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Senate Intelligence Committee: Benghazi attacks ‘preventable’

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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The 2012 Benghazi attacks that left four Americans dead — including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens — could have been stopped, the Senate Intelligence Committee said in a declassified report released Wednesday.

“The committee found the attacks were preventable, based on extensive intelligence reporting on the terrorist activity in Libya—to include prior threats and attacks against Western targets—and given the known security shortfalls at the U.S. Mission,” the committee, led by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, and Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Republican from Georgia, said in a statement.

The Intelligence Committee report says there were ample warnings from the intelligence community about possible attacks in Libya on the anniversary of 9-11 in 2012.

“In the months before the attacks on September 11,2012, the [intelligence community] provided ample strategic warning that the security situation in eastern Libya was deteriorating and that U.S. facilities and personnel were at risk in Benghazi,” the report states.

Chambliss said in a statement that “In spite of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi and ample strategic warnings, the United States Government simply did not do enough to prevent these attacks and ensure the safety of those serving in Benghazi.”

“I hope that the Administration — and most specifically, the Intelligence Community, the State Department, and our military — will review this bipartisan report carefully and quickly adopt the committee’s recommendations,” he said.

Read the full report.

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Alex Pappas