On March 2, 2006, a car bomb killed 4 people, including one US diplomat, in close proximity to the US consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. Remarkably, this was the 4th terrorist attack on the Karachi consulate in less than 4 years, with a bombing in 2002, a shooting in 2003, and an attempted bombing in 2004. None of these attacks, nor the Bush administration’s failure to prevent them, was ever investigated by Congress.

On Sept. 17th 2008, a mortar attack on the US Embassy in Yemen killed 18. This same Embassy had been attacked with mortars just 6 months previously, killing 2 people in a nearby school. Neither attack was investigated by Congress.

On September 11, 2012, an attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya killed 2 people, including one US diplomat. 6 hours later, an attack on a CIA compound one mile away from the consulate killed 2 CIA contractors. These were the first attacks of their kind against US diplomatic facilities in Libya.

The 2012 attack on Benghazi has subsequently been investigated by (1) the FBI, (2) the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, (3) the House Armed Services Committee, (4) the House Foreign Affairs Committee, (5) the House Intelligence Committee, (6) the House Judiciary Committee, (7) the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, (8) the State Department Accountability Review Board, and (9) the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. The recently formed (10) House Select Committee plans to conduct yet another investigation.

During Bush Duh’s term in office, in addition to the 4 attacks in Karachi and 2 attacks in Yemen, there were also attacks on US diplomatic installations in Islamabad, Calcutta, Saudi Arabia (twice), Bali, Uzbekistan, Greece, Syria and Turkey. Most of these attacks had more casualties than Benghazi, with 9 killed in Saudi Arabia in 2004, 12 killed in Karachi in 2002, 18 killed in Yemen in 2008, and 39 killed (160 wounded) in Saudi Arabia in 2003. None of these attacks resulted in Congressional investigations.

Put otherwise, among attacks on US diplomatic facilities, there have been 8 Congressional Investigations into a Benghazi attack that killed 4 people, but none into 13 such attacks that killed more than 90 people during the Bush Duh presidency.

What distinguishes Benghazi from the 13 attacks that occurred under Bush Duh? Considering the extent to which it’s been poured over by US legislators, not a whole lot. Findings from the many Congressional investigations into Benghazi have been mixed. One Senate report found that the attack on Benghazi could have been prevented. Prior to Benghazi, the last terrorist attack Congress investigated was 9/11 itself – and the 9/11 commission said that 9/11 was preventable too. That may not be surprising, because unlike Benghazi, the World Trade Center had been attacked by terrorists once before.

 

Refs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Benghazi_attack

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_on_U.S_consulate_in_Karachi

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-cesca/13-benghazis-that-occurre_b_3246847.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_attack_on_the_American_Embassy_in_Yemen

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senate-report-attack-on-us-compound-in-benghazi-could-have-been-prevented/2014/01/15/5e197224-7de9-11e3-95c6-0a7aa80874bc_story.html