The video issue came up first in Cairo. It had some exposure on Egyptian TV. This allegedly caused the demonstration against our Embassy in Cairo. Prior to the demonstration, our embassy in Cairo issued a statement apologizing for the video stating it did not come from the USG.
Who first thought of it and uttered it, first?
Cairo and then in the State Department release issued the night of the attack. Jim Jordan said that it came from Hillary.
The State Department has acknowledged it rejected requests to provide more security personnel in Libya. It also acknowledged rejecting a request to erect guard towers at the Benghazi mission, but notes that a number of physical security upgrades, such as the installation of concrete barriers to block unused gates, were made during 2012.
The State Department’s own Accountability Review Board concluded that the number of diplomatic security staff in Benghazi in the months leading up to the attacks was inadequate “despite repeated requests” from the Benghazi mission and the embassy in Tripoli for additional staffing.
The Benghazi facility had been projected to have five security agents and there had been multiple requests that five be placed there. But in the nine months before the attacks, the facility had a full complement of five agents on only 23 days.
After the State Department’s security staff in Washington rejected the repeated requests, the post became resigned to not having the full complement of five agents and stopped making the requests, the review board found.
A bipartisan report by the Senate Intelligence Committee also found that the State Department headquarters did not grant Stevens’ requests for more security personnel.
State Department headquarters in Washington did refuse repeated requests from its ambassador in Libya for more security personnel. And it decided not to accept an offer from the Defense Department to extend the stay of one of its security units in Libya, reducing the level of security that was available.