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	<title>SwamplandCategory: Libya &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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	<description>Political insight from the Beltway and beyond</description>
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		<title>SwamplandCategory: Libya &#124; Swampland &#124; TIME.com</title>
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		<title>Petraeus Email Objected to Benghazi Talking Points</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/15/white-house-releases-trove-of-benghazi-documents/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/15/white-house-releases-trove-of-benghazi-documents/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 May 2013 22:31:50 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / Nedra Pickler</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95759</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) — Then CIA-Director David Petraeus objected to the final talking points the Obama administration used after the deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, because he wanted to see more details revealed to the public, according to emails released Wednesday by the White House. Under pressure in the investigation that continues eight months after the attacks, the White House on Wednesday released 99 pages of emails and a single page of hand-written notes made by Petraeus&#8217; deputy, Mike Morell, after a meeting at the White House on Saturday, Sept. 15. On that page, Morell scratched out from the CIA&#8217;s early drafts of talking points mentions of al-Qaida, the experience of fighters in Libya, Islamic extremists and a warning to the Cairo embassy on the eve of the attacks of calls for a demonstration and break-in by jihadists. Petraeus apparently was displeased by the removal of so much of the material his analysts initially had proposed for release. The talking points were sent to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice to prepare her for an appearance on news shows on Sunday, Sept. 16, and also to members of the House Intelligence Committee. &#8220;No mention of the cable to Cairo, either?&#8221; Petraeus wrote after receiving Morell&#8217;s edited version, developed after an intense back-and-forth among Obama administration officials. &#8220;Frankly, I&#8217;d just as soon not use this, then.&#8221; (MORE: The Lingering Questions About the Benghazi Controversy) Petreaus&#8217; email comes at the end of extensive back-and-forth between officials at the CIA, White House, State Department and other agencies weighing in on a public explanation for the Sept. 11, 2012, attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans The emails were partially blacked out, including removal of names of senders and recipients who are career employees at the CIA and elsewhere. The emails show only minor edits were requested by the White House, and most of the objections came from the State Department. &#8220;The White House cleared quickly, but State has major concerns,&#8221; read an email that a CIA official sent to<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95759&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/obama-irs_subr.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Barack Obama</media:title>
		</media:content>

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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Senate Panel Approves U.S. Ambassador to Libya</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/14/senate-panel-approves-u-s-ambassador-to-libya/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/14/senate-panel-approves-u-s-ambassador-to-libya/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 20:57:58 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / Donna Cassata</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Foreign Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95635</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) — The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday approved President Barack Obama&#8217;s nominee for U.S. ambassador to Libya, a post that has been vacant since insurgents attacked the diplomatic mission in Benghazi last September, killing Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. With little discussion, the panel on a voice vote approved Deborah Kay Jones, a career diplomat who has served in Kuwait, Argentina, Syria, Iraq and Turkey. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the committee, praised Jones and spoke of the imperative of filling the job amid increasing lawlessness in Libya. On Monday, a deadly car bomb exploded near a hospital in Benghazi and officials gave conflicting numbers on the death toll. (MORE: House Republicans Go After the Obama Administration over Benghazi Attack) &#8220;There is simply no substitute for having a confirmed U.S. ambassador on the ground, reaching outside the wire to the Libyan people as they shape a safer, more productive and inclusive future,&#8221; Menendez said. At her confirmation hearing earlier this month, Jones promised to work to ensure sufficient security at U.S. facilities, saying the ambassador was the principle security officer and vowing to simply pick up the phone and call Washington if she felt security was lax. If confirmed by the full Senate, Jones would take over an ambassadorship that has been vacant for nearly eight months. The Obama administration&#8217;s response to the attacks has been the subject of a long-running and bitter dispute with congressional Republicans. The GOP has accused the administration of trying to cover up details of the assault and its aftermath. