On Wednesday, the State Department Accountability Review Board (ARB) charged with investigating the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, issued its report. It found that “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department” resulted in a security posture at the consulate that was “grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place.”
It also stated that, because of budgetary concerns, a few State Department managers in the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Bureau of Eastern Affairs favored “restricting the use of resources as a general orientation” and “demonstrated a lack of proactive leadership and management ability.” It did not find, however, that there was “reasonable cause to determine that any individual U.S. government employee breached his or her duty,” as defined by Federal law.
The ARB lauded the bravery of the individuals on the ground in Libya during the attacks, stating that they “performed with courage and readiness to risk their lives to protect their colleagues, in a near impossible situation.” Contrary to initial reports, the ARB stated that the attacks on the consulate were not the result of protests outside the compound, but were rather the results of an armed assault.
The ARB did not spare Congress from shared responsibility, finding that it needs to make a “more serious and sustained commitment” to provide the State Department with the necessary resources to address security risk.
Accompanying the release of the report, the Secretary of State held a press conference (video) with members of the ARB. In addition, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chair John Kerry (MA-D), in which she accepted the findings of the report and pledged to implement its recommendation as well as take other steps to improve the security of State Department personnel abroad.
The State Department announced that Deputy Assistant Secretary Responsible for Embassy Security Charlene Lamb, Deputy Assistant Secretary Raymond Maxwell, and one other official in the diplomatic security office had been put on administrative leave, “pending further action.” In addition, Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell resigned.
The report will start another round of congressional hearings into the attacks, with State Department officials set to testify before both the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Following the release of the report, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen issued a statement, which she concluded with, “The recent resignations of three State Department officials is not the end as the Administration must continue to be held accountable for its dangerous systemic and management failures in order to avoid another Benghazi in the future.”
The members of the ARB are Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering as chairman and Admiral Michael Mullen as vice chairman, as well Catherine Bertini, Richard Shinnick, and Hugh Turner.
International Debates provided full coverage of the Benghazi attacks and the early congressional hearings into the matter in its December 2012 issue.
