John Kerry’s panel is one of several investigating the attacks. Top Dems rip Issa on Libya release

The already contentious Hill investigation into the Benghazi attacks escalated Saturday when two top Democrats ripped Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) for disclosing identities of Libyan nationals that could put them in danger.

Citing Obama administration officials, Foreign Policy reported Friday night that several names of Libyans who were working with U.S. officials were contained in 166 pages of documents that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which Issa leads, released earlier Friday.


Among those Libyans was a female human rights activist who had been detained in Benghazi, according to the Foreign Policy report. One cable named a Benghazi port manager, and another revealed a local militia commander who had been disclosing information about the Libyan Interior Ministry.

Top congressional Democrats accused Issa of trying to drum up negative coverage for the Obama administration on the Benghazi assault – which killed U.S. ambassador Chris Stevens and three diplomatic aides – ahead of the final presidential debate on Monday, which will focus on foreign policy.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the release of that information – which is sensitive, but not classified – “a moment of real incompetence and irresponsibility.” Kerry’s committee is one of several on Capitol Hill investigating the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The wholesale release of State Department documents by the House Oversight Committee has exposed Libyan nationals working with the United States to possible danger,” Kerry said in a statement Saturday. “This is irresponsible and inexcusable, and perhaps worst of all it was entirely avoidable. It is profoundly against America’s interests in a difficult region.”

“It’s bad enough that it’s becoming a political sideshow presumably driven by the calendar of Monday’s upcoming presidential debate, but even worse is that in their rush to make news they’ve exposed Libyans who were working side by side with America,” Kerry continued.

Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee and Issa’s fiercest critic on Capitol Hill, separately released a statement Saturday that called the disclosures an “obviously partisan attempt” to affect Monday’s debate.

“If these reports are accurate, Rep. Issa’s actions are astonishingly reckless, a blatant violation of the rules of the House of Representatives, and another dangerous example of the way Republicans are placing partisan politics above the interests of our nation,” Cummings said. “It would be an extremely grave consequence of Rep. Issa’s actions if individuals helping our country are harmed and suspects in this attack are able to escape justice.”

This is the latest of several criticisms from Cummings to Issa on the Libya probe. Last week, the Maryland Democrat wrote a letter last week slamming Issa on how he’s handled the investigation so far, and asked for a classified briefing with Oversight Committee members to get a better picture of the intelligence surrounding the Benghazi attack. That request has so far not been granted.

Frederick Hill, Issa’s spokesman, on Saturday accused Democrats themselves of politicizing the Libya probe before the presidential foreign policy debate. He said State Department officials — as well as Cummings — had received the documents almost two weeks ago but did not raise concerns until now.

The first time Issa’s staff had heard of any concerns from the State Department regarding the documents was through a report on Friday night.

“If the State Department’s concerns were genuine, it certainly begs the question about why they did not raise concerns at the time they were originally released almost two weeks ago,” Hill said.

Hill added that Issa’s staff had redacted information in the documents, and the Libyans whose identities were revealed in the papers were in “positions where their interactions with westerners would not be surprising.”

”Rep. Cummings and administration officials are attempting to create a distraction to protect the President and mislead the American people,” Hill said in an e-mail. “Their charges are not credible and they appear to be calling from the same playbook they used against CNN when that network first revealed Ambassador Stevens’ concerns.