(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton yesterday defended her role from Republican criticism during high-stakes testimony to a panel investigating the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, and asserted that US diplomats must inherently work in unstable and dangerous parts of the world.
In the opening stages of what was expected to be a contentious and highly partisan hearing, Clinton, a 2016 Democratic candidate for president, said the attacks by suspected Islamist militants that killed the US ambassador and three other Americans must not discourage US action globally.
"America must lead in a dangerous world and our diplomats must continue representing us in dangerous places," Clinton told the panel. "When America is absent especially from unstable places there are consequences."
Republican representative Peter Roskam told Clinton she was the chief architect of US policy in Libya and that "things in Libya today are a disaster", but Clinton said president Barack Obama made the final call on Libyan policy.
Clinton's long-awaited appearance before the panel follows months of controversy about her use of a private home e-mail server for her state department work, a set-up that surfaced in part because of the Benghazi committee's demand last year to see her official records.
It also follows days of political brawling over whether the Republican-led house committee's real goal was to puncture her front-running presidential prospects. The committee is made up of seven Republicans and five of Clinton's fellow Democrats.
Clinton said the emails being made public and examined by the committee did not encompass all of the work she did as secretary of state.
"I don't want you to have a mistaken impression about what I did and how I did it," she said. "Most of my work was not done on emails with my closest aides, with officials in the state department, officials in the rest of the government."
As other examples, she cited communications through phone calls, in-person conversations and top-secret documents.
Trey Gowdy, the committee chairman and a former federal prosecutor, has been on the defensive over a series of comments from his fellow Republicans implying the committee's real aim was to deflate Clinton's poll numbers.
"Madame secretary, I understand some people - frankly in both parties - have suggested this investigation is about you. Let me assure you it is not," Gowdy told Clinton in his opening statement.
"Not a single member of this committee signed up for an investigation into you or your email system."
The panel has spent 17 months inquiring into the attacks that killed J Christopher Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans at the US mission compound.
Clinton refrained from questioning the panel's motives, which she has done in recent public statements on the campaign trail.
"Despite all the previous investigations and all the talk about partisan agendas, I'm here to honour those we lost and to do what I can to aid those who serve us still," she said.
"My challenge to you, members of this committee, is the same challenge I put to myself: Let's be worthy of the truth the American people bestow upon us."
The committee's Democrats, who may discuss abandoning the inquiry after Clinton's appearance, say they think there is little left to unearth on Benghazi that more than a half-dozen previous inquiries did not find.
Clinton delivered congressional testimony on the Benghazi attacks in 2013.
The senior Democrat on the committee, Elijah Cummings of Maryland, rejected Gowdy's argument and said congressional Republicans set up the panel for a partisan witch hunt.
"They set them loose, madame secretary, because you're running for president," he told Clinton, calling for an end to the "taxpayer-funded fishing expedition". He said the committee had spent $14.7mn of taxpayer money over 17 months.
A 2012 report by a government accountability review board sharply faulted state department officials for providing "grossly" insufficient security in Benghazi, despite upgrade requests from Stevens and others in Libya.
Clinton entered the hearing riding a wave of political momentum after a strong performance in last week's first Democratic candidates' debate for the November 2016 election and the news on Wednesday that her strongest potential challenger, vice president Joe Biden, will not challenge her for the Democratic nomination.
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