A Question that Trey Gowdy & The House Select Benghazi Committee Need to put to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Last night Chris Matthews was talking about BEN-GAZZZY;  and he might have struck gold  ---   BUT   ---   It might have been gold  for all Republicans trying to dismantle Hillary Clinton as a Presidential Candidate for 2016 or ever again 

Matthews asked something very much like this straight forward question:  "Why hasn't Hillary Clinton just told everybody everything that she did on the night of  9/11/2012 to try and save the life of her friend, Ambassador Chris Stevens ?   I'm sure if she did that, all this BEN-GAZZZY stuff would pretty much disappear...."    

You know, that  really sounds like a great first question for Committee Chairman Gowdy to put to Hillary Clinton, as HIS own first question at the 10/22/15 Hearing of the Select Benghazi Committee

Actually, that particular question reflects  >>>>   "....  Something that has been lingering in the national conversation since the 9/11 anniversary terrorist attacks on the Benghazi compound in 2012  ...   What was Hillary Clinton’s exact response to the attack on the State Department facility [in Benghazi]?"

There are very good reasons to question whether Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did everything  that she possibly could to save Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.   For example,  there is a credible report by CBS News that   "...   the Obama Administration did not convene its top interagency counterterrorism resource: the Counterterrorism Security Group, (CSG)...."  (See "Sources: Key task force not convened during Benghazi consulate attack" by Sharyl Attkisson, 11/2/12, CBS News,    [http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sources-key-task-force-not-convened-during-benghazi-consulate-attack/]).   Needless to say, did Sec/State Hillary Clinton have a hand in or bear any responsibility for that failure ?

Here are some of Sharyl Atkisson's key points from the CBS News  printed format report,  whis is cited above:   "CBS News has learned that during the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi, the Obama Administration did not convene its top interagency counterterrorism resource: the Counterterrorism Security Group, (CSG)....   'The CSG is the one group that's supposed to know what resources every agency has. They know of multiple options and have the ability to coordinate counterterrorism assets across all the agencies,' a high-ranking government official told CBS News. 'They were not allowed to do their job. They were not called upon.'...   Information shared with CBS News from top counterterrorism sources in the government and military reveal keen frustration over the U.S. response on Sept. 11, the night Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in a coordinated attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya...."

Sharyl Atkisson' long and detailed report ---  from sources that were still quite fresh at the time in 2012  ---  went on along that same line of critique and discussion.
Interestingly, Atkinisson's piece made specific note of the following:    "....   The circumstances of the attack, including the intelligence and security situation there, will be the subject of a Senate Intelligence Committee closed hearing on Nov. 15, with additional hearings to follow.... "

HILLARY CLINTON'S PSYCHOLOGY JUST FOLLOWING THE TIME OF THE 9/11/12 BENGHAZI ATTACK 

According to some of what's in Hillary Clinton's  E-mails, which had been turned over to the Benghazi Committee, she was worried about what would be uncovered at those earliest hearings on Capitol Hill, of the kind mentioned in the Sharyl Atkisson report above.  

In a NY Times report of 3/23/15 about one of  HRC's E-mails  indicated  that  "...  A month after the September 2012 attack on the United States diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, House Republicans grilled a top State Department official about security lapses at the outpost....    Later that day, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton tapped out an email to a close adviser: “Did we survive the day?” she wrote....   'Survive, yes,'  the adviser emailed back, adding that he would continue to gauge reaction the next morning...."  (See  "In Clinton Emails on Benghazi, a Rare Glimpse at Her Concerns" by  Michael S. Schmidt, 3/23/15,  NY Times [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/23/us/politics/in-clinton-emails-on-benghazi-a-rare-glimpse-at-her-concerns.html?_r=2]).

The Schmidt-NY Times article goes to observe  that   "....  The roughly 300 emails from Mrs. Clinton’s private account that were turned over last month to a House [Select Committee on Benghazi] investigating the attack showed the secretary and her aides closely monitoring the fallout from the tragedy, which threatened to damage her image and reflect poorly on the State Department....   The emails showed Mrs. Clinton and her inner circle reacting as the administration’s view of what happened in Benghazi changed..."

However, the Times and Michael Schmidt missed an obvious conclusion that can be reached about Hillary's saying, “Did we survive the day?”

Forget the irony that the line is about hearings where four Amricans didn't survive the day.  ---   What the words in Hillary's E-mail indicate is her fear that something would come out at the early congressional hearings about Benghazi that would be devestating to the State Department and to Secretary Clinton, personally. It is certainly not the words of somebody who is confident that she had done the right thing under the circumstances.

WHAT WAS HILLARY'S ACTUAL RESPONSE TO THE ATTACK ON THE BENGHAZI MISSION  

When Chris Matthews asked that question on 10/15/15,  he was not the first pundit or observer to ask that  question.   Something like that has lnog been an item of very keen interest to many observers, pundits and GOP partisans.   "....  Something that has been lingering in the national conversation since the 9/11 anniversary terrorist attacks on the Benghazi compound in 2012 has been: What was Hillary Clinton’s exact response to the attack on the State Department facility?"  (See "5 Little Words from Hillary’s Benghazi Email That Four American Servicemen Never Had a Chance to Say"  by Kyle Becker, 3/27/15,  Independent Journal [ http://www.ijreview.com/2015/03/278852-hillary-asks-loaded-question-benghazi-email-4-american-servicemen-never-chance-ask/]).

That has been and remains a key unanswered question; and Trey Gowdy and his committee need to get that answer.