Real-life Benghazi heroes open up about "13 Hours" movie
As Republicans take to the stage in Cleveland starting today for the Republican National Convention, viewers can rest assured that they"ll hear one recurrent phrase when it comes to talking about Hillary Clinton: "Benghazi." Just like Clinton"s email probe, for which she was cleared by FBI, the Benghazi issue has been ongoing for years and is pretty complicated.
It started in 2012 after four U.S. citizens ambassador Christopher Stevens, CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, and information officer Sean Smith were tragically killed. But what actually happened in Benghazi, Libya? Read on for an overview on everything you need to know to understand the debate.
WHAT HAPPENED?
An armed man waving his rifle as buildings and cars are engulfed in flames after being set on fire inside the US consulate compound in Benghazi on September 11, 2012.
STR/AFP/Getty
On Sept. 11, 2012, nearly a half-dozen Islamic countries held anti-US protests in reaction to a movie made by an American filmmaker that mocked the Prophet Mohammad, according to PBS. In Cairo, a mob of protesters breached a wall at the U.S. Embassy and ripped down a flag.
That same night, reports began coming in that terrorists had overrun the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, according to USA Today. Libya was still reeling from a civil war the year before and the death of its leader Moammar Gadhafi, and was unstable.
At the U.S. compound, a group of attackers opened a gate allowing armed men to enter and set fire to a building, filling it with smoke, NBC reported. The U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, went to a safe room with another American, Sean Smith, and the two died of smoke inhalation there as American security guards tried to rescue them.
There was a second attack on a CIA annex building nearby, and two CIA contractors, Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty, exchanged gunfire with the attackers, but were also killed.
THE RESPONSE
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the U.S. did not know the attack was coming and the military was too far away from the compound to help during the attack, and on Sunday morning political talk shows that week, then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice suggested a link between the anti-Mohammad movie and the attack in Benghazi, according to PBS. Rice stated that the "current best assessment" was that the attack was an extension of the protests against the film happening elsewhere.
"What this began as was a spontaneous, not a premeditated, response to what had transpired in Cairo," she said.
According to NBC, Rice was telling the truth: a CIA report had concluded that was the case, but the CIA report turned out to be wrong.
THE CONTROVERSY
U.S. Republican senators Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Kelly Ayotte speak during a press conference to discuss the Accountability Review Board report into the Benghazi terrorist attack on December 21, 2012 .
Win McNamee/Getty
Republicans in Congress said that the White House knew immediately that Benghazi was a terror attack, not part of the protests, and that they hid that information to help President Obama get re-elected in 2012. The White House said that Rice was speaking from the best information available at the time, according to PBS.
The Republicans began pressing the administration with questions such as why diplomats were in Benghazi, why security at the compound was inadequate, why the intelligence community didn"t know about the attack, why military was unable to respond quickly, and why the Obama administration spread inaccurate information in the days after the attack.
THE INVESTIGATION
Five House Committees, two Senate Committees, the FBI, and the State Department launched investigations into the Benghazi attacks to try and get answers to some of those questions.
Clinton, who was then head of the State Department as Secretary of State, testified before two of the committees in January 2013 as part of the investigations.
"The fact is, we had four dead Americans," Clinton said in her testimony. "Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they would go kill some Americans? What difference at this point does this make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again."
Clinton said that she took responsibility for the tragedy and agreed to improve security at diplomatic outposts in high-threat areas, but was not involved in decisions, before the attacks, about whether to bolster security in Benghazi.
CONCLUSION: The State Department Failed, But Clinton Did Not
The multiple investigations found there was inadequate security at the Benghazi compound and a series of failures within the State Department, and that Rice was given inaccurate information about the attacks, but none of the reports found fault with Clinton, according to USA Today.
Those findings, however, were not enough to satisfy Clinton and Obama"s critics. As Mother Jones quoted NPR"s Ari Shapiro in 2013, "Benghazi has become a sort of catchword. To Republicans, it symbolizes everything bad about the Obama administration" and by extension Clinton. It"s an issue her Republican rival, Donald Trump, has seized upon throughout the campaign season, and it"s likely to come up again numerous times at the RNC .
Related: Where Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Stand on Foreign Policy
Source: http://www.teenvogue.com/story/2012-benghazi-attack-controversy-explained
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