By . David Martosko In Washington . PUBLISHED: . 15:48 EST, 18 September 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 17:22 EST, 18 September 2013 . Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has testified multiple times in congressional hearings about Benghazi, but as a presidential run looms, Republicans are sharpening their knives for more Capitol Hill visits . Republicans are mulling whether to demand former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's return to Capitol Hill to face more tough questions about her agency's failure to protect diplomats and security staff in Benghazi, Libya a year ago. An aide to a high-ranking GOP member of the House Oversight and Government Affairs committee told MailOnline that the committee's chairman, California Rep. Darrell Issa, 'is dead serious' about raking the likely 2016 presidential candidate over the coals in the future. 'Look, it's not like we're getting great answers from the deputies and under secretaries,' the staffer said on Wednesday. 'So eventually you have to climb the ladder and swear Hillary in again.' 'I'm not saying "The fish stinks from the head," or anything like that,' the aide cautioned. 'Just that the committee leaders on our side want answers and they're not going to let up.' Issa told the Fox News Channel on Wednesday morning that his committee won't hesitate to bring back any of the senior-level witnesses who have already testified about the September 11, 2012 terror attack on American diplomatic facilities in the eastern Libya port city. And that includes Hillary Clinton. 'We can certainly have Mrs. Clinton back,'  Issa told Fox. 'We want to be respectful of her time, so getting to the facts – including people below her – first is critical.' An oversight committee spokesperson declined to comment on the record about how likely it was that Issa could actually call Clinton as a witness again. But as the 2016 presidential election draws nearer, the knives may come out in earnest. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS . Terrorists linked with al-Qaeda attacked the U.S. diplomatic compound and a nearby CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012, killing four men including the U.S. ambassador . House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R) could choose to call Hillary Clinton back to face more grilling, over the likely objection of ranking Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings (L) Clinton is widely seen as the Democratic Party's presidential standard-bearer going into the 2016 election. Embarrassing her as the presidential campaign season gets underway could be a devastating political chess move, but it's unclear how long Republicans will wait to pull the trigger if they decide to recall her as a witness. GOP Sen. Rand Paul, another likely presidential contender, has already said that mishandling of Benghazi under Clinton's State Department leadership 'should preclude her from holding higher office.' Paul said in August that he wasn't certain 'Clinton [was] telling the truth' about the nature of the CIA annex that also came under attack. He said he suspects it was involved with providing arms to Syrian rebels fighting the dictator Bashar al-Assad. 'The New York Times has also said the CIA has been involved with procuring arms to the Islamic rebels in Syria for over a year. What was the CIA annex doing there?' he said in August, referring to the Benghazi complex. 'I have asked specifically to have her brought back and I hope Chairman Issa will bring her back. She needs to testify under oat. Did she know about this and did it have anything to do with the misdirection campaign? And did she have anything to do with not allowing the Marines to go aid their wounded brothers there in Benghazi?' If she were to come back to face more questions, a Capitol Hill staffer explained, Republicans would likely steer clear of Syria links and focus instead on any involvement Clinton had in approving the security arrangements for embassies and consulates in some of the world's most dangerous places. Protesters gathered outside the National Constitution Center on Sept. 10 as Clinton received the Liberty Medal, given annually to an individual who 'displays courage and conviction while striving to secure liberty for people worldwide' Republicans may relish the possibility of firing more tough questions at Clinton as she readies for a White House run, but such a strategy could backfire on the GOP and create powerful sound bites for Democrats . Republicans would also likely grill . her about precisely when she learned what the U.S. intelligence . community knew almost instantly – that terrorists, not Muslim . protesters, set fires and fired mortars into the Benghazi compound and a . nearby CIA annex. Lastly, . Republicans want to know whether Clinton had a personal hand in . rewriting a series of CIA talking points that her agency softened . significantly in the early, foggy post-Benghazi days. Republicans, . including Issa, have been intensely critical of Clinton, even before . she began exploring a White House run, for what they perceive as her . role in a cover-up during the weeks between the Benghazi attack and . Barack Obama's 2012 presidential re-election. U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was killed during the Benghazi attack, along with three other U.S. personnel . The . intelligence community initially rendered a frank assessment that . Benghazi was attacked by jihadi groups including the militant, . al-Qaeda-linked Libyan organization Ansar al-Sharia. But . after State Department-led massaging, it became a weaker series of . statements that protected the Obama administration while the president . was campaigning for re-election by claiming that 'al-Qaeda is on the . run.' Then-United Nations . Ambassador Susan Rice claimed days later in five broadcast interviews . that the attack was the result of a spontaneous protest following the . online publication of a crude American-made YouTube video that mocked . the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Obama later promoted Rice to the position of national security adviser. Clinton famously appeared in a Senate hearing on January 23, sparring with Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson about the State Department's evolving storyline as the dust settled on the terror attack. 