Secretary Clinton's Benghazi Testimony And Terrorism In North And West Africa
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2013-01-24/secretary-clintons-benghazi-testimony-and-terrorism-north-and-west-africa
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before House and Senate panels about the September attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Nearing the end of her tenure as secretary, Clinton was thanked by Democrats and Republicans for her service to the country. But Republicans gave her a tougher grilling about her actions before and after the Benghazi attack. Clinton accepted responsibility. But she also defended the way she and her colleagues handled the Benghazi tragedy and pointed out Congress's role in failing to keep U.S. diplomatic personnel safe. Assessing the Benghazi hearings and emerging terrorist threats in Africa.
Guests
Emira Woods
co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies.
David Sanger
chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times and author of "Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power."
Indira Lakshmanan
senior correspondent covering foreign policy for Bloomberg News.
Comments
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Jay Elle wrote:
"Just before the Benghazi attack, someone in the United States had released a poorly made, inept propaganda film that inflamed the Islamic world like an out-of-control, unstoppable wildfire that Americans watched nervously. It does not seem unusual then that the State Department, preoccupied with the film fallout, might have needed some time to find out what happened in Benghazi."
The fact is, both Sec'y Clinton and the President claim to have known that this was a terrorist attack "and said so" within 24 hours of the attack ... at least when it's convenient. Other times, they insist it was the film (including Obama to the UN some ten days later). Other times they insist they didn't know what it was. That's the problem, Jay Elle. The story keeps changing TO THIS DAY. What they were watching on September 11th, 2012 was the melt-down of the Obama middle-east policy inconveniently in the days just before the election. That's why the "murkiness". And that's the point of this whole exercise. The policies toward violent extremists and the states that promote them, whether overtly or not, have been a miserable failure and now we are likely stuck with them for another four years ... but hey! Osama Bin Laden is dead!
@Brian Lupiani: It seems your hindsight on history is pretty selective. I seem to remember a direct attack on the USS Cole and on 3 American embassies just prior to 9/11 and who was in office? William Jefferson Clinton and Madeleine Korbelová Albright. What did they do about those attacks???? (Crickets...chirp...chirp...chirp)
Unfortunately this hearing ended up being more about political posturing than any constructive effort to deal with complex issues. As usual, all the real discussions will happen behind closed doors. Of course we could have better security at all of our embassies, consulates, and field offices. If we spend enough money we could have Green Zones all over the world. If Blackwater were a public company I'd consider buying stock. They even have a program called R U Ready High School (I wouldn't be surprised if a R U Ready Primary and Middle School program is being developed), because we need our schools to be Green Zones too. Most American colleges and universities have their own police force.
This is proof of the Founders' wisdom and vision when they drafted the Second Amendment; they knew that law-abiding citizens would have to arm themselves to the teeth in order to protect themselves from millions of bad Americans as well as the baddest American of all, Uncle Sam. :-)