Hold your horses wrote:

Attempting to punish or blame these two is akin to punishing military officers for following the policy and orders that were issued to them by their commanders, who were passing them on from the DOD, Joint Chiefs, or the President.

Last time I looked, following flawed orders from on high is not an excuse to avoid punishment from war crimes.

Keep Talking:
You are really grasping for an argument now.
My point was clearly made that these two people were not in positions to create national or departmental policy. I, in no way, implied that they were in anyway following illegal orders. And, since you took my analogy literally, and are attempting to invoke milatary law, I must point out that they are civilians, and did not blindly obey a direct order by a superior officer that they knew to be illegal. So, the "last time you looked" was not in the correct context or through the proper spectrum.
Please allow me to make a more simple (but not perfect) analogy for the simple-minded: how many mortgage brokers have been demoted, prosecuted, or otherwise punished recently? The international banks, investment groups, CEO's, CFO's and the entire "community" of sub-prime mortgage lenders are to blame for the current "crisis" in the mortgage/banking business - not the employees who carried out the policies that were dictated to them (i.e. grant huge mortgages to otherwise unqualified buyers)
And, once again, PLEASE understand that these two people are career Diplomatic Security Service Special Agents without political affiliations. They are NOT politically appointed secretaries, assistant secretaries, or friends of the President, and they likely began there careers during the Carter administration. Please direct your rage, scrutiny, and taxpayer outrage elsewhere, you are barking up the wrong tree here!

Why does everyone act surprised?
She could care less what people think.

StalgTC, Smokr, Bobby Stickers, et al...get the facts

My brother was a career DS used to be SY security officer and served for over 20 years as RSO at posts all over the world.
I am not sure how the structure of the State Department's chain of command is now but I do know how it was when my brother retired as Special Agent in Charge of the Washington Field Office in 1983. I will quote from a 1989 Heritage Foundation document:

"Disdain for Security. The result is a low regard, even disdain, by the State Department for security officers.This is reflected in the pecking order at the typical U.S. embassy.The Regional Security Officer, the local representative of the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, reports to the embassys administrative officer, the foreign service official with typically the lowest prestige in the embassy. What is more, the security officer is considered part of the support staff 7 State Department officials also tend to see embassies as extensions of the US slices of America transplanted abroad. They consider security measures as barriers between themselves and the locals."
Please if anyone knows whether this is still the structure of the chain of command let me know.