Terrorism

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]

Lawmaker calls for UN Ambassador Susan Rice to resign due to a "failure of foreign policy and leadership."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton officially delisted the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) from the department’s list of terrorist organizations on Friday, ending a years-long battle by the Iranian dissident group to be removed from the list.

The State Department said the in a statement that the decision was made after taking into account “the MEK’s public renunciation of violence, the absence of confirmed acts of terrorism by the MEK for more than a decade, and their cooperation in the peaceful closure of Camp Ashraf, their historic paramilitary base [in Iraq].”

Sen. John McCain said it was “unbelievable” and “disgraceful” the administration had blamed an anti-Islamic video for the attack.

“I will say that this has now turned into a very bipartisan concern,” Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Thursday.

Sen. Bob Corker accused the Obama administration of hiding what really happened in the attack on the U.S. consulate.

FBI agents tasked with investigating the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi have still not arrived in the city or secured the crime scene, according to a report from CNN.

CNN reported that the FBI was in Tripoli, but had not been given permission to go to Benghazi, where U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed two weeks ago.

"The senior law enforcement official I spoke to said, 'If we get there now, it's not clear that it will be of any use to us,' " said Fran Townsend, a CNN national security analyst.

The United States is beefing up its counterterrorism presence in northern Africa to deal with the Islamist threat in Mali and the surrounding region, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday.

“The United States is stepping up our counterterrorism efforts across the Maghreb and Sahel, and we’re working with the Libyan government and other partners to find those responsible for the attack on our diplomatic post in Benghazi and bring them to justice,” Clinton said. 

“But we are also expanding our counterterrorism partnerships to help countries meet their own growing threats.”

Researchers say terrorist groups are using anxiety about the air strikes to increase their footholds in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen.