During an interview on Face The Nation this morning, Hillary Clinton defended her failed record responding to the September 2012 Benghazi attack and said that the U.S. “learned” about embassy security after previous embassy attacks in Iran and Beirut.
However, Clinton’s claims belie the truth about the weak embassy security in Benghazi, Libya. Several of the post-Benghazi attack reviews criticized security at the Benghazi facility including the Senate Intelligence Committee report, which said that “the Majority” felt that the Benghazi attack was “preventable based on the known security shortfalls at the U.S. Mission.” The Accountability Review Board (ARB), a review that Clinton herself called for, said that Washington’s response to the “deteriorating security situation was inadequate.” Further, the ARB said that Benghazi’s status as a “temporary” facility was a “key driver behind the weak security platform in Benghazi.”
Clinton’s failure to keep the Banghazi facility safe is made worse by a recent State Department Inspector General report noting that some of the ARB’s security recommendations that Clinton claims to have embraced have still not been addressed even three years after the Benghazi attack.