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., ratcheted up the political criticism on Tuesday, saying the GOP was hyperventilating about the Benghazi attack. &#8220;It&#8217;s about smear politics and nothing else,&#8221; Reid told reporters. He highlighted the Republican budget cuts, including the $300 million from the Obama administration&#8217;s request of $2.6 billion for diplomatic and embassy security last year. &#8220;Again and again Republicans have blocked, opposed or reduced embassy security funding &#8230;. so again, where is the outrage on this. The real fact<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95635&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/14/senate-panel-approves-u-s-ambassador-to-libya/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Still More Benghazi</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/11/still-more-benghazi/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/11/still-more-benghazi/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 11 May 2013 13:10:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joe Klein</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[In the Arena]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95399</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Seems to me that Andrew Sullivan has nailed the import of the latest email revelations. But there is one point to note for future reference. I&#8217;m not so sure that Nuland&#8217;s reference to her &#8220;buildings (sic) leadership&#8221; means Hillary Clinton. There is a cloud of highly defensive&#8211;sometimes to the point of weirdly paranoid&#8211;advisers who have always surrounded Clinton. (Think Sid Blumenthal, back in the day). It&#8217;s part of the DNA of Hillaryland. In my experience, this over-protectiveness often works to Clinton&#8217;s disadvantage. And it will be a real detriment to her presidential campaign, should she choose to launch one. I&#8217;m not sure that Clinton herself forced the talking points massage; but &#8220;Hillary Clinton&#8221;&#8211;the bubble that surrounded the Secretary&#8211;may well have. One other point: the amount of time spent on these talking points was obscene, and not at all unusual in the current Administration, or others in the recent past. The amount of time our leaders spend in spinning rather than governing or leading drives me absolutely nuts.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95399&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/11/still-more-benghazi/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">jklein1271</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>Michael Crowley on the Politics of Benghazi</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/10/crowley-on-benghazi/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/10/crowley-on-benghazi/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 10 May 2013 15:13:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Katy Steinmetz</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95340</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[TIME&#8217;s Michael Crowley joined Morning Joe to talk about the attack last September that continues to dominate conversation in Washington D.C.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95340&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/10/crowley-on-benghazi/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/h_50678343.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/h_50678343.jpg?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/h_50678343.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prepares to testify before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Jan. 23, 2013.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/05bfb17f05eff70efc8061bb1a213e86?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">Katy Steinmetz</media:title>
		</media:content>
	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Terror, Security, and Hillary 2016: Making Sense of the Benghazi Hearings</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/death-security-and-hillary-2016-making-sense-of-the-benghazi-hearings/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/death-security-and-hillary-2016-making-sense-of-the-benghazi-hearings/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 20:40:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95165</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[To Republicans, the deadly September 11 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, was a huge, conscience-shocking security scandal, one that Democrats are shamelessly trying to cover up. To Democrats, the attack was the sort of tragedy that inevitably comes from practicing diplomacy in a dangerous world, one that Republicans are shamelessly exploiting for political gain. Those two views came no closer to agreement during a Wednesday House hearing on the subject. The hearing by the Republican-led House Government Oversight &#38; Reform Committee was not the first on the events surrounding the death of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans. Hillary Clinton, who was running the State Department at the time of the attack, testified for hours back in January. But the story was given fresh dramatic life and new narrative details through the testimony of two self-described whistle blowers who had not previously spoken in public: Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism; Gregory Hicks, the former deputy of mission in Libya. Joining them was Eric Nordstrom, a former regional security officer in Libya, who had previously testified on the issue. Virtually no one disputes the basic facts of that violent night, in which a group of militants stormed the compound and battled the Americans for hours. But the sharply different interpretations of why the attacks happened, and how the Obama administration responded, have left many people understandably confused. So has the way &#8220;Benghazi&#8221; has come to describe several different arguments related to the incident. Here&#8217;s a breakdown by TIME&#8217;s Washington staff of the key plot lines, and what we know about them: Could the U.S. military have done more to help? Not according to the Pentagon – and the hearing’s key witness. Aircraft that might have buzzed the compound where the second pair of Americans died – and scared the militants away &#8212; were 900 miles north in Italy. &#8220;Time and distance are a tyranny of their own,&#8221; Admiral James Stavridis, who responded to the attacks as the NATO commander,<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95165&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/death-security-and-hillary-2016-making-sense-of-the-benghazi-hearings/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/benghazi1.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/benghazi1.jpg?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/benghazi1.jpg?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">From left: Mark Thompson, Gregory Hicks, and  Eric Nordstrom are sworn in before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C., on May 8, 2013.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/25edc643b57a776abbc75835c699af51?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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		<title>Lindsey Graham on Today&#8217;s Benghazi Hearings</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/lindsey-graham-on-todays-benghazi-hearings/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/lindsey-graham-on-todays-benghazi-hearings/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 15:05:40 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Alex Rogers</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95112</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) joined Morning Joe today to discuss the congressional hearing on the September 11 Benghazi embassy attack. He blamed President Obama&#8217;s administration for misleading the public for political gain, and believes the attack symbolizes a wider U.S. failure in the Middle East. &#8221;I think there is a foreign policy gone wrong here,&#8221; said Graham. &#8220;I think the greater story is that the light footprint approach to the Mideast at a time of turmoil is not working.&#8221;<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95112&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-08-at-10-37-44-am.png?w=200</featured_image>
