The State Department’s last living Benghazi victim

As Scott has noted, Secretary of State Kerry has reinstated all four of the State Department employees placed on administrative leave after the ARB investigation of the Benghazi fiasco. All four have been reassigned to positions within the Department.

I have no quarrel with Kerry’s decision. First, the four appear to be scapegoats to one degree or another. Second, the ARB report found that there was no breach of duty that would warrant disciplinary action against any of the four under existing rules. Third, the ARB report is too shoddy, in any event, to provide the basis for fair disciplinary action against the four.

Kerry hopes, I assume, that his decision puts the Benghazi matter behind him personally, if not the administration. But there is still a loose end. His name is Gregory Hicks.

Hicks, you will recall, is the former deputy ambassador to Libya who criticized the State Department’s handling of the Benghazi matter before a House Committee in May. He has never been faulted for Benghazi in any way and, in fact, has received praise for his conduct.

But according to his attorney, Victoria Toensing, Hicks is still waiting for reassignment to a new position. The State Department, Toensing says, claims it can’t find any position appropriate for Hicks.

With the reassignment of the four scapegoats, the whistleblower remains the State Department’s last living Benghazi victim.

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