>>> for most of my life libya was a word with bad associations. libya meant gadhafi. libya meant terrorism. >> pan am flight 103 went down in a blazing fireball. >> libya, a bad place where a comical dictator was the absolute power. nobody in libya, however, was laughing. >> reports of explosions. >> clashes between rioters and security forces. >> in 2011, what was previously unthinkable happened. the libyan people rose up and fought for their freedom. >> heavy battles raging around the libyan capital. >> they fought like hell. >> the rebels are about to force gadhafi's complete departure. >> they recorded the whole thing on their cell phones. >> libya! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >>> it's amazing arriving here after all you see on tv these days that libya is, in fact, functioning at all. but it is. the fountains across from the kornish are operating. traffic works, kind of. at the radisson, club sandwiches arrive on time in the lobby. the occasional flash of camo and a security scanner are the really only discordant notes. >> don't want to take the -- >> inside the old part of the city,

libya's lead leaders assert they are willing to pay their own way and use petroleumle -- and as libya increases capacity and gains experience with steps needed to procure and contract the need for u.s. and other external funding will drop away. implementing these programs now, however, gives us the best opportunity to support and strengthen a libyan government that is tragic but can be a long -- that is fragile, but among these u.s. funded activities are programmed aimed at preventing weapons proliferation, provides advise on transitional governance issues, such as border security, rule of law, human rights, and promoting a vibrant civil society. this seed money will pay substantial dividends if it's wisely huded and it's in our national interests, both strategic and ideological, as well as libya's to see it fulfill it potential as a stable and prosperous democracy with a fully developed and active civil society, and the full integration and participation of all elements of libyan society in geographic areas with respect to human rights and international norms. historic rivalries betw

stevens went to libya on that fateful day, to show support for what was going on in libya at the time >> absolutely. >> there have been some reports floating around. mr. nordstrom, can you tell me what the role of the february 17 martyrs brigade was in helping to protect the consulate in benghazi? that was the unit that was provided to us by the libyan government. >> were you aware of any ties to that militia of islamic extremists? >> yes. we had that discussion on a number of occasions, the last of which was when there was a facebook posting of a threat to the named stevens and senator mccain, who is coming out for the election. i had met with some of my agents and then also with some annex personnel. we discussed that. >> you were in libya on the night of the attack. the februarye that 17 militia played a role in those attacks, was complacent in those attacks? >> certainly elements of demolition work complicit in the attacks. the attackers had to make a long approach march through multiple checkpoints that were meant -- manned. >> mr. hicks and mr. nordstrom, i'm going to ask both o

the defense attache was at the same time calling the leadership of libya's military libya to ask thempurpose, to ask them for assistance. once that was done i called again to washington to report these actions had been commenced. over the night that is basically how our team operated. i was reporting to the government of libya, reporting to the state department through the operations center and staying in touch with the annex chief of about what was going on. let me step back one minute if i could. and say that i also discussed with the annex chief about mobilizing a tripoli response team and we agreed that we would move forward with a chartering a plane from tripoli to fly a response team to benghazi to provide additional reinforcements. the defense attache was also reporting through his chain of command back to africom and to the joint staff here in washington about what was going on in the country. david mcfar land, our political section chief, had just returned from benghazi where he had been our principle officer for the previous ten days. so he jumped into this picture by reachi

we flew for months over libya, months. we conducted an air campaign. .e have assets, nato partners we have worked with the italians. it is stunning that our the united states of america, could not get a tanker in the air? mr. hicks,, when did you think this was actually over, this was done, we were safe? not until our personnel landed intricately on the c-130. a and even then, there is reason why you had to leave the facility in tripoli. >> that is correct. >> when did you return to tripoli? >> we returned i believe on the 14th. >> and security? >> they arrived on september 12. >> and the governor never asked asked the government never asked for permission. this is one of the key concerns. in the last minute, i want to ask mr. thompson, i want to read an excerpt of an e-mail sent by you to timothy walsh and james webster on wednesday, september 12,@11:10 in the morning. , daniel benjamin on the phone this morning, he understands my point, concurs, but expressed his pessimism regarding the deployment and by extension does n

