The House Oversight Committee hearings on Wednesday provided enough evidence that the internal response to the Benghazi attack which killed four Americans amounted to a cover-up, the Former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union C. Boyden Gray tells Newsmax.
"Well, the case is actually proven," said the Ambassador in an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV. "We know for sure that the talking points were altered and that is now pretty well established."
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Gray, who also served as White House Counsel during the George H.W. Bush administration, sees no excuse for not having Ambassador Susan Rice tell the truth about the Benghazi attack from the beginning.
"The excuse for not putting the proper information in the first talking points for Ambassador Rice when she went on television, the excuse that to do so would have interfered with the prosecution," Gray says. "Well, this isn't a drug bust. This isn't a crime scene."
Ambassador Gray says it's a mistake on the part of the Obama administration to treat Benghazi like a crime scene, although he says that he wouldn't go as far as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee who said that the Benghazi hearings could lead to the impeachment of President Barack Obama.
"This was a war zone. We started a war over there. We were at war with Libya," he said. "And not to have any weapons within 15 hours of transport is just unbelievable. And you might accept Panetta's description, well this is a 9-1-1 situation--you can't just dial 9-1-1 and expect someone to show up . . . This wasn't an ordinary mission. This was a war zone."
The former ambassador says the response to the Benghazi attack would make him much more hesitant to serve abroad, especially in the Middle East.
"Well, I wouldn't want to serve there, that's for sure, if this is what the protection level is going to be and the response level . . . You really have a right to expect that people will come to your rescue, especially if you are in a war zone . . .This was an abandonment of our public servants in trouble and that's a terrible signal to send for future diplomats and future soldiers."
Ambassador Gray would support a select committee to investigate Benghazi further.
"You have Intelligence, you have Foreign Affairs, you have Armed Services, and then you have this Oversight committee," the ambassador explained. "Each one has certain limitations as to how far they can go and where they can go and the competency of their own staff to investigate. Whereas if you had a joint committee made up of the elements of all those committees I just mentioned, then you would have a much more powerful investigative tool."
The ambassador says that the big question now is whether or not the public will understand what happened.
"The whole thing, in addition to the four very unfortunate deaths, including the ambassador, it was a military and diplomatic and political disaster. So I think the facts are all there. The question is can the American public be brought up to date?"
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