Clinton takes responsibility for handling of Libya attack
PERU: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday she takes the
blame for any shortcomings in the handling of an attack last month on
the US mission in the Libyan city of Benghazi.
“I take responsibility,” she said, according to the news networks CNN
and Fox, which interviewed her during a visit to the Peruvian capital
Lima.
“I’m in charge of the State Department -- 60,000 plus people all over
the world, 275 posts,” she said in a brief excerpt of the CNN interview,
in which she absolved President Barack Obama from blame.
“The president and the vice president certainly wouldn’t be
knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security
professionals,” she said.
Obama has come under fire from his critics over the attack, which
left four Americans dead, and Clinton’s move will be seen as an attempt
to take the heat off him three weeks before he hopes to be re-elected in
the November 6 polls.
On September 11, heavily-armed militants stormed the US consulate
compound in Benghazi and fired on a nearby annex, killing the four
Americans, including the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens. In the
immediate aftermath, Obama administration officials said they appeared
to be linked to protests in the Muslim world against a film shot by
US-based activists and deemed insulting to the Islamic faith.
But it has since emerged that the prime suspects in the attack, now
seen as a deliberate assault, are Islamist militants with links to
Al-Qaeda.
State Department officials testified at a congressional hearing last
week that requests for additional security in Benghazi were turned down
by their superiors within Clinton’s department.
Clinton has launched an internal investigation into whether there
were any security lapses in Benghazi, while the FBI and Libyan
authorities have launched criminal investigations into the killings.
But Clinton said the buck stopped with her on security decisions and
downplayed initial communications errors, saying there is always
“confusion” in the first hours after an attack.
“The decisions about security are made by security professionals, but
we’re going to review everything to be sure we’re doing what needs to be
done in an increasingly risky environment,” Clinton said, according to
Fox News.
Clinton also again defended US officials against charges that they
repeatedly changed their story about the events of September 11.
“As time has gone on, that information has changed. We’ve gotten more
detail, but that’s not surprising,” she told CNN.
AFP
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