In one of her last acts as America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hit back hard Wednesday at fierce Republican criticisms over the deadly Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya.
‘Death trap’
“You let the consulate become a death trap, and that’s national security malpractice,” Rep. Jeff Duncan, R-S.C., said during the afternoon House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing. He asked Clinton to define what taking responsibility for the attack means to her.
“I think I’ve made that very clear, congressman,” Clinton responded testily.
Her voice broke as she recalled welcoming home the “flag-draped caskets” of U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans killed in the terrorist strike at the compound, and putting her arms around bereaved family members. And she hit the witness table with her fist several times during a contentious exchange with Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who accused President Barack Obama’s administration of misleading Americans by initially saying the attack grew out of a protest against an Internet video mocking Islam. There was no such demonstration, as officials later acknowledged.
‘Chilling comments’
“With all due respect, the fact is we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest? Or was it because of guys out for a walk one night who decided they’d go kill some Americans? What difference, at this point, does it make,” Clinton scolded Johnson, raising her voice. “It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator.”
Among Clinton’s more notable—and chilling—other comments: Islamist fighters around the region are now equipped with heavy weapons seized from unsecured Libyan arsenals after the fall of strongman Moammar Gadhafi. Critics of the NATO-led campaign to help rebels topple him had warned of the prospect that his arsenals would fall into extremist hands.
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Source: Olivier Knox, Yahoo News
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