ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
And I'm Melissa Block.
We're learning more tonight about the attack that killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in Benghazi on September 11th of this year. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent her review board's report to Congress today, and the State Department has just released the unclassified version.
NPR's Michele Kelemen has been reading through it, and she joins me now. Michele, what have you read?
MICHELE KELEMEN, BYLINE: Well, it's quite critical of the State Department for what it calls systemic failures. It takes diplomatic security officials based in Washington to task for turning down repeated requests for extra security in Libya. You know, Melissa, there's been a lot of controversy over this attack, particularly how the Obama administration described it to the public, but also the fact that there was little in the way of security despite the fact that Benghazi was increasingly dangerous.
So this report goes through some of those issues that says, for instance, that there was no protest prior to the attack, as initially reported. And it describes the general security picture in Benghazi, how it had been deteriorating for a long time and how the consulate relied on local militias to safeguard it.
BLOCK: Now, Secretary of State Clinton was supposed to present these findings in public hearings. She's been ill. She suffered a concussion, so she's sending her deputies to do that instead. She did send a letter to Congress. What does it say?
KELEMEN: You know, she was diagnosed with this concussion, and her aides say that she was dehydrated from having the stomach virus, so they said the doctors told her to stay home this week. Her deputies are standing in for her at public hearings this week. And she's telling members of Congress that she'll be available to answer questions in the future about it. But her letters didn't really go into those sorts of details. They just talked about how she's responsible for the whole State Department family and that she's taking these security issues very seriously.
BLOCK: Now, included in this report are a number of recommendations for what the State Department can do to avoid attacks like this in the future. What are some of those recommendations?
KELEMEN: You know, there are 29 of them, though only 24 of them were mentioned in the public version of it. Clinton says in her letter that she accepts every single one, and we're told that a team at the State Department has already met to talk about how to implement these. For instance, Clinton says she's created a new position at the State Department to focus on high-risk post. She's also talking about trying to get more Marine guards and more funding for this. But as she's often pointed out and does so again in her letter to the House and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, diplomats can't work in bunkers.
BLOCK: So this report goes to Capitol Hill? Michele, what happens after that?
KELEMEN: So the co-chairs of the review board - former Ambassador Thomas Pickering and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen - will be on Capitol Hill tomorrow, meeting behind closed doors, to answer questions of the Senate and House Foreign Relations Committee. And then those committees are going to hold public hearings on Thursday. But again, the secretary won't be there.
BLOCK: OK. NPR's Michele Kelemen. Michele, thanks so much.
KELEMEN: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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