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Gowdy Opening Statement at Benghazi Select Committee Hearing
US House web site ^ | Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Posted on 01/27/2015 9:42:00 PM PST by upchuck

January 27, 2015 Press Release

As prepared for delivery

This committee exists because the House of Representatives voted for it to exist and in the process made it very clear what is expected. If you have not read the House resolution authorizing this committee, I would encourage you to do so. For those asking for a roadmap, or the scope of the investigation, or asking what the committee intends to look into, the resolution passed by the House of Representatives, including seven Democrats, answers all of those questions.

The Resolution asks this committee to investigate: “all policies, decisions and activities” related to the attacks, the preparation before the attacks, the response during the attacks, efforts to repel the attacks, the administration’s response after the attacks and Executive branch efforts to comply with congressional inquiries. The operative word in the resolution is the word “all” and the word “all” is about as comprehensive a word as you could use.

So it stands to reason if you are asked to conduct a full and complete investigation into all policies, decisions and activities, you need access to all witnesses, all relevant documents, and all information. Our final task is to write a comprehensive report with recommendations on how to prevent future attacks. To write a comprehensive report, you need access to all witnesses and all relevant documents.

Many members of this committee conducted investigations before coming to congress. So they know it is essential that we talk to every witness and examine all evidence. If six people witness an important event you cannot credibly report on that event by examining one out of the six, or two out of the six. Each witness has a different perspective. Each witness may have observed a different fact. Each witness has a different vantage point. So you need to interview all witnesses.

And time is of the essence. The world is not a safer place than it was in 2012 so the sooner we make recommendations related to improvements the better for the women and men serving us abroad. Moreover time does not make evidence or investigations better.

The purpose of today’s hearing is to hear from some agencies and entities about the state of compliance with requests for documents and access to witnesses. We have had some success. The State Department provided the Committee with 25,000 pages of documents previously provided to the Oversight Committee, but now with fewer redactions. In addition, this production included, finally, 15,000 new pages of documents. These documents include significantly more traffic from State Department leadership than in previously provided information to Congress.

These new documents are a reminder no previous standing committee compiled or had access to a complete record of the events, and is precisely why the Speaker constituted a Select Committee to produce a complete, definitive record for the American public.

Additionally, as of last Thursday night, the CIA finally made available some of the documents we requested—documents, they claimed were ready for review back in November.

While it is good to finally receive the new documents, the pace at which this process is moving is not conducive to the Committee’s work. It should not take a public hearing to make progress on these requests. Our hearings should be about substance, not process. We should be analyzing documents not waiting for them to appear

I want to read a quote: “I can promise you that if you're not getting something that you have evidence of or you think you ought to be getting, we'll work with you. And I will appoint somebody to work directly with you starting tomorrow, with you, Mr. Chairman, to have a review of anything you don't think you've gotten that you're supposed to get. Let's get this done, folks.” That was Secretary John Kerry talking about Benghazi at a hearing before another committee of congress. That was in April of 2013.

The Committee has tried to work with the Administration but we are not able to do the job we were instructed to do if we do not have access to all the information and in a timely fashion.

So, there will be mystery to my questions today. There will be no trickery or artifice. I want to know when the agencies are going to comply with the requests made by this committee so we can finish the work assigned to us. The sooner we have access to the documents and witnesses, the sooner we can process the information, write a report, make recommendations and conclude this committee. I have zero interest in prolonging the work of this committee. By the same token I know all too well that time is the enemy of accuracy when it comes to evidence.

So, let me be as clear, we intend to access all of the information necessary to do the job the House instructed us to do. And we need to access that information now. Talking to only some of the witnesses will not work. Accessing only some of the documents will not work. If you want all of the truth, you need all of the information. That is what this committee is going to do. We will do it in a respectful way worthy of the memory of the four who sacrificed their lives for this country and worthy of the respect of our fellow citizens. But it is going to be done and the sooner the agencies make the documents and witnesses available, the sooner we can do what we were asked to do.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: South Carolina; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: benghazi; gowdybsc; gowdybschearing; iran; lebanon; libya; southcarolina; treygowdy; waronterror
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Trey Gowdy, kicking butt and taking names.

The, "House resolution authorizing this committee" is mentioned in the first paragraph. Here's a link.

1 posted on 01/27/2015 9:42:00 PM PST by upchuck
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To: ab01; afraidfortherepublic; AllAmericanGirl44; Aria; AZ .44 MAG; BerryDingle; Candor7; clee1; ...

Trey
Gowdy
Ping!

Want on or off this ping list of 50+ (and growing) FReepers? Just drop me a FReep mail.

2 posted on 01/27/2015 9:43:49 PM PST by upchuck (Entrenched incumbency is the disease. Fresh blood is the cure.)
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To: upchuck

Boehner’s boy get’s to preen before the cameras.


