Previous Probes Into US Diplomatic Mission Attack in Benghazi Were Flawed

According to the chairman of House Select Committee on Benghazi, previous investigations into the attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya, were not thorough enoough.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Previous investigations into the 2012 attack on the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya were not in-depth, House Select Committee on Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy said on Thursday.

“Previous investigations were not thorough,” Gowdy said. “Questions [about the attack] lingered because those previous investigations were narrow in scope and either incapable or unwilling to access the facts and evidence necessary to answer all relevant questions."

Gowdy made the statement during his opening remarks at a committee’s hearing attended by former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was scheduled to testify about her response to the attack on the US diplomatic mission.

In 2012, US Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other government employees were killed in a terrorist attack on a US diplomatic compound in Benghazi.

Republican lawmakers claim the White House and State Department did not send military back-up to the besieged diplomats to avoid publicly admitting the attack was carried by al-Qaida-backed terrorists. The Obama administration had said it decimated the terrorist network by killing Osama bin Laden in 2011.

Clinton has previously taken responsibility for mistakes made in the aftermath of the attacks, but rejected accusations that the Obama administration had tried to mislead the US public about the Benghazi terrorist attack.