Live Updates: Benghazi Hearing–‘We’re Under Attack’; No Mention of Protest Yet

Breitbart News will provide live updates and analysis of today’s hearings before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the Benghazi terror attack of September 11, 2012. Todays testimony will feature whistleblowers who are expected to provide information supporting claims that the Obama administration failed to provide adequate security to U.S. diplomates in Libya, declined to intervene once the attacks began, and attempted to cover up what happened by concocting a story about an anti-Islam video.

11:00 a.m. EDT – Breitbart News’ Kerry Picket will be at the hearing and will provide reactions from lawmakers afterward. In her preview this morning of the hearings, she noted the key expectations and witnesses:

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee say there will be “explosive” revelations that will come forth during the Committee’s hearing on Wednesday when three State Department witnesses reveal what they knew the night the U.S. consulate and CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya were attacked by terrorists. Committee members will be hearing the testimonies of State Department employees Greg Hicks, Mark Thompson, and Eric Nordstrom.
The Committee appears to be interested in finding out who ultimately made the decision to tell military assets not to send help to the Americans who were under assault in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. The attack took the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

11:05 a.m. EDT – Media coverage of the hearings is scant today, with most mainstream media outlets relegating the story to second-tier status. That continues a trend noted yesterday by Breitbart News’ John Nolte and Larry O’Connor, who noted that the New York Times, Politico, and Buzzfeed had buried or ignored the Benghazi story.
11:30 a.m. EDT – As the hearing gets under way, John Nolte has set up Breitbart News’ media live blog at Big Journalism. He will be covering the media’s reactions to the hearings, and we will link to his updates here.
A few early observations from Nolte–not about today’s media, but the administration’s media spin in September
11:39 a.m. EDT: YouTube has provided a live stream of the hearing. It is their first time streaming the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

11:47 a.m. EDT: Darrell Issa (R-CA) finishes opening statements. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) very incensed by accusation anyone held back whistleblowers.
11:50 a.m. EDT: Cummings says witnesses’ statements have been used for media witch hunt against public officials. Claims from today’s hearing must be thoroughly vetted.
11:55 a.m. EDT:
12:00 p.m. EDT: Issa gives what Erik Wemple calls “long-form version” of Gregory Hicks’ résumé. Substantive record of service.
12:02 p.m. EDT: First witness is Mark I. Thompson. Says State Dept. told him it was not “right time” to send team to besieged mission. [via Aces of Spades, this is the sort of response Thompson requested]
12:06 p.m. EDT: Second witness is Hicks. Setting up his background, reputation as man who gets things done–“Ambassador’s bulldog.” “Until Benghazi,” he says, “I loved my job.”
12:10 p.m. EDT: Third witness is Eric Nordstrom. Tears up after mentioning his friends at State Dept. Says “it matters” to get the truth out about attack.
12:15 p.m. EDT: Hicks describing how he found out about attack. Says Chris Stevens did not know about Cairo attack until he (Hicks) texted him.
12:18 AM EDT: Full preparedstatements from each witness:
Thompson
Hicks
Nordstrom
12:23 p.m. EDT: Hicks describes “four phases” of the night. First is attack on consulate, whose details he says many in public have already learned. Says estimates were up to 60 attackers in compound.
12:25 p.m. EDT: Hicks: second phase took place from about 11:30 p.m. – 1:30 a.m., consisted of probing attacks from terrorists. Tripoli response team arrived at ~1:15 a.m..
12:40 p.m. EDT: Some notable points from Hicks’s riveting testimony:

1. We are hearing stories of heroism that have never yet been told to the American public–of the brave response team of six men who drove off 60 terrorists in the first phase of the attack, of the diplomatic staff in Tripoli who scrambled to protect their colleagues and the American mission, of the Libyans who sacrificed their own lives to protect Americans.
2. We have yet to hear one word about a protest or demonstration in Benghazi about the anti-Islam video that President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed for the attack. Ambassador Chris Stevens told Hicks, “We’re under attack!” He never mentioned a protest, and the report of the attack was the first Hicks heard of anything unusual.
3. The administration was totally unprepared to defend the embassy in Tripoli or the consulate in Benghazi. When Hicks asked what kind of help might be available, he was told that the closest available military resources were fighter jets a few hours away. They could not be sent because there were no refueling planes available. An inexcusable lack of preparedness.

12:45 p.m. Ranking Member Cummings tries to push back against Hicks’s testimony, saying he needs to provide “balance” in order to “protect” Hicks’s colleagues. Terrible optics.
12:50 p.m. As predicted, Democrats are pushing back against the idea that there could have been any military response that would have arrived in time. Cummings challenges Hicks on whether fighter jets could have arrived:
As Breitbart News’ Joel Pollak pointed out yesterday, the question is actually irrelevant. First, because there was no way to know at the time how long or how extensive the attacks would be; and second, because we now know more about just how unprepared the administration was to provide any security of any kind in case of emergency.
12:55 p.m. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) asks Hicks whether Amb. Stevens, or the Prime Minister of Libya, mentioned anything about a protest or demonstration outside the Benghazi consulate. “No, sir.”
Asked about UN Ambassador Susan Rice’s assertions about a protest on the Sunday talk shows: “I was stunned,” Hicks says. “My jaw dropped.”