Four State Department officials are resigning following the release of a critical report detailing how the State Department made key mistakes that led to the September 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi.
Tuesday evening an independent Accountability Review Board released an unclassified version of its report on the September 11 Benghazi attacks which killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.
According to the ARB report, the fault lies with the State Department for "systematic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels resulted in a Special Mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack.” The report is saying that State ignored the requests for more guards and security upgrades, and they relied too heavily on specific threats and used untested local militias to protect the compound.
While Hillary Clinton is unable to testify, recovering from a concussion, her top two deputies testified to Congress on the Benghazi attacks. Her deputies admitted that warning signs were missed. Today, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State of Public Affairs, P.J. Crowley, joined the show to discuss the Benghazi hearings. Crowley believes that neither the report nor the these highly-public hearings are likely to improve our security. Instead, Crowley believes, we need to make the State Department less dependent on others for its security, make more funding available, and decrease military budgets, yet increase diplomacy budgets.
Benghazi was caused by a misreading of the warning signs, and by overestimating the security assistance that the local military could provide. “The Secretary of the State is responsible for, she was the one who made the decision to open diplomatic relations with Libya, she was not necessarily the one to carry out a particular security plan in Benghazi,” he said. So should Clinton take the fallout?While the secretary of state did accept blame Tuesday evening when she sent letters to the House and Senate saying she accepts the recommendations from the independent panel, and suggested her own additional changes, is she at fault? And will the Benghazi issue be a liability for any 2016 presidential run?
Our Cyclists debated this during Wednesday’s show but we want to hear from you in the comments section below.