(
)
WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain yesterday called the Obama administration’s response to the Benghazi, Libya, consulate attack a “coverup” that reached all the way to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“She had to be in the loop in some way,” McCain (R-Ariz.) said on ABC’s “This Week.”
McCain’s comments follow revelations that the State Department and the CIA battled over whether to initially call the September assault a terrorist attack, with State insisting on playing down terrorism.
“I’d call it a coverup in the extent that there was willful removal of information which was obvious,” said McCain, who called for a congressional select committee to investigate.
One State staffer successfully cautioned that linking the attack to al Qaeda would be detrimental to the administration and would allow Congress to criticize the department for failing to heed warnings, according to e-mails revealed by ABC News.
UN Ambassador Susan Rice initially called the attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, the result of a spontaneous protest based on the talking points she received from the department and the CIA.
Last week, Republican charges that the White House covered up details of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack picked up steam after former US diplomat Greg Hicks told lawmakers he believed more could have been done to stop the assault by terrorists.
Hicks, the No. 2 US diplomat in Libya at the time of the attack, said he was frustrated that his efforts to deploy military forces during the attack were rejected by his superiors in Washington.
Another Republican House leader said yesterday that he expects lawmakers will hear from more witnesses with details on the terrorist attack and the administration’s response.
“I do think we’re going to see more whistleblowers. I certainly know my committee has been contacted,” Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.”
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, yesterday became the Democrat most critical of the administration’s handling of the attack reporting.
“The talking points were wrong,” Feinstein said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think the talking points should not be written by the intelligence community . . . Talking points can’t be done by committee, either.”
But Feinstein joined other Democrats in accusing Republicans of using the Benghazi incident to go after Clinton.