Panetta: ‘Nobody’ to blame for Benghazi

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday that “nobody” should be faulted for the Benghazi attacks that left four Americans dead, charging that Republicans will “continue to try to beat that issue up.”

Previous Congressional probes have concluded “that there is nobody who bears the fault for what took place, but everyone needs to learn the lessons about what we need to do to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Panetta said during a nearly hour-long interview Tuesday on NPR’s “The Diane Rehm Show.”

{mosads}Panetta reiterated that CIA talking points used by the White House blaming the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on an out-of-control protest were misguided.

“I’m not sure why they came to that conclusion. It certainly wasn’t my sense at the time,” he said, noting he and Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, immediately informed President Obama of the terrorist attack that left Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans dead.

“I don’t think anybody intentionally made a decision not to help these people. We did everything possible to try to help them. And it just didn’t work,” Panetta said. 

The bipartisan House Select Committee on Benghazi held its first hearing last month. the panel’s chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), contends that there are unanswered questions about the attack. It is the eight Congressional investigation into the attack. 

The committee has expressed an interest in interviewing Panetta, and a spokeswoman for the panel told The Hill it “expects to talk” with Panetta “at a time and in a forum that is the most conducive to getting answers to all relevant questions.”

Panetta said in reference to Benghazi that he assumes Republicans will “continue to try to beat that issue up.”

On the White House prospects of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, another person some have suggested testify on Benghazi, Panetta said she is “the closest thing to what I think would represent a strong Democratic candidate.”

“I think it would be good for the country to have someone like her running for president of the United State,” said Panetta, who served as President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff.