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The buck stopped with Clinton

No one reacted with a sense of alarm and protectiveness to repeated pleas for help from U.S. diplomatic personnel in Benghazi, Libya during the months before Sept. 11, 2012. And after a State Department outpost there was attacked by terrorists that day, killing Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, the reaction in Washington was to circle the wagons, to cover the backside of VIPs such as then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

That came out clearly last week when Clinton, now a candidate for president, testified before a congressional panel investigating the Benghazi attack.

Clinton herself got caught lying about what happened, continuing to claim the attack was a spontaneous demonstration resulting from an American-made film insulting to Muslims. She made that claim in public after becoming certain such was not the case.

But what also was made clear – again – during Clinton’s testimony was that no one at the State Department was held accountable for failing to provide adequate security for Stevens and others at Benghazi.

That should come as no surprise, simply because the buck stopped with Clinton – and she was at the top of the list of people who needed cover after the attack.

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