ranking officer, if you will, america s representative in libya. mr. eric nordstrom is a former regional security officer in libya. and perhaps, the foremost in the most knowledgeable person about security requests that were made and denied to the u.s. diplomatic mission in libya and also in benghazi, ultimately in benghazi. mr. cummings, we will have, from time to time, our disagreement. but i know that for all the members of this committee, we understand that these disagreements must be kept on the side of the desk. the brave witnesses deserve this committee was called to testify. the brave whistleblowers are what make this committee and their work so important.
ladder. saved him. in tripoli we had the defense attache had persuaded the libyans to fly their c-130 to benghazi. we wanted to airlift, since we had consolidated at the annex and libyan government had now provided us with external security around our facilities we wanted to send further reinforcements to benghazi. we determined that lieutenant colonel gibson and his team of special forces troops should go.
of my job. in my 21 years of government service prior to tripoli i earned a reputation for being an innovative policy-maker who got the job done. i was promoted quickly and received numerous awards. people who worked for me rated my leadership and management skills highly. i have two masters degrees from the university of michigan in applied economics and modern near eastern and north african studies. i have served my country extensively in the middle east. besides libya i served in afghanistan, bahrain, yemen, syria, and the gambia. i speak fluent arabic. in bahrain my shia opposition contacts gave me advance warning of impending attacks on our embassy and anti-american demonstrations
it matters to the american public for whom we serve. and most importantly, excuse me. it matters to the friends and family of, of ambassador stevens, sean smith, glen doherty, tyrone woods who were murdered on september 11th, 2012. in addition to my testimony before this committee in october of 2012 i also met with the fbi, senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, the department s accountability review board and i have discussed my experience in libya with all of them. i m proud of the work that our team accomplished in libya under extraordinarily difficult circumstances. the protection of our nation s diplomats, our embassies and consulates and the work produced there is deserving of the time that this committee, other
because we have worked on other areas together, i still hold out hope that one day you will stand with me as this administration doesn t cooperate. when they ignore our inquiries and when that day comes together we will be far more effective. and now for our witnesses. or should i say our whistleblowers. mr. mark thompson is the acting deputy assistant secretary in the state department and bureau of counterterrorism. mr. gregory hicks is a 22 year veteran and foreign service officer and the former deputy chief for the u.s. embassy in libya. after ambassador stevens was murdered, mr. hicks became the acting chief, or as they say, he was, in fact, the highest