'With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans,' Clinton lectured. 'Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans?' 'What difference at this point does it make?' she asked. 'It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again.' On Wednesday the House Foreign Affairs Commiittee heard from State Department Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy, who approved a plan in December 2011 to outfit the Benghazi post with what turned out to be inadequate and substandard security protection. After the attack, a formal review determined that no senior State officials were responsible. 'Turmoil,' not 'terror': News broadcasters followed Susan Rice's lead on Sept. 16, 2012 as she said during five separate interviews that the Benghazi attack was the product of a protest gone bad -- despite intelligence that showed otherwise from the beginning . Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy (L) faced aggressive questioning Wednesday from Rep. Ed Royce (R) over the State Department's failure to fire anyone following the terror attack in Libya . The final report, issued by an . Accountability Review Board, also found Kennedy blameless, despite his . signature on the 'action plan' that formalized the level of armed . security details present in Benghazi. Foreign . Affairs Committee Chair Ed Royce, a California Republican, asked . Kennedy during Wednesday's hearing to explain why no State Department . employees had been terminated after terrorists killed U.S. Ambassador . Chris Stevens and three other U.S. personnel. 'No State Department personnel have been fired or even disciplined,' Royce barked. 'No one has missed a paycheck.' Florida GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen later suggested that the State Department is engaging in a slow-roll cover-up by 'merely shuffl[ing] the deck chairs.' State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki parried reporters' challenges on Tuesday, insisting that she would not address 'internal deliberations' related to the Benghazi diplomatic station. Kennedy said that four State Department officials, none of them at senior levels, were placed on administrative leave three months after the attack, and were since moved into positions that don't afford them 'worldwide decision-making authority for security.' 'Accountability includes being relieved of your job and assigned to other positions,' Kennedy insisted. 'To me, that is serious accountability.' 'Reassignment just doesn’t cut it,' Royce retorted. Then-Secretary Clinton and President Obama both said early on that a protest -- not a terror attack -- was the root cause of the deaths and destruction in Libya . Devastation: The mortar, small-arms and firebomb attack left America's diplomatic station in ruins . Secretary of State John Kerry made . news in August when he reinstated all four of those employees, following . an internal determination that 'no employee breached their duty or . should be fired' as a consequence of the Benghazi attack. Kennedy . also said that one reason U.S. law enforcement has yet to make arrests . in the Benghazi case is that the Libyan government hasn't permitted it. 'Yes, . they will let journalists in, but they are not letting U.S. law . enforcement in to arrest people there,' Kennedy conceded, 'because the . government of Libya is not in control to that degree.' The under secretary has testified previously that he was not involved with day-to-day decisions related to the State Department's Benghazi compound. While the Accountability Review Board interviewed him at length, it allegedly never spoke with then-Secretary Clinton. Before Wednesday's hearing, Republican oversight committee staff finalized a report alleging that the Board specifically aimed to protect political appointees at State while assigning responsibility for the terror-attack debacle to lower-level career civil servants. Secretary of State John Kerry determined in August that all four employees who were placed on probation after the Benghazi attack could return to full-time duties in different jobs . On Thursday, Accountability Review Board co-chairs Admiral Mike Mullen and Thomas Pickering, a former diplomat, will testify before Issa's Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs. Mark Sullivan, a former Secret Service director, will also testify. He headed an independent security panel that the Board asked to examine how some of America's most vulnerable overseas posts have been left with inadequate protection. The House Armed Services Committee panel will hear testimony later in the day covering the U.S. military's level of preparedness to respond if Benghazi-style terror attacks become the norm in the future.
A Republican aide says House investigators may 'have to climb the ladder and swear Hillary in' since underlings aren't providing answers .
'We can certainly have Mrs. Clinton back,' House oversight chairman Darrell Issa said Wednesday .
As 2016 presidential race draws closer, the GOP will look for ways to embarrass their likely Democratic rival for the White House .
Sen. Rand Paul, another possible presidential hopeful, has said Clinton's Benghazi performance 'should preclude her from holding higher office'
Republicans want to grill the former secretary of state on the editing of CIA talking points following the attack, and about who decided on the level of security the Libya facility should have .
