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  October 17, 2012, 12:47 pm

Obama, Romney campaigns battle for post-debate edge over Libya

By Jonathan Easley and Alicia M. Cohn

Both sides are fighting for an advantage over a dramatic moment Tuesday when the moderator corrected an assertion by Romney.

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  October 17, 2012, 10:00 am

National Foreign Trade Council President Bill Reinsch: Opportunity for course correction in Ecuador

By National Foreign Trade Council President Bill Reinsch

Guest Commentary

As much of the world economy struggles to find firm footing, it is an important time to remember that foreign direct investment and commercial development work best when rule of law is placed front and center, especially in developing countries.

Without proper safeguards and the enforcement of treaties, foreign investors often find themselves marginalized to the benefit of domestic industries. When this occurs, other investors frequently pull out of the host country, taking with them valuable capital, expertise, training and improvements in infrastructure.

The result can be devastating to the host country’s economy, and a blow to the standard of living of its people.

One country that currently is heading down this perilous path is Ecuador. In recent months, the country has set several dangerous precedents against free trade and the rule of law.

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  October 17, 2012, 8:42 am

Wednesday's global agenda: Libya debate postmortem

By Julian Pecquet


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.”

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  October 17, 2012, 7:47 am

Ryan presses Obama on 'act of terror' remark

By Alicia M. Cohn

"It was a passing comment about acts of terror in general," said Ryan of Obama's Sept. 12 comments.

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  October 17, 2012, 7:28 am

Biden: Debate showed Romney trying to ‘politicize’ Libya deaths

By Jonathan Easley

Biden said Romney's strategy was to "make it appear that the president didn’t know or didn’t care or was lying."

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  October 16, 2012, 11:20 pm

Conservatives: Romney flubbed Libya

By Julian Pecquet

Conservatives on television and Twitter say their candidate flubbed what should have been an easy attack on the President Obama's handling of the terrorist attack in Libya last month during his second faceoff with President Obama on Tuesday night.

The first death of an American ambassador since 1979, the administration's shifting explanation of the events of the attack, and the revelation that requests for more security had been turned down were seen as easy ways to cut into the president's lead on national security. 

Instead, Mitt Romney got into an argument over whether Obama called the attack an “act of terror” the very next day – an argument he lost on the debate stage.

“Romney had a huge opening that he missed” on Libya, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer said on Fox.

Syndicated columnist Ben Shapiro, editor-at-large at Breitbart.com, said Romney “botched the Libya issue royally.”

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  October 16, 2012, 10:51 pm

Moderator Crowley helps Obama rebut Romney on Libya

By Julian Pecquet

Obama said he called the consulate attack an "act of terror" the next morning, and Crowley vouched for him.

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  October 16, 2012, 6:00 pm

Report: US military overtures to Burma worry human-rights activists

By Julian Pecquet

The Obama administration has sent more than 20 Defense and Homeland Security officials to Burma, London's Guardian newspaper reports, marking the strongest U.S. overture in decades to a military force that ruled the country until 2010 and prompting concerns from human-rights activists.

U.S. officials say the talks will have a strong focus on human-rights issues such as the protection of civilians in conflict zones as the United States continues to lift sanctions in response to recent democratic reforms. 

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Rangoon described it to The Guardian as "an exchange between U.S. department of defense representatives and their Burmese counterparts as part of a broad inter-agency discussion to support continued reform."

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  October 16, 2012, 5:04 pm

US dubious of Cuba's intention to repeal travel restrictions

By Julian Pecquet

Cuba announced Tuesday that it is repealing its widely reviled exit visa in January. The U.S. State Department, however, remains unconvinced that Cubans will finally have the right to leave their country, and ruled out any immediate concessions to encourage further human rights improvements.

“This is certainly a step, but I would advise that even with regard to this step, we await further information,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said during her daily briefing. 

“We need to see how it is implemented. For example, we understand that current Cuban passport holders who don’t already have an exit permit are going to be required to revalidate their passports before they’re allowed to travel.”

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  October 16, 2012, 1:13 pm

Conservative group calls for Clinton's head after Biden's remarks on Libya

By Julian Pecquet

Conservative writer and activist Brent Bozell on Tuesday launched a petition asking for President Obama to fire Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the security lapses in Benghazi, Libya.

Bozell, best known for launching the conservative Media Research Center and the Cybercast News Service, sought to pit Clinton against the rest of the administration by arguing that Vice President Biden's remarks at last week's vice presidential debate disqualified Clinton for service. The petition is being distributed by Bozell's ForAmerica nonprofit organization.

“Thursday night, Vice President Biden shocked the nation when he asserted that Secretary of State Clinton, for weeks, failed to inform the White House of the serious security deficiencies in Benghazi,” Bozell said in a statement. “Mr. Obama, Mr. Biden and the White House continue to lay this mess at the feet of Hillary Clinton.

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