White House officials either failed to comprehend the situation in Benghazi or ignored the dramatically deteriorating security there while preparing for the September 11th anniversary, according to a new report set to be released by the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday.
Some of the biggest concerns yielded from the report center around why the Obama administration chose to allocate security resources in parts of the region and not in others following a series of assessment reviews led by then-Deputy National Security Advisor John Brennan, senior aides familiar with the report told Fox News.
“The report details an example of changes that were made in our foreign posture in response to the perceived threat in Yemen and compares and contrasts that to the situation on the ground in Libya,” one senior aide said. “While we identify that discrepancy, we are not fully able to get at why some of those decisions may have been made within the National Security Council or the White House.”
MOSCOW — The Russian government on Saturday stepped up its attack on the accusation by the United States that Syria had used chemical weapons in its civil war, saying that evidence cited by the Americans was unreliable because the samples were not properly handled by experts until they reached a laboratory.
The criticism, by Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov at a news conference in Moscow, laid out Russia’s most specific argument to date supporting its contention that the evidence was faulty. The remarks came a day after President Obama spoke with the leaders of four of the United States’ closest allies — Britain, France, Germany and Italy — about the charge of chemical weapons use by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad.
The United States said last week that it would begin sending weapons to the Syrian rebels because of the evidence of chemical arms, but the European allies have expressed differing views and pressed for urgent discussions on how to respond, including at a Group of 8 summit meeting in Northern Ireland beginning on Monday.
Russia has reacted furiously to the announcement by the United States, saying the allegations are not reliable and accusing American officials of creating a pretense for military intervention, based on intelligence assessments similar to the later-disproven reports of unconventional weapons in Iraq that preceded the invasion there.
Mr. Lavrov, speaking after meeting with Foreign Minister Emma Bonino of Italy, urged the United States to adhere to a plan to hold an international conference that would bring both the Assad government and the rebels to the negotiating table.
In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry said that while the United States still sought a political solution for the conflict, “the use of chemical weapons and increasing involvement of Hezbollah demonstrates the regime’s lack of commitment to negotiations and threatens to put a political settlement out of reach.”
Mr. Kerry had been one of the most outspoken advocates of a political process, but in recent weeks has grown increasingly concerned that the advances made by pro-government forces would give Mr. Assad little reason to negotiate. The provision of arms to the rebels, officials have said, is partly intended to turn the tide enough to force a real negotiation.
Mr. Kerry’s remarks, in a telephone conversation with his Iraqi counterpart, were summarized in a statement issued by the State Department on Saturday. Mr. Lavrov said arms shipments by the United States would only prolong the bloodshed by encouraging the rebels to continue fighting. He also said the use of chemical weapons made no sense, given that Mr. Assad’s forces had seemed to gain the upper hand in the fighting in recent days.
“What sense does it make for the regime to use chemical weapons, especially in such small quantities, only to expose itself?” he said.
On the evidence cited of chemical weapons use, he said it did not meet requirements set forth in a 1997 international treaty for the handling of samples.
“There are rules of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which are based on the fact that samples of blood, urine, soil, clothing are considered serious proof only if the samples were taken by experts, and if these experts controlled these samples all the time while they are transported to a proper laboratory,” he said.
In addition, he criticized reports that the United States and its allies were considering the establishing of a no-fly zone over Syria, using Patriot air defense systems and F-16 planes based in Jordan. “You do not have to be an expert to understand that this would still be a violation of international law,” he said.
White House aides say the administration has ruled out that option as too dangerous and costly.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is scheduled to meet with Mr. Obama on Monday on the sideline of the summit meeting.
David E. Sanger contributed reporting from Washington.
