January 16, 2014 – San Francisco, CA – PipeLineNews.org – Though insufficient in scope to serve as a complete examination of the events surrounding the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Benghazi Report nonetheless provides a scathing assessment of Hillary Clinton's performance as Secretary of State.

Below, verbatim from the Additional Comments section:

"Ultimately, however, the final responsibility for security at diplomatic facilities lies with the former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Because theTemporary Mission Facility in Benghazi did not meet the security standards set by the State Department, it would have required a waiver to be occupied.

Although certain waivers of the standards could have been approved at a lower level, other departures, such as the co-location requirement, could only be approved by the Secretary of State. At the end of the day, she was responsible for ensuring the safety of all Americans serving in our diplomatic facilities. Her failure to do so clearly made a difference in the lives of the four murdered Americans and their families.

The State Department's inordinate effort to minimize management failures contrasts sharply with its public commitment to accountability. At the same time, a strong case can be made that State engaged in retaliation against witnesses who were willing to speak with Congress. No reasonable explanation accounts for the State Department's unacceptable treatment of these witnesses, at the same time it returned to active duty witnesses such as Ms. Lamb who were shielded from, or actively avoided, Committee requests for interviews." [source, Review of the Terrorist Attacks on U.S. Facilities in Benghazi, Libya, September 11-12, 2012]

The report makes it clear that the Obama Administration stonewalled the investigation from its inception - withholding evidence, intimidating witnesses and presenting a narrative which was determined by the Committee to be inconsistent with the truth. Despite this active non-compliance the evidence presented is damning to the reputation of both the President and the then Secretary of State.

What should be of great concern to Mrs. Clinton is that the report destroys any argument she could put forth about her qualifications to serve as Commander in Chief.

When given the opportunity to call the shots in Benghazi her political game-playing, untruthfulness, inability to grasp tactical and strategic fundamentals and sheer incompetence produced disastrous results.

That's not much of a CV when running for president, but then there's no accounting for how millions of apparently brain-dead American voters who are conditioned in an almost Pavlovian manner to vote against their own well being.

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