Defense Nominees Face Questions About Benghazi, Guantanamo

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Lawmakers questioned President Barack Obama's nominees for top Defense Department posts about last year's attack on Americans in Benghazi, the military prison at Guantanamo Bay and the Navy's alternative-energy plans.

The Senate Armed Services Committee met today to consider the nominations of Stephen Preston to be general counsel, Jon Rymer to be inspector general, Susan Rabern to be assistant secretary of the Navy for financial management and comptroller, and Dennis McGinn to be assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations and environment.

The panel's top Republican, Sen. James Inhofe of Oklahoma, asked Preston, general counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency, about the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.