U.S. to beef up security at diplomatic posts

WASHINGTON — The State Department pledged Thursday to bulk up security at diplomatic posts in dangerous areas in response to the fatal attack on a lightly guarded compound in Libya, as one top official acknowledged that “we fell down on the job.”

In several hours of questioning before the Senate and House foreign affairs committees, department leaders said bureaucracy and tight budgets combined to shortchange security at frontline posts.

The sessions were billed as examinations of an independent investigation’s findings about what went wrong in the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi, that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. The report issued this week recommends additional money for embassy security along with a hard look at a State Department habit of miserliness that the report said was born of repeated budget cuts.

Congressional Republicans focused on security lapses exposed by the assault and on whether the Obama administration deliberately played down the terrorist origins of the attack.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is asking Congress for an additional $750 million to hire about 150 more security officers, a deputy said. She had been scheduled to testify Thursday about the outside investigation but canceled because of an illness. She said she will testify in January.

The Pentagon has agreed to send about 225 more Marine guards to medium- and high-threat diplomatic posts, Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Nides told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“We need to learn from this,” he said.

Clinton’s other senior aide, Deputy Secretary William Burns, told a House committee later that the department will be “relentless” in trying to follow through on investigators’ recommendations to keep diplomats safer.

“We clearly fell down on the job with regard to Benghazi,” he said.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., suggested that the State Department might do better to examine its priorities before asking for more money.

“We cannot expect the same bureaucracy at State, whose management failures are now manifest, to objectively review the department’s organization, procedure and performance,” she said. “Nor can we have any confidence in their assessment of what went wrong and what actions are needed to prevent a repeat.”

The Accountability Review Board report on the attack released Tuesday found that “grossly” inadequate security and reliance on local militias left U.S. diplomats and other personnel vulnerable.

The State Department security chief resigned Wednesday in response. The department said three other managers will be disciplined.

Clinton’s launch this year of a flashy initiative to send American celebrity chefs on goodwill tours abroad seems especially misplaced in a time of tight budgets, Ros-Lehtinen said.

That prompted an angry retort from Rep. Gary Ackerman, D-N.Y., who is retiring after 30 years in Congress. He apologized to Nides and Burns for “being used as foils to the conflicting intentions of some people on our committee and others in Washington, for partisan political purposes.”

“My great fear as I leave here is that we have become a partisan, bickering bunch of grousing old people trying to exploit whatever we can to our own political advantage,” Ackerman said. “We’ve become a group of small people with press secretaries. We’ve become people who want to exploit any kind of national calamity to our political advantage.”

Ros-Lehtinen cut him off at the end of his allotted time for opening remarks.

“Mr. Ackerman, we all aspire to your purity,” she said with apparent good humor. “The flesh is weak.”

Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, said the Accountability Review Board’s report glosses over the security failures in Benghazi and lets the Obama administration off the hook. Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., then gestured to Johnson and other Republicans and mocked them as conspiracy theorists.

Feigning a prosecutorial style, Connolly demanded to know whether Nides and Burns had been at secret meetings where the White House banned the word “terrorism” until after the presidential election and worked out how to “lie” about the attack.

“No such meeting,” Burns said with an embarrassed smile.

The Senate hearing earlier Thursday quickly centered on the question of money and how much is needed to protect U.S. diplomats in challenging environments worldwide.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry, D-Mass., said some in the State Department did not “see the forest for the trees” as security conditions worsened in Benghazi.

“There were clear warning signs that the security situation in Libya had deteriorated,” before Ambassador Christopher Stevens traveled to Benghazi in September, Kerry said. “We need to do a better job of ensuring a free and open dialogue among ambassadors, their embassy security personnel and officials in Washington, where decisions on security staffing levels and funding are made.”

Kerry, widely expected to be President Barack Obama’s choice to succeed Clinton in Obama’s second term, did not identify any individuals at fault. Instead, he said Congress bears responsibility for stinting on foreign affairs budgets. He welcomed the recommendation of independent investigators to spend $2.3 billion annually for a decade to upgrade overseas operations.

Congress has cut some funding for embassy security, and the State Department has pared back upgrades to save money. Both Democratic and Republican senators urged the department on Thursday to ask for what it really needs.

“Maybe the next secretary of state can help with this,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., a wry reference to the speculation that Kerry will be appointed.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.