The US Senate intelligence committee said yesterday the deadly attack by militants on US government posts in Benghazi, Libya on September 11th, 2012, was preventable, and faulted the state department for inadequate security precautions.
In the months before the attacks on an American diplomatic post and CIA compound in Libya’s second-largest city, US intelligence agencies had issued numerous reports warning that security in eastern Libya was deteriorating and that US personnel and posts in Benghazi were at risk, according to a declassified report issued by the committee.
But the committee said the state department “failed to increase security enough to address the threat”, even though the Benghazi diplomatic post had suffered two earlier, but less damaging, attacks in the previous six months.
Four Americans, including Christopher Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya, were killed when militants attacked the lightly protected US diplomatic compound in Benghazi and a better-fortified CIA base nearby on the night of September 11th.
The attack became a political flashpoint in Washington in the run-up to the 2012 election, with Republicans arguing President Barack Obama tried to play down its significance as he campaigned for a second term.
The Senate panel said it found no evidence US spy agencies or the state department had received specific warnings pinpointing that day for an attack. – (Reuters)