Clinton pins hopes on internal review to answer mounting questions on what went wrong in Libya

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responded to mounting questions Wednesday about what went wrong in Libya and who's responsible by asking for more time to complete an internal review, saying, "nobody will hold this department more accountable than we hold ourselves." 

The secretary vowed to get to the bottom of the terror attack that killed four Americans last month in response to a letter by Reps. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, claiming the department turned down requests for more security amid a string of attacks and threats in the lead-up to the Sept. 11 strike. 

"No one wants to determine what happened that night in Benghazi more than the president and I do. No one is more committed to ensuring it doesn't happen again, and nobody will hold this department more accountable than we hold ourselves because we serve with and we knew the four men we lost," Clinton said Wednesday. She did not address the lawmakers' specific allegations. 

As Clinton assured lawmakers that a newly formed "Accountability Review Board" will be getting on the case this week, a U.S. official also confirmed to Fox News that the administration is tracking suspects, though the official could not speculate on what action -- such as drone strikes -- the U.S. could take inside Libya's borders. 

The official claimed some of the militants involved were killed during the Sept. 11 firefight at the U.S. compound in Benghazi. 

Despite the movement, there is still no confirmation that FBI agents dispatched to Libya have arrived in Benghazi. 

And Chaffetz expressed concern that the State Department's findings would be pushed off until "after the election." 

"There are clear signs that (there were) security concerns in Libya and other embassies around the world, and what they were doing is diminishing security in the name of normalizing relations," Chaffetz told Fox News. 

Issa and Chaffetz detailed several attacks in Benghazi in the lead-up to the strike that they suggested should have been warning signs. 

Further, they claimed sources told them that diplomats made "repeated requests" for additional security but were denied. 

New signs also were emerging this week that officials were receiving guidance that the attack was coordinated in the immediate aftermath of the strike despite public comments to the contrary. 

The New York Times, which first reported that the U.S. was tracking suspects, reported that, according to one official, spy agencies were intercepting communications from militant Ansar al-Shariah fighters boasting to someone with an Al Qaeda affiliate. 

Reuters also reported that the Obama administration had "about a dozen" intelligence reports within hours of the attack suggesting Al Qaeda-tied militants were involved. 

Fox News reported last week that intelligence officials were picking up that it was a terror strike within 24 hours. 

Still, top administration officials in the week after the attack insisted it was a "spontaneous" reaction to protests over an anti-Islam film. That film was driving demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa, but lawmakers and others were saying from the start that Libya was a different situation despite the initial claims of the Obama administration. 

Letters obtained exclusively by Fox News also appear to show the State Department refused to get involved when the company tasked with protecting the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, raised security concerns. 

The letters pertained to a dispute between Blue Mountain Libya, the security license holder in Libya, and its operations partner Blue Mountain UK, which trained and provided the local guards. 

A source with knowledge of two State Department meetings -- one in June and a second in July -- told Fox News that Blue Mountain Libya felt the security provided by the UK partner was "substandard and the situation was unworkable." 

But according to the source, when the Libyans tried to bring in a third party -- an American contractor -- to improve security, a State Department contract officer declined to get involved. 

Asked about that letter Tuesday, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the department's investigation likely would address the issue. 

Fox News' Ed Henry and Catherine Herridge contributed to this report.

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Watch the Dexter Season Premiere

If you've seen Matt Fowler's IGN review of the Dexter season premiere, you know he was quite happy with it, finding it a big return to form for the series - a sentiment shared by many of here at IGN, myself included. But if you haven't seen the episode yet, what are you waiting for? You can watch Dexter: "Are You...?", right here, right now!

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Elementary: "Pilot" Review

Advance Review: The idea of updating Sherlock Holmes is nothing new. It's not even new for CBS, which has twice before aired modern-day series based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic detective (The Return of Sherlock Holmes in 1987 and the radically differently titled Sherlock Holmes Returns in 1993). But this latest iteration is notable for coming out at a time when Holmes is enjoying a resurgence on screens both big and small. Tempted as I am to compare and contrast Elementary's version of Sherlock Holmes to the recent Guy Ritchie film franchise or the Steven Moffat series (still my favorite) or even Hugh Laurie's Dr. House, I'm going to try and stick to evaluating the premiere on its own merits.

