Unless it were a direct order from POTUS to cut security, why would the SoS need POTUS authorization for diplomatic security?
That would be like a local Bank of America branch needing approval from the corporate CEO to hire an additional security guard.
==
If POTUS is making decisions on that level, he doesn’t need a SoS.
Diplomad posted that he thought Stevens only nominally reported to Clinton. Makes sense.
Intelligence.
I have said from the beginning that Benghazi had the hallmarks of CIA but people didn’t think so. They thought he was an ordinary Ambassador.
Not so.
He got his orders from someone other than Clinton.
Drudge has up that Clinton might stay in her position a big longer- whatever that means.
And I don’t buy that B&C are having fights about releasing info.
That is just to make her look good.
I suspect that Hillary is, and was always intended to be, a figurehead with no real power. That Obama delegated the real running of State to Susan Rice, with Susan reporting to Valerie Jarrett. In that set-up, any order that Hillary makes has to go through Rice, who can tell Obama to issue an override.
I suspect, as other FReepers suspect, that there was something going on in Libya that Obama did not want coming to light.
There were American forces all over that region - suited up and ready to go in... Someone had to stop that logical action from happening...
The Obama administration is STOPPING the FBI from going to Benghazi and doing an investigation. That's the FBI's job... they investigate - and they're being stopped. Just like the potential rescuers were stopped. By the time the FBI is allowed there, CNN will have walked off with anything interesting and our enemies will have planted a new story - or destroyed evidence of what happened - or both... or neither. We might never know.
It reminds me of the mess after Katrina - New Orleans was going under - - cops were unable to work 14 hour days... and ALL over the country, police departments were standing by - totally ready to go to New Orleans BUT they had to wait to be invited. They had to stay within the law. For example, Chicago's police force can't come down to Orlando and start arresting Disney tourists... they aren't allowed. Laws, procedures, chains of command... all the stuff that makes us civilized. Well, civilized if the people at the top are ethical and even mildly 'with it'....
This POTUS has a history of bypassing normal channels - he presided over UN meetings- totally unheard of, among other things.