NY Times: Hillary Owns Libya War – Left Country A ‘Failed State And Terrorist Haven’

TEL AVIV – As a presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton has been making great efforts to distance herself from the disastrous consequences of the U.S.-NATO intervention in Libya in 2011.

A lengthy article published on the cover of Sunday’s New York Times details Clinton’s central role in convincing President Obama to join the effort to topple Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, leaving Libya, as the Times puts it, a “failed state and a terrorist haven.”

The Times documents Clinton’s role was “critical in persuading Mr. Obama to join allies in bombing Colonel Qaddafi’s forces.””

“In fact, Mr. Obama’s defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, would later say that in a ‘51-49’ decision, it was Mrs. Clinton’s support that put the ambivalent president over the line.”

“The consequences” of her actions, the Times posits, “would be more far-reaching than anyone imagined, leaving Libya a failed state and a terrorist haven, a place where the direst answers to Mrs. Clinton’s questions have come to pass.”

The Times  relates Clinton’s attempts to own the war, with her staffs’ efforts putting her “at the center of everything” related to the Libya intervention.

The Times reports:

Two days before, Mrs. Clinton had taken a triumphal tour of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and for weeks top aides had been circulating a “ticktock” that described her starring role in the events that had led to this moment. The timeline, her top policy aide, Jake Sullivan, wrote, demonstrated Mrs. Clinton’s “leadership/ownership/stewardship of this country’s Libya policy from start to finish.” The memo’s language put her at the center of everything: “HRC announces … HRC directs … HRC travels … HRC engages,” it read.

It was a brag sheet for a cabinet member eyeing a presidential race, and the Clinton team’s eagerness to claim credit for her prompted eye-rolling at the White House and the Pentagon. Some joked that to hear her aides tell it, she had practically called in the airstrikes herself.

 Read the full Times piece here.

Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.