Hillary Clinton expressed regret Monday for the failure in Benghazi even as she continued to suggest it was an “unpredictable” event. The Senate intelligence committee report published earlier this months concluded the attack was preventable.
Asked if she had any regrets about her term as Secretary of State, Hillary responded “Sure, I mean…” before pausing for a couple seconds. Eventually Hillary would cite the Benghazi attack as her biggest regret but only after framing it an “unforeseen” consequence and an “unpredictable” event.
“You know you make these choices based on imperfect information and you make them, as we say, to the best of your ability but that doesn’t mean that there’s not going to be unforeseen consequences, unpredictable twists and turns. You know, my biggest regret is what happened in Benghazi.”
So apparently, Hillary missed the two prior bombings at the mission?
-The first one on April 6, by a two former security guards who hurled IEDs at the building. Some of the security was made up of militia, some of whom reportedly were themselves infiltrated with al-Qaeda. Maybe that should have been a hint as to a problem?
-There was another attack in June where an explosive blew a hole in the perimeter wall big enough for 40 men to walk through, by one description. This attack was by al-Qaeda, who actually put out a video claiming credit for it, showing they did it, saying why and saying that they would continue. Sounding amazingly like they were “not in retreat”.
Here is a video of the actual second attack, recorded by al-Qaeda:
How after those two things showing all kinds of compromised security, plus the specific continued promised threat of al Qaeda, could one say any attack was unforseen or unpredictable?
It wasn’t even just the two attacks, although they in and of themselves would have been enough.
As John Sexton notes, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee found it certainly was predictable and preventable, that there were “hundreds of analytic reports” warning of risk. There were attacks against the U.K., the Red Cross and the U.N.
There were also specific threats against the person of Chris Stevens. He and others on the ground begged for security but were denied by Hillary’s State Department. In fact, some of the only security they did have was actually removed in August despite the approaching anniversary of 9/11.
John Sexton is kinder than I would be, saying granted one could not know the specific day that the attack would come. I would say one could take a very good guess or at least have shown some heightened concern, exactly because it was Sept 11, that another attack might occur.
There is also the connection to statements about the death of Abu Yahya al-Libi that were perhaps predictors of both time and place:
The June 6th attack specifically references the [June] drone strike on al-Libi in Pakistan. Al-Libi was from Libya and it has been speculated the September 11 attack in Benghazi may have been further revenge for his death, as well as marking the anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Al Qaeda acknowledged al-Libi’s death when they released a eulogy for him on September 10th.
Unpredictable? Unforseen? Then, “Madame Secretary” possible future, “you know she’s going to run Presidential candidate”, you do not have the stuff to protect this country or its people, to pick up the phone at 3 a.m. and I suggest a long retirement…