By . David Martosko In Washington . PUBLISHED: . 15:48 EST, 18 September 2013 . | . UPDATED: . 17:22 EST, 18 September 2013 . Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has testified multiple times in congressional hearings about Benghazi, but as a presidential run looms, Republicans are sharpening their knives for more Capitol Hill visits . Republicans are mulling whether to demand former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's return to Capitol Hill to face more tough questions about her agency's failure to protect diplomats and security staff in Benghazi, Libya a year ago. An aide to a high-ranking GOP member of the House Oversight and Government Affairs committee told MailOnline that the committee's chairman, California Rep. Darrell Issa, 'is dead serious' about raking the likely 2016 presidential candidate over the coals in the future. 'Look, it's not like we're getting great answers from the deputies and under secretaries,' the staffer said on Wednesday. 'So eventually you have to climb the ladder and swear Hillary in again.' 'I'm not saying "The fish stinks from the head," or anything like that,' the aide cautioned. 'Just that the committee leaders on our side want answers and they're not going to let up.' Issa told the Fox News Channel on Wednesday morning that his committee won't hesitate to bring back any of the senior-level witnesses who have already testified about the September 11, 2012 terror attack on American diplomatic facilities in the eastern Libya port city. And that includes Hillary Clinton. 'We can certainly have Mrs. Clinton back,'  Issa told Fox. 'We want to be respectful of her time, so getting to the facts – including people below her – first is critical.' An oversight committee spokesperson declined to comment on the record about how likely it was that Issa could actually call Clinton as a witness again. But as the 2016 presidential election draws nearer, the knives may come out in earnest. SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEOS . Terrorists linked with al-Qaeda attacked the U.S. diplomatic compound and a nearby CIA annex in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11, 2012, killing four men including the U.S. ambassador . House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R) could choose to call Hillary Clinton back to face more grilling, over the likely objection of ranking Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings (L) Clinton is widely seen as the Democratic Party's presidential standard-bearer going into the 2016 election. Embarrassing her as the presidential campaign season gets underway could be a devastating political chess move, but it's unclear how long Republicans will wait to pull the trigger if they decide to recall her as a witness. GOP Sen. Rand Paul, another likely presidential contender, has already said that mishandling of Benghazi under Clinton's State Department leadership 'should preclude her from holding higher office.' Paul said in August that he wasn't certain 'Clinton [was] telling the truth' about the nature of the CIA annex that also came under attack. He said he suspects it was involved with providing arms to Syrian rebels fighting the dictator Bashar al-Assad. 'The New York Times has also said the CIA has been involved with procuring arms to the Islamic rebels in Syria for over a year. What was the CIA annex doing there?' he said in August, referring to the Benghazi complex. 'I have asked specifically to have her brought back and I hope Chairman Issa will bring her back. She needs to testify under oat. Did she know about this and did it have anything to do with the misdirection campaign? And did she have anything to do with not allowing the Marines to go aid their wounded brothers there in Benghazi?' If she were to come back to face more questions, a Capitol Hill staffer explained, Republicans would likely steer clear of Syria links and focus instead on any involvement Clinton had in approving the security arrangements for embassies and consulates in some of the world's most dangerous places. Protesters gathered outside the National Constitution Center on Sept. 10 as Clinton received the Liberty Medal, given annually to an individual who 'displays courage and conviction while striving to secure liberty for people worldwide' Republicans may relish the possibility of firing more tough questions at Clinton as she readies for a White House run, but such a strategy could backfire on the GOP and create powerful sound bites for Democrats . Republicans would also likely grill . her about precisely when she learned what the U.S. intelligence . community knew almost instantly – that terrorists, not Muslim . protesters, set fires and fired mortars into the Benghazi compound and a . nearby CIA annex. Lastly, . Republicans want to know whether Clinton had a personal hand in . rewriting a series of CIA talking points that her agency softened . significantly in the early, foggy post-Benghazi days. Republicans, . including Issa, have been intensely critical of Clinton, even before . she began exploring a White House run, for what they perceive as her . role in a cover-up during the weeks between the Benghazi attack and . Barack Obama's 2012 presidential re-election. U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was killed during the Benghazi attack, along with three other U.S. personnel . The . intelligence community initially rendered a frank assessment that . Benghazi was attacked by jihadi groups including the militant, . al-Qaeda-linked Libyan organization Ansar al-Sharia. But . after State Department-led massaging, it became a weaker series of . statements that protected the Obama administration while the president . was campaigning for re-election by claiming that 'al-Qaeda is on the . run.' Then-United Nations . Ambassador Susan Rice claimed days later in five broadcast interviews . that the attack was the result of a spontaneous protest following the . online publication of a crude American-made YouTube video that mocked . the Muslim prophet Muhammad. Obama later promoted Rice to the position of national security adviser. Clinton famously appeared in a Senate hearing on January 23, sparring with Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson about the State Department's evolving storyline as the dust settled on the terror attack. 