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 administrations 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 todays 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 requesteddocuments, 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 Committees 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.
Follow-on: more correctly and completely, Politics is the art of the imperfect attempting the impossible. We live in a realm of better, not best.
Sounds as if enough agencies have resisted the House special committee and will continue to thwart and draw this inquiry out until few citizens even remember what happened during that time regarding Benghazi.
Boehner was politically victorious by naming Gowdy the chairman. I have begun to wish Boehner had chosen one of his own henchmen. This is hurting my House rep badly, by neutering him on other matters, and it doesn’t look promising.
Not as angry as I once was but not as hopeful either.
of course....... didn’t you know? everybody’s a rino
“We need to know Linsey and McCain went there right after and I’m sure that will never come out.”
We need to WHY know Linsey and McCain went there right after and I’m sure that will never come out.
Sorry for got the why
+1.
+1.
Second honeymoon?
If I remember correctly, this committees purpose has been characterized as an effort to prevent another Benhgazi, as opposed to holding responsible those who are complicit in this one.
Hillarys uncontested agreement to testify doesn't make me feel any better about it. She will not walk willingly into this without already knowing she will leave unharmed.
Nevertheless, I hope I am completely wrong.
Trey Gowdy is one of the GOOD GUYS!
i Love Trey! I would love to see this man in the White House! One vote does not a RINO Make! He is a patriot cast in the same mold as the Founding Fathers. Many of his detractors are not worthy to polish his brogans.
He didn't vote for anyone for speaker as weather where he was kept him from getting there in time for that vote. He likely would have voted for Boehner as I read he said he would have supported him, but you are correct, one vote doesn't label anyone - except on FR.
It's disheartening to see Freepers dump on Gowdy and Cruz and any other conservative member of congress who is making a conservative difference in government - one vote different from the way a Freeper would have voted and the congressional member is dead forever with that Freeper and he/she dumps on that person on FR forever after.
Let’s just wait and see what comes of it. You may trust Congress if you want. I don’t.
This place is getting taken over by an increasingly large contingent people who are angry and intolerant of dissenting opinion and who are increasing drifting off to the lunatic fringe. In other words, Free Republic is becoming a right wing version of KOS Files or the Democrat Underground. Six years of Obama can drive anyone insane and it looks like our last six years stuck in Obamaville is taking it's toll on people
I was initially excited about Trey and don't want to dump on him, but I'm wondering if what weve seen of Gowdy five minutes at a time is the same thing we will get in the long game.
When the guilty and the liars are held to account, we will see that he is real.
His hands may be tied, but he is obviously savvy enough to know that, and if he is serious, he will not participate in farce.
Your psychiatrist owes you a refund.
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