State Department Blocked Access to Benghazi Witness for Months

The names of the witnesses who will be at the House Oversight Committee Hearing next Wednesday relating to last September’s attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi on have reportedly surfaced.

Gregory N. Hicks, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Libya at the time of the Benghazi terrorist attacks; Mark I. Thompson, a former Marine and now the deputy coordinator for Operations in the agency’s Counterterrorism Bureau; and Eric Nordstrom, a diplomatic security officer who was the regional security officer in Libya, the top security officer in the country in the months leading up to the attacks. 

During the months of December and January, Breitbart News specifically asked the State Department switchboard for Benghazi witness Hicks’ contact information; the State Department claimed his location was unknown and they therefore ccould not provide information as to Hicks’ whereabouts. 

Meanwhile, another individual Breitbart News asked the State Department switch board about, who is not on the current witness list but may have had information about the deadly Benghazi attacks, was still correctly listed in with the State Department switchboard. Hicks is a veteran Foreign Service officer whose previous postings included Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. 

Rep. Jason Chafetz (R-UT) told Fox News in November that Ambassador Christopher Stevens, one of the four Americans ultimately killed in the Benghazi attack, called Hicks for help during the embassy attack.

“He said shortly after 9:40 PM what happened is his phone rang and he didn’t recognize the number so he didn’t answer it. And then it rang again and again he didn’t answer it because he didn’t recognize the number,” Rep. Chaffetz said. “But then given the persistence he did answer it. It was Ambassador Stevens and Ambassador Stevens was saying ‘we’re under attack,'” he added.