[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.

                          ____________________