The State Department was guilty of “systematic failures” in security that made the deadly September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. mission in Libya possible, concluded a high-level investigative panel in an examination made public late Tuesday, reports an article from the Los Angeles Times.
According to the article, the panel faulted the department for ignoring requests from U.S. diplomats in Tripoli for security assistance and for relying on ill-prepared local militias and inadequate equipment to protect the mission in Benghazi. It also found that two key bureaus failed to properly coordinate their security planning, and it pointed to a failure in leadership by officials at several levels.