Judicial
Watch Analysis on Eve of Hillary Clinton Hill Testimony Finds Continued State
Department Duplicity, Questions Department Commitment to Protect Security of
Overseas Diplomats
The new report contains in-depth analysis, conducted
exclusively for Judicial Watch by former State Department Security Special
Agent Raymond Fournier, examines the critical time period leading up to the
Benghazi attack, when repeated requests for increased security were shunned by
top State Department officials. It also examines the Obama administration’s
official claim that “an obscure Internet video” triggered the attacks, as well
as apparently false claims that four top State Department officials had
resigned in response to the Department’s December 18 Accountability Review
Board report on the attack. And it raises questions as to the internal problems
within the Department that may continue to
leave overseas diplomats without adequate security.
“As the [Accountability Review] Board’s report makes clear,”
the Judicial Watch Special Report concludes, “the September 11, 2012, attack in
Benghazi resulted from a wide range of strategic and tactical failures by State
Department officials. Chief among them was the fateful decision to
circumvent established security regulations by designating the diplomatic post
in Benghazi a ‘Special Mission Compound,’ ignoring repeated requests for
additional security resources by Diplomatic Security personnel on the ground,
and entrusting the security of the SMC [Special Mission Compound] to a local
militia group with suspected ties to radical Islamists. As Special Agent
Fournier notes in his assessment of the tragedy, there were also long-standing
cultural problems within the Department of State that hinder the ability of
Diplomatic Security agents to adequately protect our diplomats overseas.”
Among the questions raised by the Judicial Watch Benghazi
report:
Who at the State Department was responsible for opening up
and continuing the operation of the “Special Mission Compound” in the unstable
environment of Benghazi, overriding physical security standards for
diplomatic facilities?
According to Fournier, “The Department’s unexplained
decision to create a new category of diplomatic structure, i.e. the ‘Special
Mission Compound,’” for the purpose of “skirting the established physical security standards”
for embassies and consulates was the “critical error” leading to the deadly
attack.
Did the Director of Diplomatic Security or his immediate
subordinates have authority to countermand the Department’s desire to open “SMC
Benghazi?”
In the Judicial Watch report, Fournier cautions that,
“Frequently, security policy and standards are set aside as inconvenient,
restraining, time consuming or simply less important relative to loftier goals
foreign policy goals prosecuted by the Department’s elite. One need go no
further than Benghazi to see an example of the aforementioned managerial
arrogance with the Department.”
Why did Ambassador Stevens travel to Benghazi, so close to
the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks?
The Judicial Watch Special Report reveals State Department
warnings in July, August, and September of 2012 advising against travel to the
Mideast in general and Benghazi in particular.
Why were two unmanned aerial vehicles requested to record
the deadly events as they unfolded in Benghazi while more lethal air support
options were not on station?
“Our Special Report shows that the State Department has
conspicuously avoided many issues about the Benghazi attack,” stated Judicial
Watch president Tom Fitton. “Our concern is that security has taken a back seat
to politics at the State Department. The willingness of the State
Department and the White House to lie about the Benghazi attack does not
inspire confidence that the Benghazi security failures will be seriously
addressed. In the meantime, our diplomatic personnel may remain at risk
as politicians and bureaucrats avoid accountability.”
Hillary Clinton was instrumental in advancing the false
narrative that the internet video sparked the attacks. For example, as the
Judicial Watch Special Report documents, at a September 14, 2012, even honoring
the four victims of the Benghazi attack, Secretary Clinton made the following
statement: “We’ve seen the heavy assault on our post in Benghazi that took the
lives of those brave men. We’ve seen the rage and violence directed at American
embassies over an awful video that we had nothing to do with.”
Judicial Watch has more than 10 Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) requests pending with various Executive departments and agencies seeking
records relating to the Benghazi attack.
