Washington: US secretary of state Hillary Clinton
may make a long-awaited appearance before lawmakers on 22 January to be
quizzed about the deadly attack on a US mission in Libya, a senator
said on Tuesday.
Clinton had initially been due to testify to US lawmakers
in late December after a scathing inquiry blamed “grossly inadequate”
security at the diplomatic outpost in Benghazi for failing to protect
staff there.
But she was forced to cancel her testimony and send in
her two deputy secretaries instead when she fell ill with a virulent
stomach bug, and later suffered a concussion and blood clot.
Ambassador Chris Stevens
and three other Americans were killed when a wave of heavily-armed
militants overran the compound and a nearby annex on 11 September,
unleashing a bloody and terrifying eight-hour assault.
The Accountability Review Board set up by Clinton to
investigate the attack slammed “systemic failures and leadership and
management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the state
department” responsible for security.
Assistant secretary Eric Boswell,
head of the bureau of diplomatic security, resigned his post after the
report was released and was placed on administrative leave along with
three other senior staff.
But Republican lawmakers have been itching to grill
Clinton before she wraps up her four years in office in a few weeks,
after they accused the US administration of some kind of cover-up over
the deadly assault.
Senator Bob Corker, ranking Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, told MSNBC television he had been in discussions with Clinton’s top aides about setting a new date for her to testify.
“My sense is her hearing probably will take place the morning of the 22nd,” Corker said.
“She’s anxious to want to come up and testify on
Benghazi, and I think that’s an important thing both for her and for our
entire country.”
There was no immediate confirmation of the date from the
state department. Clinton only returned to work on Monday after a
month-long absence due to ill-health, and is busy drawing up her
schedule for her final weeks in office.
State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland reiterated
on Tuesday that the plan was for Clinton to testify about Benghazi while
still in office.
“The goal on our side is that we would have the secretary
able to testify, as she’s promised to do, while she’s still sitting
secretary,” Nuland told reporters.
President Barack Obama
has tapped the veteran Democratic senator John Kerry to replace
Clinton, but his nomination requires confirmation by the Senate, which
is on recess until 21 January.
Nuland said the aim was to “have the confirmation hearing as quickly as appropriate after they (the senators) come back in.”
But she refused comment on news that a Tunis court has
ordered the release of Ali Hamzi, a Tunisian suspected of involvement in
the Benghazi attack.
Hamzi’s lawyer Abdelbasset Ben Mbarek said on Monday that
despite being interrogated by four Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) agents in Tunisia last month no evidence had been found against
him.
“He has returned to his family,” the lawyer told AFP. “If he had been implicated in the attack, he would not have been released.”
Nuland would not comment, saying the criminal investigation into the Benghazi attack was being handled by FBI.
“We have confidence that we will see justice in this
case. But FBI has the lead. They have to do this right,” Nuland told
journalists.
FBI also refused any comment to AFP on the case, saying only in a statement that it “continues to pursue all investigative leads”.
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