		<media:thumbnail url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-08-at-10-37-44-am.png?w=200" />
		<media:content url="http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/screen-shot-2013-05-08-at-10-37-44-am.png?w=200" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">lindsey graham</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/509f545dfcf07266c1eb847a42170416?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">drogers1271</media:title>
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		<item>
		<title>GOP Benghazi Probe Stokes Political Controversy</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/gop-benghazi-probe-stokes-political-controversy/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/gop-benghazi-probe-stokes-political-controversy/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 10:33:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>AP / DONNA CASSATA</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=95086</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[(WASHINGTON) &#8212; House Republicans insist the Obama administration is covering up information about last year&#8217;s deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, rejecting administration assurances to the contrary and stoking a controversy with implications for the 2016 presidential race. Republicans on five House committees are pressing ahead with their own investigations despite an exhaustive independent review that blistered the State Department, more than 25,000 pages of documents sent to Congress and hours of testimony from former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. (MORE: House Republicans Go After the Obama Administration over Benghazi Attack) Three State Department witnesses, including the former deputy chief in Libya, are scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee at a session certain to attract attention after recent disclosures from the panel&#8217;s Republicans. The hearing is the latest in a long-running and bitter dispute between the administration and congressional Republicans who have challenged the White House&#8217;s actions before and after the Benghazi attack. The scheduled witnesses were Mark Thompson, acting deputy assistant secretary for counterterrorism; Gregory Hicks, the former deputy of mission in Libya; and Eric Nordstrom, a former regional security officer in Libya who testified before the panel in October. On Sept. 11, 2012, two separate attacks hours apart on the U.S. facility in Benghazi killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. An independent panel led by former top diplomat Thomas Pickering and retired Gen. Mike Mullen concluded that management and leadership failures at the State Department led to &#8220;grossly&#8221; inadequate security at the mission. The panel&#8217;s report singled out the State Department&#8217;s Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Bureau of Near East Affairs. The report failed to placate GOP lawmakers, conservatives and outside groups, some of whom contend Benghazi is comparable to the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals and deserves a thorough examination. Two of the outside groups &#8212; Special Operations Speaks and Special Ops OPSEC &#8212; have been raising money on the issue. The target<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=95086&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2013/05/08/gop-benghazi-probe-stokes-political-controversy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/pol-gop-benghazi-0221.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">From left: Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain at a press conference on the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, in Washington D.C., on Feb. 14, 2013.</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://0.gravatar.com/avatar/cbef58d71daefb9ddab6c6b20018290c?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F0.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">timeassociatedpress</media:title>
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		<title>Hillary Clinton: &#8216;I Take Responsibility&#8217; for Benghazi Security Lapse</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/15/hillary-clinton-takes-one-for-the-team/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/15/hillary-clinton-takes-one-for-the-team/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Oct 2012 02:45:23 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jay Newton-Small</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=80064</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said late on Monday that the buck stops with her when it comes to diplomatic security, not the White House. &#8220;I take responsibility&#8221; for what happened on Sept. 11 in Benghazi, Clinton told CNN’s Elise Labott, referring to the attack that left Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. Clinton said neither President Obama nor Vice President Biden was involved in security decisions. “I’m responsible for diplomats,” she added. Clinton’s comments came five days after State Department officials testified in a hearing on Capitol Hill that the Benghazi attack was unrelated to protests that day over a California-made movie that mocked the Prophet Muhammad and that it had, indeed, been the work of terrorists. (MORE: The Benghazi Attack: A Bigger Question Missed by All the Finger-Pointing) In the first days after the attack, Administration officials, including U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, said the attack had been part of protests that swept the Middle East. The reversal left the Administration open to criticism that it had, at worst, tried to cover up a terrorist incident or, at best, fumbled its initial response to the violence. At the vice-presidential debate last