But let me just say this before moving on - if you enjoy Elementary and you haven't yet seen Moffat's Sherlock, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, track it down and watch it immediately. You won't be sorry. Then you can come back to Elementary and bask in the notion that there will be a fourth episode a week after the third, and then another one after that, and so on for likely 13 episodes at the very least, and probably 22 in one whole year if it gets a full-season order. Of course, just those 13 would be more than twice as many episodes as Sherlock has had in its two seasons combined.

The case that kicks off the series is a standard murder mystery, with twists and turns no more surprising or extraordinary than those you might find on Law & Order, or any other procedural show (and not, as far as I know, based on any particular Doyle story). What sets Elementary apart is the enigmatic personality of Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller) himself and the unique way he reacts to his surroundings. He leaves rehab early to offer his skills as a consultant, free of charge, to the NYPD via a former colleague, Captain Gregson (Aidan Quinn). Worried about his son's rash actions, Holmes' father --- unseen for now, though producers say we will meet him -- hires a "sobriety companion" to follow him around and make sure he doesn't use. That companion, of course, turns out to be Joan Watson (Lucy Liu), a washed up surgeon who finds that solving murders is a lot more fun than glorified babysitting.

Miller gives us a more emotionally vulnerable Holmes than we've seen before. He's had his heart broken and is recovering from drug addiction, exiled to New York for the convenience of an American television show. These scars are close enough to the surface they sometimes get in the way of the cold, robotic analysis we're used to seeing from the ultimate detective. He still makes instant appraisals of total strangers based on deductive reasoning but, at least in the pilot, it's often as much a trick of smoke and mirrors (and Google) as it is the unrestrained tick of a genius mind. This Sherlock is good at looking like he has a master plan, even when he's just losing his temper. He may not always be in control, but it seems like he is. And if there's one thing Miller is good at, it's looking cool.

As fascinating as he is, we can't truly appreciate Holmes' intellect without Watson by his side to serve as an exposition device, someone to ask, "How did you know that?" Liu's Watson is quite capable, almost his equal. She even picks on clues he misses. Based on this first episode, it doesn't seem like the show will immediately be exploring a romantic angle between the two, but by casting a woman as Watson the door will always be open for that possibility. So far, I like platonic working relationship the two have established in the pilot, even if it is muddied by the fact that Watson's loyalties are divided between Sherlock and his father. I hope the writers can resist messing with it for a while - and for what it's worth executive producer Robert Doherty says he doesn't intend to make things romantic between Holmes and Watson. Regardless though, that relationship will keep viewers coming back to the show more than the weekly cases, I suspect.

Speaking of the cases, it's worth pointing out that it isn't just the other versions of Sherlock Holmes that Elementary has to contend with, but all the other procedural shows on television now as well. This kind of detective storytelling has become so formulaic it's difficult to be original or shocking. The first hour does a good job of introducing us to a new Sherlock, but I predict the ongoing challenge of making this show will be to keep the storylines as smart as the main character.

Elementary premieres Thursday, September 26th at 10pm on CBS.

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The Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray Art?

With The Avenges now out on home video (review here), the inevitable Blu-ray and DVD announcement of The Dark Knight Rises is just around the corner.

A few images from the UK release of The Dark Knight Rises Blu-ray and DVD, as well as some images from a Batman Trilogy box set, have already started popping up all over the internet today, courtesy of ComicBookMovie and DCU Movie Page. It's unclear if these are official or fan-made just yet. Some of the images look fairly legit, while others are a little more questionable. Take a look and judge for yourself:

Meanwhile, actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, out promoting Looper (review here), spoke with Collider and shot down any hopes of seeing those rumored deleted scenes from The Dark Knight Rises. "Every movie has a longer cut which gets edited, and deleted scenes implies that there’s whole chunks of the film missing. It’s not that, it just gets tightened up in the editing process."

