intel analysts absent

State Dept. Knew of Benghazi Risk

It failed to protect the most high-risk posts.

Well, well. According to an internal government report, an independent panel of experts found the Department of State failed to protect America’s high-risk embassies and consulates despite knowing they were vulnerable. This included the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi, which was the site of a bloody attack on September 11, 2012. The assessment, which visited all high-risk missions, reveals that the State Department failed to identify the problematic conditions, had no matrix for determining threatened posts other than “experience and intuition,” and had no intelligence analyst on staff at the five high-risk facilities. Even after Benghazi, security officials never debriefed survivors to review what went wrong.