The Star Online: World Updates
The Star Online: World Updates |
- Inquiry harshly criticizes U.S. State Department over Benghazi attack
- Inquiry harshly criticizes U.S. State Department over Benghazi attack
- Amid China tensions, Southeast Asia looks to India
| Inquiry harshly criticizes U.S. State Department over Benghazi attack Posted: 18 Dec 2012 08:56 PM PST By Arshad Mohammed and Anna Yukhananov and Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Security at the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya was grossly inadequate to deal with a September 11 attack that killed a U.S. ambassador and three others because of failures within the State Department, an official inquiry found on Tuesday.
In a scathing assessment, the review cited "leadership and management" deficiencies at two department offices, poor coordination among officials and "real confusion" in Washington and in the field over who had the responsibility, and the power, to make decisions that involved policy and security concerns. The attack killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans and set off a political furore as Republicans used the issue to attack President Barack Obama before the November 6 election in which he won a second term in office. The report's harsh assessment seemed likely to tarnish the four-year tenure of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said in a letter accompanying the review that she would adopt all of its recommendations. "Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department ... resulted in a special mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place," said the unclassified version of the report by the official "Accountability Review Board." The board specifically faulted the department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, the regional office which is responsible for the Middle East and North Africa, and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, its law enforcement and security arm. The five-member board said U.S. intelligence provided no "specific tactical warning" of the attack and that there was "little understanding of militias in Benghazi and the threat they posed to U.S. interests" in the eastern Libyan city, where the central government has little influence. The incident has raised questions about the adequacy of security at U.S. embassies around the globe and where to draw the line between protecting American diplomats in dangerous places while giving them enough freedom to do their jobs. Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the assessment reflected poorly on Clinton and its recommendations would probably make life harder for diplomats in the field "This is a mark against Secretary Clinton. While she was not singled out, the report highlighted the lack of leadership and organization on security issues, and those fall into her bailiwick," Alterman said. "The report, however, relies a little too much on bureaucratic fixes," he added. "Sprinkling people throughout the system who are not only empowered to say 'no,' but have an institutional interest in doing so, will make it harder for diplomats to get out of tightly guarded facilities." DID LOCAL GUARDS LEAVE GATE OPEN? The report faulted as "misplaced" the mission's dependence for security support on the "armed but poorly skilled" Libyan February 17 Martyrs' Brigade militia members and unarmed guards hired by State Department contractor Blue Mountain Libya. No Blue Mountain guards were outside the compound immediately before the attack to provide early warning, which was their responsibility. The report raised the possibility that Blue Mountain guards left the "pedestrian gate open after initially seeing the attackers and fleeing the vicinity. They had left the gate unlatched before." The board found little evidence that the February 17 guards alerted Americans to the attack or swiftly summoned more militia members to help once it was under way. There had been questions of reliability in the weeks preceding the attack. "At the time of Ambassador Stevens' visit, February 17 militia members had stopped accompanying special mission vehicle movements in protest over salary and working hours," the report said. The board recommended that the State Department create a new, senior position to oversee security at "high threat" posts, to strengthen security at such posts beyond what is usually provided by host governments, and to consult outside experts on "best practices" for operating in dangerous environments. The department should also hire more security personnel at dangerous posts, ensure key policy and security staff serve there for at least a year and consider making it easier to punish those who perform poorly in future security incidents. The political uproar in the United States over the Benghazi attack has already claimed one victim. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, widely tipped as a front-runner to replace Clinton when she steps down as secretary of state early next year, last week withdrew her name from consideration, saying she wished to avoid a potentially disruptive Senate confirmation process. Republican lawmakers had blasted Rice for comments she made on several television talk shows in the aftermath of the attack in which she said preliminary information suggested the assault was the result of protests against an anti-Muslim video made in California rather than a premeditated strike. The review, however, concluded that no protest took place before the attack. Rice has said she was relying on talking points drawn up by U.S. intelligence officials. (Additional reporting by Paul Eckert and Andrew Quinn.; Editing by Christopher Wilson)
Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| Inquiry harshly criticizes U.S. State Department over Benghazi attack Posted: 18 Dec 2012 08:06 PM PST By Arshad Mohammed, Anna Yukhananov and Tabassum Zakaria WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Security at the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya was grossly inadequate to deal with a September 11 attack that killed a U.S. ambassador and three others because of systemic failures within the State Department, an official inquiry found on Tuesday.
