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Wednesday's global agenda: Libya debate postmortem
Your morning global affairs speed-read
Mitt Romney temporarily lost the debate on the Obama administration's handling of last month's attack in Libya during Tuesday's town hall meeting, as even many conservatives have acknowledged. By focusing narrowly on what the administration said and when — and suggesting, without proof, that the president was seeking to cover up the facts about the attack rather than simply responding to incomplete intelligence — Romney painted himself into a corner and allowed Obama to come out ahead.
Numerous questions remain, however, notably regarding lax security in Benghazi and the slow pace of the investigation into the deaths of four Americans, and Romney will be primed to pounce during Monday's debate on foreign policy. He'll also be ready to point out the obvious inconsistency in Obama's insistence that he called the attack an “act of terror” from the get-go: why, then, did his administration continue to point to an anti-Islam video as a “proximate cause” of the violence for several weeks?
As both sides duke it out for political gain, one loser is already emerging: the truth. As Bloomberg argues in a deeply reported piece from Libya, “there is ample evidence neither the Obama administration’s initial accounts nor Republican portrayals of the incident are accurate.”
In other news:
U.S. ally Great Britain has blocked the extradition of Pentagon hacker Gary McKinnon to America over concerns for his human rights. [The New York Times]
The arrest of another American service member on rape charges is having a snowball effect in Japan. [The Washington Post]
What you might have missed on Global Affairs:
US dubious of Cuba's intention to repeal travel restrictions
Report: US military overtures to Burma worry human-rights activists
Republicans unmoved by Clinton's contrition on Libya
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