Its official name is the Securing Accountability in Foreign Embassies (SAFE) Act. It might better be called the Scapegoat Act.
Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) is the principal co-sponsor of a bill that would make it easier to discipline lower-level State Department personnel for breach of duty. Now, we’re all for more accountability and more levers to enforce it. But as an answer to the Benghazi attack last Sept. 11 that took the lives of four Americans, it’s at best a distraction.
This newspaper can hardly be accused of being a cheerleader for State Department careerists. Indeed, when State announced — to great fanfare — that four officials were being disciplined for negligence over their handling of the Benghazi attacks, The Post disclosed that no one had been actually punished. But whatever the failings of our lower-level diplomats, the real failure of Benghazi occured at a much higher level in the government.
Rep. Meng says she was inspired to introduce her bill by Hillary Clinton’s call for such legislation during her appearance before a House Foreign Affairs Committee. We’re not surprised.
At that hearing Meng thanked Clinton for being a “role model” and followed up with a softball about multilateralism in Africa and the Middle East. In other words, no hard questions about Clinton’s own responsibilities as secretary of state.
In short, Meng’s bill would not, as she claims, “prevent another Benghazi.” It would ensure only that, if the United States ever suffers another such attack, it will be that much easier for the top brass to send out sacrificial lambs to shield themselves from blame.