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ByBradleyKlapperand Matthew Daly The Associated Press WASHINGTON HillaryClin- ton strove to close the book on the worst episode of her tenure as secretary of state Thursday, battling Repub- lican questions in a mara- thon hearing that grew con- tentious but revealed little new about the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. She firmly defended her record while seeking to avoid any mishap that might damage her presidential campaign. Pressed about events be- fore and after the deaths of four Americans, Clinton had confrontational ex- changes with several GOP lawmakers but also fielded supportive queries from Democrats. The most com- bative moments focused on accusations about the Obama administration's shifting public accounts of the attacks. However, there were few questions for the Demo- cratic presidential front- runner about the specific events of Sept. 11, 2012, which Clinton said she continues to lose sleep over. "I have been wrack- ing my brain about what more could have been done or should have been done," she told the House Beng- hazi Committee. The hearing, which be- gan at 10 a.m., continued deep into the evening. The panel's chairman, Trey Gowdy, portrayed the investigation as focused on the facts after fellow Repub- licans recently described it as designed to hurt Clin- ton's presidential bid. Dem- ocrats have pounced on those remarks and pointed out that the probe has now cost U.S. taxpayers more than $4.5 million and, af- ter 17 months, lasted lon- ger than the 1970s Water- gate investigation. Gowdy, a former federal prosecutor, said the Repub- licans' efforts were not a prosecution. Contradicting him, Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington, told Clinton: "The purpose of this committee is to pros- ecute you." In one tense moment, Republican Rep. Jim Jor- dan of Ohio accused Clin- ton of deliberately mislead- ing the public by linking the Benghazi violence at first to an Internet video insulting the Muslim Prophet Mu- hammad. Clinton, stone-faced for much of the hearing, smiled in bemusement as Jordan cut her off from answering. Eventually given the chance to comment, she said only that "some" people had wanted to use the video to justify the attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, and that she rejected that justification. The argument went to the origins of the dis- agreement over Benghazi and how President Barack Obama and his top aides represented the attack in the final weeks of his re- election campaign. And it reflected some of the raw emotion the deadly violence continues to provoke, some- thing Clinton will have to face over the next year of her White House bid even if the Republican-led special investigation loses steam. For Clinton, the political theater offered opportu- nity and potential pitfalls. It gave her a high-profile plat- form to show her self-con- trol and command of for- eign policy. But it also left her vulnerable to claims that she helped politicize the Benghazi tragedy. "There were probably a number of different motiva- tions" for the attack, Clin- ton said, describing a time when competing strands of intelligence were being re- ceived and no clear picture had yet emerged. Speaking directly to Jordan, she said: "I'm sorry that it doesn't fit your narrative. I can only tell you what the facts were." As the hearing neared its conclusion, the Republi- can questioning became in- creasingly aggressive. Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama, however, drew laughter from Clinton by asking if she was alone "the whole night" of the attacks after returning home. Challenged that she didn't care enough about the attack victims, Clinton choked up while recount- ing a conversation with a guard wounded in Beng- hazi. "Please do everything you can so that I can go back in the field," Clinton recalled him asking her. "And I told him I would. He was determined to go back, to protect our diplo- mats, to protect you when you travel," she added, di- recting the last words at the lawmakers. There were no gaffes for Clinton. And she never raised her voice as she had at a Senate hearing on Benghazi in January 2013, when she shouted: "What difference, at this point, does it make?" Given that Republicans campaigned off that oft-repeated sound bite, the lack of an indeli- ble image from Thursday's hearing would suit Clinton's campaign fine. Gowdy said important questions remain unan- swered: Why was the U.S. in Libya, why were secu- rity requests denied, why couldn't the military re- spond quickly on the 11th anniversary of 9/11 and why did the administration change its explanations of the attacks in the weeks af- terward? Clinton focused on the bigger picture, starting with a plea for the U.S. to maintain a global leader- ship role despite the threat to its diplomats. She said that perfect security can never be achieved, draw- ing on the various attacks on U.S. diplomatic and mil- itary installations overseas during the presidencies of her husband, Bill Clinton, in the 1990s and Ronald Rea- gan a decade earlier. "In Beirut we lost far more Americans, not once but twice within a year," she said of the 1983 attacks in Lebanon that killed more than 250 Americans and dozens of others. "People rose above politics. A Dem- ocratic Congress worked with a Republican admin- istration to say, 'What do we need to learn?'" 2012 ATTACKS IN LIBYA Facinginquiry,ClintonseekstoclosebookonBenghazi EVANVUCCI—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks toward the dais as she settles into her seat on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Thursday prior to testifying before the House Benghazi Committee. By The The Associated Press BERLIN German auto- maker Volkswagen said Thursday that the U.S. cars identified as having been fitted with software to cheat on emissions tests include some vehicles with a newer diesel engine. The company said af- ter the emissions-rigging scandal became public last month that the software was installed on cars with variants of the EA 189 diesel engine built to the "Euro 5" emissions standard. The company is now looking at cars with the EA 288 diesel engine and that same emissions standard, Volkswagen spokesman Pi- etro Zollino said. Vehicles with that engine built to the newer "Euro 6" standard are not affected, he added. He said 70,000 cars in the U.S. with the early version of the EA 288 engine — in- cluding certain Golf mod- els, the Beetle, Jetta, Passat and Audi A3, all from 2015 — are among the 482,000 vehicles which have been identified in the U.S. as containing the suspect soft- ware. VW said later that no ve- hicles sold in Europe with the EA288 motor, either the "Euro 5" or the "Euro 6" ver- sions, had illegal software. Overall, the company still estimates some 11 million vehicles worldwide could be affected by the scandal. AUTOMAKER Volkswagen says newer motor may also have had trick emissions so ware FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2015 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 3 B