It's certainly possible Joseph Gordon-Levitt simply doesn't know about the deleted scenes, but his statement feels fairly definitive. We should know more in the coming days. The Dark Knight Rises is tentatively slated to come home December 3, 2012. Expect an official announcement from Warner Home Video very soon.

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The Neighbors: "Pilot" Review

Advance Review: Holy hell. Where to even begin? It hasn't even been a full year since ABC decided to buckle down and throw their feces at us in the form of Work It, but now we have to contend with The Neighbors; a laughless "how in the eff did this get made?" turd of a televisual offering.

IGN's Review of Work It

First off, when a show comes around that's this awful, civility kind of goes out the window. Any attempt by me to be diplomatic will be rendered futile as my having had to now watch this pilot episode twice fills me with a despondency that I need to share. In short: I need you to feel my pain. I can, however, offer up the fact that ABC also happens to be home to the best new pilot of the fall season, Last Resort.

IGN's Review of the Last Resort Pilot

Marty and Debbie Weaver (Lenny Venito and Jami Gertz) upheave their family and move into a swanky New Jersey townhome community that's filled with silly alien explorers who do fantastically wacky and random things. Why is that woman taking a chainsaw to her flowers? Why is that man just spraying his garden hose up into the air? And suddenly... an alpaca? Good gravy, I felt like destroying something beautiful. Where was Jared Leto's Fight Club face when I needed it?

The cast of The Neighbors watching The Neighbors. Too easy.

Marty's also somehow managed to buy a townhome without his wife knowing. It's a surprise, you see. He's taking initiative because he's a hen-pecked TV nincompoop husband. But those of you out there who have actually gone through the excessive bureaucratic rigmarole involved in buying a home will probably find this part of the episode to be the most exhaustive work of science fiction in the entire 22 minutes. This is a small gripe, for sure, but I feel like it's also indicative of a much larger laziness being perpetrated here.

The aliens, led by Larry Byrd and his wife Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Simon Templeman and Toks Olagundoye), are a bunch of numbskulls; Frankensteined together by the past 50 years of TV ETs like Mork, The Coneheads and Dick Solomon. Look, I'm not saying this genre can't be done right. The aliens I just mentioned were funny. And 3rd Rock from the Sun stands as a testament to how one can do this story in a fresh and hilarious way. But without specific breakout performances, like those of John Lithgow, French Stewart and Robin Williams, all hope is lost. And what you wind up with is a show that recycles every tired trick in the comedy sketch playbook. The aliens, who of course have no idea how to blend in, all adopt silly athlete names. They cry out of their ears. They eat by reading and make love using asbestos. And, naturally, the Weavers are such blockheads that they initially write them off as being, wait for it, "European."

Oh, and let's throw in a bit of the old Alien Nation (via Mork from Ork) "the male aliens have the babies" shtick. And if I recall correctly, the Alien Nation visitors also had re-used famous people names. And spoke in a cold, calculating Conehead manner. You know, where you would say "affirmative" instead of "yes." If you read my review of NBC's The New Normal, then you saw me take it to task a little bit for having a "Punk'd" reference. Well, I swear to balls that this show has a freakin' Candid Camera joke. CANDID CAMERA! That's it. Done. Forever. I quit!

From the opening shot of the dopey flying saucer racing past the pyramids of Egypt and the Eiffel Tower, you're going to hate your eyes. This is dreadful TV. It relies on the aliens having some sort of communication device called a "Poo Pah" for laughs. Because POO! I know, some of you are looking at the score and wondering "Why don't you just give it a big fat zero? Like you gave Work It?" The reason is... that's Work It's score. Now and forever. That's Willie's treasure.

No, seriously though. This is about as bad as a comedy can get, but it still didn't have the misogynistic sheen that Work It had. It's only offensive on a no-laughs level, not a sociological one. The Neighbors was created by Dan Fogelman, who wrote Crazy, Stupid Love - a movie I enjoyed! So shame on him for making me, back when this show was announced, ever think "Hey, that movie was good, so perhaps maybe I should give this guy's show a chance despite pre-hating it based on the premise." Thanks, Fogelman. I'll never love again.

