Policy & Strategy

The senators proposed having one committee investigate the Libya attack rather than the multiple committees doing so now.

Three Republican senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee are calling on Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) to hold hearings on the attack in Benghazi, Libya, “as soon as possible.”

The committee’s ranking member, John McCain (R-Ariz.), along with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.), sent a letter to Levin Friday urging the Armed Services panel to exercise its oversight role and look into the Sept. 11 Libya attack, where four Americans were killed.

The senators noted that four other committees were planning hearings of their own.

Bowing to increased pressure from Washington, Tunisia announced on Friday it will FBI investigators to question an suspected al Qaeda member on his role in the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Libya. 

Hillary Clinton said the U.S. will propose its own list of individuals and organizations to head a unified rebel front.

The unemployment rate for veterans dropped to 6.3 percent in October, its lowest point since November 2008.

The veterans’ unemployment rate is more than a point better than October’s overall 7.9 percent unemployment rate, and it’s down from 7.7 percent in October 2011, according to the employment report released Friday.

The unemployment rate for post-9/11 veterans, meanwhile, ticked up in October to 10 percent, which is down from 12.1 percent a year prior, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

CIA Director David Petraeus is meeting with Egyptian military and intelligence officials in Cairo to discuss U.S. support for the newly democratic Arab state and how to combat Islamic extremist groups from gaining a foothold in the country. 

A new research project has mapped out the rise in insider attacks in Afghanistan.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) released data Wednesday that detailed the insider attacks against U.S. and NATO troops that have occurred from 2007 to 2012.

The attacks, in which Afghans working with NATO forces turn their weapons on supposedly friendly troops, were mapped in several different ways, illustrating the trend that has hampered the transition in Afghanistan this year as the number of attacks have spiked.

China said Thursday it has proposed a new plan for a Syrian cease-fire involving a phased-in regional approach and a transitional governing body.

China laid out its plan when Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met with United Nations-Arab League Syrian envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters that under the "new proposal there are constructive new suggestions such as a ceasefire region by region and phase by phase, and establishing a transitional governing body.”

The Afghan National Security Forces do not have the numbers, experience or the money to support its network of military bases in the country once American forces leave in two years, U.S. officials say.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Wednesday called for a shake-up of the Syrian opposition, saying the exiled leaders of the Paris-based Syrian National Council had failed to unite those fighting on the ground to overthrow the regime of President Bashar Assad.

Clinton said the Obama administration is proposing the names of people and organizations ahead of talks next week in Doha, Qatar. 

“We have recommended names and organizations that we believe should be included in any leadership structure,” Clinton told reporters in Croatia after meeting with President Ivo Josipović. “We’ve made it clear that the SNC can no longer be viewed as the visible leader of the opposition. They can be part of a larger opposition, but that opposition must include people from inside Syria and others who have a legitimate voice that needs to be heard. So our efforts are very focused on that right now.”

She added that “this cannot be an opposition represented by people who have many good attributes but have, in many instances, not been inside Syria for 20, 30, or 40 years. There has to be a representation of those who are on the front lines, fighting and dying today to obtain their freedom.”

Clinton's comments come as Republicans this election season have charged President Obama with failing to show leadership on Syria. The administration faces a challenge between greater involvement and avoiding the appearance that the U.S. is dictating its will on the Syrian people.