Unfit for Command - Hillary's Benghazi - Part 1

When I was in the military, I was told, "if you are in charge and it goes bad, it's your fault." Unfortunately, in American politics that's not always the case. Hillary has had one - official - cabinet post. That of Secretary of State, and it was a disaster. The Russian "reset", severe loss of American prestige around the world and the loss of four Americans - including ambassador Stevens - in Benghazi.

The Benghazi tragedy was a result of dismal decisions by leadership within the State Department - that Hillary Clinton led. If one believes the State Department's ( and Obama's, incidentally) narrative, this attack came out of nowhere. This simply is not the truth. They had ample warning; they simply were not interested in security matters. They had a political ideology to conform to and security didn't fit into their - delusional - worldview.

On July 7th, 2012, a security contractor to U.S. African Command reported," Benghazi has a notable increase in violence in recent months, particularly against international targets. These events point to strong anti-Western sentiments among certain segments of the population, the willingness of Salafi-jihadi groups in the city to openly engage in violence against foreign targets, and their capacity to carry out these attacks."

All State Department personnel in Libya were aware of the deteriorating security situation. Secretary Clinton took no substantial steps to increase security for U.S. diplomatic staff assigned to Libya. The State Department made some cosmetic security improvements in 2012. These included:

- Introduction of jersey barriers

- Guard booths

- Sandbags

In the months prior to the Benghazi attack, some of the events that gave ample warning of impending danger were:

- April 2nd, 2012, in Benghazi a British diplomatic car was attacked by a crowd of demonstrators.

- April 6th, 2012, an IED was thrown over the wall of the U.S. facility in Benghazi. Later two individuals were questioned. One was a current employee of Blue Mountain group, the company that provided the unarmed security using native Libyans. The other individual was a former employee of the same group. This highlights the concerns of insider help in the event of an attack at the facility.

- April 10th, 2012, in Benghazi a crude IED was tossed at the UN Special Envoy's convoy.

- May 22nd, 2012, the Red Cross / Red Crescent building in Benghazi was hit by two RPG rounds.

- June 6th, 2012, the US diplomatic facility in Benghazi was attacked by an IED attack that blew a hole in the perimeter wall. The attack was in retaliation for a U.S. drone strike on al-Qaeda leader.

- June 11th, 2012, in Benghazi the British Ambassador's convoy was attacked by a, "complex, coordinated attack".

- June 18th, 2012, the Tunisian consulate in Benghazi was stormed by Islamic extremist.

Given this laundry list of dangerous attacks on Westerners, one would assume a substantial increase in security for U.S. State Department facilities and personnel would be forthcoming. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case. This failure to act was a failure of Secretary of State Clinton to make security a concern. Diplomatic personnel were asking for increased security. But their requests fell on deaf ears.

A letter from Representative Darrell Issa and Representative Jason Chaffetz stated, "multiple U.S. federal government officials have confirmed to the committee that, prior to the September 11 attack, the U.S. mission in Libya made repeated requests for increased security in Benghazi. The mission in Libya, however, was denied these resources by officials in Washington."

In March of 2012, the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli requested five full-time security personnel slots for Benghazi. State Department leadership denied the request and capped the security slots at three.

In July of 2012, the late Ambassador Stevens approved a request for a minimum of thirteen temporary U.S. security personnel. State Department leadership never responded to this request.

Hillary Clinton's lackluster leadership as Secretary of State set the conditions for the September 11th attack on the US consulate and the death of four Americans. Hillary apologists frequently ask, "are you going to keep yelling out Benghazi?" The answer is yes! Hillary failed as Secretary of State, and I am certain she would fail as Commander-in-Chief also. That is why the attack and Hillary's dismal leadership are more relevant now than ever.

Part 2 will cover Hillary's and Obama Administration missteps during the attack itself.