reporter was asking about.
“I’m not familiar with this notion that anybody has been blocked from testifying,” said Obama. “So what I’ll do is I will find out what exactly you are referring to.”
Issa noted four letters have been sent to the administration since mid-April asking that information be made available to the whistleblowers’ laywers.
“Even if the president really doesn’t know anything about someone wanting to come forward, his position should be that whistleblowers deserve protection and that anyone who has different information about Benghazi is free to come forward to Congress,” the chairman added. “The president’s unwillingness to commit himself to protecting whistleblowers only aids those in his administration who are intimidating them.”
The Oversight hearing comes a day after the Senate Foreign Relations Committee considers the nomination of Obama’s pick for ambassador to Libya, Deborah Kay Jones.
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