Here is a report from the Washington Post that explains why there were US personnel in Benghazi based on a confidential (ie hidden from the American public) report.
Washington Post Article
Excerpts: “A highly classified annex to the [Senate] report, not made public, described a secret agreement reached in early 2012 between the Obama and Erdoğan administrations. It pertained to the rat line. By the terms of the agreement, funding came from Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar; the CIA, with the support of MI6, was responsible for getting arms from Gaddafi’s arsenals into Syria. A number of front companies were set up in Libya, some under the cover of Australian entities. Retired American soldiers, who didn’t always know who was really employing them, were hired to manage procurement and shipping. The operation was run by David Petraeus, the CIA director who would soon resign when it became known he was having an affair with his biographer. (A spokesperson for Petraeus denied the operation ever took place.)
The operation had not been disclosed at the time it was set up to the congressional intelligence committees and the congressional leadership, as required by law since the 1970s. The involvement of MI6 enabled the CIA to evade the law by classifying the mission as a liaison operation.” …. “also noted that this is not a partisan issue … both parties greenlighted regime change in Syria years ago, and both parties have tried to cover up what was really going on in Benghazi.”
My comment:
What Gowdy and others should tell the American public is that, since you are willing to accept an American empire that intervenes anywhere and everywhere in the world, you need to expect that operatives will get killed and hurt. The US personnel in Benghazi were not doing innocent public service, they were gun running. Shades of the Iran-Contra affair.