Kerry Reinstates Benghazi State
Dept. Officials
by Jack Rogin
by Jack Rogin
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.
Last December, Clinton’s staff told four midlevel officials to clean out their desks and
hand in their badges after the release of the report of its own internal
investigation into the Benghazi attack, compiled by the Administrative Review
Board led by former State Department official Tom Pickering and former Joint
Chiefs chairman Ret. Adm. Mike Mullen. Those four officials have been in legal
and professional limbo, not fired but unable to return to their jobs, for eight
months ... until today.
Former
deputy assistant secretary of State Raymond Maxwell, the only official from the
State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs bureau to lose his job over the Benghazi attack, told The Daily
Beast on Monday he received a memo from the State Department’s human-resources
department informing him his administrative leave status has been lifted and he
should report for duty Tuesday morning.
“No explanation, no briefing, just
come back to work. So I will go in tomorrow,” Maxwell said.
Maxwell previously told The Daily
Beast that the reasons for his administrative leave designation had never been
explained to him. He contended that he had little role in Libya policy and no
involvement whatsoever in the events leading up to the Benghazi attack.
“The
overall goal is to restore my honor,” Maxwell had said.
While
not a formal discplinary action, Maxwell regarded his treatment as punishment
because he was not able to work and was publicly identified as being blamed for
the tragedy that cost the lives of four Americans, including his friend
Ambassador Chris Stevens.
Maxwell
had filed grievances regarding his treatment with the State Department’s Human
Resources Bureau and the American Foreign Service Association, which represents
the interests of foreign-service officers. The other three officials placed on
leave were in the Diplomatic Security Bureau, including then–assistant
secretary Eric Boswell and then–deputy assistant secretary Charlene Lamb.
A
senior State Department official confirmed to The Daily Beast on 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 worldwide 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. At the time of the report’s release, Pickering
said the ARB had determined that blame for the security failures leading up to
the Bengazi attack should be placed at the assistant secretary level but that
no officials had committed breaches of duty that would warrant outright
termination.
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.
Kerry
and his team also considered the long records of the four individuals and the
circumstances leading up the Benghazi attack when considering what to do with
the sidelined officials, the official said. None of the officials will be able
to get their old jobs back, and Boswell will not return as the head of
diplomatic security.
“[Secretary
Kerry] studied their careers and studied the facts,” the official said. “In
order to implement the ARB and to continue to turn the page and shift the
paradigm inside the department, the four employees who were put on
administrative leave last December pending further review, will be reassigned
inside the State Department.”
There
was also concern in Congress that only midlevel officials with little direct
responsibility for the Benghazi attack had been taken out of their jobs
following the ARB report release.
“The
ARB tried to blame everyone but hold no one responsible, except for some of the
lower-level people who were not in control of the situation,” Rep. Jason
Chaffetz (R–Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform
Subcommittee on National Security, told The Daily Beast in May.
UPDATE:
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R–California) issued the
following statement in response to The Daily Beast’s report:
Obama
administration officials repeatedly promised the families of victims and the
American people that officials responsible for security failures would be held
accountable. Instead of accountability, the State Department offered a charade
that included false reports of firings and resignations and now ends in a game
of musical chairs where no one misses a single day on the State Department
payroll. It is now clear that the personnel actions taken by the Department in
response to the Benghazi terrorist attacks was more of a public relations
strategy than a measured response to a failure in leadership.
In
the course of our investigation, the Oversight Committee learned that the State
Department’s review of these four individuals did not include interviews with
them or their supervisors to either substantiate or challenge allegations. The
Oversight Committee will expand its investigation of the Benghazi terrorist
attack to include how a supposed ‘Accountability Review Board’ investigation
resulted in a decision by Secretary Kerry not to pursue any accountability from
anyone.
1 comment:
This is just ANOTHER sign that those who occupy top level positions in the Federal Govt and Obama/Jarrett/Donilan/Brenner/Alexander/Holder bunch intend to do EXACTLY AS THEY PLEASE -- to hell with the Rule of Law and 315 million Americans.
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