you not be able to go to eastern libya any time soon.not just because of what happened in benghazi but it is no longer in control of the government and the situation is evidenced by yesterday's vote that continues to deteriorate. and it cries out for american assistance, which is not the case in some other countries and my grabher would be more than welcome. i wish to look there is a lot of us that want to see you succeed but most importantly the people of libya to realize the opportunity they sacrificed a great deal of blood to achieve you know, the list of concerns rehab in the areas you should be cooperating and i would hope he would strenuously if bias the state department and the president of the united states how we can salvage what is a unfortunately a deteriorating situation in libya. >> i appreciate your support >> one last thing ambassador i want to make sure for the record and i.m. continuing to be interested in behalf of the families of pan am one '03 war who were involved in the bombing that lost many lives of americans incl

of libya. she directly contradicts the last payment under by ambassador stevens -- the last statement by ambassador stevens. who is beth jones? >> the acting assistant secretary for near eastern affairs at the state department. >> i want to read an excerpt from an e-mail she sent and you were copied on it. mr. chairman, for our colleagues who would like to trumpet bipartisanship, this would be a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate it. some of these e-mails, even though they are not classified in of not been released, from my colleagues who trumpet bipartisanship, this would be a wonderful time to prove it. this is from ms. jones to you to counsel for hillary clinton, to mr. kennedy. to almost everyone in the state department. >>" i spoke to libyan ambassador and exercise the of libya leaders continue to make strong statements." this e-mail was sent on september 12, the day after and as a -- the day after benghazi. " when he said his government suspected former qadhafi element were responsible

you don't worry i think we're living in a situation here in libya. we know all the groups recently surrounded the government ministries in tripoli is that a danger that radical groups could seize power by force that. yes this is always a danger in libya and one of the reasons this is the case is because there's been a heavy amount of active by western intelligence agencies during the. for libya in and out there are you know course that culminated with what we saw on benghazi last fall but the u.s. had gone in and tried to eliminate some potential leadership in the. libyan government it's a broken off each militias basically. these are the life some of those groups over the last two years or so but it's a recipe for chaos and you know it's really sad because libya has got a challenge in order to have some semblance of law and order and government in the country right now in the middle east correspondent also mentioned earlier the attack on the french and the same tripoli last month was seen as a reprisal for the french intervention in mali do you thin

well i think when hillary clinton and her advisors decided to bomb and to bomb libya and depots the. gadhafi that there were relatively few terrorists there now it's teeming with terrorism reminds me of iraq before we attacked iraq now it's caning with terrorists but getting back to raymond's point here you know i have never accused george bush of letting nine eleven happen i have accused him of incompetence you know just a month before nine eleven he was warned by my colleagues in the cia osama bin laden determined to attack within the united states and he did absolutely nothing so at best it's it's misfeasance rather than malfeasance but the point is here why why did highly cheaper hommage the mastermind behind nine eleven why did he say that he did it now they captured him before the nine eleven report and this is what the nine eleven report says on page one forty seven and i have it committed to memory quote honey check one home it's on the most toward the united states stem not from his his studies here as a person in north carolina but rather from his deep hatred of u.s. policy

embassy in libya. after embassadors devens was murdered -- after embassador stevens was murdered, he became the active mission. he was in fact in libya, the highest ranking officer, if you will, america's representative in libya. mr. erik nordstrom is the former regional security officer in libya. he is perhaps the foremost and most knowledgeable person about security requests that were and denied to the u.s. diplomatic mission in libya and in benghazi, ultimately in benghazi. mr. cummings, we will have, from time to time, our disagreements. i know that for all the members of this committee, we understand that these agreements must be kept on this side of the dais. these brave witnesses deserve the right to the call to testify. these brave whistleblowers are what make this committee's work work. we are the committee that led for new whistle blower protections signed by this president and the public has a right to hear their accounts we, more than any other committee, must respect whistle- blowers and w

