(AP) -
An independent panel charged with
investigating the deadly Sept. 11 attack in Libya that killed a U.S.
ambassador and three other Americans has concluded that "systemic"
management and leadership failures at the State Department led to
"grossly" inadequate security at the mission in Benghazi.
"Systemic
failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels
within two bureaus of the State Department resulted in a Special Mission
security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly
inadequate to deal with the attack that took place," the panel said.
The report (which can be viewed at the link below)
singled out the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Bureau of Near
East Affairs for criticism, saying there appeared to be a lack of
cooperation and confusion over protection at the mission in Benghazi, a
city in Eastern Libya that was relatively lawless after the revolution
that toppled Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi.
Despite
those failures, the Accountability Review Board determined that no
individual officials ignored or violated their duties and recommended no
disciplinary action now. But it also said poor performance by senior
managers should be grounds for disciplinary recommendations in the
future.
The report appeared to break little new ground about the timeline of
the Benghazi attack during which Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens,
information specialist Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and
Tyrone Woods — who were contractors working for the CIA — were killed.
Stevens' slaying was the first of a U.S. ambassador since 1988.
But
it confirmed that contrary to initial accounts, there was no protest
outside the consulate and said responsibility for the incident rested
entirely with the terrorists who attacked the mission.
In the immediate aftermath of the attack, administration
officials linked the attack to the spreading protests over an
American-made, anti-Islamic film that had begun in Cairo earlier that
day. Those comments came after evidence already pointed to a distinct
militant attack. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice appeared on numerous TV talk
shows the Sunday after the attack and used the administration talking
points linking it to the film. An ensuing brouhaha in the heat of the
presidential campaign eventually led her to withdraw her name from
consideration to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state in
President Barack Obama's second term.
The review board
determined that there had been no immediate, specific tactical warning
of a potential attack on the 11th anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001.
However, the report said there had been several worrisome incidents in
the run-up to the attack that should have set off warning bells.
While
criticizing State Department management in Washington along with the
local militia force and contract guards that the mission depended on for
protection, the report said U.S. personnel on the ground in Benghazi
"performed with courage and readiness to risk their lives to protect
their colleagues in a near-impossible situation."
It said
the response by Diplomatic Security agents on the scene and CIA
operatives at a nearby compound that later came under attack itself had
been "timely and appropriate" but absolved the military from any blame.
"There was simply not enough time for armed U.S. military assets to have
made a difference."
The State Department sent a classified version of the report to
lawmakers on Tuesday and shortly thereafter released an unclassified
version. The report made 29 recommendations to improve embassy security,
particularly at high threat posts. In an accompanying letter to
Congress, Clinton thanked the board for its "clear-eyed, serious look at
serious systemic challenges" and said she accepted all the
recommendations.
Some of those challenges were revealed
in earlier congressional hearings when several State Department
officials discussed competing demands for security and cost
prohibitions.
Clinton said the department had already
begun to implement some of the recommendations. They include increasing
by several hundred the number of Marine guards stationed at diplomatic
missions throughout the world, relying less on local security forces for
protection at embassies, consulates and other offices, and increasing
hiring and deployment of highly trained Diplomatic Security agents at
at-risk posts.
Members of local Libyan militias provided
some security around the consulate, but in the attack it became unclear
whose side they were on.
The report also called on
Congress to fully fund the State Department's security initiative,
noting that budget constraints in the past had led some management
officials to emphasize savings over security despite numerous requests
from the Benghazi mission and embassy in Tripoli for enhanced
protection.
"For many years the State Department has been
engaged in a struggle to obtain the resources necessary to carry out
its work with varying degrees of success," it said. This has led to
efficiencies but also "had the effect of conditioning a few State
Department managers to favor restricting the use of resources as a
general orientation."
It said the number of Diplomatic
Security staff in Benghazi before and on the day of the attack "was
inadequate despite repeated requests ... for additional staffing."
"The
solution requires a more serious and sustained commitment from Congress
to support State Department needs, which, in total, constitute a small
percentage of the full national budget and that spent for national
security," it said. "Congress must do its part to meet this challenge
and provide necessary resources."
Congress has denied some funding requests from the State Department for more security.
In
her letter to lawmakers, Clinton urged Congress to support the
department's security requests, noting that "all of us ... have a
responsibility to provide the men and women serving this country with
the best possible security and support."
Retired
Ambassador Thomas Pickering and a former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman,
Adm. Mike Mullen, led the independent review, studying thousands of
pages of cables and other documents, hours of video and intelligence and
interviewing more than 100 people, including survivors. They will
testify before the House and Senate foreign affairs committees behind
closed doors on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the State
Department's two deputy secretaries, William Burns and Thomas Nides,
will testify in open sessions before the House Foreign Affairs Committee
and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Clinton was
to have appeared at Thursday's hearing but canceled after fainting and
sustaining a concussion last week while recovering from a stomach virus
that dehydrated her. Clinton is under doctors' orders to rest.
The
Benghazi attack has highlighted the larger question of how U.S.
diplomats and intelligence officers can do their jobs in unstable
environments, as al Qaeda spreads across Africa, without also expanding
their security. Diplomats have said that overreacting to the attack
could produce what some are calling a "Benghazi effect" that would wall
them off from the people they are supposed to be engaging.
In
her letter to lawmakers, Clinton said, "We will never prevent every act
of terrorism or achieve perfect security" but she stressed that "our
diplomats cannot work in bunkers."
"We must accept a
level of risk to protect this country we love and to advance our
interests and values around the world," she said.
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