Thursday, GOP vice-presidential nominee Paul Ryan accused Vice President Joe Biden and the Obama Administration of ignoring requests from Benghazi for extra security. Biden responded by saying, “We did not know” about the requests. Clinton on Monday reaffirmed Biden’s statement, saying the White House was not involved in funding decisions for embassy security. Clinton also called conflicting statements in the days following the attack &#8220;confusion&#8221; and &#8220;fog of war&#8221; that always follow such events. She described an &#8220;intense, long ordeal&#8221; for State Department staffers struggling to piece together what happened. As my colleague Michael Crowley noted on Monday, the GOP is much keener to attack Obama and Biden, who are on the ticket in November, than the Secretary of State herself. Clinton is one of the most popular figures in the country right now, and slinging mud at a woman wouldn&#8217;t help Republican presidential<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=80064&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/15/hillary-clinton-takes-one-for-the-team/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/clinton_peru_1015.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Clinton in Peru</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/557ff2649ffce53285c86e4b694cff6d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">jnewtonsmall</media:title>
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		<title>The Benghazi Attack: A Bigger Question Missed by All the Finger-Pointing</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/15/the-benghazi-attack-a-bigger-question-missed-by-all-the-finger-pointing/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/10/15/the-benghazi-attack-a-bigger-question-missed-by-all-the-finger-pointing/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 15 Oct 2012 18:10:34 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jay Newton-Small</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=80006</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The facts of the case are this: a Sept. 11 attack carried out by armed extremists in Benghazi, Libya, took the lives of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans. Nearly everything else is unclear. Given that it took the Federal Bureau of Investigation three weeks to gain access to the consulate, which was left unsecured during that time, a conclusive investigation is unlikely. No one knows exactly what happened that night and any one who claims differently is lying. And no matter how many resources the government devotes to “bringing those responsible to justice,” as President Obama has promised, it’s unlikely that a crystal picture of the attack will ever emerge. But that hasn’t prevented the attack from becoming a political football in a campaign season, with each side bending scant evidence to make their case. Republicans argue that the attack in Libya is the latest, and most compelling, evidence that the Obama Administration’s foreign policy has been a failure. “When something goes bad, they deny, they deceive, and they delay. And the truth is we&#8217;re not safer. Al Qaeda is alive. Bin Laden may be dead. Al Qaeda is alive and they&#8217;re counter-attacking throughout the entire region,” Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican said on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. “And the truth is that the foreign policy choices of President Obama is allowing the region to come unraveled.” (PHOTOS: Political Pictures of the Week, Oct. 5–11) Shoe-horning the Benghazi attack into a narrative about Obama’s weakness on foreign policy – a Karl Rovian play to attack Obama&#8217;s strength – misses the better policy argument. Senator John McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee, asked the right question when he wanted to know what America is doing in Benghazi? What’s Obama’s plan for that nation and for the Middle East as a whole? The more effective Republican attack might be to question Obama&#8217;s lack of vision for the region, although Romney doesn&#8217;t seem to have a comprehensive plan either. From Iran’s currency collapse to Syria’s civil war, the Middle East is experiencing a period<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=80006&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/151956951.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">LIBYA-US-UNREST-BENGHAZI</media:title>
		</media:content>

		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/557ff2649ffce53285c86e4b694cff6d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">jnewtonsmall</media:title>
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		<title>Did Obama Spin the Benghazi Attack?</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/27/behind-the-benghazi-attack/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/27/behind-the-benghazi-attack/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Sep 2012 22:41:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Massimo Calabresi</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=79043</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[UPDATED 9:20 a.m. 9/28/12 The perpetrators behind the assault that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012, had been looking for an opportunity to attack U.S. facilities in the region for some time, according to an Obama Administration official familiar with the latest intelligence However, the Administration continues to believe the attack was not pre-planned, but rather was the result of extremists seizing the opportunity presented by protests in neighboring Egypt against an American-made anti-Islamic video. Members of the Benghazi al-Qaeda affiliate, Ansar al Sharia, “Saw the events in Cairo and took it upon themselves to seize that opportunity to do something,” the Administration official says. “They may have intended for some time to attack U.S. facilities, but they did so at the time they did to take advantage of Cairo.” (PHOTOS: Protests Rage in Middle East, Sparked by Anti-Islamic Film) The best evidence supporting the idea that the attack was cooked up on the fly, the Administration official says, is that it was seven hours into the assault before mortars were used by the attackers. &#8220;Their most lethal weapon wasn’t used until 7 hours in, and I think that’s an important data point that speaks to the fact that this was opportunistic and developed over time. They went and they got their buddies and they got their most lethal weapons and they brought it to bear. And ultimately that contributed to the lethality of the attack.&#8221; The picture that is emerging of the attack is substantially different from what appeared in the first hours. News reports and some administration officials initially described the Benghazi attack as “spontaneous” and likened it to the disorganized protests that had started hours earlier at the American embassy in Cairo. Now the Administration is saying the attack in Benghazi was a terrorist operation by an al Qaeda affiliate and that there may not have been any protests at the Benghazi consulate the day of the attack. “The most credible assessment is that there<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=79043&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/27/behind-the-benghazi-attack/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/libya_0912.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Benghazi attack</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">calabresim</media:title>
