Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and I thank you and the Ranking
Member and members of the committee, both of longstanding tenure and
brand new members, and I appreciate your patience for me to be able to
come to fulfill my commitment to you, actually to the former chairwoman,
that I would be here to discuss the attack in Benghazi. I appreciate
this opportunity. I will submit my full testimony for the record. I want
to make just a few points.
First, the terrorist attacks in Benghazi that claimed the lives of
four brave Americans – Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen
Doherty – are part of a broader strategic challenge to the United
States and our partners in North Africa. I think it’s important we
understand the context for this challenge as we work together to protect
our people and honor our fallen colleagues.
Any clear-eyed examination of this matter must begin with this
sobering fact: Since 1988, there have been 19 Accountability Review
Boards investigating attacks on American diplomats and their facilities.
Since 1977, 65 American diplomatic personnel have been killed by
terrorists. In addition to those who have been killed, we know what
happened in Tehran with hostages being taken in 1979, our Embassy and
Marine barracks bombed in Beirut in 1983, Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia
in 1996, our embassies in East Africa in 1998, consulate staff murdered
in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia in 2004, the Khost attack in Afghanistan in
2009, and too many others.
But I also want to stress the list of attacks that were foiled,
crises averted, and lives saved is even longer. We should never forget
that the security professionals get it right more than 99 percent of the
time, against difficult odds, because the terrorists only need to get
it right once. That’s why, like all my predecessors, I trust the
Diplomatic Security professionals with my life.
Let’s also remember that, as the Chairman and the Ranking Member
pointed out, administrations of both parties, in partnership with
Congress, have made concerted and good faith efforts to learn from the
tragedies that have occurred, to implement recommendations from the
Review Boards, to seek the necessary resources to better protect our
people in a constantly evolving threat environment.
In fact, Mr. Chairman, of the 19 Accountability Review Boards that
have been held since 1988, only two have been made public. I want to
stress that because the two that have been made public, coming out of
the East Africa Embassy bombings and this one, are attempts, honest
attempts by the State Department, by the Secretary – Secretary Albright
and myself – to be as transparent and open as possible. We wanted to be
sure that whatever these independent, nonpartisan boards found would be
made available to the Congress and to the American people, because, as I
have said many times since September 11
th, I take
responsibility, and nobody is more committed to getting this right. I am
determined to leave the State Department and our country safer,
stronger, and more secure.
Now, taking responsibility meant not only moving quickly in those
first uncertain hours and days to respond to the immediate crisis, but
also to make sure we were protecting our people and posts in high-threat
areas across the region and the world. It also meant launching an
independent investigation to determine exactly what happened in Benghazi
and to recommend steps for improvement. And it also meant intensifying
our efforts to combat terrorism and support emerging democracies in
North Africa and beyond. Let me share briefly the lessons we have
learned up until now.
First, let’s start on the night of September 11
th itself
and those difficult early days. I directed our response from the State
Department and stayed in close contact with officials from across our
government and the Libyan Government. So I did see firsthand what
Ambassador Pickering and Chairman Mullen called timely and exceptional
coordination – no delays in decision making, no denials of support from
Washington or from our military. And I want to echo the Review Board’s
praise for the valor and courage of our people on the ground, especially
our security professionals in Benghazi and Tripoli. The board said our
response saved American lives in real time, and it did.
The very next morning, I told the American people, and I quote,
“heavily armed militants assaulted our compound,” and vowed to bring
them to justice. And I stood later that day with President Obama as he
spoke of an act of terror.
Now you may recall, at this same time period, we were also seeing
violent attacks on our embassies in Cairo, Sana’a, Tunis, and Khartoum,
as well as large protests outside many other posts, from India to
Indonesia, where thousands of our diplomats serve.
So I immediately ordered a review of our security posture around the
world, with particular scrutiny for high-threat posts. And I asked the
Department of Defense to join Interagency Security Assessment Teams and
to dispatch hundreds of additional Marine Security Guards. I named the
first Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for High Threat Posts so that
missions in dangerous places get the attention they need. And we reached
out to Congress to help address physical vulnerabilities, including
risks from fire, and to hire additional Diplomatic Security Personnel
and Marine Security Guards.
Second, even as I took these steps, I quickly moved to appoint the
Accountability Review Board because I wanted them to come forward with
their report before I left, because I felt the responsibility and I
wanted to be sure that I was putting in motion the response to whatever
they found; what was wrong, how do we fix it.
I have accepted every one of their recommendations. Our Deputy
Secretary for Management and Resources, Deputy Tom Nides, who appeared
before this committee last month, is leading a task force to ensure all
29 are implemented quickly and completely, as well as pursuing
additional steps above and beyond the board.
