Ms Clinton and the Benghazi Imbroglio

For John, BLUF:  Trust is hard to establish and easily lost.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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From The [Lowell] Sun "Backtalk" section we have:

ENOUGH ALREADY:  How many Republican congressional committees have to investigate Benghazi and find that Hillary did nothing wrong before the right wing stops using it to rile up their base?  Accept it and get over it.

Let us be clear right at the beginning.  The Administration execution, the actions by Defense, State and CIA, was well inside acceptable parameters.

There was nothing that could have been done during the attack, since external forces were not available.  And, the US approach, as is the approach of almost everyone, is to depend on local forces to protect our Diplomatic Missions.  And, to insert forces without Host Nation approval would be illegal under International Law.

Having said that, I do think moving some reaction force toward the action, in case it went on longer, would have been prudent.

So, "ENOUGH ALREADY", from Lowell, is correct that Ms Clinton, as Secretary of State, did nothing wrong with regard to the ongoing action, at the time.♠

Which raises the question as to why the Department of State took many months to get requested records to the House Committee.♥  Was there something being hidden?  Or, were the people at Foggy Bottom just showing contempt for the Congressional Committee.  The second option would be impolite.

However, the real problem for Ms Clinton, and the Obama Administration, is that they threw Mr Nakoula Basely Nakoula under the bus, claiming his First Amendment Rights didn't matter.  That action suggests that Ms Clinton, as President, would be more like Woodrow Wilson than Thomas Jefferson.  That is, she would not respect the rights of Americans if it got in the way of what she was trying to accomplish.  Which is why we wrote down and voted in our Bill of Rights.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  And, I do NOT fault Ambassador Chris Stevens for being there, doing the work of Diplomacy.
♥  Another "BackTalk" item today. again from Lowell, made this very point.