martes, 6 de agosto de 2013

Fog of war — and politics - Malay Mail

THE Obama administration's descriptions of what happened Sept 11 in the Libyan city of Benghazi have evolved in a way that some — including congressional Republicans — find suspicious.

Initially, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton described an "attack" in which "heavily armed militants" assaulted a US compound, leading to the death of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.

Four days later, UN Ambassador Susan Rice said that "extremist elements" had joined a demonstration outside the US Consulate against an anti-Muslim video.

A fortnight ago, White House spokesman Jay Carney was calling the incident a "terrorist attack" but adding that it was likely "the result of opportunism" and not planned.

But then last Wednesday, Clinton suggested that al-Qaeda's North African branch, operating from a safe haven in Mali, could have had a hand in the assault. Al-Qaeda and other terrorists, she said, "Are working with other violent extremists to undermine the democratic transitions underway in North Africa, as we tragically saw in Benghazi."

Critics see in this a deliberate attempt by the administration to portray the Benghazi violence as a spontaneous response to the video, as opposed to a terrorist attack that was timed for Sept 11 and possibly planned by al-Qaeda.

Senator John McCain and three other Republicans have demanded in a letter that Rice explain how she "could characterise an attack on a US consulate so inaccurately", while a group of congressmen accused the administration of adopting "a pre-9/11 mind-set — treating an act of war solely as a criminal matter."

In fact, political calculations appear to have infected the rhetoric of all sides. The White House was slow to place the modifier "terrorist" in front of the word "attack," at a time when President Obama claims credit on the campaign trail for the "decimation" of al-Qaeda.

He continued to focus on the offending video — which also provoked demonstrations outside US embassies in Cairo and around the Muslim world — long after it became clear that the Benghazi attack was the work of well-organised combatants who, among other things, accurately aimed mortar fire at an unmarked US compound located half a mile from the consulate.

The sensible and responsible response to this foggy situation is to refrain from further loose talk and allow the investigations by the FBI and the State Department to proceed, with the collaboration of intelligence agencies and the Libyan government and regular briefings for Congress. The probe should cover not only what occurred on Sept 11 and who carried it out, but why US facilities in such a dangerous city did not have better protection. Perhaps sensible and responsible is a lot to ask this close to an election — but given the tragic loss of US life in this case, it ought to be possible.

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