Chris Stevens’s Family: Don’t Blame Hillary Clinton for Benghazi

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Jennifer Epstein ?@jeneps 16h16 hours ago
Amb. Stevens' sister: "to use that incident—and to use Chris’s death as a political point—is not appropriate."

___ Dr. Anne Stevens, the sister of Ambassador Chris Stevens, has served as a family spokesperson since his death. She is the chief of pediatric rheumatology at Seattle Children’s Hospital. We spoke twice in the past three days, including shortly after the House Select Committee report was issued. Dr. Stevens recalled that her brother had been fascinated by the Middle East since childhood, when he dressed up as Lawrence of Arabia, with a towel and a pot atop his head. He served in the Peace Corps, in Morocco, before joining the Foreign Service, and he served twice in Libya before his final posting there, as well as in Damascus, Cairo, Jerusalem, and Riyadh. My interview with Dr. Stevens has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Whom do you fault for the lack of security that resulted in the death of your brother, in Benghazi?

It is clear, in hindsight, that the facility was not sufficiently protected by the State Department and the Defense Department. But what was the underlying cause? Perhaps if Congress had provided a budget to increase security for all missions around the world, then some of the requests for more security in Libya would have been granted. Certainly the State Department is underbudgeted.

I do not blame Hillary Clinton or Leon Panetta. They were balancing security efforts at embassies and missions around the world. And their staffs were doing their best to provide what they could with the resources they had. The Benghazi Mission was understaffed. We know that now. But, again, Chris knew that. It wasn’t a secret to him. He decided to take the risk to go there. It is not something they did to him. It is something he took on himself.

What did you learn from the two new reports by House Republicans and Democrats?

It doesn’t look like anything new. They concluded that the U.S. compound in Benghazi was not secure. We knew that.

What did you think of Secretary Clinton’s conduct on Benghazi?

She has taken full responsibility, being head of the State Department, for what occurred. She took measures to respond to the review board’s recommendations. She established programs for a better security system. But it is never going to be perfect. Part of being a diplomat is being out in the community. We all recognize that there’s a risk in serving in a dangerous environment. Chris thought that was very important, and he probably would have done it again. I don’t see any usefulness in continuing to criticize her. It is very unjust.


read more: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/chris-stevenss-family-dont-blame-hillary-clinton-for-benghazi?utm_content=bufferd52c6&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[mcar]

1. Kick!

[Mike Nelson]

2. Wish I'd see more of this story on the "media"...

...it sums up the incident most concisely. Cheers and condolences to Dr. Stevens.

[Bill USA]

8. they won't mention it unless GOP authorizes it.."all the news that is acceptable to the GOP"

[Control-Z]

3. This is good!

I hope everyone reads it. There are a few on this board who have not yet been convinced. Probably don't want to be. But it's the truth and there is something to be said about the truth being out there.

[Scurrilous]

4. K & R

[treestar]

5. K&R

[ProudProgressiveNow]

6. +1000 nt

[hamsterjill]

7. Great article!

Thanks for posting. I'm sharing.

[bigtree]

9. kick