Commentary
When I saw that Zubayr Al-Bakoush, the mastermind of the deadly 2012 attack on our Benghazi, Libya compound, had been brought to the U.S. for prosecution, it brought back memories, so vivid that it seemed like the attack happened just yesterday.
I was living in the Hill Country of Texas then, writing opinion pieces for several weeklies and occasionally the San Antonio Express-News.
With the extradition of Al-Bakoush, it stirred memories of my disgust in the failures of President Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to heed the terrorist warnings. I’ll be adding to that list as I continue.
The assault on September 11, 2012, took the lives of U.S, Ambassador Chris Stevens, State Department information management officer Sean Smtih, as well as CIA contractors Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.
The Warnings
In April, May and June 2012, there four attacks on other interests in Benghazi, including a Red Cross office and one on the British Consulate that resulted in their withdrawal.
Three days before the attack on the U. S. consulate, Ambassador Stevens warned the State Department of growing Al Qaeda presence and concerns for safety.
Obama’s lack of response drew intense political scrutiny. Early White House statements linking the attack to spontaneous protests over an anti‑Muslim video later proved inaccurate as intelligence developed.
I’ve added former ambassador Thomas Pickering and former Joint Chief of Staff Mike Mullen to my list of disgust over their handling of the Benghazi review. Unbelievably, they were selected by none other than Hillary herself to co-chair the so-called independent Advisory Review Board investigation of Benghazi.
The board issued a harsh report which led to the resignation of four State Department employees, while pointing no specific fingers at senior personnel like Clinton and her top deputies.
Though they reviewed some 25,00 pages of documents and heard testimony from dozens of senior national security officials, I found it inexplicable that Hillary was not interviewed.
Hillary declared that she “didn’t do” Sunday news shows, so UN Ambassador Susan Rice was finally selected to put forth a phony story about the attack being the result of an anti-Muslim video aired on the Internet. It was her assignment to underscore that the protests leading to the attack in Benghazi were rooted in the Internet video and not a failure of administration policy. Add Rice, presidential advisor Ben Rhoades, and for CIA deputy Mike Morell to my list of disgusting individuals. They helped concoct the anti-Muslim video hoax.
Republicans saw it as a cover up heading to the November presidential election.
Hillary couldn’t avoid questioning by Senator Johnson at the Senate hearing on January 23, 2013. Taking umbrage with his line of questioning about the narrative chosen to blame the attack on the video, raised the pitch of her voice and frantically waved her hands as she said, “With all due respect, the fact is, we had four dead Americans. Was it because of a protest or because of guys out for a walk one night who decide to kill some Americans, what difference at this point does it make? It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator.
As I have written before, I never expected Hillary Clinton to be penalized in any way. I simply wanted her to be held accountable for the loss of the four lives at Benghazi and viewed as a pariah, an outcast, by Americans especially the media. Yet she continues to get air time by the media.
At least Al-Bakoush, the third Islamic extremist arrested in connection with the Benghazi assault, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
