The Republican-dominated committee on Benghazi in the United States has taken far too long to come to a conclusion. It cannot be a coincidence that it has finally delivered the House of Representatives’ report on any lapse of security in the American consulate just before the Democrat’s national conventions. But the report did not cast any direct blame on Hilary Clinton, who was the secretary of state at the time and is now the Democratic front-runner for US presidency.
An attack by terrorists resulted in the killing of US ambassador Chris Stevens and three of his colleagues in September 2012. The report says that intelligence suggesting that an attack was possible was available, but Hillary told the committee that “there was no actionable intelligence”, indicating a planned attack. As a leading Democrat politician, she hit back at the time taken by the Republican committee in an election year by saying that the committee had found “nothing, nothing” to contradict the independent Accountability Review Board she had commissioned herself while secretary of state. In addition, the House committee noted that Stevens himself bore responsibility for securing his post and that a rush to set up a consulate in Benghazi before a planned visit by Hillary led officials to exclude the Benghazi compound from stringent department rules.
Hillary has faced continued attacks during the primaries on any responsibility she may have borne for breach of security in Benghazi and for her use of a private email server for official communication while secretary of state. This conclusion looks as though she can finally put these issues behind her and focus on attacking Donald Trump, her Republican opponent.