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In reply to the discussion: Report: SecState candidate Rice "Has a Major Financial Stake in Canadian Tar Sands" i.e. Keystone XL [View all]godai
(2,902 posts)And on Wednesday Senator Susan Collins broadened the Republican attack on Ambassador Rice to include questions about her role in ensuring the security of the US embassy in Nairobi prior to the 1998 bombing.
Noting that Ambassador Rice was serving at that time as the State Departments top Africa official, Senator Collins suggested that Ms Rice had to be aware of the general threat assessment and of the ambassadors repeated requests for more security.
Prudence Bushnell, then the US envoy to Nairobi, said following the attack that killed 212 Kenyans and 12 Americans that she had warned the State Department of the embassys vulnerability to bombs and had urged improvements in the buildings defences.
Recounting her meeting with Ambassador Rice on Wednesday, Senator Collins told reporters: "I asked Ambassador Rice what her role was. She said that she would have to refresh her memory but that she was not involved directly in turning down the request. But surely, given her position as assistant secretary for African affairs, she had to have been aware."
http://www.nation.co.ke/News/US-Embassy-bombing-in-Kenya-haunts-Rice/-/1056/1632558/-/yhfob1z/-/index.html