Libya

Re "Libya becomes a point of contention," Oct. 13 Let's assume there was a security error at the consulate in Libya. Still, the State Department likely had real-time information on what was happening at the consulate on Sept. 11 and knew it was a terrorist attack. So at a minimum you must assume that these facts were passed on to the president by the next day. From that point forward, the White House engaged in misdirection. When you are not telling the truth for political reasons and use others in your administration to assist in the misdirection, you have a president who places his own political fortunes ahead of the country.

President Obama was asked who was responsible for rejecting requests for added security for U.S. diplomatic facilities in Libya before the Sept. 11 attack that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.  Obama didn't offer a name, but the answer emerged at a House Oversight Committee hearing last week: Charlene Lamb, deputy assistant secretary for international programs at the State Department's bureau of diplomatic security. Lamb acknowledged at the hearing that she had declined a request to extend the term of a 16-member military team that had been based at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, which is 400 miles from Benghazi, where the attack occurred.

NEW YORK - On his way in to headline Monday night's gala gathering for Mitt Romney's top donors, former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani threw an opening punch on the Republican nominee's behalf before Tuesday's debate - calling the Obama administration's evolving explanations on the terrorist attack in Libya “a scandal” and framing the president's record as one of “provocative weakness.” Giuliani arrived at the Intrepid Sea, Air &...

It was probably too much to expect that Republicans would ignore the political possibilities in the deadly attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya and the Obama administration's evolving explanations of what exactly occurred. But, predictable or not, their indictment is so overbroad as to be self-defeating. Not only is the administration accused of disregarding warnings about the security situation in Benghazi (with the implication that the attack could have been avoided), but Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

WASHINGTON -- A top Republican said more money should be spent to beef up diplomatic security after the attack on the U.S. compound in Libya, as Republicans continued their assault of President Obama's handling of the situation. "We need to start spending that money and not claim that we don't have enough money," said Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the House oversight committee, Sunday on "Face the Nation. " "If there needs to be supplemental money, of course Congress would respond.

RICHMOND, Va. - Mitt Romney called out Vice President Joe Biden on Friday for saying during the vice presidential debate that he was unaware that U.S. diplomatic officials in Libya had requested additional security before the attack that claimed the lives of four Americans, including an ambassador. Earlier this week, State Department officials testified in Congress that they had requested additional protection. “He's doubling down on denial,” Romney told about 3,300 supporters at a sunny outdoor rally in a parking lot here.

WASHINGTON - The lethal attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya last month has created an unexpected casualty: White House hopes that President Obama would remain relatively unscathed on foreign policy issues in the presidential race. Questions about whether the Obama administration ignored requests for beefed-up security in Libya and why a sizable CIA presence in Benghazi failed to foresee an attack by dozens of armed extremists have become a distraction - if not a problem - for the president's reelection campaign.

A skirmish over the handling of a terrorist attack in Libya that claimed the lives of an ambassador and three other Americans drew the opening salvos in Thursday night's vice presidential debate. When asked whether the attack was a massive intelligence failure, Vice President Joe Biden defended the administration's response to the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, saying that administration officials acted on the intelligence they had at the time, and vowed that a full investigation would occur to determine the lapses that allowed Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens to be killed along with three other Americans.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Mitt Romney lashed out at President Obama and his campaign for saying that the GOP ticket had politicized the killing of an ambassador and three other Americans in Libya, saying Thursday evening that their reaction shows that they do not understand the threats facing  the nation. “They said this and I quote: 'The entire reason this has become the political topic it is, is because of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.' No, President Obama, it's an issue because this is the first time in 33 years that a United States ambassador has been assassinated,” Romney told thousands of supporters in a stadium here.