McCaul, Wolf Demand State Dept Explanation for Benghazi 'Silent' Reward

McCaul, Wolf Demand State Dept Explanation for Benghazi 'Silent' Reward

WASHINGTON, D.C. - House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Congressman Frank Wolf (R-VA) have requested an explanation as to why a Reward For Justice the State Department now says it offered to help capture the Benghazi terrorists has gone unacknowledged and unpublicized for nearly a year. The Department revealed the existence of a $10 million RFJ related to the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi in a letter to Chairman McCaul November 15 – eleven months after the Department says it was offered, and after the Department evaded press questions about its existence.

In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday, Chairman McCaul and Congressman Wolf are seeking all records pertaining to the authorization of the Benghazi RFJ, as well as explanations of how the Department is utilizing the reward, and why the reward was not authorized until four months after the terrorist attack occurred. Text of today's letter sent to Secretary Kerry is below and a signed copy can be found here. The Department's Nov. 15 letter to Chairman McCaul revealing the existence of the reward can be found here.

BEGIN LETTER TEXT:

Dear Secretary Kerry,

On October 30, 2013, we and 82 other members of the House of Representatives wrote to ask why the Department of State had not used the Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program to obtain information leading to the apprehension of the perpetrators of the September 11, 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. At that time, the Department did not appear to have authorized a RFJ and, in the face of multiple press inquiries, continued to publicly deny the need for one. In light of this situation, the Department’s recent response to our letter raises a number of additional questions about the use of the RFJ, an important counter terrorism program enacted by Congress.

In a letter on November 15, the Department disclosed that that RFJ has had an “active reward offer of up to $10 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of any individual involved” in the attack since then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton approved it in January. The Department strongly implied, however, that the Administration had decided not to publicize the award in the United States or on the RFJ website in order to avoid “adversely affect[ing] efforts to bring to justice those responsible for the attack.”

While the Department now says that it has made an RFJ reward available, it is not clear to us how effective the offer can be if it is not publicized or promoted. According to the letter, the Department has a number of “ways” other than the RFJ website to advertise the reward offer, but we have not seen any indication of such efforts. Further, we understand that deliberations about how to use the RFJ program might be sensitive, but it is not clear to us why Department officials were unable to say that an RFJ reward offer had been made available months earlier.

To help us better understand the Department’s decision not to publicize and promote the reward, we are asking for answers to the following questions:

• On what date did the interagency process recommend the $10 million reward offer? On what date in January did then-Secretary Clinton approve it and can you provide this documentation?

• Why were Department officials unable to say publicly until now that a $10 million RFJ reward offer had been made available in January?

• Does the Administration believe in this case that additional publicity would prejudice the investigation or the effort to bring to justice those responsible for the attack? If so, why?

• If it is not promoting the reward offer in the United States or on the RFJ website, what is the Department doing to publicize or promote the reward offer? When did this effort begin? Are other U.S. government agencies or other partner organizations involved?

• Following promises to keep the Congress informed of its efforts to bring to justice the perpetrators of the attack, why did the Administration not inform relevant committees of this use of the RFJ program?

Last week, Members of Congress requested information on the Department’s correspondence and memoranda relating to decisions about whether to use the RJF program in this case. In light of this new information, we are now requesting all records pertaining to the authorization of this reward and how it has been used by the Department to elicit information about the terrorists responsible over the last eleven months, including any examples of advertising or publicity. Please provide the requested information as soon as possible, but no later than 5:00 p.m. on December 2, 2013.

During testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in April you said, “now that I am the Secretary and I am responsible to you and the Congress, I canpromise you that if you're not getting something that you have evidence of or you think you ought to be getting, we'll work with you.” As such, we look forward to your prompt response to this letter.

Sincerely,

Michael T. McCaul Frank Wolf