Benghazi report leads to resignations at the State Department
Three State Department officials, including two who oversaw security decisions at the diplomatic embassy in Benghazi, resigned under Wednesday, the day after a condemning report blamed management failures for a lack of security at the U.S. building in Libya where militants killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans on September 11.
Eric Boswell
Eric Boswell, assistant secretary of diplomatic security, and Charlene Lamb, deputy assistant secretary of state for international programs, submitted their resignations, a senior official said. A third official in the Near East Affairs bureau also resigned, the official said.
Boswell and Lamb oversaw security for the Benghazi mission. Lamb testified before Congress about the security precautions. Documents show Lamb denied repeated requests for additional security in Libya.
The independent investigation of the Benghazi attack said poor leadership in both bureaus left the Benghazi mission underprotected. It concluded that management and leadership failures in the State Department led to ‘grossly’ poor security at the U.S. consulate.
Veteran diplomat Thomas Pickering, who chaired the review board, said the members placed primary blame “at the assistant secretary level, which is in our view the appropriate place to look, where the decision making in fact takes place. Where, if you like, the rubber hits the road.”
Pickering and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, the review board’s vice chairman, visited Capitol Hill Wednesday to brief members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations committees in private.
“The report makes clear the massive failure of the State Department at all levels, including senior leadership, to take action to protect our government employees abroad,” said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican.
Sen. John Kerry, who is considered the top prospect for the secretary of state job being vacated by Hillary Clinton, said the State Department “has taken a huge step forward to address the lessons learned from Benghazi.”
“It’s a dangerous world we’re in and I think that this report is going to significantly advance the security interests of those personnel and of our country,” Kerry told reporters Wednesday.
The report appeared to break little new ground about the timeline of the Benghazi attack during which Libyan Ambassador Chris Stevens, information specialist Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods – who were contractors working for the CIA – were killed
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