i'm interested in hearing from mr. starr as to whether the department has made the recommended change. and to that end, i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman from ma maryland. the first witness is honorable greg b. starr from the department of state. the second witness will be the honorable steve linick, the inspector general for the department of state. welcome to both of you and again my apologies for you having to wait on me. you will be recognized for if five minute openings. there's a lights and what they mean in life. with that, secretary starr. >> thank you, chairman gowdy, ranking member cummings and distinguished committee members. thank you for inviting me again to update you on the state department's progress in implementing the recommendations made by the independent benghazi accountability review board and i'll refer to that in the future as the arb. i want to acknowledge steve linick. inspector linick works closely with the diplomatic security on many issues some of which the committee has highlighted for disc

i'm interested in hearing from mr. starr as to whether the department has made the recommended change. and to that end, i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman from ma maryland. the first witness is honorable greg b. starr from the department of state. the second witness will be the honorable steve linick, the inspector general for the department of state. welcome to both of you and again my apologies for you having to wait on me. you will be recognized for if five minute openings. there's a lights and what they mean in life. with that, secretary starr. >> thank you, chairman gowdy, ranking member cummings and distinguished committee members. thank you for inviting me again to update you on the state department's progress in implementing the recommendations made by the independent benghazi accountability review board and i'll refer to that in the future as the arb. i want to acknowledge steve linick. inspector linick works closely with the diplomatic security on many issues some of which the committee has highlighted for disc

mr. starr, representative wes moreland discussed with you 2013 audit that took place before the creation of the high-threat director program at the audit phenomenal some security deficiencies at posts it examined. is that correct? >> yes, sir. >> mr. starr, in our last hearing, the inspector general's office released its 2014 reported on high-threat programs directorat. one of the inspector general's key findings in that report is that this newly created body was, quote, helped create a culture of share responsibility within the department and has forged strong partnerships with regional security officers and counterparts in regional and functional bureaus as well as within the inner agency community. i think that's an extremely positive finding given the fact that the accountability review board considered the lack of shared responsibility around security issues to be systematic failure just two years ago. mr. starr, could you discuss how you think the creation of the high-threat program has c

mr. starr said. and tracking isn't being done, is that correct? >> what we think that the deputy secretary ought to take responsible for oversight of the implementation that she takes responsibility for making sure that those recommendations are followed through. there there is sufficient funding and that they're adequately shared among the state department. that's what we're seeking with our particular recommendation. >> do you know who at the state department at the time that they rejected that recommendation and that recommendation was rejected. do you know who at the state department made that decision to reject that recommendation? >> the sullivan recommendation or our recommendation? >> both, the recommendation to reject that the deputy secretary hould be the level responsible implementing these recommendations. >> at the sullivan i don't know who rejected that. i know that secretary is look at our recommendation. there's a revision that does imbody that. we haven't closed that yet becaus

mr. starr do you know who made that decision at the time? >> i don't believe that there was a decision not to comply with that recommendation. one, it was the secretary himself who ultimately decided we did not need the undersecretary after consideration through various levels of the department. in terms of the implementation of the arb that paperwork that we have put forward to modify the show that it is the deputy secretary for management of resources who will be the oversight officer for arb's. if you would permit me for just a second, while this is a change to the fans i have been in multiple meetings since the arrival of deputy secretary higginbotham and i was a multiple meetings beforehand while tom nides was the deputy secretaries taking direct charge of the oversight of implementation of arb recommendations. the fact that they manage and pri group is the staff that is tracking them and bringing these up and presenting them to the deputy secretary we have had multiple meetings with mysel

mr. starr, i'm going to follow up with you on this point. according to the oig, only 40% of the new msg detachments have been assigned to posts with high or critical rating for political violence, terrorism. in light of your last statement in the previous questions, you said you've never seen security taken so seriously in the past two years. well, how does the fact that only 40% of the high-risk, high-threat posts have these marine security guard detachments, how does this satisfy the arb recommendation 11 expand that program to provide more capabilities and capacities at higher risk posts? >> thank you for the question, congresswoman. there's actually a very clear, very simple answer for this. most of the posts that are high-threat, high-risk already had marine security guard detachments at them. that's why the 40% number is there. of the 30 posts that we ranked as our highest threat, highest vulnerability, 19 of them already had marine security guard detachments. we've added two to those. of

mr. starr, i just wanted to ask you for historical perspective, because i think many americans may be under the impression that what took place in benghazi was extraordinary in the sense we've never had attacks on our diplomats or tragedies. i wonder if you could shed a little light on the last 20 years. how many times have our facilities been attacked? how many times has that resulted in injuries or fatalities? is the problem getting worse because the world is now more unstable? it seems like there are more high-threat posts now than ever. is that just an impression or is that the reality? and what does that mean in terms of the prioritization you mentioned at the outset? and that is, the priority is for a diplomatic post to implement the policy of the united states. that has to be done in a way where we can protect our people. but they're there for a reason. and there are many posts where we are, where we could ask the same questions. why are we in yemen? why are we in iraq? why are we in any

