Clinton reiterates responsibility for Libya

The Associated Press

LIMA, Peru -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton repeated her statement Tuesday taking sole responsibility for security at all U.S. diplomatic missions, trying to clear a political obstacle for her boss, President Barack Obama, in the hours before his second debate with Republican Mitt Romney.

"I take responsibility," Clinton said in a written statement. "I'm in charge of the State Department's 60,000- plus people all over the world [at] 275 posts."

Republicans pounced when Vice President Joe Biden said in last week's debate with GOP nominee Paul Ryan that "we weren't told" about requests for extra security at the consulate in Libya where U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

Republican senators put the responsibility on Obama and his national security team.

"I think it's very laudable that she should throw herself under the bus," Sen. John McCain, (R-Ariz.) said Tuesday. "But first of all, responsibility for American security doesn't lie with the secretary of state. It lies with the president of the United States."

Hours later, a top campaign aide said Obama, too, takes responsibility. Deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said "every time an American dies abroad, everybody takes responsibility, from the top down."

Congressional hearings revealed that the State Department was aware of, and rejected, several requests for increased security in Benghazi.

Spokesmen at the State Department and the White House then said Biden's "we" referred to the White House, where such requests would not go.

Clinton backed up Biden's assertion. "The president and the vice president certainly wouldn't be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals," she said Monday.

Initial reports linked the attack to spontaneous protests in several Muslim countries over a film produced in the United States that denigrated the Prophet Muhammad. UN Ambassador Susan Rice insisted on talk shows in the days after the event that investigation up to then did not indicate a planned attack. Within days, the White House said new findings indicated the attack was intentional and coordinated.

"Everyone who spoke tried to give the information they had," Clinton's statement said. "As time has gone on, the information has changed, we've gotten more detail, but that's not surprising."