WASHINGTON — The chairman of a House Oversight Committee yesterday ripped into a State Department official who declined requests to beef up Libya security two months prior to the Benghazi consulate terrorist attack that killed the US ambassador and three other Americans.
“To start off by saying that you had the correct number and our ambassador and three other individuals are dead and people are in the hospital recovering because it only took moments to breach that facility somehow doesn’t ring true with the American people,” committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said.
Charlene Lamb, the department’s deputy assistant secretary for international programs, testified she denied the request for more security because there was “no justification.”
The committee released a cable from slain Ambassador Christopher Stevens, sent to the department a month prior requesting more personnel. He said Libya “remains unpredictable, volatile and violent.”