The Neighbors premieres on Wednesday, September 26th at 9:30/8:30c on ABC.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!

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Historic NASA facilities going to waste

The space agency has an unusual problem: space.

A recent review of NASA’s land holdings on earth revealed a new challenge for the agency: poorly maintained, aging facilities once used for research and development or space vehicle construction, now essentially useless.

NASA spends about $1.1 billion annually on maintenance and upkeep of its more than 5,400 buildings, landing strips and other unique sites; but approximately 9 percent of its real property assets aren’t being used, NASA told FoxNews.com. The solution, according to the Office of the Inspector General (OIG): lease them.

Kennedy leases a clean room where Apollo capsules were readied 40 years ago to Lockheed Martin. Boeing is building space taxis in a processing hangar where shuttles were once routinely readied to soar. And there are plenty of others, from Rolls-Royce and Google to local schools and, in areas where businesses aren’t interested, parks, gardens and visitor centers.

But not enough, according to Paul K. Martin, NASA Inspector General.

SUMMARY

Per a 2010 directive, NASA must divest itself of property it has no immediate plans for.

A new report examining leasing practices revealed holes in the agency's efforts to lease. 

Despite frustration at Centers, headway is being made

“Few incentives exist for NASA to identify underutilized property as unnecessary to its mission needs,” he concluded in the August report.

Olga Dominguez, NASA’s assistant administrator for the office of strategic infrastructure, agreed that the agency wasn’t 100 percent sure how many buildings and facilities were unusued. Part of the challenge, she said, was the changing nature of the space agency’s mission. As NASA has refocused from the space shuttle to the private space industry, its needs have changed as well.

“Because our mission has gone through such extensive changes, all of these new programs -- commercial crew, commercial space -- all of these have different requirements,” she told FoxNews.com. “So the space needs have changes every year.”

“Right now, well we think we might need [a facility] and then seven months later, no we don’t.”

NASA is the ninth largest land owner in the federal government, with more than 100,000 acres that occupy 44 million square feet and are estimated to cost $29 billion to replace.

Over 80 percent of these facilities are 40 years old or more, however, and NASA faces a backlog of deferred maintenance totaling $2.5 billion. The NASA Authorization Act of 2010 requires the agency to eliminate property for which it has no current use -- but what of unique properties it may someday need again?

The best solution for many such cases, according to Martin, is to lease those moldering facilities out. That’s easier said than done, however.

“I have a lot of facilities that we, NASA, no longer need,” Robert Cabana, NASA Kennedy Space Center director and a four-time space shuttle flier, told the Washington Post in February. “I don’t have the money to maintain them, I don’t have the money to tear them down. They’re just going to sit and rot.”

Cabana was frustrated with NASA administration’s inability to adapt, explained Joyce Riquelme, director of center planning and development directorate at Kennedy.

“We do have facilities that are unused or underutilized as a result of the shuttle program shutting down,” she told FoxNews.com. 

'I don’t have the money to maintain them, I don’t have the money to tear them down. They’re just going to sit and rot.'

- Robert Cabana, NASA Kennedy Space Center director

But thanks to current deals and new agreements -- with nano-satellite firm Micro Aerospace Solutions, engineering company Special Aerospace Services and others -- Kennedy is right-sizing.

“We’re really making good progress,” Riquelme said.

As of September 2011, NASA had 430 leasing agreements of various types at 9 of its 10 centers.

• The Navy uses buildings and land at Stennis Space Center.
• Airship Ventures uses 24,000 square feet of space at Ames’ Moffett Field to store a rigid airship.
• Google leases 42.2 acres at Ames as well, planning up to 1.2 million square feet of offices and R&D space.
• Rolls-Royce has office space and engine test facilities at Stennis.

Yet the agency is having a hard time finding tenants, partly because NASA relies heavily on word of mouth. According to the OIG report, that just isn’t working.

A prime example is Hangar One, a Silicon Valley landmark built in the 30s and one of the world’s largest free-standing structures. In April, NASA said it was working to dispose of it.

