News / Foreign Policy

'Nothing could have prevented US deaths in 2012 Benghazi attack’

Tuesday, 17 May 2016 4:32 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 17 May 2016 4:34 AM ]

Three-star former US Lt. General Dana Chipman waits to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 13, 2013. (AP photo)

The chief counsel of the US House Select Committee on the 2012 Benghazi attack has said he does not believe the US military could have done more to save the four Americans died during the night of the attack in the Libyan city, a new document has revealed.

According to copies of his comments included in a Sunday letter from Democrats to House Select Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, Army Lt. Gen. Dana Chipman told former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in January that “nothing could have affected what occurred in Benghazi” on September 11, 2012, Politico reported.

“I think you ordered exactly the right forces to move out and to head toward a position where they could reinforce what was occurring in Benghazi or in Tripoli or elsewhere in the region,” Chipman said, according to the letter. “And, sir, I don’t disagree with the actions you took, the recommendations you made, and the decisions you directed.”

Democrats have released the letter at a time when Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton is under scrutiny over the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi.

Clinton has accused Republicans of playing politics over the attack that left four US diplomats, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, dead. Her campaign has denounced the House Select Committee as a “charade.”

Former US Secretary of State and Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton testifies before the House Select Committee on Benghazi on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, October 22, 2015. (AFP photo)

Clinton says she accepts responsibility for what happened in Benghazi, but argues that the United States should learn to accept risks as it pursues its vital interests in a dangerous world, and it should acknowledge that it can "never prevent every act of terrorism or achieve perfect security."

According to CNN, up to 35 CIA operatives were working in Benghazi during the attack, but it has never reported how many of them died or were injured.

Congressional Republicans have been pushing for a wide-ranging investigation into suspicions that the Obama administration has withheld details of its activities in Benghazi.

Democrats and Republicans in the US Congress are playing political football over the September 2012 Benghazi attack, according to an anti-war activist and radio host in New York.

An armed man waves his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the US consulate compound in Benghazi late on Sept. 11, 2012.

Don DeBar told Press TV last year that instead of holding Clinton responsible for destroying Libya, the Republicans are playing politics over the Benghazi attack.

He said the former secretary of state should be prosecuted for war crimes over her admission under oath that she played a part in destroying Libya.

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