The story of what’s been going on in Egypt and Libya just keeps getting worse. We already know that the embassy in Benghazi had no Marine guards at the time of the attack. With a hat tip to Mark Thompson at TIME, though, we now know that the Marines in Cairo were not allowed to carry live ammunition, per the orders of US Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson. He directs us to this Nightwatch blog post which reports:

She did not permit US Marine guards to carry live ammunition, according to USMC blogs. Thus she neutralized any US military capability that was dedicated to preserve her life and protect the US Embassy.

In this respect, she did not defend US sovereign territory and betrayed her oath of office. She neutered the Marines posted to defend the embassy, trusting the Egyptians over the Marines.

How can this be allowed to happen? This is not just an outrage. It is a failure to live up to her oath of office to protect American interests, and lives  have been placed at risk because of this. Heads need to roll.