Sen. Paul corners Kerry on the effort.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Secretary of State John Kerry found himself in a somewhat embarrassing situation on Tuesday, during a Senate hearing on the State Department’s efforts (or lack thereof) to defend the US Embassy in Benghazi in 2012, over his ignorance regarding the “Make Chai Not War” campaign that the State Department initiated before Kerry’s tenure.
“Make Chai Not War” was a comedy tour that the US State Department sent to India in January of 2012, with the goal of promoting American culture in India. The tour was comprised of three established Indian American comics – Azhar Usman, Hari Kondabolu and Rajiv Satyal, who performed in cities around India: Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Patna, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Durgapur.
The entire tour reportedly cost American taxpayers $88,000, and was brought up by Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) during Kerry’s hearing in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Paul raised the topic of “Make Chai Not War” as an example of an expenditure that the State Department was willing to make in the months leading up the Benghazi tragedy, and contrasted it with the fact that the US government apparently did nothing to fortify its embassy in the volatile city.
Paul highlighted other examples of “frivolous” spending by the State Department, including $650,000 on Facebook ads for various initiatives, $700,000 for landscaping around the US Embassy in Brussels, and an astonishing five million dollars spent on crystal glassware for various embassies around the world, reported the Press Trust of India.
The reason for bringing all of this spending up is because, in response to criticism as to why more wasn’t done to protect the diplomats working at the Benghazi Embassy, the State Department said that they simply didn’t have the money to pay for it
Kerry was still a US Senator for Massachusetts at the time of the Benghazi attacks, and was apparently unaware that the “Make Chai Not War” campaign ever existed. When asked about what he thought of the State Department’s spending in 2012, Kerry reportedly asked “When did the comedians go to India? I’m curious.”
Hillary Clinton was the Secretary of State at that time, and was also questioned about “Make Chai Not War” during her Senate hearing in January of 2013. Kerry was not present, according to the Washington Post, but Paul was, and it was he again who asked why money was spent on this imitative – the fruits of which arguably never came about – but not on helping protect the Benghazi Embassy.
The Embassy in Benghazi, Libya was attacked on September 11, 2012, by Islamic religious fundamentalists. The attack claimed the lives of four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens; four other Americans were injured, along with seven Libyans. The White House immediately came under intense media and political scrutiny for not doing more to help its own people at the diplomatic outpost, and the tragedy was used heavily by opponents of President Barack Obama during his 2012 re-election campaign.