Terrorism

The administration touts Fatima, a Pakistani firm, after Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) blocked the company's proposed fertilizer plant. 

President Obama will host the leaders of Sierra Leone, Senegal, Malawi and Cape Verde Thursday afternoon.

The Obama administration on Wednesday further softened its opposition to the flow of arms headed to Syrian rebels from allied nations.

The White House previously described military aid from Arab governments to forces seeking the ouster of President Bashar Assad as “unproductive,” expressing concerns that more weapons would only intensify the bloody two-year civil war.

But on Wednesday, the State Department declined to criticize arms shipments to rebel forces.

The spending bill Congress sent to President Obama Thursday night zeroes out funding for a Pakistan military aid program that was a key part of David Petraeus's counterterrorism plan when he was chief of Central Command.

The Pakistani Counterinsurgency Capability Fund called for $3 billion to be spent on helicopters, equipment and training for Pakistan's special operations forces between 2009 and 2014. Some in Washington were concerned the fund would circumvent the State Department's role in overseeing foreign military assistance.

Two years ago, the fund was moved back into the State Department, with the Pentagon retaining much of its authority on how it was to be used. Now, with Petraeus out of the picture, lawmakers have voted to terminate funding altogether — at least until the end of September.

The State Department on Thursday designated Mali's Ansar al-Dine as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, banning American residents and corporations from providing material support for the group and blocking its property in U.S. jurisdiction.

Ansar al-Dine has been linked to al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The group was formed in 2011 by Iyad ag Ghali, who was designated a terrorist last month.

Al-Dine was behind the takeover of several Malian towns, including Gao and Timbuktu, last year. The group's push southward and the conservative Islamist laws it imposed in its wake prompted France to intervene in January with aerial and intelligence support from the United States.

“I believe the attitude of the House leadership is changing when it comes to Benghazi,” Graham said.

Rep. Wolf claimed sources had told him that as many as 30 Americans may have been wounded in the attack.

A suspect in last year's terrorist attack in Benghazi has been captured in Libya, according to CNN. 

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Republicans are demanding that the Obama administration give them access to the “as many as 30” Americans they say were wounded in the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi six months ago Monday.

Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) in a March 1 letter to Secretary of State John Kerry said he'd been told that some 30 Americans were injured in the attack that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. He said seven  wounded Americans had been treated at Walter Reed, and Kerry himself confirmed last week that he's visited one of the survivors there. 

“Six months later, none of the survivors have been identified or questioned by Congress about the attack or credited for their heroism. We don’t know their names, conditions or stories,” Wolf said Monday. He called the lack of congressional access to people with first-hand information about the attack “shameful” and renewed his call for a select committee to investigate the attack.

Pressure has been steadily building on the administration to provide more answers.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I) dismissed lawmakers’ criticisms over trying a former al Qaeda spokesman in New York City as partisan politics and said he’s confident that the trial won’t present a security risk.

“I suspect a lot of the controversy will be partisan controversy, part of the political games that are played in Washington,” Bloomberg told CBS.

Bloomberg did not second-guess the Obama administration’s decision to try former al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith in federal court rather than taking him to Guantanamo Bay and trying him before a military tribunal.

The decision has drawn attacks from a number of Republicans.