Washington, D.C. - House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith made the following statement today in reaction to the testimony of Retired Brigadier General Robert Lovell before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform today:                 

 

“While I appreciate the services of Brigadier General Robert Lovell, I firmly disagree with his assessment that the military could have done more to save American lives in Benghazi. It is offensive to claim that our military leaders stood by while Americans were being killed, especially without a shred of evidence to back up the claim.

 

“As the Chairman of the Armed Services Committee said, this committee has interviewed more than a dozen witnesses in the operational chain of command that night, yielding thousands of pages of transcripts, e-mails, and other documents.  We have no evidence that Department of State officials delayed the decision to deploy what few resources DoD had available to respond.  I fully agree with this assessment and find it deeply disturbing that false claims continue to be made about that tragic night. 

 

“We should be focused on tracking down those who attacked us, not attacking each other to gain political points, which is what Congressman Issa and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee continues to do.”