[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11488]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         BENGHAZI INVESTIGATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Virginia (Mr. Wolf) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, Deuteronomy 16:20 tells us:

       Justice, justice shalt thou pursue.

  As we quietly mark the 10-month anniversary of the Benghazi terrorist 
attacks last week, I know many people wondered if there will ever be 
any clear resolution to this investigation, let alone justice.
  There are less than 3 weeks remaining before the Congress departs for 
the August recess. When we return in September, we will be only 2 days 
away from the 1-year anniversary of the Benghazi attacks. This looming 
anniversary should stand as a stark reminder of the many unanswered 
questions that remain about what actually happened that night and how 
the administration chose to respond or not respond to the Americans 
under assault during that 8-hour period.
  That is why, over the next 3 weeks, I will be coming to the floor 
regularly to remind the American people about the key questions that 
remain to be answered. I will also be sending a series of letters to 
the State Department, the Defense Department, and the CIA formally 
requesting responses to some of these questions. While I am skeptical 
the administration will be forthcoming with answers, I do hope that 
these questions will underscore, for the Congress and the American 
people, the woefully incomplete status of the Benghazi investigation.
  I have long been concerned that the current investigative strategy 
would not yield the necessary answers. That is why, for the last 8 
months, I have advocated creating a bipartisan select committee to 
thoroughly investigate the Benghazi attacks. My bill, H. Res. 36, has 
160 cosponsors, as well as the support of many family members of the 
Benghazi victims, the Special Operations community, and the Federal Law 
Enforcement Officers Association, which represent the Diplomatic 
Security agents who were at the consulate in Benghazi.
  Perhaps the most telling sign of the incomplete state of the Benghazi 
investigation is the fact that not one of the survivors of the Benghazi 
attack from the consulate or the annex has publicly testified before 
Congress. Despite nearly a full year of multiple committee 
investigations, not one witness has been brought before a committee to 
publicly testify under oath about what happened that night.
  Instead of learning the details of the attack and the U.S. response 
in public hearings, the American people may instead read about it in 
one of the books that have been announced in recent weeks. It is clear 
that the survivors from the consulate and the annex have worked with 
authors on two separate books that are scheduled to be published over 
the next year.
  The first, ``Under Fire: The Untold Story of the Attack in 
Benghazi,'' describes in vivid, minute-by-minute detail the assault on 
the U.S. consulate, according to an excerpt that was published in 
Vanity Fair magazine this month. This excerpt contains important new 
information about the level of sophistication of the attack and how the 
terrorists apparently had detailed inside knowledge of the American 
consulate. It also noted that each of the terrorists' vehicles flew the 
``black flag of jihad.'' The report makes clear this attack was the 
result of careful planning and intelligence-gathering by the 
terrorists, not some spontaneous attack on a target of opportunity.
  A second, $3 million book deal, scheduled for publication in 2014, 
was announced last month with four unnamed U.S. security contractors 
who were based at the annex and responded to the attacks that night. I 
suspect, given the critical role played by the contractors in 
responding to the consulate attack and later in defending the annex, 
that these individuals have important information that deserves to be 
heard by the Congress and by the American people. I also wonder, Mr. 
Speaker, whether any of the $3 million they're earning from the book 
deal will be shared with Ty Woods' widow and child or the parents of 
Glen Doherty, who did so much to save our Americans.
  I can't help but ask why the Congress has not asked--or subpoenaed--
these individuals to testify before the House committees that have been 
investigating this over the past year. If these questions are not 
answered, the American people will never know what took place in 
Benghazi.

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