can you speak to the state of civil society in egypt, libya and tunisia? and to what extent is civil society being stifled, and that's, that can be for all of the panelists. >> regarding the point professor lust raised about that, if you ask egyptians, i am from egypt. regarding, when you ask egyptian what do you want, what do you wu understand about democracy, they say they're looking for more economic welfare. then jakob said that muslim brotherhood do care about economy, as they know how to run the country, but they wait until certain problems. and i find this very contradictory. you think the egyptians would wait for years, and then you say also that if you ask egyptian who elected muslim brotherhood they would reelect muslim brotherhood again. i don't think they can do that again if they have very, very, now we have like 40% poverty rate in egypt, among them i mean 40% of egyptians are poor. you think they're going to reelect ache in the muslim brotherhood if they are suffering more? >> other questions? >> hi. i'm from the middle east policy. actually

author on libya.nd director at berkeley research group of law and economics consultancy firm, our guest for the next 20 minutes. will go to our caller, republican and michigan. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. cards,eason in the covering up for jihadists? which is what i think has been done, and has been an attack on america's sovereignty and should be in place. as far as investigations go -- host: you shook your head at that. guest: at this point, i have been following the news quite carefully and read all 100 pages of e-mails, but i hav e no reason to believe, senator ieinstein put this nightciely, do not see any efforts to willfully deceive. and compared to issues that have come up in the previous iministration, again, here would say context is paramount, that the real issue here was why were those installations not protected? why did we not follow through on what had started to be our framing move, response to the arab spring? and i believe a lot of that has to do with systemic iss

terrorists, that there was al-qaeda operating in libya that would possibly target americans?absolutely. one reason i was there was to pursue those adversaries in country. i was working in counter terrorism to visionualize if you will -- visualize if you will my counterpart working for al-qaeda and doing the same thing. they were out there developing libyans to do these kind of strikes on libyan government to destablize them. >> reporter: why in the world then would ambassador rice go out there and say that this was because of some youtube movie? >> those statements to me indicated there was confusion, bad decisions being made at the highest levels. >> reporter: in emotional testimony deputy chief of mission gregory hicks the diplomat left in charge of libya when ambassador stevens was killed told the committee. >> the youtube video was a nonevent in libya. >> reporter: what must it have been like to call for help begging for help and none comes? >> very eck as per rating. it will be i'm sure the most traumatic stress you mattic thing he would ever go through. >> reporter: peo

at a time of fiscal restraint and given libya's wealth.ur interest to fund a limited number of activities of immediate concern to libyan security and to live the proper foundations for the transition to a democratic state. leaders have asserted their willingness and they are tapping their assets of the previous regime. as the government increases capacity and gains experience, the need for u.s. and other external funding will drop away. implement and programs now gives us the best opportunity to support and strengthen the government that is fragile but will be a long-term partner of the united states. atse are programs aimed weapons proliferation, providing governmental issues such as border security, rule of law, human rights and promoting a vibrant civil society. money will pay substantial dividend. it is in our national interest as well as libya's to see it fulfill its potential as a stable and prosperous democracy with an active civil society and the full integration of all elements of libyan society and the geographic areas with respe

libya still exists. it is territorial. that being said, there are different power centers emerging and a key center of power includes the city state of the economic powerhouse of the country where the most vicious battle of the war was fought. and they are using this really a service in the war. that we have exceeded the qaddafi regime and we deserve the political swell. this is creating a tremendous backlash among other libyans. there's a saying that for 42 years, they tried to get qaddafi did she miss product. and then they had better for themselves. everything was so centralizing with qaddafi. let me talk about the saving graces for this country. it was well conveyed, the ontological that term of the various parties is fairly narrow. you don't have these really struck divide among the parties. in the run-up to the parliamentary elections when you look at the different slogans, the national forces alliances was trying to play this up on the center. this is true. this party didn't do well. it is because

that is the consistent narrative from libya, from the officials in libya starting with the president of the national congress, mohamed mogarif and the justice minister today and intelligence officials, they from the very beginning when asked said they believe this was a pre-planned terrorist attack on a competing network on cbs september 16th the president of libya was in new york for the general assembly meetings. and he said that dozens had been arrested since the attack five days previously and he believed they'd been planning -- they'd been in the country for months planning what he called a criminal attack. and furthermore he said that he and his intelligence had information that some of them were from algeria and mali. and now this long-predated what became al qaeda in the islamic ma greb and then in january of this year the big attack and siege of the gas facility in southern algeria. so he was prestaging something that then we all knew about several months later. and i've interviewed many of the libyan officials, prime ministers that said the justice minister and they all agr

