Some Thoughts on Hillary and That Ben Ghazi Guy

I've never been a fan of Hillary Clinton and she scored no points with me today. For a win today, all she needed to do today was not disrespect the dead and she couldn't even do that. What does it matter? Even with the qualifier (and the Clintons are all about qualifiers) of what does it matter today, the administration LIED to the American people about this incident. and that's the good version of that particular story, because the alternative is that they were IGNORANT and not even I can buy that...

Jeff Flake made a few good points in his post on Facebook today:

It is regarding the aftermath of the Benghazi tragedy that the Obama Administration still has not come clean. It seems clear that the President and his team fostered a world view with which a premeditated terrorist attack in Benghazi did not comport, so they spun these attacks (largely through Ambassador Rice's TV appearances) as a spontaneous protest.

Secretary Clinton's response during the hearing: "What difference does it make?" It makes a big difference, actually. To wage effective diplomacy, statecraft and military strategy, you have to see the world as it is, not as you wish it to be.

Madam Secretary, it matters to the families that you lied to on that tarmac. In today's testimony, you claim that you cried and hugged family members of the fallen, but those families tell a much different story and they have FAR more credibility on ANY subject than you.

Flake was much more forgiving about the actual event than most of us who actually know that Benghazi isn't some dude who got kicked off American Idol. And unlike most pontificators (including myself) on the subject, he looks to the future.

"It's easy now, with hindsight, to see the warning signs regarding the lack of adequate security for our Ambassador and others. Requests for additional security were not heeded, but that is not an infrequent occurrence regardless of the Administration in charge. Attacks happen, and we are often unprepared for such attacks. We hope to be better prepared next time.

...

The recent events in Mali and Algeria are a reminder that we'd better understand this principle. If we don't, Benghazi will be just the beginning of our troubles."

The world is full of evil and people who wish to do us harm. While I agree that we shouldn't let that fact cripple us or interfere with our diplomatic efforts, we must take that threat seriously or people will continue to die.

UPDATE: How bad was this Clinton performance? It was so bad that the administration let it leak that Panetta is planning to announce Women in Combat so that the talking heads in the 527 Media would have something else to talk about tonight...

Global War on Terror Update

AP News Alert:

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) Al-Jazeera television says it has received claim of responsibility from the group al-Qaida in North Africa for the bombings in Algeria that killed at least 23 people.

Of course, the root cause of all terrorism is the United States occupation of Iraq and the very existence of Israel... I blame Bush...

The Algerian Front

From today's State Department brifing transcript received via email:

QUESTION: Do you have anything more on these -- I saw Algiers Warden Message that came out today. Apparently, there's a fear that militants are going to be planning to attack commercial aircraft in Algeria.

MR. CASEY: Yeah, I think the Warden Message is pretty self-explanatory. This was put out yesterday by our Embassy in Algiers. Basically there is information that we received that related to the possibility of extremists perhaps planning to conduct attacks against commercial aircraft carrying Western workers. We really don't have any further information about that. There is no specifics in terms of when the timing might be or what the potential carriers involved might be. But again as you know, there is commitment on our part to make sure that when we have information of this kind, even when it is non-specific like this, that we make it available not only to our own employees in the embassy community and official Americans but also that we as a matter of policy make that information available to American citizens more broadly. So that's why the Warden Message was sent.

QUESTION: Have you taken any special precautions at the Embassy or --

MR. CASEY: Nothing that I could talk about in terms of specifics. Again, I think the threat that we understand being out there is focused on aircraft and not specifically on our diplomatic facility or otherwise. Obviously, all our missions are always looking at their security posture and take appropriate steps when they think it's necessary.

QUESTION: Is it linked to any specific group?

MR. CASEY: No.

Another hotspot to keep our eyes on...