Report Shows Diplomatic Sites Still at Risk After Benghazi Attack

According to Al Jazeera America, an independent report on the September 11, 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack shows “the State Department’s failure to address serious security concerns at diplomatic facilities in high-risk areas.” 

The report was conducted by “a panel of five security and intelligence experts” chaired by former director of the U.S. Secret Service, Mark Sullivan. The panel “evaluated State Department security at high-threat diplomatic missions around the world and issued 40 recommendations linked to safety issues” at those missions.

One recommendation was for adding intelligence analysts, as “none of the five high-risk diplomatic facilities the panel visited in the Middle East and Africa had an intelligence analyst on staff.” The panel described the addition of such analysts as “a critical need.”

Regarding last year’s Benghazi attack, the panel “concluded that the State Department’s failure to identify worsening conditions in Libya and exemptions from security regulations at the U.S. Special Mission contributed to the tragedy.” 

Al Jazeera reports the U.S. is repeating these same errors at other missions now: “Even when the State Department has enacted security reforms, agency officials have failed to comply with them or otherwise have exempted themselves from the new standards.”

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.