embassy in libya. after embassador stevens was murdered, he became the active active chief of mission. he was in fact in libya, the highest ranking officer, if you will, america's representative in libya. mr. erik nordstrom is the former regional security officer in libya. he is perhaps the foremost and most knowledgeable person about security requests that were made and denied to the u.s. diplomatic mission in libya and in benghazi, ultimately in benghazi. mr. cummings, we will have, from time to time, our disagreements. i know that for all the members of this committee, we understand that these disagreements must be kept on this side of the dais. these brave witnesses deserve this committee's called to testify. these brave whistleblowers are what make this committee's work work. we are the committee that led for new whistle blower protections signed by this president and the public has a right to hear their accounts and we, more than any other committee, must respect whistle- blowers and work on a bi

a war in libya. i think that there's a pretty good chance that the geneva meeting will end in failure i mean the americans are doing everything they can to sabotage it and the war will the current conflict going to go on and you know some point the obama administration will decide well we really feel he managed to and reasons we really have to intervene if you know michael cera bipartisan foreign policy in the united states now because it does seems like there's so much continuity from bush. well i mean that's that's hard to say i know there's i don't think tanks don't like to think that way i know think tanks don't like that ok is it endangers a lot of jobs but you know policy wise seriously well i mean you know i think washington is you know it's an extremely polarized town and there's very little bipartisan accord on anything including foreign policy and you heard you know last week president obama made a speech about about drones and other things and and you know there was a lot of predictable re

consulate in libya.lus, a man uses a 3-d printer to produce a handgun that can kill people. let's make it easier for terrorists to operate gun factories in their homes? the latest on the boston terror attack. what investigators are saying tonight about tamerlan tsarnaev's wife. you see her there, and his computer. let's go "outfront." >> good evening, everyone. i'm erin burnett "outfront" tonight. benghazi blame game. new allegations coming out tonight that the u.s. military could have done more in the aftermath of the attacks on the u.s. consulate in libya. the attack on september 11th last year killed ambassador chris stevens and three other americans. this information comes as the house oversight committee is strategically releasing excerpts from its key witnesses. they're promising a block butter hearing on wednesday. cnn's dana bash is "outfront" with the story. >> reporter: four military personnel were ready to board a plane from tripoli, libya, to benghazi to help american citizens under fire at t

and libya. she's a dear friend. she's also authoring a book -- coauthoring a book with our next speaker, jakob wichmann who is the founder of jmw consulting. a management consulting that specializes in countries in transition. post conflict environments, and social and political research. founded in 2011, it serves a as national ngo company and political parties in the emerging democracy in the middle east and north africa. and fred we're his research focus on political reform and security issues and aaron gulf states, libya, and u.s. policy in the middle east more broadly. rereturned from libya where he has spent three week -- two weeks. and so he has very fresh information coming back from that country. and him and jakob have conducted survey studies in tunisia and egypt and also comment on the result of their work. so with that, we'll have jakob go first. >> yes, sir. >> the floor is yours. >> thank you very much. it's for getting the opportunity to speak today. i'm jakob,ly talk about sort o

government did not protect its people enin libya the way it should have. it was not forthcoming about who launched the attack. and it has not brought the killers to justice. the benghazi incident is a tragic embarrassment to this country and speaks to the failure of leadership in the state department and in the white house. at the level in the white house? i'm not sure. certainly the white house was involved. there is no way ambassador susan rice should have been allowed to mislead the world. if you don't know ambassador, don't say anything. if you are not sure, keep quiet. simple truth is, that the republicans want to know the whole story because it elm bares the democrats. and the democrats don't want to know the whole story because it helps the republicans. the folks should know what happened there, especially the families of the murdered americans. i believe there will be more to come on the benghazi chaos. talk to the congressman who was at the hearings today. that report moments away. >> bill: continuing now with lead story. testimony about the bengh

