Benghazi hearings: Hillary Clinton issues forceful defence

Hillary Clinton faced accusations of incompetence, evasion and obfuscation by angry members of Congress at two hearing into the deaths of the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in Benghazi last year.

Although the US secretary of state was roundly praised for her "extraordinary" work as she prepares to leave office, she came under strong criticism over her handling of the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi on September 11.

Some of the strongest criticism came at the Senate foreign relations committee from John McCain, who has been at the forefront of challenging the Obama administration's account of the assault. He was particularly critical of Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the United Nations, who was initially put up by the White House to say that the attack on the consulate followed a demonstration outside over an anti-Muslim video made by a California resident, which prompted protests in Cairo and other cities.

McCain accused the administration of continuing to withhold information. "People don't bring RPGs and mortars to spontaneous demonstrations. That's a fundamental," he told Clinton. "Here we are, four months later, and we still don't have the basic information."

Clinton said that the Benghazi attack did not happen in isolation and that she was dealing with other "very serious threats" at the time. "There were so many protests happening, and thousands of people were putting our facilities at risk," she said.

Later Clinton said that "we were very focused on our embassy in Cairo" at the time. "There were crowds that were intent upon trying to scale the wall, and we were in close communication with our team in Cairo," she said.

The secretary of state dismissed suggestions she had not reacted firmly enough, saying that she told American diplomats in Tripoli to "break down the doors of Libyan officials to get as much support as possible".

Senator Ron Johnson riled Clinton by repeatedly challenging her account of the events leading up to the attack. He said that "we were misled that there were supposedly protests" before the assault and wanted to know why the secretary of state hadn't made "a simple phone call" to ascertain the truth, Kazinform quotes the Guardian.

"With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans," the secretary of state responded, clearly irritated. "Was it because of a protest, or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they'd go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and to do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator."

Clinton said it would have been inappropriate to bypass the usual procedures. Johnson responded: "I realise that's a good excuse".

The secretary of state shot back: "No, it's a fact".

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