Pentagon produces Benghazi docs--finally

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration has finally released 486 pages containing information about the U.S. military response to the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya. The documents show Pentagon officials treated the attack as a terrorist event from the start, even as then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then-Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice blamed an internet video insulting Islam.

Judicial Watch, a Washington, D.C.,-based watchdog group, obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request for “any and all” U.S. Africa Command Operations Center (AFRICOM) documents. After the request went unfulfilled, Judicial Watch sued the Department of Defense in September.

“It is extraordinary that we had to wait for over two years and had to force the release of documents that provide the first glimpse into the military response to the terrorist attack in Benghazi,” said Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch.

The Defense Department said heavy redactions were necessary to protect “military plans and operations” and intelligence activities, but the records still shed some light on the U.S. response to the attack. On Sept. 13, 2012, AFRICOM drafted orders for a military response to “protect vital naval and national assets,” and several components of the military, including Special Operations Forces, eventually deployed to help with security and evacuation operations. The administration blacked out specific mission information, although it has previously released those details for other operations in Libya.

Internal messages show officials blamed the attack on a group supporting “an Islamic state” that wanted retaliation for a U.S. drone strike targeting an al-Qaeda leader.

The documents also confirm the military was well aware of the terrorism threat level in Libya.

“The [Defense Intelligence Agency] threat level for Libya is significant,” one email said. “The [Department of State] residential criminal threat level for Libya is high and the non-residential criminal threat level is high. The political violence threat level for Libya is critical.”

The records show no communication between AFRICOM and the State Department.

The long-awaited release offers a glimpse into why Congress is still investigating what happened before, during, and after the 2012 attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others. Earlier this month, the chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said the panel would speed up the pace of its investigation, which began last year after Judicial Watch obtained a separate cache of Benghazi-related documents.

According to Gowdy, the committee will interview more than 20 current and former Obama administration officials by the end of April, including Rice, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former CIA Director David Petraeus, and current White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough.

The panel also will interview Cheryl Mills, Clinton’s then-chief of staff accused of concealing sensitive documents in the days after the attack. But Clinton herself is not yet scheduled to appear. Although she has agreed to testify, Gowdy said he will not call her until the committee receives all of her Benghazi-related emails. Democrats complain Republicans are trying to drag out her testimony into the 2016 presidential election.