Free Republic

- An independent review of the September 11 attacks on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi released Tuesday cited "systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies" at the State Department. The attacks killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. The failures resulted in a security plan "that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place," the 39-page, unclassified version of the report concluded.

Parallels: A mission was attacked after warnings, Americans were killed after security requests were denied, and a diplomat went on TV to explain it all — our current U.N. ambassador, after embassy bombings in 1998. 'What troubles me so much is the Benghazi attack in many ways echoes the attacks on both embassies in 1998, when Susan Rice was head of the African region for our State Department," Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said Wednesday after two hours with our U.N. ambassador. "In both cases, the ambassador begged for additional security." In both cases, Susan Rice was involved more than she...

Before you read this, keep in mind that all this is just unjustified racism because Susan Rice had nothing to do with any of it. Except for the parts that she had to do with. In the spring of 1998, Prudence Bushnell, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, sent an emotional letter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright begging for a more secure embassy in the face of mounting terrorist threats and a warning that she was the target of an assassination plot. The State Department had repeatedly denied her request, citing a lack of money. But that kind of response,...