On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Reform Committee, chaired by Representative Darrell Issa (CA-R) held a hearing on the September 11, 2012, terrorist attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that led to the deaths of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens. It’s the ninth time a congressional committee has held a hearing investigating the circumstances of the attack and the Obama Administration response in the hours and days that followed. Testifying before the committee were Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission for Libya; Eric Nordstrom, the regional security officer posted to Libya; and Mark…

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…