Embassy in Tripoli, “felt we needed more, not less” security personnel in the country, but were told “to do with less

The regional security office for the U.S. Embassy in Libya compiled a running list of 230 security incidents through July 2012 in a memo that ultimately concluded that “the risk of U.S. Mission personnel, private U.S. citizens, or businesspersons encountering an isolating event as a result of militia or political violence is HIGH.”

고스톱 staff at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, “felt we needed more, not less” security personnel in the country, but were told “to do with less. For what reasons, I don’t know.”

The State Department has formed a special panel to investigate the consulate attack but have told CBS News’ U.S. State Department correspondent Margaret Brennan that any withdrawal of security personnel prior to the Benghazi attack had “no impact whatsoever on the total number of fully trained American security personnel in Libya overall or in Benghazi specifically.” There was a Quick Reaction Force on standby in Tripoli to deploy if needed. That team did arrive in Benghazi on the night of the attack, but not until hours after the assault began.

The State Department also has continued to cite the threat assessment conducted by the Director of National Intelligence which stated that there was, “no actionable intelligence that an attack on our post in Benghazi was planned or imminent.”

The Obama administration initially described the attack as an outgrowth of a protest against an anti-Muslim film produced in the U.S., which also sparked violent demonstrations outside the U.S. Embassy in Cairo a day earlier.

Faced with persistent criticism from Republican lawmakers and others at the description of the attack as spontaneous, particularly given the use of heavy weaponry and organized tactics, administration officials have since classified it as a terrorist act, though Defense chief Leon Panetta said it took him “a while” to even reach that conclusion.

Ansar al-Sharia, an Islamic fundamentalist militia in Benghazi has been considered a likely suspect in the attack and is believed to have links to al Qaeda’s North African branch – al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Several other militant groups have been mentioned as possible culprits, and CBS News senior correspondent John Miller says that discerning the specific identity of those responsible will be difficult due to the blurred lines between the myriad extremist groups operating in Libya, and the wider region.

The memo noted that the rise of private militias in lawless portions of Libya threatened the fledgling national government, “which does not yet have the ability to effectively respond to and manage the rising criminal and militia related violence.”