Benghazi."

Here are the five most serious findings from it, according to reviews of the report from The Washington Post's Karen Young and Adam Goldman, Politico's Racheel Bade, CNN's Stephen Collinson and a news conference Gowdy gave Tuesday about it:

1. The State Department failed to protect our diplomats in Libya

This is the report's bottom line. It doesn't necessarily lay the blame at Clinton's feet -- Gowdy had said he wanted to keep the report focused on the facts, not personalities -- but the conclusion is clear: Clinton and the Obama administration should have realized the risks.

To back this conclusion up, CNN's Collinson reports that requests for more security in Benghazi leading up to the attack went unheard or were refused. (In a statement to reporters, State Department spokesperson Mark Toner indicated there was no new evidence in the report.)

2. The CIA missed warning signs

The report says the agency misread how dangerous Libya, in the midst of a revolution after overthrowing its longtime dictator a year earlier, was at the time. Recall the attack took place on Sept. 11, 2012.

3. The Defense Department failed to rescue Americans in time

Or at least, they were late in deploying help, waiting until well after the attack had begun even though President Obama had approved the military to do whatever it needed to hours earlier. U.S. military forces didn't reach Benghazi until the day after the attack. The report blames a breakdown in the chain of command for this.

"No U.S. military asset was every deployed to Benghazi despite the order of the Secretary of Defense at 7 o'clock that night," Gowdy told reporters in a press conference Tuesday. "So Washington had access to real-time access information yet somehow they thought he fighting had subsided."

(The Democrats' version of the report concludes that even if the military got to Benghazi earlier, it could not have saved the lives of the four Americans who were killed. Gowdy says that's beside the point.)

4. The Obama administration "stonewalled" the investigation

The administration engaged in what Gowdy described as "intentional," "coordinated" and "shameful" stonewalling of his investigation by refusing to turn over all of its records and delaying getting others to Congress.

5. A Clinton aide influenced the State Department's review

As noted above, Congress isn't the only branch of government that reviewed what happened in Benghazi. The State Department did its own, too, which was intended to be internal but independent (think the watchdog report on Clinton's emails).

But according to a section of the Benghazi investigation that Bade obtained, the report "was consistently influenced by" Cheryl Mills, Clinton's former chief of staff. Mills has said she offered suggestions on drafts, but they were merely that, suggestions.

What the report didn't answer

Among the most prominent areas the report doesn't shed light on are allegations that the United States was helping get weapons to Libyan rebels. Any such operation, which Politico's Bade reports Clinton herself supported but the administration never confirmed or denied, would have been top-level secret. (Recall the 2012 attack happened a year after a successful uprising against its longtime dictator, Moammar Gaddafi.)

Apparently the government still refuses to answer questions about whether it existed; the report says they refused to let anyone who might have knowledge of such a program testify.
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would the boy you were be proud of the man you are

Growing old ain't for wimps
Lonnie Gane