Terrorism

The slain ambassador had requested a security team to remain with him after their deployment was scheduled to end.

President Obama's campaign is telling Mitt Romney to "bring it on" with his foreign policy address Monday. 

The U.N. ambassador said she "relied solely and squarely on the information the intelligence community provided" in her initial description of the attack.

American special operations forces are on the ground in Libya and neighboring countries, collecting intelligence on terror cells tied to the Sept. 11 raid on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. 

“If you take a look at those things that were found, they were all unclassified documents," a department spokeswoman said.

FBI agents, accompanied by a "small footprint" of military personnel, traveled to the Benghazi compound where four Americans were killed.

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Three weeks after the attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, the investigation remains in its initial stages with just a handful of suspects detained and the crime scenes minimally secured, The Washington Post reports.

And Reuters quotes Libya's deputy foreign minister, Mohammed Adbel Aziz, as saying that his country has yet to agree with the United States on how the U.S. investigative team will cooperate in the probe, with the country's prosecutor general having given only verbal approval for a joint investigation. 

"We are getting ready for the FBI team to go to Benghazi and meet with our team and start joint investigations together and also visit the site," Adbel Aziz said Tuesday.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will “cooperate fully” with a Republican probe into the security situation in Libya in the lead-up to the Sept. 11 attack that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans, the Obama administration said Tuesday.

Reps. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Jason Chafetz (R-Utah) wrote to Clinton on Tuesday requesting that she address whistleblower reports of previously undisclosed threats and attacks against the consulate in Benghazi. Their letter asks her to answer questions about security at the consulate and puts her on notice that Issa's powerful oversight panel is planning a hearing on the security situation for next Wednesday.

“The secretary intends to respond to the congressmen today,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at her daily briefing Tuesday.

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Every day seems to raise new doubts about the Obama administration's initial public assessment of what happened in Libya on Sept. 11, giving Mitt Romney and congressional Republicans more ammo to attack the president's trustworthiness and competence on foreign policy matters. 

The latest revelation: Participants in the assault on the Benghazi consulate include militants freed during the Arab Spring uprisings, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports that the White House for months has been holding secret meetings on whether to launch unilateral strikes on a resurgent al Qaeda in North Africa.

Your morning global affairs speed read

Republicans are renewing their attacks against the Obama administration's handling of the investigation into the deadly attack in Libya and the president's entire Middle East policy as they seek an advantage on national security five weeks before the election. Lax security at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi where Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed on Sept. 11 in particular has become a campaign issue. [The New York Times]

House Homeland Security Chairman Pete King (R-N.Y.) has called for Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to resign. And presidential candidate Mitt Romney penned an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Monday calling for a “new strategy toward the Middle East.”

“Middle East policy will be undermined unless we restore the three sinews of our influence: our economic strength, our military strength and the strength of our values,” Romney wrote. The Republican candidate is also expected to deliver major foreign policy address within the next few weeks.

Trade slowdown: The growth in world trade is projected to grow by a dismal 2.5 percent this year — down from almost 14 percent in 2010 — dragging down the U.S. recovery. [The Wall Street Journal]