For many reasons I am baffled by Clinton’s record after four years at the helm of US Foreign Affairs. It’s true there was no infighting with the Pentagon. I do miss leadership, judgment and most certainly results. The US Consulate attack in Benghazi is the most recent incident where there are more questions raised than adaquate action and leadership shown. There were threats and warnings on the life of Ambassador Stevens, no action was taken as he was left at a temporary site without security. Al-Qaeda’s leader Abu Yahya al-Libi killed by drone strike in North Waziristan was the trigger for the revenge in Benghazi. When did I first warn about the AQIM and its expansion into Mali – the struggle after the military coup in May 2012. Later another diary – Al-Qaeda Jihadists In Northern Mali. And Syria is becoming another headache for the US as I predicted.
Hillary Clinton drops strong hint that Al Qaeda was behind Libya attack
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday suggested a link between Al Qaeda and the Sept. 11 attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, going further than other Obama administration officials have previously in asserting that the deadly attack involved terrorists.
Speaking at a special United Nations meeting on instability in the Sahel – the African region that includes Mali, where Islamist extremists control the north of the country – Secretary Clinton cited the Libya attack as an example of the kind of action the region’s growing extremist groups are carrying out.
“What is happening inside Mali is augmented by the rising threat from violent extremism across the region,” Clinton said, adding that groups including Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have launched attacks from northern Mali into neighboring countries. These same groups, she added, “are working with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions underway in North Africa, as we tragically saw in Benghazi.”
- American Citizens Ordered Out of Tunisia and Sudan; Benghazi Security Questioned
- Libyans Killed Its Best Ambassador, Chris Stevens – A Tribute
Charlie Rose – Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Russia
A conversation with Sergei Lavrov, Russian Foreign Minister (2008)
