Testimony
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Opening Remarks Before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Washington, DC
January 23, 2013
Thank
you very much, Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member, members of the committee,
both older and new. I’m very grateful for this opportunity and I thank
you very much for your patience to give me the chance to come and
address these issues with you.
As both the Chairman and the Ranking Member have said, the terrorist attacks in Benghazi on September 11th,
2012 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. Today, I want briefly to offer some context for this challenge,
share what we’ve learned, how we are protecting our people, and where we
can work together to not only honor our fallen colleagues, but continue
to champion America’s interests and values.
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.
Benghazi joins a long list of tragedies for our Department, for other
agencies, and for America: hostages taken in Tehran 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 in 2004, the Khost attack in 2009, and too many
others. Since 1977, 65 American diplomatic personnel have been killed by
terrorists.
Now of course, the list of attacks foiled, crises averted, and lives
saved is even longer. We should never forget that our security
professionals get it right more than 99 percent of the time, against
difficult odds all over the world. That’s why, like my predecessors, I
literally trust them with my life.
Let’s also remember that administrations of both parties, in
partnership with Congress, have made concerted and good faith efforts to
learn from these attacks and deaths to implement recommendations from
the review boards, to seek the necessary resources, and to do better in
protecting our people from what has become constantly evolving threats.
That is the least that the men and women who serve our country deserve.
It’s what, again, we are doing now with your help. As Secretary, I have
no higher priority and no greater responsibility.
As I have said many times, 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 moving quickly in those first
uncertain hours and days to respond to the immediate crisis, but also to
further protect our people and posts in high-threat areas across the
region and the world. It meant launching an independent investigation to
determine exactly what happened in Benghazi and to recommend steps for
improvement. And it meant intensifying our efforts to combat terrorism
and figure out effective ways to support the emerging democracies in
North Africa and beyond.
Let me share some of the lessons we’ve learned, the steps we’ve taken, and the work we continue to do.
First, let’s start on the night of September 11th itself
and those difficult early days. I directed our response from the State
Department, stayed in close contact with officials from across our
government and the Libyan Government. So I saw firsthand what Ambassador
Pickering and former Chairman Mike 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
the security professionals in Benghazi and Tripoli. The board said the
response saved American lives in real time, and it did.
The very next morning, I told the American people that heavily armed
militants assaulted our compound, and I vowed to bring them to justice.
And I stood with President Obama in the Rose Garden as he spoke of an
act of terror.
It’s also important to recall that in that same period, we were
seeing violent attacks on our embassies in Cairo, Sana’a, Tunis,
Khartoum, as well as large protests outside many other posts 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. 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 missions in dangerous places get the attention
they need. And we reached out to Congress to help address physical
vulnerabilities, including risk from fire, and to hire additional
Diplomatic Security personnel.
Second, even as we took these steps, I hurried to appoint the
Accountability Review Board led by Ambassador Pickering and Admiral
Mullen so we could more fully understand from objective, independent
examination what went wrong and how to fix it.
I have accepted every one of their recommendations. I asked the
Deputy Secretary for Management and Resources to lead a task force to
ensure that all 29 of them are implemented quickly and completely, as
well as pursuing additional steps above and beyond the recommendations.
I also pledged in my letter to you last month that implementation
would begin, and it has. Our task force started by translating the
recommendations into 64 specific action items. They were assigned to
bureaus and offices with clear timelines for completion. Eighty-five
percent are now on track to be completed by the end of March; a number
are already completed. And we will use this opportunity to take a
top-to-bottom look and rethink how we make decisions on where, when and
whether people operate in high-threat areas, and then how we respond to
threats and crises.
We are initiating an annual High Threat Post Review chaired by the
Secretary of State, and ongoing reviews by the Deputy Secretaries, to
ensure that pivotal questions about security do reach the highest
levels. We will regularize protocols for sharing information with
Congress. These are designed to increase the safety of our diplomats and
development experts and reduce the chances of another Benghazi
happening again.
We’ve also been moving forward on a third front: addressing the
broader strategic challenge in North Africa and the wider region,
because, after all, 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 saw just last week in Algeria.
And let me offer our deepest condolences to the families of the
Americans and all the people from many nations who were killed and
injured in that recent hostage crisis. We are in close touch with the
Government of Algeria. We stand ready to provide assistance. We are
seeking to gain a fuller understanding of what took place so we can work
together with Algerians and others to prevent such terrorist attacks in
the future.
Concerns about terrorism and instability in North Africa are of
course not new. They have been a top priority for the entire
Administration’s national security team. But we have been facing a
rapidly changing threat environment, and we have had to keep working at
ways to increase pressure on al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and the
other terrorist groups in the region.
In the first hours and days, I conferred with leaders – the President
of Libya, Foreign Ministers of Tunisia and Morocco – and then I had a
series of meetings at the United Nations General Assembly where there
was 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 to follow up in Algiers. And then in December, in
my stead, he co-chaired an organization we started to respond to some of
these threats: the Global Counterterrorism Forum, which was meeting in
Abu Dhabi, as well as a meeting in Tunis of leaders working to build new
democracies and reform security services.
We have focused on targeting al-Qaida’s syndicate of terror – closing
safe havens, cutting off finances, countering extremist ideology,
slowing the flow of new recruits. And we continue to hunt the terrorists
responsible for the attacks in Benghazi and are determined to bring
them to justice. We are using our diplomatic and economic tools to
support these emerging democracies and to strengthen security forces and
help provide a path away from extremism.
But let me underscore the importance of the United States continuing
to lead in the Middle East, in North Africa, and around the world. 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; our
security at home is threatened.
That’s why I sent Chris Stevens to Benghazi in the first place.
Nobody knew the dangers better than Chris, first during the revolution,
then during the transition. A weak Libyan Government, marauding
militias, terrorist groups; a bomb exploded in the parking lot of his
hotel, but he did not waver. Because he understood it was critical for
America to be represented there at that time.
Our men and women who serve overseas understand that we accept a
level of risk to protect the country we love. And they represent the
best traditions of a bold and generous nation. They cannot work in
bunkers and do their jobs. So it is our responsibility to make sure they
have the resources they need, and to do everything we can to reduce the
risks.
For me, this is not just a matter of policy. It’s personal. I stood
next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets
off the plane at Andrews. I put my arms around the mothers and fathers,
the sisters and brothers, the sons and daughters, and the wives left
alone to raise their children.
It has been one of the great honors of my life to lead the men and
women of the State Department and USAID. Nearly 70,000 serving here in
Washington; more than 270 posts around the world. They get up and go to
work every day, often in difficult and dangerous circumstances, because
they believe, as we believe, the United States is the most extraordinary
force for peace and progress the world has ever known.
And when we suffer tragedies overseas, as we have, the number of
Americans applying to the Foreign Service actually increases. That tells
us everything we need to know about what 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, 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
keep the United States safe, strong, and exceptional.
So I want to thank this committee for your partnership and your
support of diplomats and development experts. You know the importance of
the work they do day in and day out. You know that America’s values and
vital national security interests are at stake. And I appreciate what
Ranking Member Corker just said: It is absolutely critical that this
committee and the State Department, with your new Secretary and former
Chairman, work together to really understand and address the resources,
support, and changes that are needed to face what are increasingly
complex threats.
I know you share my sense of responsibility and urgency, and while we
all may not agree on everything, let’s stay focused on what really
matters: protecting our people and the country we love. And thank you
for the support you personally have given to me over the last four
years.
I now would be happy to answer your questions.
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Full testimony.