In a scathing assessment, the review cited "leadership and management" deficiencies at two bureaus of the department, poor coordination among officials in Washington and "real confusion" on the ground over who had the responsibility, and the power, to make decisions that involved policy and security concerns. The attack killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans and set off a political furore as Republicans used the issue to attack President Barack Obama before the November 6 election. The report's harsh assessment seemed likely to tarnish the four-year tenure of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said in a letter accompanying the review that she would adopt all of its recommendations. "Systemic failures and leadership and management deficiencies at senior levels within two bureaus of the State Department ... resulted in a special mission security posture that was inadequate for Benghazi and grossly inadequate to deal with the attack that took place," said the report by the official "Accountability Review Board." The report specifically faulted the State Department's Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and its Bureau of Diplomatic Security. The incident has raised questions about the adequacy of security at U.S. embassies around the globe and where to draw the line between protecting American diplomats in dangerous places while giving them enough freedom to do their jobs. Jon Alterman, head of the Middle East program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said the assessment reflected poorly on Clinton and its recommendations would probably make life harder for diplomats in the field "This is a mark against Secretary Clinton. While she was not singled out, the report highlighted the lack of leadership and organization on security issues, and those fall into her bailiwick," Alterman said. "The report, however, relies a little too much on bureaucratic fixes," he added. "Sprinkling people throughout the system who are not only empowered to say 'no,' but have an institutional interest in doing so, will make it harder for diplomats to get out of tightly guarded facilities." The political uproar in the United States over the Benghazi attack has already claimed one victim. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, widely tipped as a front-runner to replace Clinton when she steps down as secretary of state early next year, last week withdrew her name from consideration, saying she wished to avoid a potentially disruptive Senate confirmation process. Republican lawmakers had blasted Rice for comments she made on several television talk shows in the aftermath of the attack in which she said preliminary information suggested the assault was the result of protests over an anti-Muslim video made in California rather than a premeditated strike. The review. however, concluded that no protest took place before the attack. Rice has said she was relying on talking points drawn up by U.S. intelligence officials. (Editing by Christopher Wilson)
Copyright © 2012 Reuters | ||
| Amid China tensions, Southeast Asia looks to India Posted: 18 Dec 2012 08:01 PM PST NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The dozens of vehicles that roared into northeast India this week on a rally from Indonesia symbolize deeper ties between the South Asian giant and Southeast Asia, but the dreadful roads along several parts of the 8,000 km (5,000 mile) journey also show how much remains to be done. The caravan crossed jungles and mountains in eight nations before reaching the remote Indian state of Manipur, bordering Myanmar, in an event promoting a high-level meeting between India and leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in New Delhi on Thursday and Friday. "The roads crumbled to begin with and then ceased to exist," said participants Bijoy Kumar and Vinod Nookla in a blog published by Mahindra & Mahindra, the Indian company that supplied the XUV 500 vehicles that participated. "In place of tarmac there were boulders and the road started becoming narrower by the kilometre." The meeting in New Delhi will mainly be a ceremonial affair to mark 20 years of cooperation, India's Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid told Reuters. But it is held against the backdrop of Chinese assertiveness in the potentially oil and gas-rich South China Sea. Some ASEAN countries contest claims by China in the waters, making it the biggest potential flashpoint in the region. The United States has called for calm, but some ASEAN nations are also looking to India, the other regional heavyweight, to get involved. "They want India to play a larger role. Those concerns are only increasing given the uncertain situation that is emerging," said C. Raja Mohan, a strategic affairs expert at the Observer Research Foundation think-tank. For India, improved relations with Southeast Asia will give it entry into one of the fastest-growing economic regions in the world and a source of raw materials needed for its own growth. But the broken-down roads between India and the nations to its southeast, a shortage of direct flights and constraints such as India's tiny diplomatic corps - comparable in size to New Zealand's - mean India trails China in relations with the region. Trade between India and the 10-member ASEAN was up to $80 billion (49.1 billion pounds) last year compared with $47 billion in 2008. An agreement on free trade in services and investment could be signed at the New Delhi meeting. Direct flights from Delhi to Myanmar on Indian airline SpiceJet are due to begin in the next few weeks. But India's role in the region is dwarfed by that of China, which enjoyed trade worth a record $363 billion with ASEAN countries in 2011 in an already established free trade area. "What we need is far greater connectivity," Khurshid said in an interview, mentioning roads, railways and flights as areas needing work. "There is still a lot that can done, and we hope that over the next few months and years we will see considerable improvement," said Khurshid, who also described a 10-year plan to double the number of diplomats to reflect India's growing global ambitions. PARTICIPANTS The first meeting of ASEAN leaders in India is a watershed in India's efforts to build ties with Southeast Asia. The prime ministers of Singapore, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam, the presidents of Myanmar and Indonesian, and the vice president of the Philippines are scheduled to attend. The other nations in the group are Thailand, Laos, and Brunei. India walks a delicate line to balance its increasingly close partnership with Washington as President Barack Obama steps up the U.S. presence in Asian, and the reality of living next door to China, Asia's fastest-growing superpower. Khurshid played down the possibility of any tension with China and reiterated that India had no territorial claims in the South China Sea. "I don't think this is something that will reach hostility or conflict, there are differences obviously - China has a very clear perception about its sovereignty and it also has a very clear idea of how it wants to resolve these issues. "It's not something that cannot be resolved, it is certainly not something in which we are directly involved, we've said categorically that there should be compliance and respect for the law of the sea." But India's "Look East" policy and a need to lock down energy supplies for its rapidly growing industrial sector are pushing it to gradually step up military activities in the region with more joint exercises and visits. This month, India's navy chief said his force was ready to deploy naval vessels to the South China Sea to protect its oil-exploration interests there if needed. India is exploring an oil and gas block with Vietnam in the disputed waters and in future is likely to bring more liquefied natural gas through the Malacca Straits. Khurshid said that along with counter-terrorism, energy security was among India's top foreign policy priorities. "We have become far more resource orientated because development is of course heavily dependent on resources. We import 80 percent of our fuel," Khurshid said. Ian Storey, senior fellow of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, said India had yet to impress many ASEAN partners, despite strong ties to Vietnam, "India is not a serious player in Southeast Asia, it has aspirations to be a player, but it has a long way to go," he said. "A common view is that India talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk." (Additional reporting by John Chalmers; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan) Copyright © 2012 Reuters |
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