Congressional Testimony Shoots Down Embassy Budget Talking Point
A liberal talking point that sprang up in the aftermath of the attack on our embassy in Benghazi was that the State Department would have totally sent more security, but those evil Republicans, like, totally cut their budget man. Setting aside that the budget cuts were a bi-partisan effort, ongoing testimony before Congress shows that the problem wasn’t a lack of money. In fact, there was no problem at all.
Was the refusal to provide more security caused by budget cuts to embassy security? “No, sir,” Charlene Lamb, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Programs, told the committee.
Lamb said that the State Department was right not to grant Nordstrom’s request for more security. “We had the correct number of assets in Benghazi on the night of 9/11,” Lamb said, per The Cable, citing the Libyan security personnel. (emphasis mine)
See? It was just one of those things. We did everything right, it just didn’t work out. Too bad about Chris Smith and all.
Tags: congress, Jay W., libya
