Benghazi Review Board Co-Chairs Ask GOP To Testify In Public - Issa wants "closed doors" testimony
http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/05/16/2020371/national-security-brief-pickering-mullen-issa/National Security Brief: Benghazi Review Board Co-Chairs Ask GOP To Testify In Public
By ThinkProgress on May 16, 2013 at 9:08 am
The co-chairs of the independent review board tasked with investigating the Obama administrations response to the Benghazi terror attacks last year are asking House Oversight Committee chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) for a chance to testify in public.
Issa and former review board co-chairs Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Adm. Mike Mullen have been engaged in a recent back and forth over whether Issa invited them to testify at his hearing on Benghazi last week. Pickering and Mullen said theyd be willing to testify but Issa refused their participation. Issa has also challenged the credibility of the review boards findings, which blame State Department officials for lack of diplomatic security in Benghazi last September.
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Recently, you seem to have changed your position on the terms of our appearance, apparently asking for a transcribed interview behind closed doors, Pickering and Mullen wrote in a letter to Issa, which was obtained by CNN. In our view, requiring such a closed-door proceeding before we testify publicly is an inappropriate precondition.
Having taken liberal license to call into question the Boards work, it is surprising that you now maintain that members of the committee need a closed-door proceeding before being able to ask informed questions at a public hearing, they said. The public deserves to hear your questions and our answers.
[font size=3"]Meanwhile, McClatchy reports that in the month before the Benghazi attacks, Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in assault, twice turned down offers of security assistance made by the senior U.S. military official in the region in response to concerns that Stevens had raised in a still secret memorandum. [/font]
Tx4obama
(36,974 posts)McClatchy: Ambassador Stevens twice said no to military offers of more security, U.S. officials say
Here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/101663798
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,683 posts)chelsea0011
(10,115 posts)Turbineguy
(37,324 posts)it's more fun to waste taxpayer money without making a fool of yourself.
Andy823
(11,495 posts)I would think that the Sunday talk shows would be happy to get these two on to tell their story if Issa won't let them speak publicly. If the media wants to ignore them, then they should hold their own news conference. I also would think that the democrats would be finding some way to get them out in the public eye. Isn't there a committee in the Senate that could get them to tell their story to the public?
Some how they need to go public and make damn sure they point out that Issa is playing games and trying to keep them from speaking out.
I also hope some committee holds hearing on the email that was tampered with by some republican. We need to find out who it was that put out the "false" information.