A former US diplomat in Libya gave a dramatic account on Wednesday of the attack on the mission in Benghazi that killed the US ambassador, and told lawmakers that more could have been done to stop the assault by suspected Islamist militants.
Gregory Hicks, the second in command at the US Embassy in Libya at the time, expressed his frustration in an emotionally charged congressional hearing that a US military jet and special forces were not sent to help in Benghazi.
“They were furious,” Hicks said of the four special operations members in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, who wanted to go to Benghazi, but were told not to.
As the first US official who was in Libya during the attack to testify publicly, Hicks detailed a series of frantic phone calls to Washington and between Tripoli and Benghazi the night of the attack on September 11, 2012.
One call from US Ambassador Christopher Stevens was cut off after Stevens said, “Greg, we’re under attack.”
Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack by suspected Islamists linked to al Qaeda on a lightly defended US diplomatic mission and a more fortified CIA compound in Benghazi.
The testimony from Hicks and two other US officials gave Republicans new fuel to assail President Barack Obama’s administration over security lapses in Benghazi as well as early, conflicting accounts of what happened there.
The Benghazi incident followed Obama as he campaigned for re-election, with Republicans accusing him of being weak on foreign affairs. But after months of criticism, there is little sign it posed a serious threat to his reputation or his poll numbers.
Hicks gave an emotional account during the hearing of the House of Representatives Oversight Committee. His eyes grew teary and he choked up, collecting himself by sipping water as he gave a minute-by-minute description of the hectic night.
Hicks learned of Stevens’ death in a 3am call from the Libyan prime minister “I think it is the saddest phone call I have ever had in my life,” he said.
If a US jet had been scrambled and sent over the eastern Libyan city when the assault on the diplomatic facilities began, Hicks said, it might have deterred the assailants.
He was asked at one point how he responded to news that more resources would not be sent to Benghazi to help. He answered: “My reaction was that, ‘OK, we’re on our own. We're going to have to try to pull this off with the resources that we have available.”