I pledged in my letter to you last month that implementation has now
begun on all 29 recommendations. We’ve translated them into 64 specific
action items. They were all assigned to specific bureaus and offices
with clear timelines for completion. Fully 85 percent are on track to be
completed by the end of March, with a number completed already. But we
are also taking a top-to-bottom look to rethink how we make decisions on
where, when and whether our people should operate in high-threat areas,
and how we respond.
We are initiating an annual High Threat Post Review chaired for the
first time in American history, I suppose, by the Secretary of State,
and ongoing reviews by the Deputy Secretaries, to ensure that pivotal
questions about security reach the highest level. And we will regularize
protocols for sharing information with Congress.
Now, in addition to the immediate action we took and the review board
process, we’re moving on a third front: addressing the broader
strategic challenge in North Africa and the wider region. Benghazi did
not happen in a vacuum. The Arab revolutions have scrambled power
dynamics and shattered security forces across the region. Instability in
Mali has created an expanding safe haven for terrorists who look to
extend their influence and plot further attacks of the kind we just saw
last week in Algeria.
And let me offer our deepest condolences to the families of the
Americans and all the people from many nations killed and injured in the
Algerian hostage crisis. We remain in close touch with the Government
of Algeria, ready to provide assistance if needed, and also seeking to
gain a fuller understanding of what took place so we can work together
to prevent such terrorist attacks in the future.
Now, concerns about terrorism and instability in North Africa are not
new, of course. Indeed, they have been a top priority for this entire
national security team. But we need to work together to accelerate a
diplomatic campaign to increase pressure on al-Qaida in the Islamic
Maghreb and the other terrorist groups in the region.
I’ve conferred with the President of Libya, the Foreign Ministers and
Prime Ministers of Tunisia and Morocco. Two weeks later, after the
attack, I met with a very large group of regional leaders at the UN and
was part of a special meeting focused on Mali and the Sahel. In October,
I flew to Algeria to discuss the fight against AQIM. In November, I
sent Deputy Secretary Bill Burns on an interagency group to Algiers to
continue that conversation. And then in my stead, he co-chaired the
Global Counterterrorism Forum that was held in Abu Dhabi and a meeting
in Tunis working not only on building new democracies but reforming
security services.
These are just a few of the constant diplomatic engagements that we
are having focused on targeting al-Qaida’s syndicate of terror – closing
safe havens, cutting off finances, countering their extremist ideology,
slowing the flow of new recruits. We continue to hunt the terrorists
responsible for the attacks in Benghazi and are determined to bring them
to justice. And we are using our diplomatic and economic tools to
support the emerging democracies, including Libya, in order to give them
the strength to provide a path away from extremism.
But finally, the United States must continue to lead in the Middle
East, in North Africa, and around the globe. We’ve come a long way in
the past four years, and we cannot afford to retreat now. When America
is absent, especially from unstable environments, there are
consequences. Extremism takes root; our interests suffer; and our
security at home is threatened.
That’s why Chris Stevens went to Benghazi in the first place. I asked
him to go. During the beginning of the revolution against Qadhafi, we
needed somebody in Benghazi who could begin to build bridges with the
insurgents and to begin to demonstrate that America would stand against
Qadhafi. Nobody knew the dangers or the opportunities better than Chris,
first during the revolution, then during the transition. A weak Libyan
Government, marauding militias, even terrorist groups; a bomb exploded
in the parking lot of his hotel. He never wavered. He never asked to
come home. He never said, “Let’s shut it down, quit, and go somewhere
else.” Because he understood it was critical for America to be
represented in that place at that pivotal time.
So Mr. Chairman, we do have to work harder and better to balance the
risks and the opportunities. Our men and women who serve overseas
understand that we do accept a level of risk to represent and protect
the country we love. They represent the best traditions of a bold and
generous nation. They cannot work in bunkers and do their jobs. But it
is our responsibility to make sure they have the resources they need to
do those jobs and to do everything we can to reduce the risks they face.
For me, this is not just a matter of policy. It’s personal, because
I’ve had the great honor to lead the men and women of the State
Department and USAID, nearly 70,000 serving here in Washington and at
more than 275 posts around the world. They get up and go to work every
day, often in difficult and dangerous circumstances thousands of miles
from home, because they believe the United States is the most
extraordinary force for peace and progress the earth has ever known.
And when we suffer tragedies overseas, the number of Americans
applying to the Foreign Service actually increases. That tells us
everything we need to know about the kind of patriots I’m talking about.
They do ask what they can do for their country, and America is stronger
for it.
So today, after four years in this job, traveling nearly a million
miles and visiting 112 countries, my faith in our country and our future
is stronger than ever. Every time that blue and white airplane carrying
the words “United States of America” touches down in some far-off
capital, I feel again the honor it is to represent the world’s
indispensible nation. And I am confident that, with your help, we will
continue to keep the United States safe, strong, and exceptional.
And now I would be very happy to answer your questions.
