WASHINGTON: The US government could have prevented deadly attacks on its mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi by fixing “known security shortfalls,” a damning Senate report concluded yesterday.
Four American citizens, including Ambassador Chris Stephens, died in the double attack targeting a US diplomatic facility and the nearby CIA annex on September 11, 2012.
A Senate Intelligence Committee inquiry held hearings and interviewed dozens of witnesses, against a back-drop of partisan point-scoring from both sides of Washington’s political divide.
Obama’s administration initially suggested the attacks were a spontaneous protest by Benghazi residents angered by a privately-made American anti-Islamic film posted online.
Yesterday’s bipartisan report emphasised the security shortfalls that allowed protesters and armed militants to storm Stephen’s Benghazi compound and to torch the US residence.
The report said the State Department had failed to heed warnings to reinforce protection at the sites despite the rapidly deteriorating security environment in Libya.
And it blamed intelligence agencies for not notifying US military officials in the US Africa command that a CIA annex even existed near the Benghazi diplomatic mission.
“The committee found the attacks were preventable, based on extensive intelligence reporting on the terrorist activity in Libya — to include prior threats and attacks against Western targets — and given the known security shortfalls at the US mission,” the panel said in a statement.
AFP
