PD Editorial: Eight tries and still no smoking gun in Benghazi reports

The eighth, and we hope final, congressional investigation of the Benghazi attacks produced few new details, despite a commitment of two years and $7 million.

Four Americans, including the ambassador to Libya, died when terrorists targeted a U.S. consulate and a nearby CIA safe house on Sept. 11, 2012.

The attacks exposed woefully inadequate security for the diplomatic and intelligence outposts in Benghazi, failures by the State Department and the CIA to grasp the deteriorating situation in Libya a year after a U.S.-orchestrated military campaign ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and rapid-deployment military units ill-prepared to respond in a timely manner.

It didn’t take eight investigations to figure that out.

And it’s no great revelation that the serial inquiries are a product of partisan politics rather than security considerations or U.S. foreign policy.

The objective, as House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy let slip to Fox News last year, was to torpedo Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

After eight tries, they haven’t produced a smoking gun concerning Clinton’s culpability.

Yes, Obama administration officials made misleading statements in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, a fact exposed before the first congressional inquiry.

None of the investigations substantiated scurrilous allegations that the president, the secretary of state or any other administration official ordered rescuers to “stand down,” abandoning Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, his aide Sean Smith and security officers Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty to the terrorists.

Indeed, as the 800-page report compiled by Rep. Trey Gowdy’s select committee plainly states, President Barack Obama ordered his defense secretary and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to do everything possible to protect the Americans in Benghazi.

Moreover, the report yet again affirms that no U.S. military assets were close enough to reach them in time.

It’s the same old story, except for one headline-worthy discovery: Clinton’s use of a private server in her Chappaqua, N.Y. home to store her official email while she was secretary of state, a violation of State Department rules that is the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation. To date, the inquiry hasn’t revealed any significant breaches of security, but Clinton’s actions raise serious questions about her judgment.

“I’ll leave it to others to characterize the report,” Clinton said, “but I think it’s pretty clear that it’s time to move on.”

She’s right - to a point.

It’s beyond time to stop hyping baseless accusations about official indifference to the lives of American diplomats for the sole purpose of damaging Clinton’s presidential bid.

But the FBI investigation of Clinton’s servers should, and will, go on. We hope it is completed and the results, whatever they may be, are made public before the election. Clinton can only blame herself for that mess.

Congress has played politics with Benghazi for too long and needs to focus on its oversight responsibilities. That means ensuring that American diplomatic posts, especially those in high-risk regions, have adequate security and delving into disclosures that the Pentagon officials dithered and rapid-response teams failed to meet their own standards after Obama’s orders to try to protect Stevens and the other Americans in Benghazi. Congress also needs to re-examine its decision to cut the State Department’s budget for diplomatic security.

None of that will produce an election-year scandal, but it might save American lives.