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		<title>Obama Comes to New York for Barbara Walters and, sorta, the United Nations</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/24/obama-comes-to-new-york-for-barbara-walters-and-sorta-the-united-nations/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/24/obama-comes-to-new-york-for-barbara-walters-and-sorta-the-united-nations/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 25 Sep 2012 00:28:25 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jay Newton-Small</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Campaigns]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Debates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Democratic Party]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Elections]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foreign Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gaffes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mitt Romney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Polls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Republican Party]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Taxes]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78900</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[On Monday, President Barack Obama made his fourth pilgrimage to New York City for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly. He arrived in Manhattan on a glorious autumn afternoon and rushed to his first – and only – public event of the day: a taping of ABC’s The View with his wife, Michelle. Obama’s lack of any scheduled bilateral meetings with world leaders at the summit – last year, as ABC’s Mark Knoller pointed out, he had 13 such tête-à-têtes &#8212;  was the subject of some contention at the White House briefing just before the President left. “I have no meetings to announce to you&#8230;,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. “I mean, the President’s schedule includes the reception this evening. It includes his speech tomorrow [before the 67th General Assembly]. Beyond that I don&#8217;t have details for you. But again, I think it’s fairly clear, based on the President’s engagement with foreign leaders just in the last several weeks, that he is intensively engaged in matters of national security and foreign policy as he has been throughout his presidency.” (MORE: The U.N. General Assembly: 5 Political Potholes for Obama) The lack of personal diplomatic engagement comes after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to secure a meeting with Obama and was reportedly rebuffed. “Prime Minister Netanyahu is not in New York in the days the President is in New York, and the President is not in New York in the days when Prime Minister Netanyahu will be in New York,” Carney said providing the official version, pointing out that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be meeting with Netanyahu. “The President has met with and spent time on the phone with Prime Minister Netanyahu more than with any leader since he took office.” Of course, meeting with world leaders when you don’t know if you’ll still have your job in the next few weeks, can be potentially awkward. It can lead to unfortunate hot-mic gaffes, of which Obama has not been immune (for example,  in Seoul earlier this year he<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78900&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Foreign Policy</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/obama_the_view_0925.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">Obama on The View</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">jnewtonsmall</media:title>
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		<title>How Libya Makes Obama Vulnerable — and the GOP Knows It</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/21/how-libya-makes-obama-vulnerable-and-the-gop-knows-it/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/21/how-libya-makes-obama-vulnerable-and-the-gop-knows-it/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 21 Sep 2012 17:25:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jay Newton-Small</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[2012 Election]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Foreign Policy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Mideast]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[ambassador]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[christopher stevens]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[defense]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[democrats]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[george w. bush]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[libya]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mitt romney]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[muammar gaddafi]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[republicans]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Secretary of State]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[White House]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78839</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Rally-around-the-flag time is over. For the most part, Republicans — with the exception of Mitt Romney — had held their fire in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. embassy in Cairo and consulate in Benghazi, Libya, which claimed the lives of four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens. But as questions emerge about how the Libya attack, in particular, went down, Republicans are starting to criticize the Obama Administration for not anticipating the violence and not doing enough to secure Libya after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Republicans almost universally reacted with skepticism and scorn after a briefing on Thursday by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter. “They&#8217;re trying to cover their behinds,” Representative Bill Flores, a Texas Republican, told The Hill upon leaving the House briefing. Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, echoed the sentiment: “That is the most useless, worthless briefing I have attended in a long time.” (MORE: In Syria, Libya-Style Intervention Remains Unlikely) In the days following the attacks, the White House at first said it believed the attack in Benghazi in eastern Libya that claimed Stevens’ life was spontaneous, born of protests over an inflammatory California-made video mocking the Prophet Muhammad. “We do not have information at present that leads us to conclude that this was premeditated or preplanned,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sept. 16. The Administration has since changed course and now admits the attack may have been preplanned. Clinton told Senators on Thursday that she believed it was “self-evident” that it was a terrorist attack. “It seems like it was obvious [there was] some element of preplanning, but how far in advance, that’s hard to say,” Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters. Though, all three briefers were careful to underline that there had been no chatter or warning of an attack, despite six recent al-Qaeda-linked incidents — not aimed at<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78839&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://swampland.time.com/2012/09/21/how-libya-makes-obama-vulnerable-and-the-gop-knows-it/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Mideast</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/mideast/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">jnewtonsmall</media:title>
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		<title>What&#8217;s Worse: No Marines in Libya or (Possibly) Unarmed Marines in Egypt?</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2012/09/13/whats-worse-no-marines-or-possibly-unarmed-marines/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2012/09/13/whats-worse-no-marines-or-possibly-unarmed-marines/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:59:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Thompson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78354</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Senior U.S. officials decline to discuss it, but it’s clear there were no U.S. Marines protecting U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and his beleaguered staff at the Benghazi consulate Tuesday night. Marines are routinely posted to U.S. diplomatic outposts around the world, but the “interim” facility in Benghazi apparently was defended only by a handful of U.S. security officers and local hires. The Marines have let it be known that the two unidentified U.S. officials who died at Benghazi were not Marines.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78354&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://nation.time.com/2012/09/13/whats-worse-no-marines-or-possibly-unarmed-marines/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">mt53</media:title>
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		<title>Ambassador Chris Stevens: The American Who Loved Libya (1960-2012)</title>
		<link>http://world.time.com/2012/09/12/ambassador-chris-stevens-the-american-who-loved-libya-1960-2012/</link>
		<comments>http://world.time.com/2012/09/12/ambassador-chris-stevens-the-american-who-loved-libya-1960-2012/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 13 Sep 2012 13:50:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Jay Newton-Small and Bryan Walsh</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78349</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Courageous and optimistic, he knew the country he was assigned to like no other diplomat. His tragic death leaves an enormous hole in the American foreign service—and in Washington’s fitful dealings with the Arab world.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78349&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/int_stevens_1_0912.jpeg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">int_stevens_1_0912</media:title>
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		<media:content url="http://2.gravatar.com/avatar/557ff2649ffce53285c86e4b694cff6d?s=96&#38;d=http%3A%2F%2F2.gravatar.com%2Favatar%2Fad516503a11cd5ca435acc9bb6523536%3Fs%3D96&#38;r=G" medium="image">
			<media:title type="html">jnewtonsmall</media:title>
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		<title>A Victim of Others&#8217; Idiocy: U.S. Ambassador to Libya Killed in Benghazi</title>
		<link>http://nation.time.com/2012/09/12/to-the-shores-of-benghazi/</link>
		<comments>http://nation.time.com/2012/09/12/to-the-shores-of-benghazi/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:59:39 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Thompson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=78272</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The news of the killing of Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, in an attack at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi is bitter. It was Benghazi, after all, that was the heart of the Libyan revolution last year. Libyan leader Muammar Ghadafi vowed to exterminate the rebels there like “rats.” It was to protect the civilians of Benghazi that the U.S. went to war over Libya in 2011, along with its NATO, and some Arab, allies. Ghadafi was killed last October and now Stevens &#8212; who championed the rebels’ cause from his post in Benghazi &#8212; has sadly met the same fate. The so-called “Arab spring” didn’t lance the anti-U.S. boil that has been oozing in the region for generations. The killings will require a major relook at how the U.S. plans to deal with its fledgling leaders. The immediate political statements by both sides in the presidential race cheapens Stevens’ sacrifice. Romney said an early statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that “condemns” – now there’s an interesting word choice – “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims” was “disgraceful.” A White House spokesman denounced Romney’s comment as a “political attack.” Sam Bacile is the 56-year old Israeli-American real-estate developer who who allegedly made the crude film mocking Islam’s founding prophet. It was a 13-minute trailer from that film that triggered the violence in Benghazi, as well as in Cairo. Bacile is an idiot willing to toss fuel on smoldering embers – and then expresses surprise when it erupts into flames. The young men who stormed the consulate and embassy are idiots, too, zealots stoked by poor prospects for their own lives despite the overthrow of their longtime despots. Here’s a news flash: American free speech doesn’t exist across much of the Arab world. When crazed crowds mass – and local security is unable, or unwilling, to protect foreign diplomats – the guys stuck in the middle are people like Ambassador Stevens, State Department IT guru Sean Smith, and the two other<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=78272&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/benghazi.jpeg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">benghazi</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">mt53</media:title>
