patrick kennedy green lighted the operation. this to run the operation on an ad hoc basis was inadequate for the situation on the ground in benghazi. the interim draft also states that mrs. clinton wanted to extend the benghazi operation. in the summer of 2012, as security conditions unraveled a state department employee said that decisions about benghazi s future operation went through undersecretary kennedy who would then check first with mrs. clinton. based on a conversation between ambassador chris stevens and mrs. clinton, deputy greg hicks testified earlier in the year, that it was the former secretary of state s personal goal to have a permanent operation in benghazi, and the draft interim report concluded that the state department s unwillingness to provide the working documents from the arb made it difficult to have an independent assessment of the overall product, harris. and strong remarks from the state department that you brought us at the top of the hour, but what about
administration and how are they reacting? well, we have only had a response so far from the state department, but just for some context, from the white house and the state department, when the arb was released last september, it was promoted as an ing a gr aggressive investigation that left no stone unturned and in fact, all of the reports 29 findings were accepted. today fox news asked the state department to respond to the draft report claims and specifically that the blame was not properly affix ed at the mot senior levels of the state department including undersecretary patrick kennedy who signed off on the benghazi operation with the substandard security, and also the report fault faults the arb or the state department panel for not thoroughly exploring mrs. clinton s role in the benghazi facts. the facts show that the arb report was prepared by people of unquestioned integrity that the process has been transparent and open, and the lessons have been
fact is that we have four dead americans, and was it because of a protest or because of guys out for a walk one night who decided to kill some americans? what difference at this point does it make? it is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator. and ric, as you remember, some people had a visceral reaction to those words, it doesn t matter. and what are the thoughts now as we forward, because this report is going to roll out and 100 pages of this report, and it was put together by gop staffers, but it is a bipartisan committee. as secretary clinton just said that the clip that we have to do everything that we can to make sure that it doesn t happen again. i would agree with her. that means making sure that the policy which is governed by those who make the policy, the higher ups, and we need to review that process to understand who made the decision
these embassies, and so we have to get to the bottom of it as journalists, but also, because we need to know the answers. and the bottom line of the arb report is that there were systemic leadership and management failures. that was the bottom line of the report. and yet, yet, all of this time afterwards, there has been no accountabili accountability. the four people, the junior people who were put on a paid vacation basically are back at different jobs. and the senior people who issued the policy, which apparently was now responsible for the substandard security, they have never even been really asked about these things under oath. we need to know the answers, because it is our government. it is. and because we have hundreds of facilities all over the world that require protection. and real quickly, before i let you go, there will three hearings coming up, and congressman issa and his committee will be holding one and this is a draft resolution, but as catherine has reported
when they talk about what they said and to whom they said it? i m sure that you, as a former investigations editor would have put every reporter that you could have on this story. but now, you are wearing a different hat which is working for the state department, and being the state department s spokesman and we are not getting those questions answered. we are just getting platitudes about how what a terrific panel this was that looked into the questions. you will tell us if mr. franz calls you? i don t think that he will. and a couple of thing, and i tried to put it in perspective earlier as this was breaking off of the top of the hour of fox repo report because we had gotten it minutes before, a look at the draft report, and it is the fact that a week ago, in afghanistan right outside of the gates of the diplomatic post there, a bomb. i mean, our embassies, and the way we block out democracy is in