By Tim Brown
Following the release of the Benghazi report back in December 2012, several State Department officials either “resigned” or were “given leave” following the Administrative Review Board’s (ARB) report, but remained on the federal government’s payroll. Among them were Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Eric Boswell, deputy to Boswell Charlene Lamb and Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Maghreb Raymond Maxwell. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that no further action was necessary at the time. However, these individuals have been notified by Secretary of State John “I go skiing while the world goes to Hell” Kerry that they are now welcome to return to their posts beginning today.
The Daily Beast reports:
Secretary of State John Kerry has determined that the four State Department officials placed on administrative leave by Hillary Clinton after the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi do not deserve any formal disciplinary action and has asked them to come back to work at the State Department starting Tuesday…After consideration, Kerry reaffirmed the ARB’s finding that no employee breached their duty or should be fired but rather that some should be reassigned, the official said. The four individuals are not blameless and the fact that they will not be returned to the same positions is relevant, the official said.
In case you forgot, Charlene Lamb was the State Department’s representative that testified that they “had the correct number of (security) assets in Benghazi.” This claim was in spite of the fact that the security detail was unarmed and that members of al-Qaeda were hired by the State Department to secure the diplomatic mission in Benghazi.
You may also recall Raymond Maxwell’s “non-firing” firing. Maxwell was placed on forced “administrative leave” after the State Department’s own internal investigation, conducted by an Administrative Review Board (ARB) led by former State Department official Tom Pickering.
Maxwell seems to have been the Clinton State Department’s scapegoat as he has been associated publicly with the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi for reasons that aren’t exactly clear, especially in light of the ARB report.
The Daily Beast reported back in May:
Soon after being removed from his job, Maxwell was visited at his home late one evening and directed to sign a letter acknowledging his administrative leave and forfeiting his right to enter the State Department. He refused to sign, responding in writing that it amounted to an admission he had done something wrong. “They just wanted me to go away but I wouldn’t just go away,” he said. ”I knew Chris [Stevens]. Chris was a friend of mine.” The decision to place Maxwell on administrative leave was made by Clinton’s chief of staff Cheryl Mills, according to three State Department officials with direct knowledge of the events. On the day after the unclassified version of the ARB’s report was released in December, Mills called Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Beth Jones and directed her to have Maxwell leave his job immediately…One State Department official close to the issue told The Daily Beast that Clinton’s people told the leadership of the NEA bureau that Maxwell would be given another job at State when the Benghazi scandal blew over. Maxwell said Jones assured him he would eventually be brought back to NEA as a “senior advisor,” but that Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, reneged.
Ah yes, Cheryl Mills, Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff who not only told Benghazi whistleblower Gregory Hicks not to cooperate with Congressional investigators, but blasted him for doing so, later demoting him, but I digress.
The Daily Beast added:
A senior State Department official confirmed to The Daily Beast Monday that all four officials placed on administrative leave were now returned to regular duty and would not face any formal disciplinary action. The administrative leave designation was not a formal punishment, but did prevent the officials from working while the Kerry team, which inherited the Benghazi issue from the Clinton team in February, reviewed their cases. ”As soon as he came into the department, Secretary Kerry wanted to invest the time to review the ARB’s findings and match those against his own on-the-job findings about security,” the senior State Department official said. “He’s been hands-on focused on building on the lessons learned from the Benghazi attack to strengthen security at missions world-wide and continue the ARB’s security paradigm shift.” As part of this process, Kerry asked his high command to complete a thorough review of the ARB’s findings.
Basically, Kerry is undoing what took place under Clinton, which was nothing more than public relations with the media. The Clinton State Department made it look as though people were let go or removed, all while continuing to pay them, and now they are opening the doors back up for them to come back home.
With that in mind, Guy Benson gives a recap of what’s actually been done since that attacks in Benghazi. He writes “Nearly a full year after the lethal raid, (a) none of the dozens of attackers have been apprehended or dealt with, (b) numerous high-risk diplomatic missions remain woefully unsafe, (c) long-standing questions remain unanswered, as very serious new ones arise, (d) two of the central players in the cover-up have been promoted by the president, and (e) even those few government officials nominally “punished” for this disgraceful meltdown have been reinstated. Zero accountability. Zero.”
