Former Secretary of State Failed Four Americans in Benghazi on September 11, 2012
©Natalie Keshing
Editor-in-Chief
http://www.natswritings.com
About Natalie Keshing
There are those of us with our own eyes and convictions who understood Hillary Clinton was not qualified to be Commander-in-Chief. Based on her lack of moral compass and unethical practices, she was an unsafe and sure bet to lead to more corruption, destruction and loss of American lives.
As Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton ignored the calls for additional military security to help four American men doing their jobs on that fateful night on September 11, 2012 in Benghazi, Libya. Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State failed miserably to protect four innocent lives who were in desperate need of help; to increase the military security personnel to protect them on that one dangerous night.
I had an apoplectic visceral reaction to watch former President Obama going out of his way campaigning for a failed Secretary of State. Asking, stressing, bidding, practically pleading with the American people who did not and should not ever trust her.
Only he, as then President, could readily accept her lack of professionalism and dismiss her actions, behavior and intent to corrupt and continue to damage this country’s reputation and the federal government.
No one trusted the former FBI Director James Comey, the former Department of Justice Attorney General Loretta Lynch, the State Department and much less Hillary Clinton. Even the former President of the United States gives us cause, pause and caution based on his opinion to endorse this knave.
The American people understood her priorities were based on her actions. Her laser focus and attention to only those who ranked as priority; who were the rich and could donate to the Clinton Foundation. Those who donated large sums of money (1 Million, 5 Million, 25 Million) used for illicit and corrupt political purposes buying Hillary Clinton’s power, influence and favors.
Gregory N. Hicks, a Foreign Service Officer for the State Department, couldn’t have described the grave risk Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans would face on September 11, 2012. Knowing in their last hour, even minutes, that it didn’t have to be the way it was going down. All that they faced in those last desperate moments with no hope; knowing they were breathing their last breaths.
Cheryl Mills, Hillary’s Chief of Staff at the State Department also worked for the Clinton Foundation at the same time. Her central role, determining which emails would be publicly disclosed. She was granted immunity by the FBI. The Justice Department allowed Cheryl Mills a witness, if not a subject of the Clinton email investigation to invoke attorney-client privilege on behalf of Hillary Clinton. Cheryl Mills also attempted to silence the congressional testimony of State Department whistleblower Gregory N. Hicks in the Benghazi-gate scandal.
Patrick Kennedy was the Undersecretary of State for Management. He was directly involved, if not at the very center of the biggest scandals of Hillary Clinton’s State Department. Patrick Kennedy also made the fateful decision that reduced professional American security personnel assigned to Tripoli from 34 to 6, with tragic consequences for Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glenn Doherty and Ty Woods. His latest scandal as a senior State Department official is that he proposed a ‘quid pro quo’ to convince the FBI to strip the classification on an email from Hillary Clinton’s server. He repeatedly tried to influence the FBI’s decision when his offer was denied even taking his plea up the chain of command, according to newly released FBI documents.
I present to you the truth from Gregory N. Hicks regarding the Benghazi tragedy:
“As the Deputy Chief of Mission for Libya, I was the last person in Tripoli to speak with Ambassador Chris Stevens before he was murdered in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on our Benghazi post. On this, the fourth anniversary of the Benghazi tragedy, I would like to offer a different explanation for Benghazi’s relevance to the presidential election than is usually found in the press.”
“Just as the Constitution makes national security the President’s highest priority, U.S. law mandates the secretary of state to develop and implement policies and programs “to provide for the security … of all United States personnel on official duty abroad.”
“This includes not only the State Department employees, but also the CIA officers in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012. And the Benghazi record is clear: Secretary Clinton failed to provide adequate security for U.S. government personnel assigned to Benghazi and Tripoli.”
The Benghazi Committee’s report graphically illustrates the magnitude of her failure. It states that during August 2012, the State Department reduced the number of U.S. security personnel assigned to the Embassy in Tripoli from 34 (1.5 security officers per diplomat) to 6 (1 security officer per 4.5 diplomats), despite a rapidly deteriorating security situation in both Tripoli and Benghazi. Thus, according to the Report, “there were no surplus security agents” to travel to Benghazi with Ambassador Stevens “without leaving the Embassy in Tripoli at severe risk.”
“Had Ambassador Stevens’ July 2012 request for 13 additional American security personnel (either military or State Department) been approved rather than rejected by Clinton appointee Under Secretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy, they would have traveled to Benghazi with the ambassador, and the Sept. 11 attack might have been thwarted.”
“U.S. law also requires the secretary of state to ensure that all U.S. government personnel assigned to a diplomatic post abroad be located at one site. If not, the secretary — and only the secretary — with the concurrence of the agency head whose personnel will be located at a different location, must issue a waiver. The law, which states specifically that the waiver decision cannot be delegated, was passed after the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa, when deficient security was blamed for that debacle under Bill Clinton’s presidency.”
“When asked about security at Benghazi on Sept. 11, Mrs. Clinton has repeatedly asserted her lack of responsibility. Initially, she said that she never read any of the reporting on security conditions or any of the requests for additional security, claiming that “she delegated security to the professionals.” More recently, she stated that “[I]t was not my ball to carry.” But the law says otherwise. Sound familiar?”
“Her decision to allow the Benghazi consulate to be separate from the CIA annex divided scarce resources in a progressively deteriorating security environment. U.S. personnel assigned to Benghazi tried to overcome this severe disadvantage through an agreement that the security personal from each facility would rush to the other facility’s aid in the event it was attacked. The division of our security resources in Benghazi is the root cause of the “stand down” order controversy so vividly portrayed in the movie “13 Hours.”
“Notably, one of the primary goals of Ambassador Stevens’ fatal visit was to begin consolidating our Benghazi personnel into one facility, which would have concentrated our security posture in Benghazi’s volatile and violent environment.”
“There are no punitive measures for breaching these two laws. Mrs. Clinton will not have to appear before judge and jury to account for her failures. Is this why she felt these laws could be ignored? Because she is now the Democratic presidential candidate, only the American electorate will have the opportunity to hold her accountable.”
“Candidate Clinton and her campaign point to her record as secretary of state as a positive qualification for the presidency.”
“However, the record shows that Secretary Clinton persuaded the president to overthrow Qaddafi and advocated maintaining a diplomatic presence in Benghazi after the Libyan revolution. And then she abandoned her diplomats by ignoring her security obligations. She sent Ambassador Stevens to Benghazi during the 2011 revolution and then induced him to return in the first few months of his tenure, which accounted for his September visit there. Despite the fact that Sidney Blumenthal had alerted her to the increasing danger for Americans in Benghazi and Libya, Mrs. Clinton apparently never asked security professionals for an updated briefing on the situation in Libya. Either she could not correlate the increased tempo of attacks in Libya with the safety of our diplomats, demonstrating fatal incompetence, or she was grossly negligent.”
“If Mrs. Clinton was unable to fulfill her security obligations to the federal employees she was legally obligated to protect as secretary of state, how can we trust her with the security of our entire country? I won’t.”
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