TEL AVIV – A U.S. government security officer serving at the U.S. Special Mission in Benghazi prior to the September 11, 2012 attacks, warned his superiors that lack of adequate security at the compound made serving there a “suicide mission.”
The officer further predicted to his superiors “that there was a very good chance that everybody here was going to die.”
In a devastating indictment, the officer stated that a superior told him “everybody back here in D.C. knows that people are going to die in Benghazi, and nobody cares and nobody is going to care until somebody does die.”
The dramatic testimony was provided to the House Select Committee on Benghazi and contained in a 339-page House Democrat report on Benghazi released on Monday and reviewed in full by Breitbart Jerusalem. The report was issued prior to the release on Tuesday of the Benghazi Committee’s final report.
The Select Committee quoted the officer as “Agent B,” explaining he served in Benghazi from November to December 2011 and was the State Department-provided Regional Security Officer (RSO) there for ten days in December 2011. RSOs are special agents of the State Department’s U.S. Diplomatic Security Service serving overseas.
Agent B says he was getting the “runaround” regarding additional security requests and that he gave his dire prediction to a superior.
When I took over as RSO, I called [the DS Desk Officer], because I was getting the runaround on some physical security requests, complaining to him vigorously, you know, what the problem was.
I told him that, you know—to use frank language, I told him that this was a suicide mission; that there was a very good chance that everybody here was going to die; that there was absolutely no ability here to prevent an attack whatsoever; that we were in a completely vulnerable position, and we needed help fast, we needed it quickly, or we were going to have dire consequences.
Agent B further described the dangerous security conditions and his appeal for what he said were “desperately” needed security upgrades.
Our perimeter security is non-existent, we have walls with lattices that somebody can shoot through; we have walls with footholds people can climb over; we have a 4-foot wall back here; we have no lighting. So all these physical security standards, especially around the perimeter of the building, were completely insufficient, and we needed large amounts of money and this was going to take time, it was going to be expensive, but we needed this desperately to make this place safe.
Agent B said that a superior informed him that DC employees at the State Department expected deaths in Benghazi to such an extent that they were already discussing a security investigation, or Accountability Review Board, to probe the Benghazi facility following any fatalities there.
[Redacted] told me, he said, [Redacted], everybody back here in D.C. knows that people are going to die in Benghazi, and nobody cares and nobody is going to care until somebody does die. The only thing that you and I can do is save our emails for the ARB that we all know is coming. So this was December of 2011. He made it very clear to me that in DS/IP, in the State Department, and he was speaking very broadly, that everybody knew that deaths in Benghazi were very likely, and that they were already talking about an ARB.
With research by Joshua Klein.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.