VOA News
January 23, 2013
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified Wednesday before a Senate Committee about last year's attack on the U.S. mission in the Benghazi, Libya, in a hearing that included sharp criticism from lawmakers on her handling of the incident.
Among her harshest critics on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was one-time Republican presidential candidate, Senator John McCain. "There are many questions [about Benghazi] that are unanswered and the answers frankly that you have this morning are not satisfactory," he said.
Republican Senator Bob Corker said security shortfalls point to a larger problem. "It seems to be Benghazi symbolizes just the woeful unpreparedness that our nation as it relates to issues in North Africa," he said.
Clinton agreed, saying "Make no mistake about it. We need a better strategy."
Republican Senator Ron Johnson questioned the administration's handling of the attack that killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
"We were misled that there were supposedly protests and that somehow an assault sprang out of it. And that was easily ascertained that that was not the fact. And the American people could have known that within days," he said.
The outgoing secretary of state said assigning blame is not helpful. "The fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they would go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make. It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything in our power to prevent it from ever happening again, senator," she said.
Watch a video clip of Clinton's testimony
