WASHINGTON (CN) - Releasing a long-awaited report Tuesday on the bombing of the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, a Republican-led House committee faulted the military for its slow response and the Obama administration for its public response.
Broken up into five sections, plus a dozen appendices, the 800-page report begins by detailing the 2012 attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and U.S. Foreign Service Information Management Officer Sean Smith. It then examines the events leading up to the carnage, and the government's public and private response. An examination of the government's compliance with the committee's investigation rounds out the report, along with recommendations for the future.
"There is new information on what happened in Benghazi and that information should fundamentally change the way you view what happened in Benghazi and there are recommendations made to make sure it does not happen again," Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., who chaired the Select Committee on Benghazi, said at a press conference Tuesday.
Investigators concluded that the Defense Department did not send help to the besieged compound quickly enough, despite an order from then-Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta to deploy military assets to the area. The only unit that reached Benghazi during the attacks deployed itself from Tripoli, according to the report.
"When the attacks in Benghazi began, the Defense Department was unprepared to respond," the Republican report reads. "Despite there being a missing U.S. ambassador, its response - from the start of the attack at 9:42 pm in Libya, to the amount of time it took for the forces to actually deploy until late the next morning in Libya - at best illustrates a rusty bureaucratic process not in keeping with the gravity and urgency of the events happening on the ground."
The report also faults the administration's decision to establish a compound in Benghazi without giving it the means to defend itself. The Department of Defense meanwhile faces criticism for deploying its forces in such a way that they were too far from Libya to help during the attack.
Logistical problems plagued units trying to get to Libya, preventing any from meeting their deployment deadline, according to the report. One unit in Rota, Spain, had to wait for a plane to come from Germany to fly them to Benghazi, while another special-forces unit had to wait for a forklift to come in from 180 miles away before it could load up to leave.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest called the committee's claims that the military reacted too slowly to the attacks "debunked," as reported by the Associated Press.
Just what new information the report reveals is a matter of debate, with Republicans marveling at some parts of the report Democrats say have been public knowledge for years.
For example, the Republican report touts as a "new fact" the finding that a security team dispatched to Benghazi changed uniform four times while waiting on a plane in Rota, Spain.