Well-armed Libyan extremists launched a sustained attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Tuesday, killing four State Department employees, including the American ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and foreign service officer Sean Smith, and wounding three others.

The consulate, like all other U.S. diplomatic missions around the world, conducted a pre-9/11 anniversary security check. It found no imminent threat and therefore no need to boost security around the anniversary, according to senior U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the reporting of the incident is still preliminary.

GO LIVE WITH RUTGERS LIBERTARIAN NEIL MCGETTUGAN