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		<title>The Military Lessons of Gaddafi&#8217;s Fall</title>
		<link>http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/10/20/libyas-lessons/</link>
		<comments>http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/10/20/libyas-lessons/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:16:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Mark Thompson</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=58316</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Moammar Gaddafi&#8217;s death makes for an interesting punctuation mark in the ever-evolving U.S. approach to war. The key issue: is it an exclamation point (&#8220;We got him! And not a single American died!) or a question mark (&#8220;Did we just get lucky? Is this a template for how the U.S. should wage future wars?&#8221;). We shouldn&#8217;t over-learn whatever lessons there are to be gleaned by Gaddafi&#8217;s demise. But neither should we be shy about exploring what they might be.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=58316&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link><featured_image>http://timeswampland.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/gaddafi.jpg?w=200</featured_image>
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			<media:title type="html">gaddafi</media:title>
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			<media:title type="html">mt53</media:title>
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		<title>Hillary Clinton&#8217;s Priorities in Libya</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/10/18/hillary-clintons-priorities-in-libya/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/10/18/hillary-clintons-priorities-in-libya/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 18 Oct 2011 15:31:15 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Massimo Calabresi</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=58202</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hillary Clinton landed in Tripoli on Tuesday morning on an unannounced visit, the first to Libya by a U.S. cabinet official since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Shifting from her regular State Department plane to a C-17 in Malta for security reasons, Clinton and her staff are taking the trip as a combination of victory lap, exercise in diplomatic triage and effort to boost international support for the struggling post-Gaddafi leadership. In a best-case scenario touted by some officials at the State Department and the White House, Libya will emerge as a powerful counterpoint to Iraq: an example of prudent American leadership that advances our interests and defends our humanitarian ideals while bolstering our position on the international scene. But Clinton’s trip shows the Libya mission, complicated from the start, remains a risk and a challenge that requires smart management and constant attention to approach that optimistic vision. Clinton announced an additional $11 million in U.S. aid to the transitional government in Tripoli, bringing the total to $135 million since the uprising began. She is also pushing the leadership to corral security forces into a unified structure, to get control of the thousands of shoulder-launched missiles that have gone missing during the fighting, and to bolster protections for remaining chemical weapons stockpiles. As a key figure in the American decision to intervene in Libya, Clinton is also in a position to build high-level relations that can pay off in oil and other economic ties in coming years. But Libya remains volatile. Gaddafi&#8217;s forces launched a counterattack in Sirt on Tuesday, and the extra security measures surrounding Clinton&#8217;s trip underscore the worries American officials have about surface to air missiles, some of which have already made it as far as the Egyptian border. And while a stable, wealthy pro-Western regime in Libya would be a net benefit compared to the intermittently hostile, backward and unstable regime of Gaddafi, a chaotic Libya, awash in weapons with corrupt leaders, would be a net loss for U.S. interests. Clinton is fairly clear-eyed about the<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=58202&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">calabresim</media:title>
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		<title>Strange Bedfellows: The Weekly Standard and Obama</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/29/strange-bedfellows-the-weekly-standard-and-obama/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/29/strange-bedfellows-the-weekly-standard-and-obama/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:24:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Michael Crowley</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Barack Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[libya]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Robert Kagan]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Weekly Standard]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=55081</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The latest Weekly Standard opens with a remarkable editorial on Libya, offering some of the kindest words about the Obama administration you&#8217;ll ever read in the conservative media. It&#8217;s true that the Robert Kagan piece casts the fall of the Gaddafi regime as a triumph for &#8220;the United States and NATO.&#8221; And it isn&#8217;t until its seventh paragraph that President Obama&#8217;s name appears. But Kagan then declares that &#8220;the end of Qaddafi’s rule is a great accomplishment for the Obama administration and for the president personally.