Mitt Romney has forgotten the Economy for now and is going after the White House and STate on the Libyan attack…
The United States cannot guarantee “perfect security” for its diplomats and still expect them to do their jobs, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Friday.
“We will never prevent every act of violence or terrorism, or achieve perfect security,” Clinton said. “Our people cannot live in bunkers and do their jobs.”
“But it is our solemn responsibility to constantly improve to reduce the risks our people face, and make sure they have the resources they need to do those jobs we expect from them.”
Her comments come as President Obama is under attack less than a month before the election over his administration’s handling of events in Libya, where Ambassador Christoper Stevens and three other Americans were killed last month. Republicans over the past few days have latched onto the State Department’s acknowledgment that it turned down the U.S. mission’s requests for more security shortly before the Sept. 11 attack…..
[VP Joe ] Biden’s [ 0ct 11 debate] remarks forced the White House to explain the discrepancy between his remarks and the earlier testimony. They said the requests had simply not made their way up the chain to Obama and Biden.
“He was speaking directly for himself and for the president,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said of Biden at his daily briefing on Friday.
“If you look at the testimony there was no talk of request for personnel made here” at the White House, Carney said. “These kinds of issues are handled in the State Department by security professionals.”
Deputy National Security adviser Ben Rhodes separately told Foreign Policy’s The Cable blog that State Department officials who told a congressional panel of the requests never said they made their requests to the president. He also noted that the requests were for more security in Tripoli, not Benghazi, where the attack on the U.S. Consulate was made.
“We have been very transparent about what we know,” Carney said, adding that the administration “gained a clearer picture” as they found out more information in recent weeks.
Carney said there was “no actionable intelligence” that would indicate an attack was being planned, but would not get into the details of that information.
Clinton in an otherwise upbeat speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies conference said ensuring the complete safety of diplomats is impossible if they are to do their jobs….
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