'With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans,' Clinton lectured. 'Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some Americans?' 'What difference at this point does it make?' she asked. 'It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again.' On Wednesday the House Foreign Affairs Commiittee heard from State Department Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy, who approved a plan in December 2011 to outfit the Benghazi post with what turned out to be inadequate and substandard security protection. After the attack, a formal review determined that no senior State officials were responsible. 'Turmoil,' not 'terror': News broadcasters followed Susan Rice's lead on Sept. 16, 2012 as she said during five separate interviews that the Benghazi attack was the product of a protest gone bad -- despite intelligence that showed otherwise from the beginning . Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy (L) faced aggressive questioning Wednesday from Rep. Ed Royce (R) over the State Department's failure to fire anyone following the terror attack in Libya . The final report, issued by an . Accountability Review Board, also found Kennedy blameless, despite his . signature on the 'action plan' that formalized the level of armed . security details present in Benghazi. Foreign . Affairs Committee Chair Ed Royce, a California Republican, asked . Kennedy during Wednesday's hearing to explain why no State Department . employees had been terminated after terrorists killed U.S. Ambassador . Chris Stevens and three other U.S. personnel. 'No State Department personnel have been fired or even disciplined,' Royce barked. 'No one has missed a paycheck.' Florida GOP Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen later suggested that the State Department is engaging in a slow-roll cover-up by 'merely shuffl[ing] the deck chairs.' State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki parried reporters' challenges on Tuesday, insisting that she would not address 'internal deliberations' related to the Benghazi diplomatic station. Kennedy said that four State Department officials, none of them at senior levels, were placed on administrative leave three months after the attack, and were since moved into positions that don't afford them 'worldwide decision-making authority for security.' 'Accountability includes being relieved of your job and assigned to other positions,' Kennedy insisted. 'To me, that is serious accountability.' 'Reassignment just doesn’t cut it,' Royce retorted. Then-Secretary Clinton and President Obama both said early on that a protest -- not a terror attack -- was the root cause of the deaths and destruction in Libya . Devastation: The mortar, small-arms and firebomb attack left America's diplomatic station in ruins . Secretary of State John Kerry made . news in August when he reinstated all four of those employees, following . an internal determination that 'no employee breached their duty or . should be fired' as a consequence of the Benghazi attack. Kennedy . also said that one reason U.S. law enforcement has yet to make arrests . in the Benghazi case is that the Libyan government hasn't permitted it. 'Yes, . they will let journalists in, but they are not letting U.S. law . enforcement in to arrest people there,' Kennedy conceded, 'because the . government of Libya is not in control to that degree.' The under secretary has testified previously that he was not involved with day-to-day decisions related to the State Department's Benghazi compound. While the Accountability Review Board interviewed him at length, it allegedly never spoke with then-Secretary Clinton. Before Wednesday's hearing, Republican oversight committee staff finalized a report alleging that the Board specifically aimed to protect political appointees at State while assigning responsibility for the terror-attack debacle to lower-level career civil servants. Secretary of State John Kerry determined in August that all four employees who were placed on probation after the Benghazi attack could return to full-time duties in different jobs . On Thursday, Accountability Review Board co-chairs Admiral Mike Mullen and Thomas Pickering, a former diplomat, will testify before Issa's Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs. Mark Sullivan, a former Secret Service director, will also testify. He headed an independent security panel that the Board asked to examine how some of America's most vulnerable overseas posts have been left with inadequate protection. The House Armed Services Committee panel will hear testimony later in the day covering the U.S. military's level of preparedness to respond if Benghazi-style terror attacks become the norm in the future.
committee's chairman, California Rep. Darrell 2016 presidential candidate over the coals in the have to climb the ladder and swear Hillary in city. And that includes Hillary Clinton. 'We can certainly have Mrs. Clinton back,'  Issa told a witness. GOP Sen. Rand Paul, another likely Department leadership 'should preclude her from holding higher office.' Paul said in August that backfire on the GOP and create powerful sound annex. Lastly, . Republicans want to know whether series of CIA talking points that her agency plan' that formalized the level of armed . months after the attack, and were since moved decision-making authority for security.' hearing, Republican oversight committee staff