Washington (CNN) -- Last September's terrorist
attack in Libya that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other
Americans didn't happen in a vacuum but was part of a "broader strategic
challenge in North Africa and the wider region," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday.
In sometimes emotional
testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the September
11 attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Clinton reiterated that
her position made her responsible for what happened.
"As I have said many times since September 11, I take responsibility," Clinton told the panel.
In response to critics
who have charged that the State Department refused additional protection
sought by diplomatic and security staff, Clinton said in opening
remarks that there was "timely" and "exceptional" coordination between
the State Department and the Pentagon on the night of the attack
"No delays in
decision-making. No denials of support from Washington or from the
military,' Clinton said. An independent review of the U.S. government's
response to the attack, she noted, "said our response saved American
lives in real time -- and it did."
Clinton said she directed
the response to the attack from the State Department that night and
"stayed in close contact with officials from across our government and
the Libyan government."
Anticipating criticism of
misleading "talking points" prepared by the CIA that initially said the
attack on the mission was motivated by anger over an anti-Islam video,
Clinton said: "The very next morning, I told the American people that
'heavily armed militants assaulted our compound' and vowed to bring them
to justice. And I stood with President Obama as he spoke of 'an act of
terror.' "
In addition, Clinton said
she immediately took steps to beef up security at U.S. posts around the
world, including creating an independent review board that found
"systematic failures" in how the State Department handled security at
the mission.
"I have accepted every
one of their recommendations," she said. "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."
The appearance in the
Senate and, later Wednesday, before a House committee, was one of the
last acts for Clinton before she leaves her post as long planned.
"For me, this is not just a matter of policy," she said. "It's personal."
In reference to the return of remains of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the other three slain Americans,
Clinton said in voice choked with emotion: "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, sisters and
brothers, sons and daughters."
Republican questions at
the hearings were expected to range from a security vacuum in Northern
Africa to new cables suggesting that Stevens once proposed moving the
compound to a more secure location adjacent the CIA Annex, sources told
CNN.
With several new members
on the House Foreign Relations Committee, and two possible GOP
presidential hopefuls -- Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul of
Kentucky -- on the Senate panel, State Department officials anticipated
aggressive questions about whether the presence of Islamic extremists in
Mali and Algeria were in any way related to past decisions by the Obama
administration to keep U.S. combat troops out of Libya.
However, A GOP member of
the committee told CNN that House Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce,
R-California, met with Republicans on the committee and urged them to be
respectful of Clinton.
Clinton was originally scheduled to testify last month but postponed her appearance as she was treated for illness, a concussion and a blood clot near her brain. The country's top diplomat returned to work just over two weeks ago.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz,
R-Utah, said Clinton was "going to get some very hard questions" on the
State Department's role in handling security for diplomatic security in
Libya before the attack, as well as what Clinton was doing the night of
the violence.
"We had an ambassador
missing for something like seven hours with no assets brought in" for a
response, he told CNN on Wednesday.
An independent report
from the Accountability Review Board ordered by the State Department
said it did not find "that any individual U.S. government employee
engaged in misconduct or willfully ignored his or her responsibilities"
leading up to the attack.
However, one State
Department official resigned and three others were placed on
administrative leave after the report was released in December.
Sources told CNN that
congressional staffers have been shown new State Department e-mails and
cables indicating that in November 2011, Stevens proposed two options to
the State Department for boosting security for diplomats in Benghazi.
The first involved
moving the diplomatic compound back into a hotel. The second would have
moved the compound to an unoccupied villa adjacent the CIA Annex.
CIA officials agreed
with U.S. diplomatic personnel in the country that the latter option
would be safer, but the State Department rejected the idea.
It's a position Clinton
took soon after the September attack, telling CNN in an interview last
October that she was ultimately responsible for security.
There have been more than 30 hearings and closed door briefings on Benghazi with State Department officials present.
Rep. Gerald E. Connolly
of Virginia, a Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee,
said Congress has failed to expeditiously fund State Department efforts
to upgrade security at high-risk posts. He pointed a finger at House
Republican leaders.
"A paucity of resources
ingrains a specific culture within any organization, in this case the
State Department --- namely that every purchase, every expense, must be
justified in a time when the threat of even more cuts loom beyond the
horizon," Connolly said in a statement released on the eve of the
hearings.
Obama ordered a review of security at all diplomatic outposts in the wake of the attack.
Clinton also was likely
to face questions about the storming of the natural gas facility last
week in Algeria during which militants seized dozens of hostages. Three
Americans lost their lives.
Al Qaeda in the Islamic
Maghreb is believed to have had a hand in the attack. Clinton also will
likely face questions about the battle against extremists in neighboring
Mali.
Chaffetz: Clinton faces hard questions.