3 posted on 01/27/2015 10:02:14 PM PST by Dagnabitt
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To: Dagnabitt

So from your remark I suppose we are now supposed to call Trey Gowdy a RINO ?


4 posted on 01/27/2015 10:04:55 PM PST by woofie
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To: woofie

I won’t put a label on him, but he proudly supports Boehner and has expressed some support for legalizing illegal aliens.


5 posted on 01/27/2015 10:09:47 PM PST by Dagnabitt
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To: woofie

I would be very happy if Gowdy’s hearings produce something tangible that puts a hole in the SS Hillary, but I’m not holding my breath. Doubt it will amount to more than whatever it is that Issa thinks he accomplished.


6 posted on 01/27/2015 10:13:07 PM PST by Dagnabitt
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To: Dagnabitt

What?!

It’s only been two and a half years since Benghazi.


7 posted on 01/27/2015 10:24:04 PM PST by stanne
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To: Dagnabitt

The real deal or a whitewash? Only time will tell, but I lean to the latter. Boehner, Pelosi, Reid, and McConnell were all briefed on Benghazi and authorized the mission it was carrying out. Rogers has already bailed out. The public will never know what really happened. A cover-up at the highest levels took place involving both parties.


8 posted on 01/27/2015 10:25:22 PM PST by kabar
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To: stanne

It’s only been two and a half years since Benghazi.
______________________________________________________

Nixon’s downfall wasn’t overnight.


9 posted on 01/27/2015 10:28:30 PM PST by o-n-money
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To: Dagnabitt

You lie


10 posted on 01/27/2015 10:46:13 PM PST by MHGinTN (Is it really all relative, Mister Einstein?)
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To: MHGinTN

Gowdy and Boehner (and millions of illegals) appreciate your support.


11 posted on 01/27/2015 10:52:05 PM PST by Dagnabitt
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To: o-n-money

Oh.

oh boy. Ok, how long was it?

For overseeing corrupt campaign practices.

I guess you need to spend a bit of time finding out what it is for our government to send people with the State department to a danger zone and desert them and lie about it.

Pshaw! Nixon.

And you think Gowdy’s going to oversee a downfall?


12 posted on 01/27/2015 10:54:12 PM PST by stanne
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To: Dagnabitt

Vermin like you are why FR is going downhill from what Jim Robinson created years ago. You spew deception and twist the posts of others, all the while pretending to be what you can never be, an honest freeper. You work for the enemies of America. As for John Bonehead, he is a blackmailed Obama bitch, and you know it so you try to use that misdirection to stop me from exposing you. Gowdy on the other hand is far more a patriot than you could even pretend to be. You are disgusting, and the more you try to confuse readers here, the more obvious it is for whom you serve up your misdirection and disinformation.


13 posted on 01/27/2015 11:06:21 PM PST by MHGinTN (Is it really all relative, Mister Einstein?)
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To: upchuck

For tomorrow.


14 posted on 01/27/2015 11:22:16 PM PST by matthew fuller (God bless Jan Morgan- owner / The Gun Cave Indoor Shooting Range.)
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To: upchuck
Trey Gowdy, kicking butt and taking names.

Wishful thinking I fear. He said nothing other than he wants documents and witnesses, the administration will give him tons of papers none of which will be useful in finding the truth.

15 posted on 01/28/2015 12:41:02 AM PST by itsahoot (55 years a republican-Now Independent. Will write in Sarah Palin, no matter who runs. $.98-$.89<$.10)
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To: woofie
So from your remark I suppose we are now supposed to call Trey Gowdy a RINO ?

No but feel free to call him an Amnesty Pimp, because he is.

16 posted on 01/28/2015 12:41:45 AM PST by itsahoot (55 years a republican-Now Independent. Will write in Sarah Palin, no matter who runs. $.98-$.89<$.10)
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To: upchuck

Coming up on the third year and nothing so I’m not holding my breath. I like Gowdy but this government doesn’t work and I don’t care what side you’re on they will not prosecute anything even the blatantly obvious. Obama should have been impeached years ago.


17 posted on 01/28/2015 2:16:34 AM PST by maddog55
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To: Dagnabitt
And that, in a nutshell, is why conservatives will never be a dominant political force. We spend our time arguing over whether the person doing the work is conservative enough.
18 posted on 01/28/2015 2:39:41 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: upchuck

19 posted on 01/28/2015 4:13:22 AM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: upchuck

This corrupt administration will do anything to protect the top man. There is something they don’t want us to know: that the top guy allowed Americans to be murdered, so as to not annoy his true best buddies.


20 posted on 01/28/2015 4:28:15 AM PST by I want the USA back (Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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