Benghazi panel caps 2-year probe: No bombshell, faults administration

June 28, 2016 at 11:49

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Washington (CNN) - House Republicans capped a partisan, two-year investigation of the Benghazi terror attacks Tuesday with a report that contains no significant revelations about the events that led to the deaths of four Americans but faults the Obama administration for security lapses.

The more than 800-page report paints a picture of a perfect storm of bureaucratic inertia, rapidly worsening security in Libya and inadequate resources in the months that led up to the killings of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three colleagues on September 11, 2012.

The attack was initially thought to be perpetrated by an angry mob responding to a video made in the U.S. mocking Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, but the assault was later determined to be a terrorist attack -- a finding Republicans accused the White House of covering up to protect President Barack Obama's re-election prospects.

The House Benghazi Committee report doesn't directly blame Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time and is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, for the attacks. But it does suggest she and other administration officials did not adequately address the risks involved. It also found Stevens himself bore responsibility for securing his post.

When it comes to Clinton, the report stresses that intelligence was available suggesting an attack was possible and she and a top aide, Patrick Kennedy, should have realized the risks posed to the Benghazi mission by extremist groups.

"It is not clear what additional intelligence would have satisfied either Kennedy or the Secretary in understanding the Benghazi mission compound was at risk -- short of an attack," the report says.

Clinton told the House Benghazi Committee last year that she was aware of the dangers in Libya but "there was no actionable intelligence" indicating a planned attack.

The report reveals that Stevens and senior department officials were apparently keen to set up a permanent consulate in Benghazi ahead of a planned visit to the city by Clinton in October 2012. But the difficulty finding a suitable secure facility prompted officials to exclude the Benghazi compound from official department rules and standards that would have otherwise been more stringent.

"If you are in a non-diplomatic facility, there are no security standards. They don't exist," one unnamed diplomatic security agent told the committee.

Conservative members of the panel released a more political analysis of the attack Tuesday that's far more critical of Clinton and the Obama administration. That study, authored by GOP Reps. Mike Pompeo of Kansas and Jim Jordan of Ohio, blames the attack on a "tragic failure of leadership."

Their decision to release an addendum to the main report appears to suggest that Pompeo and Jordan believe the committee report does not go far enough in criticizing Clinton and the administration.

"The overall report, it's about the facts, what happened," Jordan told Chris Cuomo Tuesday on CNN's "New Day." "But Mr. Pompeo and I thought it was important to ask the questions. Why were we still in Benghazi when almost every other country had left? Why did we stay in Benghazi when the security situation was so terrible, so dangerous? And why did the administration mislead us?"