Benghazi Whistleblower Takes Another Stand: ‘Since Chris Cannot Speak…’
The U.S. official who served as
slain Ambassador Christopher Stevens’ second-in-command in Libya fired
back at critics of his late boss, who blamed Stevens for a lack of
security at the Benghazi compound before the Sept. 11, 2012 terror
assault that left Stevens and three other Americans dead.
This
Sept 13, 2012 file photo shows a Libyan man investigating the inside of
the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after an attack that killed four
Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. (AP/Mohammad Hannon,
File)
“Chris Stevens was not responsible for
the reduction in security personnel,” Gregory Hicks, the former deputy
chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, wrote
in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Thursday. “His requests for additional
security were denied or ignored. Officials at the State and Defense
Departments in Washington made the decisions that resulted in reduced
security.”
Hicks was one of the whistleblowers who
informed Congress last year of the State Department’s lack of security
in Libya in the lead-up to the assault that the Obama administration
initially publicly blamed on a spontaneous reaction to a YouTube video.
The Senate Intelligence Committee last
week released a bipartisan report saying that the attack could have been
prevented and laid most of the blame on the State Department. While
Republicans have said that should extend to then-Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, some media commentators have clung to a portion of the
report that states Stevens declined an offer from then-Africa Commander
Gen. Carter Ham for increased security.
“Since Chris cannot speak, I want to
explain the reasons and timing for his responses to Gen. Ham,” Hicks
wrote, explaining that much of the matter revolved around when to shift
command of U.S. Special Forces from the State Department – where
soldiers had diplomatic immunity – to the Defense Department – where
they would not.
“Chris had requested on July 9 by cable
that Washington provide a minimum of 13 American security professionals
for Libya over and above the diplomatic security complement of eight
assigned to Tripoli and Benghazi,” Hicks wrote. “On July 11, the Defense
Department, apparently in response to Chris’s request, offered to
extend the special forces mission to protect the U.S. Embassy.”
“However, on July 13, State Department
Undersecretary Patrick Kennedy refused the Defense Department offer and
thus Chris’s July 9 request. His rationale was that Libyan guards would
be hired to take over this responsibility,” Hicks continued.
Diplomatic immunity was a serious consideration, Hicks explained in the op-ed.
“[Stevens] explained to Rear Adm.
Charles J. Leidig that if a member of the special forces team used
weapons to protect U.S. facilities, personnel or themselves, he would be
subject to Libyan law,” Hicks wrote. “The law would be administered by
judges appointed to the bench by Moammar Gadhafi or, worse, tribal
judges.”
State
Department foreign service officer and former deputy chief of mission
in Libya Gregory Hicks testifies before the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee about the terror assault in Benghazi, May 8,
2013 in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
Blaming Stevens in the Media
The New York Times editorialized,
“The [Senate intelligence committee] report also addressed a more
delicate subject, implicitly criticizing Mr. Stevens. It said that on
several occasions he requested more security resources from the State
Department, which made few significant improvements.”
As a guest on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” BBC journalist Katty Kay explained Stevens was “fallible,” and that “he didn’t ask for and even rejected some of the security he might have had.”
CNN host Piers Morgan said
last week: “When you actually get into the weeds of this pretty lengthy
report, it also is very clear that one of the people who may be most to
blame for not reacting to the threat and for increasing security
despite being urged to repeatedly was the ambassador himself. And
obviously you don’t want to speak ill of a man who was killed in such
appalling circumstances, but is it fair to also say that he as the
ambassador should have done more to react to direct warnings that he was
given on numerous occasions?”
The blame-Stevens mantra from the left
has also agitated lawmakers such as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) who
said on the Senate floor that Stevens “was in Benghazi because that is
where he was supposed to be doing what American wanted him to do: Try to
hold Libya together. … Quit blaming the dead guy.”
Hicks wrote in the Journal: “Some have
been suggesting that the blame for this tragedy lies at least partly
with Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the attack. This is
untrue: The blame lies entirely with Washington.”
“Chris understood the importance of
the special forces team to the security of our embassy personnel. He
believed that by explaining his concerns, the Defense Department would
postpone the decision so he could have time to work with the Libyan
government and get diplomatic immunity for the special forces,” Hicks
wrote. “According to the National Defense Authorization Act, the Defense
Department needed Chris’s concurrence to change the special forces
mission. But soon after the Aug. 1 meeting, and as a complete surprise
to us at the embassy, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta signed the order
without Chris’s concurrence.”
“I have found the reporting of these
so-called offers strange, since my recollection of events is that after
the Aug. 6 incident, Gen. Ham wanted to withdraw the entire special
forces team from Tripoli until they had Libyan government approval of
their new mission and the diplomatic immunity necessary to perform their
mission safely,” Hicks wrote. “However, Chris convinced Gen. Ham to
leave six members of the team in Tripoli.”
“When I arrived in Tripoli on July 31,
we had over 30 security personnel, from the State Department and the
U.S. military, assigned to protect the diplomatic mission to Libya. All
were under the ambassador’s authority,” he continued. “On Sept. 11, we
had only nine diplomatic security agents under Chris’s authority to
protect our diplomatic personnel in Tripoli and Benghazi.”
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