Vice President Joe Biden claimed that the Obama administration was not told that officials at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi desired more security, despite diplomatic cables that reveal multiple requests were made earlier this year.
"We weren’t told they wanted more security," Biden said Thursday during a vice presidential debate with Republican challenger Paul Ryan.
Diplomatic cables from earlier this year show that senior State Department officials requested additional security at the consulate in Benghazi at least two times. The administration never responded to these requests.
Eric Nordstrom, a region security officer at the State Department, recently testified to authoring two cables requesting additional security.
Reuters reported this week:
"Nordstrom, a State Department regional security officer, told lawmakers that Kennedy issued a "decision memo" in December 2011 requiring that the Benghazi post be manned with five diplomatic security agents, but that it usually had only three or four.
"He (Nordstrom) stated that he sent two cables to State Department headquarters in March and July 2012 requesting additional Diplomatic Security Agents for Benghazi, but that he received no responses," the memo said."
Nordstrom also told lawmakers that "it was abundantly clear we were not going to get resources until the aftermath of an incident," accordingto Yahoo.