By Hanna Humphreys
Benghazi. Now a household name regarding the Clinton email investigation and a reference to one of the most defining military defense errors in recent American history, the eastern Libyan city shares a name with what is unquestionably one of the darkest marks on 2016 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton’s, as well as President Obama’s, political career.
However frequently discussed, the details of the 2012 attacks on the US diplomatic and intelligence facility remain complicated, and investigations have yet to reveal that the Obama administration is at fault in any way, be it for failing to stop the attack which killed four Americans, or for intentionally providing a false cover up regarding the circumstances under which it occurred.
The confusion behind the Benghazi investigation is especially relevant currently, as the first rounds of Clinton’s personal emails are released to the public.
On September 11, 2012 a group of radical Islamists stormed the US diplomacy mission, an act which the Obama administration, including then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, indicated grew out of a mob protesting an anti-Islam film. This was later proven false, and the administration clarified their response, though still declared the attack was a surprise.
However, many conservatives saw this as irresponsible foreign policy, for Benghazi, Libya was a political tinderbox, and radicals in the area, some affiliated with al-Qaeda, had indicated several warnings that they had few reservations against intentionally killing American diplomats. A similar attack had been carried out on the British ambassador’s convoy just three months previously.
Benghazi has loomed over Obama’s presidency and is again bound to become an overwhelming debate in the upcoming elections. Any real evidence has yet to turn up against Obama, Clinton, or their staff despite the fact that there were some general threats of which the CIA was aware before the attack.
Critics of the Obama administration claim it is soft on terrorism, and hence the Benghazi attacks continuously arise in political discourse. However, the bipartisan Senate Intelligence are aware that the military would not have been able to stop the attack the night it occurred; it was too sudden and too advanced. The real argument lies in whether the diplomats should have been provided more security measures, or perhaps whether they should have been there at all.
So far, Clinton’s emails have yet to reveal any information that was not released to the public within the year after the Benghazi attack occurred. White House press secretary Josh Earnest issued a public statement that the emails do not contain any new information, and the State Department confirmed via Twitter.