FOXNews.com: State Department officials grilled on Benghazi findings

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State Department officials grilled on Benghazi findings Dec 20th 2012, 15:08 Washington –  Republican Sen. Bob Corker got into a heated exchange Thursday over who is to blame for the deadly Sept. 11 assault in Libya, after a State Department witness claimed that inadequate funding was partly responsible for insufficient security in the run-up to the attack.  "This is not about the money," Corker, R-Tenn., said at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, the first since a report was released finding "systemic failures" at the department before the attack. "I want to know why you did not ask for the resources in Benghazi. You were aware of the security issues there. We've read the cables." He added, "If you had safety concerns, why didn't you ask for money?" Corker saved his harshest comments for Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides. "We never did a top-to-bottom review so we have no idea if the State Department is using its money wisely," Corker said. "I cannot imagine sending out folks to Benghazi if we did not have adequate security for them. So my question, again, is why? Why did we do it?" In his opening statement, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee,  faulted Congress for failing to provide sufficient funds to protect Americans officials overseas and said until funding was increased Americans would continue to be vulnerable overseas. "There is no doubt in my mind that we need additional resources," Kerry, who is widely considered to be the successor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said. In the past year, $650 billion has been spent on military budgets. The money that goes toward U.S. international posts composes less than one-tenth of what the Defense Department gets, Kerry said. The State Department is seeking $1.4 billion in next year's budget for increased security. "We must do better," Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said, adding that "diplomacy, by its very nature, must sometimes be practiced in dangerous places." Nides and Burns told the committee that the State Department had "already begun to fix" the "serious, systemic problems" identified in a blistering report that pointed to gross mismanagement at the State Department over their handling of the Benghazi incident. "We are going to look at them and learn from them on how we make securities decisions," Nides said. "We are accountable. We are going to learn from this quickly." Burns and Nides testified in place of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is recovering from a stomach virus and concussion.  Clinton had been scheduled to testify Thursday but cancelled. Republican lawmakers have insisted she take the stand in the coming weeks despite her plan to leave the administration. Thursday's public testimony comes two days after an independent review panel issued a blistering report blaming management failures at the State Department for the lack of security. Fallout from the report forced four State Department officials to either resign or be relieved of their duties.

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