Benghazi attack: US lawmakers, State officials clash

Washington: The State Department on Thursday acknowledged weaknesses in security related to the deadly 11 September assault on the US diplomatic mission in Libya following a scathing independent report faulting management failures at the department. Testifying at the first of two congressional hearings, Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had accepted 29 recommendations from the independent review. Fallout from the investigation forced four State Department officials to step down on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_564956” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AP[/caption] Clinton had been scheduled to testify before the committees but canceled after fainting and sustaining a concussion last week while recovering from a stomach virus. Clinton is under doctors’ orders to rest. Lawmakers still want to hear her testimony. “We learned some very hard and painful lessons in Benghazi,” Burns told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We are already acting on them. We have to do better.” US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in the attack. At a relatively low-key hearing, Republicans tangled with the officials over whether warning signs of a deteriorating security situation were ignored and why the department didn’t ask Congress for money to boost security at the diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Many Republicans have used the Libya attack to criticise the Obama administration and its response. Their opposition to UN Ambassador Susan Rice as a possible candidate to succeed Clinton, after Rice blamed the attack not on terrorism but on protests against an anti-Muslim film, led to Rice taking herself out of the running, even after Rice explained that she had relied on talking points drawn up by intelligence agencies. “We made the mistaken assumption that we wouldn’t become a major target,” Burns told the panel. Senator Jim Inhofe, a Republican, ticked off a long list of incidents involving Westerners, including attacks with rocket propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices. Just two days before the assault, Stevens had requested additional security. Burns pointed out that report found no “specific tactical threat,” but conceded to Inhofe that he was correct to identify a troubling pattern. “We did not do a good enough job in trying to connect the dots,” Burns said. The hearing provided an odd scene as the panel’s chairman, Sen. John Kerry, a Democrat, is a top candidate to replace Clinton as secretary. Kerry presided at the hearing, but asked no questions of officials who could be his future employees. In an opening statement, Kerry said the department had “clear warning signs” of a deteriorating security situation in Libya prior to the attack. He also faulted Congress for failing to provide sufficient funds to protect facilities worldwide. Kerry complained that lawmakers have provided far less money to the State Department, forcing it to scramble to cover the costs of securing diplomatic installations. The department is seeking $1.4 billion in next year’s budget for increased security. Joining Burns was Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides, who is in charge of management, at back-to-back congressional hearings. Stevens was killed in the attack along with information specialist Sean Smith and former Navy commandos Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, who were contractors working for the CIA. Stevens was the first US ambassador killed in the line of duty since 1979. An unclassified version of the report by the Accountability Review Board concluded, “Systematic 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 report 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. Obama administration officials said those who resigned were Eric Boswell, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security; Charlene Lamb, deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security; and Raymond Maxwell, deputy assistant secretary of state who oversees the Maghreb nations of Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss personnel matters publicly. Some of the three may have the option of being reassigned to other duties, said the officials. AP