[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 176 (Thursday, December 12, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H7695]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
BENGHAZI
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Wolf) for 5 minutes.
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, yesterday marked the 15-month anniversary of
the Benghazi attack. Once again, another anniversary has come and gone
with no new answers about what happened that night or just what so many
Americans, reportedly around two dozen, were doing at a secret CIA base
in Benghazi to begin with.
Another anniversary has come and gone with no new public hearings. By
my count, the last public hearing was held on September 18, nearly 3
months ago, and no new public hearings are being held. The keyword is
``public.''
But perhaps most important, another anniversary has come and gone
with absolutely no one being held responsible for the security and
intelligence failures leading up to the attack, and no one has been
brought to justice. And despite several recent developments related to
the Benghazi investigation, practically nothing has been done in
Congress to address them.
First, we have recently learned that CIA Director John Brennan
distorted the facts in letters to the House Intelligence Committee and
me when he claimed that Benghazi survivors were not made to sign new
nondisclosure agreements.
Another major development is a November 24 article published by
Breitbart reporting surprising new comments by Kevin Kolbye, the FBI's
lead investigator for Benghazi, who stated for the first time that the
FBI arrived on the scene in Benghazi within days, not weeks, of the
attack. According to the article by Kerry Picket:
The Washington Post reported that while the FBI had legats
in Algiers and Cairo, a team of FBI investigators could not
get into Benghazi 2 days after the attack. Kolbye disputes
this. ``We were there,'' he said.
Is Agent Kolbye correct? Was the FBI secretly on the ground in
Benghazi within days of the attack? If so, why is this being kept from
the public? Once again, the Congress should know and, to my knowledge,
has never asked Agent Kolbye to testify.
Equally important, why is it that we are learning additional comments
before a paid audience of $400 a ticket? You had to pay $400 to hear
this guy speak, but he has never spoken for free to the American
people. This is just like when the American people heard new
information about that night from retired General Ham when he appeared
at a big-ticket event in Aspen. The American people did not hear. If
you paid the money in Aspen, you got to hear. I guess there was no need
to tell the Congress and the public what happened that night since paid
audiences will hear through conferences, through books, and maybe even
a movie.
Finally, I return to my concerns first raised on the House floor in
July that the large CIA base in Benghazi may have been used to support
covert operations with regard to Syria, including the possible transfer
of weapons collected in Libya to Syrian rebels, possibly in
coordination with third parties of foreign countries, particularly
Saudi Arabia.
These concerns need to be addressed now more than ever after reports
yesterday that both the U.S. and the United Kingdom have cut off
support to rebels in northern Syria along the Turkish border after the
Islamic front, a coalition of jihadi extremist fighters, overran bases
run by the Free Syrian Army and seized their weapons and resources.
According to a report from the BBC yesterday, the U.S. and European
countries have reportedly facilitated secret arms shipments to Syrian
rebels, allegedly including antiaircraft weapons commonly referred to
as ``MANPADS,'' just like the weapons collected in Libya over the last
2 years.
A separate Washington Post article stated:
A covert CIA program providing lethal aid to the rebels,
consisting mostly of small arms and ammunition channeled to
southern Syria through Jordan, would continue unchanged.
It is particularly noteworthy that during the same period of time the
CIA was operating in Benghazi and U.S. weapons collection in Libya were
underway, respected national security reporter Mark Hosenball wrote
August 1, 2012:
President Obama has signed a secret order authorizing U.S.
support for rebels seeking to depose Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad and his government, U.S. sources familiar with the
matter said. Obama's order, approved earlier this year and
known as an intelligence ``finding,'' broadly permits the CIA
and other U.S. agencies to provide support that could help
the rebels oust Assad.
Hosenball continued:
A U.S. Government source acknowledged that under provisions
of the Presidential finding, the United States was
collaborating with a secret command center operated by Turkey
and its allies. NBC said the shoulder-fired missiles, also
known as MANPADS, had been delivered to the rebels via
Turkey.
Are these the same secret arms shipments that were just seized by the
Islamic extremists in northern Syria? Have these weapons, transferred
with alleged U.S. covert support, been used to kill innocent civilians,
Christians, and Muslims? Don't the American people have a right to know
if their tax dollars are being spent to supply Islamic extremists with
weapons to use against Christians and Muslims? We need a select
committee. The current process is not working.
It is time for the administration and the Congress to say what the
CIA was doing in Benghazi and elsewhere around Syria.
A Wall Street Journal article from August detailed just how closely
Saudi Arabia was working with the CIA to train and arm Syrian rebels,
despite some concerns that the weapons could fall in the hands of the
extremists.
It appears those concerns are coming true, but the American people
still aren't being told the truth about the U.S. role in arming the
Syrians and the role of the CIA base in Benghazi.
It's time for answers.
It's time for a select committee on Benghazi.
____________________