&#8221; He carries on in this vein, heaping praise on a president the Standard generally reviles and lampoons, while taking fellow Republicans to task: Furthermore, the president deserves credit because his decision was unpopular and politically risky. The foreign policy establishment was almost unanimously opposed, and an assortment of wise men spent months predicting certain failure. In Congress a significant number of Republicans joined with the likes of Dennis Kucinich in opposing the military operation, to the point of voting not to authorize funding in June—a shameful moment for a party that under three consecutive presidents had stood for a robust and active U.S. role in the world. Some Republican presidential candidates, either out of opportunism or conviction, joined in opposition. Many of the criticisms of the administration’s conduct were warranted&#8230;. But what’s new? American interventions, large and small, are never pretty. American presidents are always slow to see the need for action, always worried about their political backsides, and almost always looking for the exits as soon as they decide to act. Republican critics, especially those who served during the Reagan years or in either Bush administration, should look in the mirror&#8230;. The sputtering economy obviously gives Republicans a tremendous opening against Obama. But between the apparent success of the Libya operation; the killing of Osama bin Laden, his deputy, and countless other al Qaeda-affiliated militants; and a growing national consensus that the Afghanistan war should be wound down, Obama&#8217;s 2012 rivals will find it awfully hard to get traction against him on national-security<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=55081&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">crowley100</media:title>
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		<title>Lessons in Libya</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/25/lessons-in-libya/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/25/lessons-in-libya/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 25 Aug 2011 14:15:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Adam Sorensen</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=54932</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In this week&#8217;s issue of the magazine, now available on tablets and the web to subscribers, Fareed Zakaria argues the U.S.&#8217;s restrained role in the Libya campaign was everything the invasion of Iraq wasn&#8217;t: In deciding whether to intervene, President Obama was clearly trying to avoid the mistakes of Iraq. He insisted on a set of conditions before he would involve the U.S. in the operation. First, there had to be a local opposition movement that was willing and able to wage war against the dictator. Any international action had to be requested by the locals. Second, given the nature of the Arab world, it was important to gain regional legitimacy and ensure that outside intervention in Libya was not denounced as another example of Western imperialism in Muslim lands. Even Arab countries were drawn into the coalition. Third, a broader, legal legitimacy was sought through the U.N. And finally, European allies who were pressing for intervention were put on notice that the operation would have to be genuinely multilateral, with them bearing significant costs. Bobby Ghosh looks ahead in Libya and argues its lessons can&#8217;t &#8212; won&#8217;t &#8212; apply to Syria: For the moment, Syria&#8217;s revolutionaries may have to be content with cosmetic similarities. They cannot hope for the level of foreign assistance that was available to the Libyans. Although NATO and the Obama Administration have hailed Gaddafi&#8217;s ouster as a vindication of their aerial campaign against him, nobody&#8217;s talking about taking that plan into Syrian skies. &#8220;We don&#8217;t think that military action is the way to go with Syria,&#8221; says a senior Obama Administration official. For one thing, Assad&#8217;s military has far greater firepower than Gaddafi&#8217;s. For another, the Arab League has not called for foreign interference in Syria, as it did in Libya. Gaddafi had few allies, but Assad has one nobody wants to bait: Iran. You can pick up an issue on newsstands Friday or subscribe to read the stories online.<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=54932&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">Adam Sorensen</media:title>
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		<title>You Remember Libya</title>
		<link>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/04/you-remember-libya/</link>
		<comments>http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/04/you-remember-libya/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 04 Aug 2011 14:08:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Joe Klein</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Libya]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://swampland.time.com/?p=53808</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[While Washington was dealing with the absolutely crucial debt ceiling waste of time, the world has remained in business&#8230;or, perhaps, in chaos. Libya, for example. No sooner did the primary western countries, including the U.S., recognize the Libyan rebel &#8220;government,&#8221; than did that government start fracturing. A military leader was killed because he was thought to be a Gaddafi double-agent. And today, we have Gaddafi&#8217;s formerly westernized son, proposing an alliance between the regime and the Islamist rebel faction. This is an obvious and rather pathetic attempt to get the West to say, &#8220;Hey, no, don&#8217;t do that, we&#8217;d rather have your family than the Islamists,&#8221; but&#8230; it&#8217;s also a reminder of how foolish it was for the US to go into Libya in the first place. To be sure, our profile there has been low. No troops on the ground, few planes in the sky, mostly logistical backing for our fearsome European allies. But it is a mess that could metastasize. And as I argued back when this started, it is a diversion from the major issue in the Middle East, which is the fate of Egypt (with the massacres in Syria and the increasing possibility of sectarian war between Sunnis and Shi&#8217;ites running a close second).<img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=swampland.time.com&#038;blog=5284847&#038;post=53808&#038;subd=timeswampland&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
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	<primary_category>Libya</primary_category><primary_category_link>http://swampland.time.com/category/foreign-policy-2/libya-foreign-policy/</primary_category_link>
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			<media:title type="html">jklein1271</media:title>
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