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The Amazing Story of What Happened in Libya
By Garance Franke-Ruta - http://www.theatlantic.com/
The Benghazi consulate after being set on fire in a photo dated September 12. (Reuters)
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday said the first line-of-duty
death of a U.S. ambassador since the Carter Administration was on her.
"I take responsibility," Clinton told CNN's Elise Labott
during a brief trip to Lima, Peru. "I'm in charge of the State
Department's 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The
president and the vice president wouldn't be knowledgeable about
specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They're the
ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a
considered decision."
"What I want to avoid is some kind of political gotcha or blame game," she said, adding: "I know that we're very close to an election."
While Republicans continue to charge administration cover-up and denial, the State Department's moves have repeatedly undermined both charges. Not only has Clinton taken responsibility for what happened on her watch, but senior State Department officials a week ago laid out for reporters in extraordinary detail what went down in Benghazi on the night of September 11 and morning of September 12. Posted online late last week, the on-background briefing makes clear that it might not even be adequate to call the assault on the U.S. consulate in Eastern Libya an act of terrorism -- the compound and a nearby American annex, according to State, came under sustained military attack by a non-governmental armed force.
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