the number two diplomat in libya at the time of those attacks, gregory hicks, libya's regional securityoordinator eric nordstrom, and state department visual mark thompson all contradicted the white house's versn of what took place that day and the white house explanation of its response in the days and weeks that followed did congressional investigators learning key details that have not been publicly obama administration. we learn with a like a response americans under attack by terrorists and the or communications between the state department and the pentagon. this confirmed forces were available in tripoli but werr told to stand down before they could embark on a rescue attempt. >> we determined that we needed to send second team from tripoli to secure the airport for the withdrawal of our personnel from benghazi afr the mortar attack did >> or any of u.s. military personnel not permitted to travel on a relief mission to benghazi? >> they were not authorized to travel. >> what happed with those personnel? >> they remained in tripoli with us via lou: we also learned hicks was never c

and a terror threat still exists today in libya. a threat which has resulted in attacks on civilians and government officials in embassies, including in benghazi. ambassador jones will be our first ambassador since the tragic events at benghazi. as we consider this nomination, it's important to remember the work of chris stevens and all our diplomatic personnel who died while in service to the united states. ambassador stevens and his staff believe strongly that the value of freedom embraced by both libyan and the american people would prevail. ambassador jones if confirmed will be taking on the important foreign policy task of representing the united states in libya. she will be continuing the important diplomatic work begun by ambassador stevens. i have every confidence that she's up to the task to move us forward in libya and in north africa, which has emerged as a region of great importance to our country. and i am thankful for the time she has already spent with me discussing these vital issues. a peaceful and democratic libya

with regards to libya as well. but it is not a surprise that people who find in some way there is an attraction to voting for what they see as the ruling party, and there is not a lot of clarity about to the extent of which that right side of it. so i think these are issues that have to be taken into account. the citizenship issue is an interesting one because i am not sure how to read it. i am not sure it is a great example of fragmentation, break down, and at the moment wants to argue sectarianism is trumping syrian is in. although i'm honestly not sure that that is the only way to read that situation. but even there i am not sure that it means that people don't think of themselves as syrians. our relationships have come in what context we are in. and so i'm not sure that it is stronger in north africa than it is buried at think that speaks poorly for north africa. i'm not sure. >> i just i guess on libya with regard to citizenship we have to look at this sort of post colonial trajectory in this idea of legitimac

libya you member may have finished go right ahead maybe a maybe a maybe if the u.s. had had taken the steps that were absolutely necessary when the violence started in the regime was using aircraft to have a no fly zone if probably would have been no right now so i think all sides external powers that have a new influence there have made strategic mistakes which have been deadly for the for the syrians you know flint i think i've always wanted to. go always been a very curious when the americans say someone has to go and it's usually a strategic mistake go right ahead. no i absolutely agree with that and you know your reference to libya is very important i mean the russian and chinese veto it was at the u.n. come against the backdrop of both russia and china having let the libya resolution go through in march the libya resolution which authorized the use of force to protect civilian populations on humanitarian grounds but which the united states and others then turned into basically a regime change campaign with nato aircraft flying missions where they're out to kill

what were they doing in libya?emaining members of the special security team, a group of special, 14 special forces, personnel assigned to protect embassy tripoli after the return and reestablishment of the embassy in september of 2011. on the 1st of august, secretary of defense signed an order changing their status from being a security team to a training team and transferring the authority, their authority from the chief of missions, ambassador to general hamm. on august 6th, two members of that team were in a carjacking incident as they were driving earlier in the morning outside the compound. they had to use their weapons in order to escape that armed attack on their vehicle. in light of that incident, general hamm decided to drawdown the team, 14 personnel to four personnel. lieutenant wood and nine others, lieutenant wood testified before the committee last october, left tripoli in the middle of the month. so, lieutenant colonel gibson and the others are remainder of that group. >> so the chain of command and

and in libya where tensions continue to rise the u.s. and the u.k. have announced they are withdrawing some staff from their embassies with the pentagon putting its european forces on alert more on that later in the program. now counting is underway in pakistan's general election which will mark the country's first democratic transition between civilian governments now was a sheriff to prime time a prime minister ousted fourteen years ago in a military coup is claiming victory the election has been the bloodiest in the country's history taking a look at the deadly explosions and shootings have rocked pakistan on the day of voting at least eleven people were killed and dozens injured in the south in a series of bomb blasts in karate more people died in pakistan's biggest province and below just on where explosions and gunmen targeted voters outside polling stations people were also killed in shootouts between rival political factions their violence has erupted in pakistan's volatile north as well where to a bomb attacks caused further casualties in th