Leasing Hangar One is illegal, according to current policy, since there’s no immediate need for the vast space. Yet selling it would be a dire hit to Silicon Valley and even national security, many warn.

“The very vitality and future of NASA Ames as a center is at risk,” the Silicon Valley Leadership Group said in May.

The facility is currently being cleaned up by the original tenant, the Navy, according to Scott Anderson, environmental coordinator for the former Naval Air Station. In mid-November, NASA will take over again -- but what happens then is anyone’s guess.

“NASA is responsible for residing the hangar, paying for the cost to reside the hangar, and making any additional upgrades and repairs necessary to prepare the hangar for reuse,” Anderson told FoxNews.com.

Google -- one of the largest tenants of NASA properties -- has offered to pay for tens of millions for that work and to rent the structure through H211 LLC, a private plane operator linked to the search giant.

The status of that offer is unclear.

“NASA has made improvements to its leasing program in recent years,” Martin wrote in his report. Riquelme agreed that headway was, at last, being made.

“In the next three to four months, you’ll see several interesting things come out that will show progress,” she told FoxNews.com.

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The Mob Doctor: "Pilot" Review

Advance Review: The first thing that FOX's new series, The Mob Doctor, has working against it is... its name. It's hard to not giggle and pre-judge a show with such a nail-on-the-derp title. Yes, creators often look for for a name that can singularly sum up their show, but I feel like a lot more people aren't going to be able to get past this silly title than will wind up eventually over-looking it. Also, it doesn't help that the show a mostly-laughable shlock-fest riddled cliches and familiar beats.

My Boys' Jordana Sprio (off her two-episode dramatic arc on Dexter last year) stars as Grace Devlin (a name not lost on anyone), a tough, punchy surgeon who grew up poor on the south side of Chicago. She's part angel, part lie/cheat/and steal if it protects the right people hellion. And her hospital rounds are filled with a rogue's gallery of characters you've seen before. Her bitchy rival (Jamie Lee Kirchner), her arrogant, weaselly boss (David Pasquesi, almost channeling his Strangers with Candy role) and wasted Emmy-winner Zeljko Ivanek as an extra-bland Chief of Surgery.

Instead of starting off the show with the story of how Grace became a doctor who moonlights for the local mob in order to pay a debt for her brother's life, we begin in the thick of it. Grace has been a "Mob Doctor" for years already and we're just catching up with her on a particularly busy day where she deals with a goon who has a screwdriver in his head, a kid with a gunshot wound, a girl from the "neighborhood" who's pregnant thanks to outercourse and an FBI witness in dire need of heart surgery. And once again, thanks to pilot-itis, everything moves at breakneck speed, with the writers thinking that fast stories and super-speed dialogue make things seem more urgent and characters seem more clever.

Spiro can be a fun and lively actress, but she crumbles here at the feet of sloppy sentiment and an interesting premise that's treated more like a glossy adventure series than a tension-filled drama. Grace's doctor boyfriend, Brett (Zach Gilford), is handsome and nice while the crooks she deals with, notably Michael Rapaport's Moretti, are dumb and mean. It's all flat. I will say that, toward the end, there's a surprise twist that gave the show a jolt, but it's all for naught. One would think, that given the premise, Grace would be desperately looking for a way out. That she's afraid of being caught and tired of keeping secrets. But she's not. In fact, when given the opportunity to actually leave criminal servitude and make a clean getaway, she stays. And becomes an even mobbier Mob Doctor! Her excuse is, naturally, family. Even though we meet her pushy mom and incompetent brother and see first hand that they're no treasure trove.

But she's from the south side. And just like Boston's south side, cinematically, family is supposed to mean more than anything, no matter how dopey and troublesome they are. William Forsythe, fresh off his Boardwalk Empire stint, plays a typically Forsythian role in the form of Constantine Alexander, a soft spoken crime boss freshly released from prison. And while his relationship with Grace might feel more interesting, and rife with potential, the fact that, right off the bat, Grace has accepted her lot in life as a physician for both sides of the law makes the show feel empty and harmless.

The Mob Doctor premieres on Monday, September 17th at 9/8c on FOX.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!

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