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Thanks and here is another point. I worked directly for Pat Kennedy, now the Undersecetary for Management, for three years. Why was he selected to represent the State Department at this hearing? Or Charlene Lamb for that matter? The Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security (DS), Eric Boswell (whom I also know), should have been on that panel instead of Kennedy.

I realize that DS works for Kennedy along with CA, MED, OBO, etc. but Kennedy was not the main player in this debacle. Boswell was. He made the decisions on staffing and allocation of resources and no doubt was involved real time with the attack on Benghazi. He was oddly absent from the panel although Lamb indicated that he was involved in the decision-making when it came to the approval of increased security at Benghanzi and/or turning down the request for additional security resources.

Boswell also had to be involved in granting the security wavier for the interim facilities that housed the consulate and the embassy in Tripoli. You don't assign people to a facility that doesn't meet published security standards without some kind of wavier signed by DS or perhaps the Secretary of State. That written wavier has to be on file.

Kennedy is a creature of the building. I found his statement that any US official would have said the same thing as Rice on the Sunday shows to be horsesh#t and he knows it. He has sold his soul to this Administration. Why? Either he thinks this will help him personally or he may be covering up his own personal involvement in the granting of the security wavier to the consulate in Benghazi.

I am also concerned about our security arrangements for our embassy in Iraq. Due to political correctness, the decision was made to pull out all military force protection from Iraq. The State Department has taken over all security protection for the Embassy. It has what amounts to a private army staffed by American contractors (similar to Blackwater.) The large Marine Security Guard detatchment is tasked with supplying internal security for classified material and equipment. It is not geared to protect against an armed external attack. We should have left the military in charge of force protection, but without a SOFA and Obama's political desire to remove all US troops, we have the State Department in charge of Embasy security in what still remains a very hostile environment. I hope it doesn't end badly.

Here is the State Department Org chart