Washington theatrics – Inept Secretary of State blames ‘Arab Spring’ for “shattered security” caused by Western Neo-imperial Aggression

Hillary Clinton on Benghazi: ‘Arab Spring shattered security in region’
23 January, 2013 – UK Telegraph

Hillary Clinton said the Arab Spring “shattered” security in North Africa, pointing to instability in Mali and Algeria, as she was finally grilled on the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

In an emotional appearance in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mrs Clinton cast the incident, the first in which a US ambassador was killed since 1988, as part of a long history of such violence as well as the result of regional instability since the Arab Spring of popular revolutions began in 2011.

Speaking in congressional testimony delayed by more than a month because of her ill health, Mrs Clinton offered her first detailed accounting of the first days after the attack, saying she directed the US response from the State Department.

“I take responsibility,” Mrs Clinton said, echoing comments she first made in October and stressing that she has accepted all of the recommendations of an independent review panel that ultimately held lower-level officials responsible.

“Nobody is more committed to getting this right. I am determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger and more secure,” she added.

She cited the recent assault on a gas complex in Algeria as an example of the “increasingly complex threats” in the region.

“Benghazi didn’t happen in a vacuum,” Mrs Clinton said at the start of the hearing. “The Arab revolutions have scrambled power dynamics and shattered security forces across the region.”