State Department says independent report on Benghazi due out this week

Just in time for the election. Oh, wait...

An independent review of the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya is complete, the State Department announced Monday.

The Independent Advisory Review Board completed its report and presented it to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this morning, department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"She now has it," Nuland said during her daily press briefing.

The report is divided into a classified and unclassified section, according to Nuland. Nuland said that reporters and the public would probably get access to unclassified portions of the report sometime this week.

According to the State Department, the report will be released to leaders on Capitol Hill this week. Review board chairs Thomas Pickering and Adm. Mike Mullen will brief House and Senate leaders about the report in a closed-door Wednesday meeting.

State Department deputy secretaries Bill Burns and Tom Nides are set to testify publicly before a House panel on Thursday.

It won't matter that Hillary Clinton can't testify. There is no way she would have challenged the narrative already established on Benghazi anyway. Nor will her underlings rock the boat either.

The report is expected to harshly criticize security in the lead up to the attack on our consulate. A head or two will probably roll for that. Beyond the security issue, it isn't likely that the administration's response will come in for much criticism. The wagons have already been placed in a circle and butts have been covered quite nicely.

Meanwhile, the elusive truth over what was going on, what happened, and what our response was will never see the light of day.