Hillary Clinton: Our Benghazi Mission Was Like Diplomacy ‘From The Nineteenth Century’

WASHINGTON – Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Amb. Chris Stevens’ mission in Benghazi was like a diplomatic mission “from the nineteenth century” due to its lack of high-level technology and intelligence.

“I think it’s fair to say congresswoman, this was, we all knew, a risky undertaking, more reminiscent of the way diplomacy was practiced in the 19th century,” Clinton told Rep. Susan Brooks at Thursday’s House Benghazi Committee hearing, noting the lack of funding for security and the low-technology venture.

“We had no other sources” beside Chris Stevens for the mission, which Clinton said was predicated on the goal “to do reconnaissance…to try to figure out who were the leaders of the insurgency in Benghazi.”

“We were in discussing it with him, unsure of how productive it would be,” Clinton admitted.

“I was personally told by the officials in the State Department, that it was going to be expeditionary diplomacy. It was going to require him to make a lot of judgments on the ground…it could have been ten days, it could have been sixty days.”

Rep. Brooks pointed out that Clinton received 795 emails about Stevens’ mission in Libya in 2011, and only 67 in 2012, the year he died.

“There was no actionable intelligence about any kind of planned attack on our compound in Benghazi,” Clinton said.