The 19 Questions Americans Deserve Answers to on Benghazi

Helle Dale / June 03, 2014

Before long, the House Select Committee on Benghazi will start its work. At The Heritage Foundation yesterday, a panel of experts discussed the challenges facing the committee and the numerous areas of inquiry the committee will need to investigate.

The idea that all questions on Benghazi have been answered is manifestly wrong. The administration has dragged its feet outrageously and done everything to “discourage” eyewitnesses to the Benghazi attack from giving testimony to congressional investigators. And although it is true that five congressional committees have dug into the scandal, they often have failed to ask follow-up questions necessary to get to the truth.

Among the still unanswered questions:

Where was President Obama during the entire attack?
What orders did Obama give in regarding the military during the attack? Did he sign any orders?
Who decided there should be no military response, even a fly-over?
What decisions did Secretary of State Hillary Clinton make during the attack?
During their meeting the afternoon of Sept.11, 2012, did Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta tell Obama that Benghazi was a “terrorist attack”? What did he recommend to the president?
Who all worked in the White House situation room during the attack?
Why has Obama not released all documents regarding Benghazi, including the president’s daily intelligence briefing?
Who provided then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice with the talking points she put forth on the Sunday morning shows and who told her the attack was the “direct result” of a “heinous and offensive video?”
Who told Rice that security in Benghazi was “substantial?”
Why did Obama still attribute the Benghazi attack to the video in his speech to the United Nations on Sept. 25, after the true nature of the attack was indisputable?
Who in the White House participated in the decision to arrest the filmmaker? Who directed that he be arrested?
Why were Secretary Clinton and Under Secretary of State Patrick Kennedy not interviewed for the Accountability Review Board’s report?
Why did Kennedy decrease security by 30 personnel at the U.S. embassy in Libya and was Clinton aware of this?
Why did the ARB not blame Kennedy for this decision but instead blamed four other State Department employees?
Why did the ARB state that U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens went to Benghazi “independently” of Washington, which was not true?
Why did the Department of Defense not wait until Stevens could have made arrangements for the Special Forces in Libya to have diplomatic immunity before removing them as Embassy security in Tripoli?
Did the military upgrade the readiness status of any units in AFRICOM, VENTCOM or EUCOM after the attack commenced on the U.S. embassy in Cairo? If not, why not?
Why has no terrorist responsible for the Benghazi attack been arrested?
What was the role of the White House counsel in the Benghazi issue, from the night of the attack through Sept.25, 2012, the date of the president’s U.N. speech?