State Dept Delays Blamed for Late FBI Arrival in Benghazi

Three Weeks In, a Disorganized US Response Seeks Answers

by Jason Ditz, October 05, 2012

The September 11 attack on the Benghazi Consulate has left the Obama Administration struggling to defend a lot of things, not just their pre-attack lack of security and their post-attack lack of security, but an extremely slow reaction by FBI investigators.

The FBI only got there yesterday, three weeks after the attack killed the ambassador and after weeks of looting left the already burned compound a complete wreck, with little hope of decent intelligence gathering.

Officials familiar with the situation say that the State Department took nearly three weeks just to ask for protection for the FBI agents heading to the site, and that this is the reason that the investigation has taken so long. The State Department is denying this, but not offering another credible reason for the FBI not to arrive earlier.

The officials say the military already had moved into Libya shortly after the attack and would have been available to protect the FBI almost immediately. Early statements from the administration had conceded the point and said the FBI hadn’t arrived yet because of “lack of security,” and this seems yet another problem for the US to explain in their hap-hazard response to the attack.

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