strategy to ally itself with radical groups is backfiring in libya and across the region there's been i have read them out of active by western intelligence agencies during the gulf war in libya in macau there are you know of course that culminated with what we saw on benghazi last fall when the u.s. had gone in trying to eliminate some but potential leadership in the. libyan government it's a broken off each militias basically. to radicalize some of those groups over the last two years or so but it's a recipe for chaos and it's really sad because libya has got. a challenge and or have some semblance of lot of order in the government in that country right now the whole north african region is awash with various islamist radical groups and i'm sorry to say that this is a u.s. administration that is allied itself with the islamicists and now they're having trouble training to be created. and you can track all the latest developments in benghazi on our web site right now at all to don't call and we've got video footage the witness accounts from the scene of the blast altie local. police

to libya's ministries and foreign embassies for over two weeks and on saturday. in the capital came under attack libya's government recently granted the militias demand for gadhafi era officials to be banned from senior government roles now they're calling for the country's prime minister to resign its national relations professor mark colvin says western powers are responsible for the instability in the surge of violence that's sweeping the country right now. we're seeing is deep divisions among the libyan revolutionaries who britain and other nato countries supported there's a power struggle over who should control the libyan state and the who should control libya's oil and gas if colonel gadhafi had suppressed still positions him when it was opened in the streets of last two thousand of them also be hundreds of people would have died or perhaps as many as thirty thousand have died since and the country is in a state to disorder uncertainty life for most libyans is worse than it was on the congo to her of course kind of the girl whose regime was supposed why th

come against the backdrop of both russia and china having let the libya resolution go through in march the libya resolution which authorized the use of force to protect civilian populations on humanitarian grounds but which the united states and others then turned into basically a regime change campaign with nato aircraft flying missions where they're out to kill gadhafi and you know from a russian perspective from a chinese perspective i think from a decent international legal perspective that is and it does say the least an extremely problematic scenario and russia and china were not about to let this scenario repeat itself in syria and you know as far as you know the united states doing. what was necessary early on i mean there is this small matter of sovereignty there is this small matter of international law that says you only get to use force when the security council authorizes or under a fairly narrow interpretation of self-defense in the un charter the united states has no right it may have a hedge of monic parag it ever think it does but it has no right to impose no fly zones

mounting unrest in libya has prompted the u.s. to put its troops on heightened alert and pull diplomatic staff from its embassy the u.k. is also recalled all non-essential staff from its embassy in tripoli armed gunmen have been laying siege to libya's ministries and foreign embassies for over two weeks now and on saturday an anti militia demonstration in the capital came under attack maybe as government recently granted militants demand for gadhafi era officials to be banned from senior government roles now they're calling for the country's prime minister to resign international relations professor mark almond says western powers are responsible for the instability and the surge of violence that sweeping the country. we're seeing is deep divisions among the libyan revolutionaries who britain and other nato countries supported there's a power struggle over who should control the libyan state and to control libya's or wouldn't pass if colonel gadhafi had suppressed still positions him when it was opened in the streets of loss of tw

made the move citing the deteriorating security situation in libya at the end of last month militia men besieged two ministries within the country's capital tripoli demanding gadhafi era officials be banned from taking posts in government while on friday explosion said two police stations in the city of benghazi professor mark almond build can't of built and university rather thinks the violence is a result of the divisions within the ranks of former revolutionaries we're seeing is deep divisions among the libyan revolutionaries who britain and other nato countries supported there's a power struggle over who should control the libyan state and put it in who should control libya's or and gas if colonel gadhafi had suppressed still positions him when it was opened in the streets of last two thousand of them possibly hundreds of people would have died but perhaps as many as thirty thousand have died since and the country is in a state to disorder uncertainty life for most libyans is worse than it was under congo who are of course kind of the girl his regime was supposed are the western cou