An administration official said Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security, and an unnamed official with the Bureau of Near East Affairs, had stepped down. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss personnel matters publicly.

The report said poor leadership in both bureaus left the post underprotected.

"Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus" resulted in a security level that was "inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place," according to the report released late Tuesday by the independent Accountability Review Board.

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The attack against the US Consulate in Benghazi last month claimed the lives of four US diplomatic officials, among them Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya.

According to Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahram:

"The independent Al-Masry al-Youm newspaper, quoting interior ministry official General Mohieddin al-Sayyed, said the suspect killed on Wednesday could be an Al-Qaeda militant.

"The Madinat Nasr police department received information indicating that a terrorist, a member of Al-Qaeda, was present in an apartment in Madinat Nasr," Sayyed is quoted as saying."

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A State Department email sent to intelligence officials and the White House situation room said the Islamist group Ansar al-Sharia claimed responsibility on Facebook and Twitter, and also called for an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli.

The document may fuel Republican efforts to show that the White House knew it was a terrorist attack, even as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations was saying — five days afterward — that it appeared to be a protest gone awry.

The Obama administration's account of the Benghazi events has become a campaign issue, with Republican challenger Mitt Romney and GOP lawmakers accusing the White House of misleading Americans about the nature of the attack. But militant groups often surface after such attacks claiming responsibility and it's difficult to immediately verify such claims.

The Associated Press and other news organizations obtained the unclassified email and two related emails from government officials who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about them publicly.

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It is unclear who, if anyone, saw the cable outside the CIA at that point and how high up in the agency the information went. The Obama administration maintained publicly for a week that the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans was a result of the mobs that staged less-deadly protests across the Muslim world around the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks on the U.S.

Those statements have become highly charged political fodder as the presidential election approaches. A Republican-led House committee questioned State Department officials for hours about what GOP lawmakers said was lax security at the consulate, given the growth of extremist Islamic militants in North Africa.

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And if the administration does find a target, officials say it still has to weigh whether the short-term payoff of exacting retribution on al-Qaida is worth the risk that such strikes could elevate the group's profile in the region, alienate governments the U.S. needs to fight the group in the future and do little to slow the growing terror threat in North Africa.

Details on the administration's position and on its search for a possible target were provided by three current and one former administration official, as well as an analyst who was approached by the White House for help. All four spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the high-level debates publicly.

In another effort to bolster Libyan security, the Pentagon and State Department have been developing a plan to train and equip a special operations force in Libya, according to a senior defense official.

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Two former heads of U.S. diplomatic security in Libya testified that requests for additional security to protect American missions in the country were rejected by the state department ahead of the attack.

"The RSO (regional security officer) struggled to obtain additional personnel there, but was never able to attain the numbers he felt comfortable with," said Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Wood, former head of embassy security in Libya.

Republicans on the hearing committee were swift to point fingers at the state department, particularly senior official Charlene Lamb who handled and denied the request for extra security. Speaking at the hearing, Lamb maintained that on the night of the attack (Sept. 11,) the U.S. had "the correct number of assets" in Benghazi. Indeed, as was revealed in the hearing, more agents were on the ground at the consulate that night that had been requested by former head of security, Eric Nordstrom.

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The hearing will focus on any failures in security and intelligence that may have overlooked a militant threat from al-Qaida in the region. According to the New York Times, two senior State Department officials responsible for embassy security worldwide will testify, as will a former head of security at the United States Embassy in Tripoli and the former head of an American military team assigned to provide security at the embassy. A main subject of inquiry will be whether the State Department rejected requests from diplomats for increased security at the Libya mission after months of violent incidents.

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Abushagur submitted plans for the establishment of 10 ministries, among them defense, interior and justice. He withdrew his first cabinet proposal after it encountered strong criticism and protests.

Abushagur had only 72 hours to get a new cabinet list approved or he would be forced to resign less than a month into his term.

By Sunday, parliamentary spokesman Omar Humeidan said he had reached the end of the 25-day period in which he must form a government, reports Fox News.

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"It was a planned, coordinated, orchestrated attack led by terrorists, terrorists, Bill," Huckabee said. "And this White House has to explain why it hasn’t owned up to that. Why it can’t say it ... Let's go back. Richard Nixon was forced out of office because he lied. And because he covered some stuff up. I'm going to be blunt and tell you this. Nobody died in Watergate. We have people who are dead because of this. There are questions to be answered and Americans ought to demand to get answers."

Via ThinkProgress.

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Hastings was asking questions about Reines' statement that he found it "disgusting" that CNN had used the journal of Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, as an unnamed source in its reporting. Things got heated, to say the least:

"I now understand why the official investigation by the Department of the Defense as reported by The Army Times The Washington Post concluded beyond a doubt that you're an unmitigated asshole," Reines said. "How's that for a non-bullshit response?"

"Now that we've gotten that out of our systems, have a good day. And by good day, I mean Fuck Off," he added.

The full exchange is here, and well worth a read.

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Here's what we know: American officials are still investigating what happened between the time Stevens was separated from his security detail, and when he was pronounced dead at the hospital.

From the New York Times:

"Officials in Washington said they were investigating that blacked-out period, but as they conduct that inquiry, witnesses have emerged who said that Mr. Stevens had fled to a room in the diplomatic compound, hoping to find safety behind a locked iron gate and wooden door. But fires raged around the mission, and Mr. Stevens, unable to escape the smoke and heat, died of asphyxiation."

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Among the worst trends in U.S. foreign-policy making in recent decades is the decline of the State Department and the corresponding rise of the Defense Department. State is responsible for American diplomacy — the hard work of negotiating and maintaining relations with other countries; Defense (formerly the Department of War, a more honest designation) looks after war-making and protecting national security. Few things reflect America’s skewed foreign-policy priorities more than the funding discrepancies between the two departments. Consider the numbers:

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The self-proclaimed director of "Innocence of Muslims" initially claimed a Jewish and Israeli background. But others involved in the film said his statements were contrived as evidence mounted that the film's key player was a southern Californian Coptic Christian with a checkered past.

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, told The Associated Press in an interview outside Los Angeles Wednesday that he managed logistics for the company that produced "Innocence of Muslims," which mocked Muslims and the prophet Muhammad.

The movie has been blamed for inflaming mobs that attacked U.S. missions in Egypt and Libya this week as well as U.S. Embassy in Yemen on Thursday.

Nakoula denied he had directed the film, though he said he knew the self-described filmmaker, Sam Bacile. But the cellphone number that the AP contacted Tuesday to reach the filmmaker who identified himself as Bacile traced to the same address near Los Angeles where Nakoula was located.

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"Gov. Romney's statement is pretty clear. If Gov. Romney were president he would be enraged at the Egyptians for tolerating the attack on the embassy. He would be offended at the Libyans for allowing -- both countries have an obligation to protect our embassies." - Newt Gingrich, on CNN.

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My thoughts and prayers are with the families of Ambassador Chris Stevens and the other State Department employees murdered in Benghazi last night. It's tragic that those deaths have become occasion for cheap political grandstanding by Romney. As everyone now knows, the Romney campaign blasted President Obama for allegedly sympathizing with Stevens' killers in a ridiculous statement late on the evening of Sept. 11:

I’m outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks.

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A trailer from the film in question mockingly depicts an actor playing the Prophet Muhammad, and refers to a donkey as “the first Muslim animal.” Via YouTube.

Protests began to break out in Cairo, as demonstrators scaled the walls of the U.S. embassy:

Violent protesters in Benghazi, Libya, also attacked the U.S. consulate, resulting in the death of Stevens and three other Americans:

Tuesday night, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attacks in the strongest possible terms:

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