The independent report commissioned by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton investigating the attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi faulted the State Department for "systematic failures" and "grossly inadequate" security to deal with the attack. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.
By Andrea Mitchell and Isolde Raftery, NBC News
Updated at 10 p.m. ET: An independent panel's sharply critical report on the Sept. 11 attacks on the Benghazi consulate blames?"systemic?failures and leadership and management deficiencies within two bureaus of the State Department" for the post's inability to defend itself.?
The report details the events that unfolded on Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Libya, when the U.S. Consulate was attacked and four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, were killed. ?
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has accepted the report's recommendations.?
The independent review board that produced the report was chaired by former Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen and former Ambassador Tom Pickering.?Mullen and Pickering are slated to brief congressional committees on the classified version of the report on Wednesday.?
Hearings on the report are scheduled in the Senate and the House on Thursday.?
Clinton?was supposed to testify to the panel on Thursday but remains at home recovering from a bout with the flu that resulted in her fainting and suffering a concussion.?
Her two deputies, William Burns and Thomas Nides, will testify in her place.?
Late in the evening of Sept. 11, militants overran the consulate, which was lightly defended, set fire to it. Ambassador Stevens and information specialist Sean Smith were killed.?Mortars fired at the CIA safe house where others had huddled killed two other Americans ? Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, both former Navy SEALs working for the CIA.?
Following the attacks, Republicans questioned whether the consulate had adequate security and whether the State Department had responded to requests for more protection.?
At the same time, U.S. spy agencies produced conflicting reports on who was behind them, U.S. officials have said. Most said extremists with possible al-Qaida ties were involved. But a few reports, which the Obama administration emphasized in early public statements, said the attacks could have been spontaneous protests against an anti-Muslim video made in the U.S.
United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice faced intense criticism from Republican lawmakers when she made comments indicating that the attacks were a spontaneous response to a low-budget movie made in the U.S. that maligned the Islamic Prophet Mohammed. She later said she had not meant to be misleading but was relaying intelligence that she had been provided.?
Rice dropped out of the running for secretary of state, citing the "very politicized confirmation process."
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