Senate report: Attack on U.S. compound in Benghazi could have been prevented

The Washington Post ^ | Adam Goldman and Anne Gearan

[John W]

A long-delayed Senate intelligence committee report released on Wednesday spreads blame among the State Department and intelligence agencies for not preventing attacks on two outposts in Libya that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

The bipartisan report lays out more than a dozen findings regarding the assaults on Sept. 11 and 12, 2012 on the diplomatic compound and a CIA annex in the Libyan city of Benghazi. It says the State Department failed to increase security at the sites despite warnings, and faults intelligence agencies for not sharing information about the existence of the CIA outpost with the U.S. military.

The committee determined that the U.S. military command in Africa didn’t know about the CIA annex and didn’t have the resources to defend the diplomatic compound in an emergency.

“The attacks were preventable, based on extensive intelligence reporting on the terrorist activity in Libya—to include prior threats and attacks against Western targets—and given the known security shortfalls at the U.S. Mission,” the panel said in a statement.

[TurboZamboni]

he’d probably ban guns at the lyrical compound and then vote for barry again.

“We’ll say ‘what diffrence does it make’, it’s the American way”.

[Erik Latranyi]

What is amazing is this is the Senate report......the Senate is controlled by the Democrats!

That means there is even worse stuff still not revealed!!!!

[what's up]

The report said that on Sept. 18, 2012, the “FBI and CIA reviewed the closed circuit television video from the Mission facility that showed there were no protests prior to the attacks.” But it took six more days for intelligence officials to revise their chronology of events and say that “there were no demonstrations or protests” at the diplomatic compound “prior to the attacks.”

Yet the WP goes on to say there was no evidence of a coverup. The Post blatantly lies.

[what's up]

No mention of Obama's folly in going into Libya in the first place.

Obama and Hillary toppled two of our allies (Libya and Egypt) with ZERO congressional approval. Now there are messes in both countries. I know the report wasn't intended to address this, but the truth of this is being glossed over.

[onedoug]

Where was barry and what was he doing that he couldn’t be bothered with this?

The American people have a right to know the answer to this question.

[Chuzzlewit]

yep... make swift boating look like a walk in the park. she needs to be pushed on this.. and hard... by the familys of our slain guys...

over and over again.

[savedbygrace]

Here is the ABC News story on this:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/senate-committee-benghazi-attacks-preventable-21541164

Here is the NBC News story on this:

http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/15/22314076-senate-panel-on-benghazi-the-attacks-were-preventable?lite

And here is the CBS News story on this:

[Eleutheria5]

Keep showing their faces on placards, everywhere she goes. Show pics of them torturing Stevens in his undies. Show clips of her lying about the you tube video, superimposed with pics of the carnage. She will never be elected so much as dog catcher. Ever again.

[mandaladon]

The report also noted, chillingly, that the FBI’s investigation into the attacks has been hampered in Libya, and that 15 people “supporting the investigation or otherwise helpful to the United States” have since been killed in Benghazi. ...........................Coincidence?...this chilling indeed.

[saleman]

I learned one thing from the report. Probably should have already known. I didn’t realize CIA and State were so...close? Close as in apparently most, if not all, consulates and embassies have an operational CIA presence attached to them.

The 12 talking point revisions were revealed. No where in them was any mention of an anti-islamic video. The revisions themselves were not the “smoking gun” many here believed. Mostly just minor changes and diplo-speak.

I think it’s clear that State screwed the pooch on security. Of course Ms Clinton wasn’t mentioned. The report makes it sound more like “the system” was broken rather than some sinister conspiracy. But, what was to be expected?

As one poster upthread stated...Thousands of man hrs and millions of dollars for a report that many here could have written within a couple of days. No wonder we’re going broke....

[TigersEye]

The State Dept was intentionally trying to reduce their security foot print in many of these high risk places. It was partly budget ...

Hillary Clinton on State Dept. budget for FY 2012.

FY 2012 Budget Request March 10, 2011

The second part of our request funds the extraordinary, temporary portion of our war effort the same way the Pentagon’s request is funded: in a separate Overseas Contingency Operations account known as OCO. Instead of covering war expenses through supplemental appropriations, we are now taking a more transparent approach that fully reflects the integrated civilian-military efforts. Our share of the President’s $126 billion request for exceptional wartime costs is $8.7 billion. So all told, we have a $47 billion operational account and an $8.7 billion Overseas Contingency Operations account.

(snip)

But let me just quickly walk you through this, because on this issue of our $8.7 billion Overseas Contingency Operations, we have the strongest support from Secretary Gates, from Admiral Mullen. And next week – I was speaking with General Petraeus last night. He will be here on the Hill strongly supporting the civilian effort that goes hand-in-hand with what he is doing so heroically in Afghanistan. So we are funding vital civilian missions in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq with this $8.7 billion.

[mandaladon]

For instance, the report found that the United States Africa Command, the military headquarters responsible for Libya, did not know about the C.I.A. annex..................Incompetence,negligence or what?

[mandaladon]

The panel's 85-page report placed blame for the incident first and foremost on armed Islamist militants -- mostly associated with five groups closely tied to core-al Qaeda -- but also with the State Department run by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose staff failed to heed incessant warnings that security was evaporating there................I would call that dereliction of duty on the part of Hillary.

[cookcounty]

I find it hard to believe that the US military didn’t know about the CIA there, but even if accurate, once under attack, WHY wasn’t the existence of the Benghazi compound communicated to the US military (would have taken what, 90 seconds max?)?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks John W.

[RedMDer]

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[Eleutheria5]

“The report makes it sound more like “the system” was broken rather than some sinister conspiracy. But, what was to be expected?”

Standard whitewash procedure. There’s always some systematic problem to blame it on, and systematic reforms proposed so it doesn’t happen again. Never a guilty individual.

[SisterK]

15 people cooperating with in investigation killed?

Mercy

[okie01]

The State Dept was intentionally trying to reduce their security foot print in many of these high risk places. It was partly budget and lack of personnel and partly that they felt it gave a negative impression of the US.

As I recall, one of Hillary's responses to a request for heightened security in Libya was exactly that point. Something to the effect of "The President's policy is to minimize our security footprint, so as to appear less threatening".

[Morpheus2009]

And people died.

Wow, people actually died when a Clinton lied. So much for the scam on bumper stickers.