The U.S. Benghazi Mission was set up originally by Clinton’s State Department as a “temporary, residential facility,” according to the State Department’s Accountability Review Board, thus exempting the structure from numerous security requirements.
However, in her memoir, Hard Choices, Clinton claims the reason Marines were not posted to the Benghazi compound was because the job of Marines is to protect classified documents, and the Benghazi facility did not process classified documents.
According to Starr, though, no Marines could have deployed since the facility was set up by the State Department as a temporary compound.
Instead of Marines, external security at the facility was provided by unarmed local Libyan guards.
Armed members of the Martyrs of the February 17th Brigades served as the official quick-reaction force that worked within the compound. The Brigade is an offshoot of the Ansar al-Sharia terrorist organization that was implicated in the Benghazi attack.