What about all the refusals of security for Stevens over a period of months and then the taking away of what security he had,what was going on there?How does that feed into the equation?
This strikes me as just pure bureaucratic incompetence on the part of the State Department. Since this was an "interim facility" that did not meet the established security standards, there had to be a signed written wavier for USG personnel to occupy the facilities. That wavier would have to be signed by the Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security (Eric Boswell) or the U/S for Management (Pat Kennedy) or SECSTATE Hillary Clinton. I am 100% certain that the written wavier exists since it is a Congressional requirement. I would love to see who signed it.
Without knowing the true mission of the diplomatic mission at Benghazi I am sure there was tremendous pressure from the intel agencies and State to have something on the ground there hence the rush to put people in despite the lack of security. The true purpose was probably what was located in the annex.
As far as ignoring or not responding to the mission's request for more security in Benghazi, there was probably a feeling in Washington that we should keep the American footprint as small as possible so as not to draw too much attention to the mission and to placate the Libyan government in Tripoli, which did not want the center of political gravity to shift back to Benghazi, which was the interim capital of the revolutionary forces fighting Ghadaffi.