BILL HEMMER: She said yesterday it's a two way street of communication. At one point she said, 'Chris Stevens had an opportunity to reach me anytime he thought there was something of importance.' She went on to say that many of those security requests were granted, while admitting that some were not. Now when you specifically asked her that question, about how much contact she had once he was on the ground in Libya, why was that so important to you? What do you think you learned from that?
REP. SUSAN BROOKS (R-IN): What was important, is again, I believe that she was detached from the danger there. She was detached from her personnel and from her own staff. She did send Chris Stevens but yet she really could not recall, she mentioned that she thought she had talked to him once, but had no recollection of when that conversation was. She -- we know -- we don't have any records that she really did ever talk with Chris Stevens after she swore him in in May.
HEMMER: But she's also, as she says, she's responsible for hundreds of ambassadorships all over the world.
BROOKS: And she, in my view, and I think this is a good question, is the -- what relationship do you have with your presidentially appointed ambassadors? Why don't they have your email? Why don't they have your phone number? As, you know, I'm a former presidentially appointed U.S. Attorney, and if I needed to have reached Attorney General Ashcroft, I know I could have gotten through to him if I had significant requests at that time. And so I am very bothered by the fact that there were so many layers between the ambassadors in dangerous places and the Secretary. And there appear to be far too many layers. And that's the kind of work that this committee hopes to produce -- is an investigative report about what the problems are with our security. It did not seem to be a top priority to the Secretary or to the State Department.
