The Report on Benghazi

Perhaps you read about the big stink over the possibility of Susan Rice, ambassador to Libya, being named the next Secretary of State. Perhaps you read that recently she penned a letter to the president saying she wanted her name withdrawn from consideration because the stink was a distraction from what he and she were really trying to do – protect the United States in these terrorist times. I suspect she was asked to pen that letter just like she was asked to step out front after the Benghazi attack and be the one to say the attack was over an insulting B movie. Being an Obama loyalist, or maybe just being a loyal ambassador, she did both. And the noble letter so very surprisingly, came just in time. Just before she would have gotten knocked out of the water by the report.  "Mr. President, this is what the report is going to say.  It's time to call Ambassador Rice."

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said she accepts the findings of an independent panel that faulted the State Department over the deadly September attack on the US mission in Benghazi, Libya.

An inquiry into the attack on the US mission, which saw the US ambassador and three other US citizens killed, found that the State Department security arrangements there were "grossly inadequate".

  alJazeera

When Susan Rice pens her autobiography, after her retirement from State, I wonder if she'll stay the loyalist, or “tell all.” I know which would make more money.

Clinton also ordered widespread changes to bolster US diplomatic security overseas.

[...]

The US would send hundreds of additional Marine guards to overseas posts, ask for more money for security improvements and name a new State Department official to oversee "high threat posts," she said.

Because, apparently, Hillary wasn't up to that task after all. And if she plans to run for president in 2016, this is going to be a big hammer in the hands of her rivals.

Citing the report, [Al Jazeera's Washington reporter Rosiland] Jordan said "there wasn't that sense of urgency" at the State Department to secure the diplomatic facilities particularly in countries undergoing political upheavals and revolutions.

The report found that there were "systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department [that] resulted in a Special Mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place."

So long, Hill.  Enjoy your retirement party.  Don't stutter during the mutual admiration speeches.