>> i don't know. >> is there a timetable, mr. starr, in place for assigning the msg attachments to the -- you say four posts. is there a timetable? >> i would like to do it tomorrow, but i will tell you, i find it unlikely that i'm going to be able to assign marine detachment to those posts. >> you say because host nation problems -- >> host nation problems. >> when i talked to you last time three months ago, it doesn't seem like we've made much progress, but i asked you, you know, what's your plan with the ones that you don't, if you've got host nation problems, are there other ways to get security there? and you said in your testimony, if we find that we don't have those types of protections, you listed adding ds agents, several other mitigating things. but you said, if we don't find that we don't have those types of protections or we think those risks are too high, then we won't be there. so, why have we not made progression on those four posts that you are stating now, we still don't have those protections in place? >> the host nat

i'm interested in hearing for mr. starr whether to starr whether the department made recommended changes and to that i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman from berlin. the first witness will be the honorable gregory starr the assistant secretary of the diplomatic security of the department of state in the second witness will will be steve's up on inspector general for the department of state. welcome to you and again my apologies for you having to wait on me. you will each be recognized for your five-minute opening. there are a series of white and without secretary starr. >> thank you chairman gowdy thank you chairman gao the ranking member cummings and distinguished committee members. thank you for inviting me again to update you on the state department's progress implementing the recommendations made by the independent benghazi accountability review board and i will refer to that in the future is the arb. i would like to knowledge my co-panelist inspector steve linick. inspector linick works closely with the bureau of di

mrs. your planner aaron starr he was fine and we appreciated his work with us so i thank you all very much i would like to suggest you've heard maybe within a year or so you would review this subject to make sure it's working well and if problems come back and work on the problems or whatever comes up, you can't tell me what might happen we ask you consider that as part of our resolution. >> thank you. >> i'm barbara graham from the lower patrick heights neighborhood i want to personally thank all of you for having given us the extra 4 weeks at the last meeting it was very prouf used and i also want to thank aaron starr and the planning staff for a collaborative meeting it was a model for the way we would like to move forward to give input to you all as well as to the planning department and i also wanted to acknowledge commissioner hilliss participation in the meeting that we had with the planning department so this is really a great start for moving forward with the consolidation and the simplification i'd like to undermine the vail of unintended consequences being reviewed in the at the

mr. somers. >> reporter: the team undertook a daring nighttime rescue. eight hostages were recovered but somers and some others had already been moved. the pentagon is still looking for the american. jake? >> barbara starr, thank you so much. for more on the security threats facing americans and the united states, i want to continue our exclusive interview with jey johnson, the secretary of homeland security. secretary johnson, how concerned are you that this is the new m.o. for terrorists abroad? parade them before the cameras and kill them. >> jake, as your show just pointed out, in some cases, terrorist organizations do this simply for elicit revenue. others do it because they demonstrated the depravity to kill americans because they are americans. what i believe is significant now in addition to the threats we've faced from overseas, is the use of social media, literature that has a reach into the united states, that has the ability to reach individuals, so-called lone wolves here in the united states. which is why public engagement, by engagement with my department, by state and local law enforcement, by a number of the engagements that's i'm conducting myself in the islamic community in this count

starr joins us now. we know we don't negotiate with terrorists, what's being done? >> the u.s. will tell you they're looking for mr. somers, al qaeda in yemen posted this video showing him for the first time. he was working as a photo journalist in yemen when he was kidnapped last year. let's listen just very briefly to some of what he said on the tape. >> my name is luke somers, i'm 33 years old, i was born in england but i carry american citizenship and have lived in america for most of my life. >> now, as you say, michaela, late last month u.s. special forces staged a raid inside yemen trying to free him. and other hostagesing he apparently had been moved a short time before the commandos got there. also on the tape an al qaeda operative makes that statement. threatening mr. somers with a quote inevitable fate if their demands are not met within three days. of course we don't know when that three-day clock runs out. we don't know exactly when this tape was made. the u.s. policy by all accounts remains intact. they do not negotiate with terrorists. u.s. officials say they are still looking for him. michaela? >>