Monday, surviving family members of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya dispatched a letter to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) criticizing Congress’s disorganized and inadequate inquiry into the tragic incident. Approximately 75 military and conservative leaders, including Freedom Center President David Horowitz, joined in calling for the formation of a congressional select committee, equipped with subpoena authority, to provide a serious investigation into the attack. The full text of the letter follows.
“To the living we owe respect. To the dead we owe the truth.” –Voltaire
The Honorable John Boehner
Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives
The Capitol, H-232
Washington, D.C., 20515
January 6, 2014
Dear Speaker Boehner,
We write to express our grave concern over the failure of your House of Representatives to extract the truth from the Obama administration concerning the attack on our diplomatic and intelligence facilities in Benghazi, Libya; and, the brutal deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stephens, U.S. Foreign Service Officer Sean Smith, and security officers Ty Woods and Glen Doherty.
To date, five (5) different committees of the House have conducted separate hearings, uncovering information in a piecemeal fashion lacking professional investigators. The five committees’ efforts are disjointed and uncoordinated. The Obama administration has benefited from that dysfunctional process to hide the truth. Hardly any Obama administration witnesses have testified – publicly or privately. You have resisted repeated calls for the creation of a select investigative committee with subpoena authority. It appears that you are satisfied to allow that state of investigative incoherence and ambiguity to continue. The last public hearing by any of the five committees was held in September – four (4) months ago. The families of the dead who fought valiantly to protect the mission and their families, the survivors, and the American people deserve better from you and your Members of Congress. They deserve the absolute truth from their government. Your failure to get the truth and hold public officials accountable increases the possibility of other repeat attacks and additional failures to defend Americans abroad.
[…]
