Roskam tapped for House Benghazi panel

House Speaker John Boehner R-Ohio tapped Rep. Peter Roskam R-Ill. to the newly created House Select Committee on Benghazi, putting on the panel a member of his leadership team who is an outspoken critic of the Obama administration.

The GOP controlled House voted 232-186 Thursday night along party lines–and that includes the Illinois delegation–to create the panel two years after the 2012 terrorist attack and after hearings in the Senate. While seven Democrats bolted across the aisle to vote with Republicans, none were from Illinois.

House Democrats are mulling whether to participate on the panel. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi D-Calif. called its formation a “political stunt.”

Roskam, one of seven Republicans appointed to the panel, said in a statement, ““Nearly two years after the attack on the U.S. diplomatic complex in Benghazi, the full picture of the events leading up to, during and after that night are still unclear.’

Roskam, who is the chief deputy whip said in a statement, “Why was security surrounding American facilities in the city sorely lacking, despite previous threats to Western targets in the region? Should military forces been more prepared to intervene on behalf of the Americans under seige? And still unanswered is the role of leadership in Washington during and after the attack—what decisions were made that night about the use of our forces abroad, and also what were the motivations behind the story they told the American people starting on the morning of September 12th and continuing for weeks afterward.

“Benghazi is a wound still open. We all want to believe that our government would do everything to come to the aid of Americans under threat abroad, but without a thorough and unbiased examination of all of the facts, we cannot know who is responsible for the tragic events that night, or how we ensure this never happens again. I am humbled by the opportunity to serve alongside my colleagues on the Select Committee as we work to bring all of the facts to light, seek out justice for the families of the victims, and hold accountable those that committed this heinous attack.”