Hillary Clinton squares off Republican grilling on Benghazi attack
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has appeared before a congressional committee to testify about an attack on the US consulate in the Libyan city of Benghazi in 2012.
Trey Gowdy, the Republican chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi repeatedly attacked congressional Democrats during Clinton’s marathon testimony on Thursday.
Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, fought back during her grilling in the Republican-dominated House.
Clinton accused the Republicans of playing politics over the attack at the US diplomatic compound in Benghazi that left four US diplomats, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, dead.
She said she accepts responsibility for what happened in Benghazi, but told the committee that as secretary of state, she introduced reforms to protect US diplomatic staff.
Clinton said the United States should learn to accept risks as it pursues its vital interests in a dangerous world, and it should acknowledge that it can "never prevent every act of terrorism or achieve perfect security."
"Chris Stevens understood that diplomats must operate in many places where our soldiers do not," she said.
Clinton was also questioned about her decision to get the US militarily involved in Libya.
Republicans blamed her Libya policy for the current mess there. This is Clinton’s second appearance before Congress over the case.
According to CNN, up to 35 CIA operatives were working in Benghazi during the attack on September 11, 2012, but it has never reported how many of them died or were injured.
Congressional Republicans have been pushing for a wide-ranging investigation into suspicions that the Obama administration has withheld details of its activities in Benghazi.
Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress are playing political football over the September 2012 Benghazi attack, according to an anti-war activist and radio host in New York.
Don DeBar told Press TV last year that instead of holding President Barack Obama responsible for destroying Libya, the Republicans “fight over the killing of the US ambassador, who also apparently was the CIA station chief there during the entire takeover of the country -- and several of his aides.”
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