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Benghazi report could damage Clinton’s legacy at State Dept. ('systemic failures')
The Hill ^ | 12/19/12 | Julian Pecquet

Posted on 12/19/2012 2:44:58 AM PST by Libloather

Benghazi report could damage Clinton’s legacy at State Dept.
By Julian Pecquet - 12/19/12 05:30 AM ET

The Benghazi report released Tuesday night bemoans “systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies” in Hillary Clinton's State Department that could come back to haunt her should she run for president in 2016.

Clinton remains one of the nation's most popular politicians and has worked tirelessly to improve America's image abroad following President George W. Bush's tenure. The independent review of the Sept. 11 attack, however, tarnishes that legacy by faulting the department for failing to put in place a coordinated approach for handling security, even if it does not single anyone out for disciplinary action.

“The Board found that certain senior State Department officials ... in critical positions of authority and responsibility in Washington demonstrated a lack of proactive leadership and management ability appropriate for the State Department’s senior ranks,” the report concludes in its section on accountability of personnel.

The terrorist attack on the U.S. mission that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans became a rallying cry for conservative critics of President Obama's national security policies during the presidential campaign. The attack has already claimed one political scalp, with U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice dropping out of contention for the secretary of State job in the face of intense Republican criticism after she initially linked the Benghazi attack to a peaceful protest gone awry.

Some Clinton critics didn't even wait for the report to come out. Following reports that she would not testify before Congress on the board's findings this week because she's been sick with a stomach virus, former Ambassador John Bolton, accused her of lying to avoid giving public testimony that could be damaging to her legacy.

“I think she was waiting for the report so she could find out what it said and then fashion her testimony accordingly,” Bolton told Fox News on Monday night. “There is nothing more embarrassing than to say something and then have it contradicted and have to change your story later.”

The report was prepared by an independent, bipartisan Accountability Review Board (ARB) headed by retired Ambassador Thomas Pickering and Admiral Mike Mullen, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Unclassified portions were made public late Tuesday ahead of House and Senate hearings on Thursday. Lawmakers will also receive a closed briefing on classified parts of the report Wednesday.

Clinton sought to get ahead of the congressional response in an 8-page letter accompanying the report. In it, she endorses the report's 29 recommendations and points to several changes her department has already made since the attack, including instituting periodic reviews of the 15 to 20 high-threat posts.

The report “provides a clear-eyed look at serious, systemic challenges that we have already begun to fix,” Clinton wrote in the letter to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.) and other leaders on the House and Senate foreign affairs panels. “Because of steps we began taking in the hours and days after the attacks, this work is well underway.”

Clinton in her letter also puts Benghazi in the context of other deadly attacks against U.S. missions abroad that have occurred under her predecessors.

“Benghazi,” she writes, “joins a long list: hostages taken in Tehran in 1979, our embassy and Marine barracks bombed in Beirut in 1983, Khobar Towers in 1996, our embassies in East Africa in 1998, consulate staff murdered in Jeddah in 2004, the Khost tragedy in 2009, and so many others.”

Republicans say Benghazi is in a class of its own because it's the first time a U.S. ambassador has been murdered since 1979.

But the ARB report doesn't just focus on the executive branch. Clinton's critics in Congress also come in for their share of criticism for their penny-pinching attitude towards the State Department.

“For many years the State Department has been engaged in a struggle to obtain the resources necessary to carry out its work, with varying degrees of success,” the report concludes. “This has led some managers to “favor restricting the use of resources as a general orientation.

“The solution requires a more serious and sustained commitment from Congress to sustain State Department needs, which, in total, constitute a small percentage both of the full national budget and that spent for national security,” the report found. “One overall conclusion in this report is that Congress must do its part to meet this challenge and provide necessary resources to the State Department to address security risks and meet mission imperatives.”


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: arb; benghazi; clinton; diplomaticsecurity; excuses; hillaryclinton; legacy; libya; mikemullen; mullen; pickering; spending; spin; statedepartment; thedogatemyhomework; thomaspickering; waste
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And what is more important than her legacy?
1 posted on 12/19/2012 2:45:11 AM PST by Libloather
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To: Libloather
“The Board found that certain senior State Department officials ... in critical positions of authority and responsibility in Washington demonstrated a lack of proactive leadership and management ability appropriate for the State Department’s senior ranks,” the report concludes in its section on accountability of personnel.

Names please.

2 posted on 12/19/2012 2:58:23 AM PST by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: Libloather

I guess she can blame the phone company for the phone not working at 3 in the morning,must have Been owned by George Bush


3 posted on 12/19/2012 3:10:38 AM PST by ballplayer
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To: Libloather

Legacy?


