3 State Department resignations after Benghazi report

3 Resign at State Department After Libya Attack Report
By MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT
Published: December 19, 2012

WASHINGTON — Three State Department officials resigned on Wednesday after an independent panel severely criticized the “grossly inadequate” security arrangements at an American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, where Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an attack.

The officials who resigned were Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security; Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security; and Raymond Maxwell, a deputy assistant secretary who had responsibility for the North Africa region, an administration official said.

The report left unscathed some more senior officials who oversaw those bureaus, including Ambassador Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary for management. Mr. Kennedy has vigorously defended the State Department’s decision-making on Benghazi before Congress.

Thomas R. Pickering, the former ambassador who led the independent review, told reporters at a news conference Wednesday that most of the blame for what happened in Benghazi should fall on officials in the bureaus of diplomatic security and Near East affairs.
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