Nearly one year after the Benghazi terror attack, questions remain unanswered and the investigation incomplete, says Virginia Republican Rep. Frank Wolf.
Even with six different committees looking into aspects of the attack and the response by the Obama State Department, “The Congress, as of this moment, has failed to carry out its oversight responsibility,” Wolf told The Daily Caller.
The solution, he said, is a single “select committee” with the authority and resources to get to the bottom of the U.S. government’s inept response.
The public still has not learned why help was not sent to the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, to rescue Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Ty Woods, Sean Smith and Glen Doherty.
See video below.
As a congressman of 22 years whose Northern Virginia district includes many in the federal workforce, and as a powerful appropriations subcommittee chairman, Wolf has been pressing for a select committee for months.
In this interview, Wolf discusses twenty things we know a year after the incident, including that someone issued “stand-down orders” preventing any attempt to rescue our brave Americans, violating the longstanding ethos of the American military to never leave a soldier behind.
He also confirms how some federal employees watched the incident real time, “like a movie,” saying he has seen some of that footage. He discusses a hero who is severely wounded and still at Walter Reed hospital, but who, perhaps like others, has never been properly thanked by a nation for his heroism.
Wolf describes the stonewalling and intimidation of others who know what happened. Some have had to sign legally binding “non-disclosure agreements” with occasional “polygraph testing” to ensure the public never learns the facts. And he discusses how a Libyan plane, not an American plane, brought the wounded Americans home.
What difference does this make?
“I know that Hillary Clinton is now receiving $200,000 a speech,” Wolf said. “I also know that Susan Rice, who went on five talk shows saying that it was the video, is now the national security advisor. I also know that Leon Panetta signed a $3 million book deal. I also know that General Petraeus is now working for the large Wall Street firm up in New York and making a lot of money. I also know that Jack Lew, the chief of staff, is now the secretary of treasury. So they have all gotten rewards, but I also know that four people died who are American heroes and patriots, and two were seriously wounded, and several others were wounded. The comparison of that situation, I think, is just not very good.”
This week, some in Congress are memorializing the Benghazi anniversary with services, speeches or social-media ribbon campaigns. As they do, Rep. Wolf continues to press the House Republican leadership team to finish this investigation with professional, careful, bipartisan oversight so what happened in Benghazi never happens again and so that the families of the fallen can rest knowing the truth.
Interview with Congressman Frank Wolf, Part I
Interview with Representative Frank Wolf, Part II
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Ginni Thomas is a special correspondent for the Daily Caller producing videos of emerging leaders and educators in the public square. She earned a J.D. from Creighton Law School.