An Article by Congressman Mike Pompeo

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-KS):

In June 2011 President Obama addressed the nation, announcing that the American people could “take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding.”  He liked this phrase so much that he repeated it just months later.

On September 11, 2012, as fire engulfed the State Department’s temporary mission facility in Benghazi, Libya, the survivors and a CIA security team who had come to their rescue made a desperate dash for a CIA Annex located nearby from which they would fend off a continued and determined jihadist attack.Despite heroic efforts that night, four Americans lost their lives: For the first time in over 30 years, a U.S. ambassador, Chris Stevens, was assassinated.Another State Department employee, Sean Smith, was also killed.Two former Navy Seals who worked for the CIA, Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, died defending their fellow Americans at the Annex.

The President was wrong. The tide of war was not receding, nor was the threat of radical Islamic terror around the world.

Rep. Pompeo speaks at the press conference announcing the release of the Committee’s report

As part of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, I have devoted myself to providing the American people with every relevant fact surrounding the attack. With the release of the report, my colleague Jim Jordan and I wrote separately about our conclusions, drawn from the facts brought to light by the committee. Here are our conclusions:

1. The Obama administration misled the public about the attack in Benghazi. State Department officials, including Secretary Clinton, learned quickly that what happened in Benghazi was a terrorist attack.  Rather than tell the American people the truth and risk losing an election, the administration opted to cite a video-inspired protest that never occurred.
2. The American people expect that when our leaders send Americans to dangerous places, every effort should be made to ensure that they are safe.  Secretary Hillary Clinton had “leadership/ownership/stewardship of this country’s Libya policy from start to finish” according to her senior staff.  Yet, in the months before the attack, the security at U.S. government facilities in Benghazi was desperately inadequate. Secretary Clinton failed to act to correct that.  As late as August 2012, she had that chance, but in the end, failed to protect those she put in harm’s way.
3. Our government did not move heaven and earth to rescue our people.  Americans expect their government to protect our nation’s representatives who they have put in harm’s way.  They also expect that our leaders will do whatever is necessary to save them when things go badly. The U.S. military never reached Benghazi.  We now believe that the government never even directed men or machines to enter the fight there.
4. The administration broke its promise to bring the terrorists to justice.  President Obama assured us that “justice will be done.” America has the capacity to bring about that justice.  Yet almost four years later, only one of the terrorists has been captured.
5. The administration was not interested in helping the Committee find the truth.  A national tragedy demands that we, as elected leaders, put politics aside and join together to find the truth.  Yet in this instance, the truth was inconvenient for an administration in the midst of an election.

In short: the administration put politics above people.  In doing so, our most senior leaders in Washington, D.C. let down our warriors in Benghazi, Libya.  At every turn, these leaders resisted doing the right thing when it was most needed that night and in the months – now years – that followed.

It is my hope that the efforts of the Committee laid out in our report, and Congressmen Jordan’s and my effort to provide conclusions based on those facts, will help to turn the page on this terrible chapter of American history.The families of those killed, the American people deserve nothing less.

Sincerely,

Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-KS)

Pompeo serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Select Committee on Benghazi.He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, an Army veteran, and ran two small businesses before joining Congress in 2011.