On John Kerry’s first days as Secretary of State, he is greeted with further investigations on Benghazi and an attack outside a U.S. Embassy in Turkey. Hillary Clinton resigned as Secretary of State Friday amidst speculation of avoiding the Benghazi conflict, focusing on the 2016 presidential campaign and partnering with her husband on their charity foundations. While she began the week with an interview on CBS’ 60 minutes with President Obama, she testified on Wednesday before the House and Senate regarding the Benghazi attacks and ended the week with her resignation.
Lawmakers are optimistic to work with Kerry as he was not involved in the Benghazi attacks. John Kerry reports his intentions are to work closely with his previous colleagues in the Senate.
U.S. Ambassador Chris Stephens and three other Americans were killed Sept.11, 2012 after the U.S Consulate was attached in Benghazi, Libya. One clear detail from the past four months of the Benghazi investigation is that the American people were misinformed on the details of the attack. Early reports suggested that the attacks were directed at protestors and was not a terrorist attack. Other reports suggest it was an organized group attacking the embassy during the night into the morning hours. It is unclear to what degree the government played in miscommunicating this information and further investigations are occurring to discover what really happened.
Two days prior to her resignation and after months of rescheduling, Hillary Clinton met with the House and Senate last Wednesday on the Benghazi terrorist attacks. Although she took general responsibility, she rejected any wrongdoing and defended her department’s actions questioning responsibility of specific detail. Clinton has reported that the Benghazi terror attacks had nothing to do with her resignation, and she was not planning on serving the Obama Administration for a second term.
On Friday, the U.S. Embassy in Ankara confirmed an explosion at the side entrance. A man detonated a bomb and killed a security guard and himself and injured a woman. U.S. citizens in Turkey were notified of the potential violence at the location and warned to not visit the Embassies’ in Istanbul, Adana or Ankara. Earlier in the year, U.S. citizens were notified on Jan. 4th of a potentially violent protest at Train Station Square in Turkey. The demonstrators were protesting NATO and foreign and U.S. military in Turkey.
The Embassy confirmed that the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (Devrimci Halk Kurtulus Partisi/Cephesi or DHKP/C) is responsible for the attack as they broadcasted this information on their website. While the Embassy confirms threats, the website further states intentions of attacks against, the U.S., NATO and Turkey. The DHKP/C is a radical group in Turkey that believes their government should not be controlled by Western civilization especially NATO and the U.S. The 1,000 member group has conducted several violent attacks since their formation in 1994.
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