WASHINGTON — The chairman of a House panel investigating the response to a terror attack on a U.S. Consulate in Benghazi suggested Thursday that the State Department has been playing politics with the amount of security it provides American diplomats.

"The system failed the people in that compound in Benghazi," said Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "Our investigation has shown that waivers and exceptions occur every day… often defining a facility as different than what it actually is."

Issa said the family of murdered Libya ambassador Christopher Stevens had provided him with a letter that described how Stevens traveled the country "with the lightest of escorts," sitting in open cafes, talking to passersby and winning the love and respect of the Libyan people.