Report: Systemic failures led to Benghazi attacks [View all]

[dipsydoodle]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A bipartisan Senate report on the attacks on the diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, paints a picture of systemic failure of security for U.S. diplomats overseas that led to the deaths of the ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.

The intelligence community didn't send enough warnings, the State Department didn't take the warnings it did get seriously enough, and the military was caught flat-footed when called on to rescue those in need, according to a long-delayed Senate Intelligence Committee report released Wednesday.

U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, information technology specialist Sean Smith and CIA security contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty died in the attacks that took place Sept. 11-12, 2012.

The report goes so far as to say the attacks could have been prevented if the State Department had accepted security on offer from the military or had closed the Benghazi facility until it could have been better secured.

The report for the first time points specifically to Stevens for twice refusing the U.S. military's offer to keep a special operations team there that was providing extra security in the weeks before the attacks.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_BENGHAZI_ATTACK?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-01-16-03-12-54