Article

2012-10-16 Africa North

Clinton: 'I take responsibility' for Benghazi

Archived material is restricted to Rantburg regulars and members. If you need access email fred.pruitt=at=gmail.com with your nick to be added to the members list. There is no charge to join Rantburg as a member.

Posted by tipper 2012-10-16 00:00|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 STATEMENT BY SENATORS McCAIN, GRAHAM AND AYOTTE ON SECRETARY CLINTONS COMMENTS THIS EVENING ON BENGHAZI ATTACK

Posted by tipper 2012-10-16 00:08|| 2012-10-16 00:08|| Front Page Top

#2 She has more balls than CINC.

Posted by newc 2012-10-16 01:31|| 2012-10-16 01:31|| Front Page Top

#3 So according to the Presser from the good Senators, they aren't buying that story, either.

Posted by USN,Ret. 2012-10-16 01:53|| 2012-10-16 01:53|| Front Page Top

#4 The Diplomad parses what the dear lady actually said:

The day before the critical Romney-Obama debate, Hillary Clinton, our heretofore invisible Secretary of State, makes a carefully calibrated statement that allows the mainstream media to proclaim that Clinton accepts "responsibility" for the Benghazi security fiasco without her actually saying that.

Forget the headlines, and note what she actually says,

I take responsibility . . .. I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The president and the vice president wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They're the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision.

I take this very personally . . . So we're going to get to the bottom of it, and then we're going to do everything we can to work to prevent it from happening again, and then we're going to work to bring whoever did this to us to justice.

Note she "takes responsibility" but the "specific decisions" on security were made by "security professionals." Translation: If anybody screwed up, hey, it was those professionals, not me. Otherwise, why would we need an investigation to "get to the bottom of it"? The career bureaucrats can hear the war drums, smell the war paint, and will be sharpening their knives. They know that the Secretary has just put a target on them.

It gets worse. The real issue is not whether another inch of concrete, or a few armed guards would have made the difference in Benghazi. Given the size and violence of the attack, I doubt that would have done much. The real issues are what was that facility and what was it doing that was so important given the security environment? Why was the Ambassador there on 9/11? Even more important, note later on her garbled statement about the key matter, the attack, the Obama misadministration's characterization of the attack, and the nature of its response to an attack that went on for some six hours. Nowhere does she say that she contacted the White House, the Libyan government, or that she proposed any particular action. Nowhere does she explain the difference between the statements put out by Rice, Obama, and herself, blaming the attack on a virtually unseen video, and the statements by State and CIA career officers that State never concluded that the attack was the result of an anti-video demonstration gone rogue.

Posted by trailing wife 2012-10-16 07:47|| 2012-10-16 07:47|| Front Page Top

#5 Very accurate assessment TW. Benghazi Regional Security Officer (RSO), the very brave Mr. Erik Nordstrom was one of the fellas that put their collective arses directly in the street during Congressional testimony.

The Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) has always been looked down upon by the limp wristed, foreign service elite at State. They follow rules, have badges, and carry icky guns.

Posted by Besoeker 2012-10-16 08:02|| 2012-10-16 08:02|| Front Page Top

#6 "I want to avoid some kind of political gotcha," she added, noting that it is close to the election.

Yup. That is the reason... she's taking responsibility.

The key thing to remember with this is that it is highly important that she not only goes under the bus, but that it appears that she jumped under the bus herself, and not pushed or thrown under by Teh 0ne

Posted by Ptah 2012-10-16 08:14|| 2012-10-16 08:14|| Front Page Top

23:40 crazyhorse
23:03 JosephMendiola
22:45 JosephMendiola
22:40 JosephMendiola
22:34 JosephMendiola
22:31 Raider
22:30 JosephMendiola
22:27 tipper
22:22 Big the Great1563
22:15 Fred
21:50 Alaska Paul
21:40 Alaska Paul
21:32 tu3031
21:06 Iblis
20:59 Pappy
19:59 Procopius2k
19:50 Iblis
19:34 JosephMendiola
19:31 crazyhorse
19:30 JosephMendiola
19:28 Classical_Liberal
19:19 rammer
18:44 Capsu78
18:16 SteveS