4 posted on 12/19/2012 3:17:50 AM PST by gotribe
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To: Libloather

How can another failure hurt a Legacy of failure.??

This is laughable.

Can anyone name one of Hillary’s successes?


5 posted on 12/19/2012 3:33:38 AM PST by Venturer
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To: Libloather
Benghazi report could damage Clinton’s legacy at State Dept.
As if the MSM would allow that to happen.
6 posted on 12/19/2012 3:51:22 AM PST by Bratch
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To: Libloather
Yet she is being steamrolled towards us as the next president in 2016. She has always been in far over her head but since she has achieved near sainthood with the left and the ladies, her obvious deficiencies are whitewashed over.

Note how the MSM didn't find anything unusual with her slipping off to the other side of the world (Peru, Australia) as soon as Benghazi unfolded.. Imagine the fun if a Republican would have pulled that trick during his or her tenure!

Hillery = dangerously incompetent

7 posted on 12/19/2012 3:55:49 AM PST by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: Libloather

an abject failure in Obama’s pro-Islamic foreign policy


8 posted on 12/19/2012 4:05:58 AM PST by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: Timber Rattler

no individuals are held responsible for serious failures, no corrective action, no one disciplined - IMO the report is covering for top management.


9 posted on 12/19/2012 4:09:08 AM PST by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said the goal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: Libloather
"“This has led some managers to “favor restricting the use of resources as a general orientation."

Welcome the real world, you blithering fools in the media. In the real world, there are never enough "resources" to do everything. Only in the never-never land of politics and media is "favor restricting the use of resources as a general orientation" considered to be a liability. The object of management in "the real world" is to make good decisions even when infinite "resources" are not available.

10 posted on 12/19/2012 4:10:57 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: Libloather; mickie; flaglady47
In a nutshell.....the report blames top management at State (presumably including Hillary).....defiantly not naming names.....and then craftily leaves a convenient out for EVERYONE in that Department by blaming Congress for under-funding.

Can anyone doubt that the investigating commission has engaged in not only a whitewash but actual propagandist spin in one high-level, masterful Goebbels-esian swoop?

Leni

11 posted on 12/19/2012 4:11:12 AM PST by MinuteGal (I'm Going to Update the Name That No One Dares to Utter and I'll Use It From Now On......OBAMUNISM !)
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To: Venturer
"Can anyone name one of Hillary’s successes?"

1) She married Bill.
2).............

12 posted on 12/19/2012 4:13:38 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: Libloather

In a word, incompetence.


13 posted on 12/19/2012 4:16:13 AM PST by joshua c (Please dont feed the liberals)
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To: MinuteGal

Thats what happens when you let foxes investigate the foxes that raided the hen house.

There has never been any independent investigation of Obama crimes.


14 posted on 12/19/2012 4:21:56 AM PST by dforest
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To: norwaypinesavage
"Can anyone name one of Hillary’s successes?"

1) She married Bill.
2).............

2) She made $100,000 on a $1,000 investment in cattle futures.

15 posted on 12/19/2012 4:23:21 AM PST by Rocky (Obama is pure evil.)
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To: Libloather
A minor correction:

The attack has already claimed one political scalp, with U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice dropping out of contention for the secretary of State job in the face of intense Republican criticism after she initially linked the Benghazi attack to a peaceful protest gone awry.

Should read: "...after she initially linked the Benghazi attack to a nonexistent peaceful protest gone awry."

16 posted on 12/19/2012 4:31:36 AM PST by Rocky (Obama is pure evil.)
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To: annieokie; penelopesire; maggief; Protect the Bill of Rights; thouworm; SE Mom; Nachum; onyx; ...
"Clinton remains one of the nation's most popular politicians and has worked tirelessly to improve America's image abroad following President George W. Bush's tenure."

I don't know who julian pequet is, and after reading this, I don't want to, but in case you missed it the first few times:

Anyone wanting on or off this ping list, please advise.


17 posted on 12/19/2012 4:41:51 AM PST by MestaMachine (It's the !!!!TREASON!!!!, stupid!)
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To: Rocky

Very good. This could be the start of something really big!


18 posted on 12/19/2012 4:42:07 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (Galileo: In science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of one individual)
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To: Venturer
Nothing embarrasses these liberal ba#stards.
19 posted on 12/19/2012 5:01:08 AM PST by DooDahhhh (ma)
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To: Libloather

TREASON. In real-time, pre-meditated, continuous, ongoing...

Enablers deflect BUMP!


20 posted on 12/19/2012 5:24:54 AM PST by PGalt
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