While the Benghazi attack in 2012 was carried out in less than 24 hours, the events leading up to the attack and the political fallout after spanned years. Ranging from the rising instability in the region to how the U.S. government responded.
Following the fall of Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, Eastern Libya and Benghazi became lawless. The region was flooded with weapons and dominated by local militias. To assist the Libyan people, the U.S. established a presence in Benghazi, divided into two locations. The Temporary Mission Facility and the CIA Annex. By early 2012, warning signs started to emerge. U.S. officials in Benghazi made repeated security requests following multiple attacks. Including a June IED explosion at the U.S. consulate compound. Then, on the day of the attack, September 11th, protests began to erupt at the U.S. embassy in Cairo, fueled by an anti-Islamic YouTube video. Former President Barack Obama later pointed to that video as a reason for the attack.
Extremists and terrorists used this as an excuse to attack a variety of our embassy’s including the consulate in Libya,” Obama told David Letterman in September 2012.
Right before 10 p.m. on the evening of September 11th, 2012, dozens of armed militants stormed the Temporary Mission Facility, setting the main building on fire with diesel fuel. U.S. personnel evacuated to the nearby CIA Annex, which came under fire in the early morning hours of September 12th. The attack killed four Americans, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty.
Similar to Obama, UN Ambassador Susan Rice attributed the attacks to spontaneous protests following the anti-Islamic YouTube video, despite subsequent intelligence confirming it was a coordinated terrorist attack.
It began spontaneously in Benghazi as a reaction to what had transpired some hours earlier in Cairo where of course as you know there was a violent protest outside of our embassy sparked by this hateful video,” Rice said on ‘Face the Nation’ in September 2012.
In 2013, then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came to Rice’s defense. She told lawmakers Rice wasn’t misleading Americans about the attack.
The fact is, we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they would kill some Americans? What difference at this point does it make,” Clinton said.
Former CIA contractors on the ground that night also insisted they were told to ‘stand down’ or ‘wait’ when the attack began. Despite Congressional investigations concluding no such order was given.
We were told to wait five minutes in. We were told to stand down. The words ‘stand down’ were used. So there’s no confusion, they were used 15 minutes in, and then 10 more minutes or 25 minutes and we’re told to wait again and we finally buck orders,” Kris “Tanto” Paranto told Fox News in 2016, a former CIA security contractor whose credited with helping to save over 20 lives during the attack.
Years after the attack, the State Department Accountability Review Board found there were systematic failures in security, but no intentional wrongdoing. Clinton also accepted responsibility. The House Select Committee on Benghazi confirmed those security failures years later while also finding there was no cover-up.
So far, there have been three arrests in connection with the attack. Ahmed Abu Khattala, who was captured by U.S. Special Operations forces in Libya in 2014. Mustafa al-Imam, who was apprehended by U.S. forces in October 2017 and Zubayr al-Bakoush, who was arrested on February 6th, 2026.