Retired Diplomat: Clinton Unfit to Protect National Security

As the Deputy Chief of Mission for Libya, State Department Foreign Service officer Gregory Hicks had an up close and personal look at the tragedy that unfolded in Benghazi on September 11, 2012. In an op-ed for Fox News on the fourth anniversary of that deadly terrorist invasion, Hicks said that the debacle in Libya was proof that Hillary Clinton was unfit to lead the country:

Just as the Constitution makes national security the President’s highest priority, U.S. law mandates the secretary of state to develop and implement policies and programs “to provide for the security … of all United States personnel on official duty abroad.”

This includes not only the State Department employees, but also the CIA officers in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012. And the Benghazi record is clear: Secretary Clinton failed to provide adequate security for U.S. government personnel assigned to Benghazi and Tripoli.

Hicks says that Clinton left the embassy in Tripoli without adequate security, forcing Ambassador Chris Stevens to go to Benghazi alone. This, despite the fact that Stevens requested 13 additional security officers in July, a request that was rejected by Clinton’s Under Secretary of State for Management, Pat Kennedy. Clinton has claimed that it was not her direct responsibility to provide for that security, but Hicks says that’s exactly what her responsibility entailed.

According to him, though, that was only the first of Clinton’s failures.

“U.S. law also requires the secretary of state to ensure that all U.S. government personnel assigned to a diplomatic post abroad be located at one site,” he wrote. “Her decision to allow the Benghazi consulate to be separate from the CIA annex divided scarce resources in a progressively deteriorating security environment.”

Hicks concluded that in her failure to secure American personnel overseas, Hillary Clinton disgraced her position as Secretary of State, broke the law, and allowed the deaths of four federal employees.

“If Mrs. Clinton was unable to fulfill her security obligations to the federal employees she was legally obligated to protect as secretary of state, how can we trust her with the security of our entire country?” Hicks asked. “I won’t.”