Susan Rice: No Regrets About My Benghazi Comments
Sunday, 23 Feb 2014 01:13 PM
By Greg Richter
Making her first Sunday morning
appearance since the Sunday after the 2012 Benghazi
attacks, National Security Adviser Susan
Rice says she has no regrets on her words that day which have drawn
scrutiny ever since.
"Because what I said to you
that morning and what I did every day since is to share the best information
that we had at the time," Rice told "Meet the Press" host David
Gregory.
Rice, then U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, appeared on all five
Sunday morning news shows, blaming the Sept. 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi,
Libya,
on an anti-Muslim video produced in the United States.
She admitted to Gregory on Sunday
that not all of the information she shared in 2012 turned out to be 100 percent
correct.
"But the notion that somehow
I or anybody else in the administration misled the American people is patently
false," she said. "And I think that's been amply demonstrated."
Since then, critics of the White
House policy in Libya,
have stressed that the attacks, which left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and
three other Americans dead, were not the result of a spontaneous protest
sparked by the video, but were pre-planned by an al-Qaida-linked group.
"The information I provided,
which I explained to you, was what we had at the moment. It could change,"
Rice told Gregory. "I commented that this was based on what we knew on
that morning, was provided to me and my colleagues and, indeed, to Congress, by
the intelligence community. And that's been well validated in many different
ways since."
Many wondered why Rice, as U.N.
ambassador, even took on the role of spokesman that morning instead of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Rice has said she agreed to the
appearances because Clinton was exhausted from
dealing with Benghazi.
But the controversy over that
appearance may well have cost her the job of Secretary of State. She was being
considered for the post after Clinton
announced she was stepping down, but ultimately, Rice took her name out of
consideration.
Though Obama vowed during the 2012
re-election campaign to bring the perpetrators to justice, Gregory noted that
no one has yet arrested.
Rice said that promise still stands.
"We will get the
perpetrators. We will stay on it till it gets done," she said.
Chris Wallace, host of "Fox
News Sunday," noted that his program had asked the administration for its
views about the violent protests in Ukraine, but that the White House
"decided to put national security adviser Susan Rice on only one show
today," as opposed to all five in 2012.
"Of course, Fox has led the
way in questioning how the administration handled Benghazi. Perhaps Susan Rice didn't want to
answer the tough questions we would have asked," Wallace said.
Rice discussed Ukraine on
"Meet the Press," downplaying claims by ousted President Viktor
Yanukovych that he will not step down.
"He is gone," Rice said,
noting that Yanukovych has packed his things "in an orderly fashion,"
including furniture, and moved out of the capital of Kiev. His plane was prevented from leaving
for Russia
late Saturday night.
"It’s not in the interest of Ukraine or of Russia
or of Europe or of the United
States to see a country split," she
said. "It’s in nobody’s interests to see violence return and the situation
escalate."
Scores have been killed in
protests during the past week. The country is split between those, like
Yanukovych who favor strong ties with Russia,
it's former Soviet leader, and those, such as the protesters, who want to align
with Europe.
"There is not an inherent
contradiction between a Ukraine
that has longstanding historic and cultural ties to Russia,
and a modern Ukraine that
wants to integrate more closely with Europe,"
Rice said.
Susan Rice
Susan
E. Rice is the White House national security adviser for the Barack Obama administration, was the United Nations U.S. ambassador for the Barack Obama administration, a director
at the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank), a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), and the assistant secretary at
the U.S. Department of State.
Note: Hillary Rodham
Clinton was the secretary at the U.S.
Department of State for the Barack
Obama administration, is the principal for the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation, and a member of the
Clinton Global Initiative.
Open
Society Foundations was a funder for the Atlantic Council of the United
States (think tank), and the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton
Foundation.
George
Soros is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, a member of the Clinton Global Initiative, a board member for the International Crisis Group, and was the
chairman for the Foundation to Promote
Open Society.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Brookings Institution
(think tank), the Aspen Institute (think
tank), and the International Rescue Committee.
Thomas R.
Pickering is a director at the Atlantic
Council of the United States (think tank), the co-chair for the International Crisis Group, a distinguished
fellow at the Brookings Institution (think tank), was at lifetime
trustee at the Aspen Institute (think
tank), the United Nations U.S.
ambassador, the under secretary for the U.S.
Department of State, and the chairman of review board that investigated the
2012 attack on U.S. consulate in
Benghazi, Libya in 2013.
J.
Christopher Stevens was killed in the 2012
attack on U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya,
and the U.S. ambassador for Libya.
Muammar
Abu Minyar Al-Qadhafi was the leader of Libya,
and said he loved Condoleezza Rice
& kept scrapbook of her photos.
Condoleezza Rice is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States
(think tank), a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), an
overseer at the International Rescue Committee, Muammar Abu Minyar Al-Qadhafi said he loved her & kept
scrapbook of her photos, was the secretary for the U.S. Department of State, a governor for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Tom
Brokaw is an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, and was
the interim host for Meet the Press.
David
Gregory is the moderator for Meet
the Press.
John
F. Kerry is the secretary U.S.
Department of State for the Barack
Obama administration, a governor for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and married to Teresa Heinz Kerry.
Walter
Isaacson was the chairman for the Broadcasting
Board of Governors, and is the president & CEO for the Aspen
Institute (think tank).
Marc B. Nathanson
was the chairman for the Broadcasting
Board of Governors, and is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Teresa Heinz
Kerry is married to John F. Kerry,
and an honorary trustee at the Brookings Institution (think tank).
Susan
E. Rice was a senior fellow at the Brookings
Institution (think tank), the United
Nations U.S. ambassador for the Barack
Obama administration, a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), the assistant
secretary at the U.S. Department of
State, and is the White House national security adviser for the Barack Obama administration.
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