700 Retired Spec Ops Professionals to Congress: Form a Select Committee to Investigate Benghazi

In this Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012 file photo, a man looks at documents at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, after an attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Credit: AP

It has been more than six months since the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi that cost four Americans -- including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens -- their lives.  Yet, the picture is not much clearer than it was in the weeks after the tragedy.  It seems the government and the media have largely moved on.

But now, a staggering 700 retired Military Special Operations professionals have submitted a letter to Congress urging all members of the U.S. House of Representatives to support H.Res. 36, which would create a House Select Committee to investigate the deadly September 11 attack.

"It appears that many of the facts and details surrounding the terrorist attack which resulted in four American deaths and an undetermined number of American casualties have not yet been ascertained by previous hearings and inquiries," the letter states.  "Additional information is now slowly surfacing in the media, which makes a comprehensive bipartisan inquiry an imperative."

The letter proceeds to list roughly 20 questions the retired professionals believe "at a minimum" need to be addressed.  Many are so straightforward that, reading them back-to-back, it's stunning we still don't have the answers.  The questions include:

• Why was there no military response to the events in Benghazi?

• Were assets deployed to any location in preparation for a rescue or recovery attempt?

• What, if any, non-military assistance was provided during the attack?

• How many US personnel were injured in Benghazi?

• Why have the survivors of the attack not been questioned?

• Who was in the White House Situation Room (WHSR) during the entire 8-hour period of the attacks, and was a senior US military officer present?

• Who gave the order to “STAND DOWN” that was heard repeatedly during the attacks?

• Why did the Commander-in Chief and Secretary of State never once check in during the night to find out the status of the crisis situation in Benghazi?

• What was the nature of Ambassador Stevens’ business in Benghazi at the time of the attack?

The letter was organized by Lieutenant General William G. “Jerry” Boykin USA (Ret.) and the not-for-profit organization Special Operations Speaks (SOS).

"As a retired Special Operations officer who spent most of my thirty-six years preparing for and executing rescue missions to save fellow Americans, I am deeply troubled by the events in Benghazi on September 11, 2012," Boykin told Breitbart News.  "The men and women who I served with lived by an ethos that pledged to never leave a fallen comrade and to make every effort to respond when a fellow American was threatened. I have seen men take great risks to save a fellow warrior. I have even seen men die trying to do so."

He continued:

"The lack of accountability regarding the Benghazi event disturbs me greatly and bears the earmarks of a cover up. America is entitled to a full accounting of this egregious attack on our people with some explanation as to why there was no effort to save the Americans in the US Embassy annex and the CIA station, or at least to recover their bodies before they fell into Libyan hands. Our Congress has yet to fulfill its responsibility to provide a complete analysis of the attack or to provide answers as to what exactly happened. A  bi-partisan Special Committee is needed to determine the truth about Benghazi."

Former Navy SEAL Captain Larry Bailey, one of the signatories, went even further in a statement to Breitbart.

“As veterans from all aspects of Special Operations, we have no doubt that there’s a lot more to what happened in Benghazi than President Obama and his Administration are letting on," he wrote.  "From the very beginning, he has attempted to mislead and outright lied to the American people about why the attack on September 11th, 2012 happened, how it happened, and what our government did or did not do to save the lives of our patriots abroad.”

You can read the entire letter at Special Operation Speaks.  There is also a link to sign a similar petition urging Congress to take action on H.Res. 36.

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• Author Brad Thor on Obama’s Benghazi Story: ‘If I Tried to Turn This Into my Editor, I’d Be Thrown Out of Her Office’
• Panetta Justifies Benghazi Response Time: ‘You Cannot Simply Call and Expect Within 2 Minutes to Have a Team in Place’