If Obama was a Republican, Eli Lake would be in the running for a Pulitzer for his work on the Benghazi scandal. As it is, he’ll have to settle for speaking truth to power, even though the power is the power you’re not supposed to talk back to.

Lake’s latest at the Daily Beast:

In the six months leading up to the assault on the United States consulate in Benghazi, the State Department reduced the number of trained Americans guarding U.S. facilities in Libya, according to a leading House Republican investigating the Sept. 11 anniversary attacks. The reduction in U.S. security personnel increased America’s reliance on local Libyan guards for the protection of its diplomats.

Keep this in mind as you listen to Obama’s rhetoric about outsourcing.

The State Department on Wednesday didn’t respond to requests for comment. However, a senior State Department official said an independent review panel was examining the charge. This official said it was routine to reduce the number of U.S. personnel serving in new diplomatic posts such as Benghazi over time. When the U.S. established its official presence in Benghazi in 2011, it was the middle of a war, and even routine jobs such as drivers were handled by U.S. personnel, this official said.

Remember when it happened because of a YouTube video? Those were the days.

The good news is that the FBI has finally been allowed onto the scene of the Sept. 11 attack in which Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were murdered, a mere three weeks later. NY Post:

BENGHAZI, Libya — A team of US investigators visited Libya’s second city Benghazi on Thursday to examine the site where Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed in an attack last month. “An American investigative committee visited the site where the US ambassador was killed,” a defense ministry official in Benghazi told AFP, confirming that the team included FBI agents… “About 20 Americans dressed in civilian clothing came and we were asked to protect them until they leave Benghazi,” said a commander of the Libya Shield brigade, a former rebel unit under defence ministry command. “They arrived in the early morning and worked for three hours collecting evidence,” added the commander, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Oh, I’m sure there was still plenty of evidence at the scene. It’s only been 23 days.

Hillary Clinton: “The men and women who serve this country as diplomats deserve no less than a full and accurate accounting, wherever that leads.” Well. Almost wherever that leads. I’d hate to be anybody at the State Department not named Hillary Clinton. The wheels on the bus go thump, thump, thump…

(Hat tip: Hot Air)