IBD Editorial
Benghazi Creeps Closer To Hillary Clinton
Posted 06/24/2013
“The
decision to place U.S. personnel in Benghazi with substandard security
was made at the highest levels of the State Department by officials who
have so far escaped blame over the Sept. 11 attack…
The
disgraceful cover-up afterwards is rivaled by the disgraceful lack of
security provided to the mission, which was set up to be a permanent
diplomatic post at which Clinton would arrive to celebrate the triumph
of the Obama administration's Middle East policy.”
Scandal:
The decision to place U.S. personnel in Benghazi with substandard
security was made at the highest levels of the State Department by
officials who have so far escaped blame over the Sept. 11 attack.
An
indication that the Orwellian-named Accountability Review Board (ARB)
investigating the terrorist attack on our diplomatic mission in
Benghazi, Libya, was an effort not to assign responsibility for the
disaster but to enable those responsible to escape blame is the fact
that ARB never bothered to interview the likes of Undersecretary of
State Patrick Kennedy.
ARB
co-chair Thomas Pickering told CBS' Bob Schieffer on "Face the Nation"
in May that he and his colleagues had ample opportunity to question
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton herself but concluded that conducting
an interview with her was not necessary.
"We knew where the responsibility rested," he said.
In
defending the ARB's findings on Benghazi, Pickering, who co-authored
its report with former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Mike Mullen, had
no use for whistle-blowers like Gregory Hicks, the No. 2 official in
Libya at the time of the strike that killed Ambassador Christopher
Stevens and three other Americans. Hicks had told the House Government
Oversight Committee he believed the ARB report "let people off the
hook."
"They've tried to point a finger at people more senior than where we found the decisions were made," Pickering said, citing specifically Clinton and Undersecretary for Management Patrick Kennedy.
His
mind was made up, and he didn't want to be confused with the facts such
as the testimony of Mark Thompson, deputy coordinator for operations in
the State Department's counterterrorism bureau. Thompson told the House
committee that Secretary Clinton attempted to cut the bureau off from communications about the attack.
"(The ARB) has decided to fix responsibility on the assistant secretary level and below," testified Eric Nordstrom, who was regional security officer. "And
the message to my colleagues is that if you're above a certain level,
no matter what your decision is, no one's going to question it." The fix was in.
The
disgraceful cover-up afterwards is rivaled by the disgraceful lack of
security provided to the mission, which was set up to be a permanent
diplomatic post at which Clinton would arrive to celebrate the triumph of the Obama administration's Middle East policy.
Ambassador
Stevens was in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, the day he died in the
terrorist attack, because Clinton ordered him there.
Hicks said Stephens wanted to have the Benghazi complex upgraded to a
permanent constituent post so Clinton could make this announcement in
her planned visit to Libya before the end of 2012.
http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/062413-661238-patrick-kennedy-approved-lax-benghazi-security.htm#ixzz2XF2cYYkD
An election for President and Commander in Chief of the Military must strive to be above reproach. Our public institutions must give the public confidence that a presidential candidate has complied with the election process that is prescribed by our Constitution and laws. It is only after a presidential candidate satisfies the rules of such a process that he/she can expect members of the public, regardless of their party affiliations, to give him/her the respect that the Office of President so much deserves.
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