State Dept. officials resign following Benghazi report
Updated 9:30 p.m. ET
Eric Boswell, the head of diplomatic security at the State Department, has resigned, following the release of a harsh report detailing State Department missteps that led to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland confirmed that Clinton accepted Boswell's decision to resign, effective immediately. Sources say he will stay on as director of the Office of Foreign Missions for a short time. Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security, has also resigned, CBS News has learned.
In a statement released at 8.07 p.m. ET tonight, Nuland announced that the jobs of four, not three individuals were in question due to the findings of the ARB probe of the Benghazi attack. "The ARB identified the performance of four officials, three in the Bureau of the Diplomatic Security and one in the Bureau of Near East Asia Affairs," the release read.
The State Department only identified Boswell and did not release the names of the three other individuals. The State Department did not characterize the terms of their departures as resignations. CBS News, ABC, NBC, the New York Times, AP and Reuters all previously reported that U.S. officials told the news organizations that three individuals resigned in the wake of the probe. The announcement from the State Department says that the individuals were instead placed on "administrative leave pending further action" and says that they were "relieved of their current duties."
The names of all four of the individuals were excised from the unclassified report that was released to the press. The classified report included sensitive information including the names of the individuals in question. That classified version was made available in secure rooms on the Hill to members of the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committees.
- Panel cites "systemic" failures at State Department over Benghazi attack
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The report, released today by an independent board led by retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, did not single out any individuals for culpability. It did, however, blame failures within two bureaus at the State Department for the missteps that eventually lead to the deaths of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three additional American personnel in Libya. The two bureaus cited -- Near Eastern Affairs and Diplomatic Security -- were criticized for a security posture that was "grossly inadequate to deal with the attack," and for failing to coordinate with other agencies to better secure the consulate.
Members of the House Foreign Affairs and Senate Foreign Relations Committees were briefed on the report this morning. After the briefings, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the report "is going to significantly advance the security of personnel and our country."
A number of congressmen said today that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should still testify before Congress on the Benghazi attack. Clinton was scheduled to testify on the Benghazi attack this Thursday in two congressional hearings. However, after falling ill and suffering from a concussion, she's no longer scheduled to appear at the hearings. Clinton sent a letter to Congress, indicating she accepts the Benghazi report's 29 recommendations for strengthening security at diplomatic posts and recognizes the the need to address the "systemic challenges" at the State Department.
House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-lehtinen, R-Fla., said Clinton "absolutely" still needs to testify. Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said committee members still have many questions and that today's closed-door briefing was just the start.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said it was "imperative" for Clinton to testify before a new secretary of state is confirmed in President Obama's second term.
"I think that is very important to her, I think it is very important for our country, and I think it is very important to really understand the inner workings of the State Department itself," he said.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said in a statement that Clinton will need to "personally address" issues he feels were not addressed entirely in the report.
"While I appreciate the board's hard work, I am deeply concerned that the unclassified report omits important information the public has a right to know," Issa said. "This includes details about the perpetrators of the attack in Libya as well as the less-than-noble reasons contributing to State Department decisions to deny security resources. Relevant details that would not harm national security have been withheld and the classified report suffers from an enormous over-classification problem."
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., by contrast, called the report's conclusions "very stark, very candid, very honest."
The report, he said, "told us the following: Mistakes were made, lives were lost, lessons need to be learned." Durbin said the review board's conclusions were: "Our intelligence fell short, our security personnel were inexperienced and unprepared, our security systems failed, our host nation was lacking in protection for our own people, and senior State Department officials unfortunately showed a lack of leadership and management ability."
He added, "That is a challenge to all of us, it is a challenge for us to assess this in an honest fashion and to change policy to put resources in place that will make a difference."
