Inside the Ring: Benghazigate debate heats up

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who traveled to Peru this week, also sought to minimize the roles played by Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden in the scandal. She said they would not know about the requests for more security in Libya, which the State Department turned down.

However, U.S. officials said the White House watch center receives copies of most significant cables from around the world and likely received information on U.S. security officials’ requests for increased security in Libya.

Republicans were quick to pounce on what they have termed a major security and policy failure in Libya.

House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Peter T. King said on Tuesday the administration has a lot to explain.

“From the day this story broke back on Sept. 11, Sept. 12, they told misleading stories, confusing stories, contradictory stories,” the New York Republican told CNN. “The reality is, what they said on the very first day, almost every word they said has been disproven.”

Earlier, Sen. Lindsey Graham issued a harsh critique of the administration on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

The South Carolina Republican said intelligence officials told him within 24 hours of the attack that the strike was a pre-planned act of terrorism and not spontaneous violence.

The administration is “trying to sell a narrative, quite frankly, that the Mideast, the wars are receding and al Qaeda’s been dismantled, and to admit that our embassy was attacked by al Qaeda operatives … undercuts that narrative,” Mr. Graham said. “I think they have been misleading us, but it finally caught up with them.”

China worried by Huawei report

China has denounced the recent report by the House Permanent Select Committee that concludes two Chinese telecommunications companies, Huawei Technologies and ZTE, pose threats to U.S. national security.

The Chinese see the report as undermining their efforts since at least 2008 to help the global telecom giants to gain a foothold in the lucrative U.S. telecommunications market. The government first blocked Huawei from a merger with 3Com in 2008 and in other ventures since.

Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Shen Danyang was quoted Oct. 9 as saying the report was “groundless” and “violated [the U.S.] free market principle.” A Foreign Ministry spokesman also said Chinese telecom investment in the United States would be mutually beneficial and that the U.S. government should allow it.

To try and counteract the U.S. efforts to block Chinese high-tech firms, China announced it is setting up a new Foreign Ministry Department of International Economic Affairs office that an announcement Oct. 9 said would “safeguard” Chinese development interests and economic security.

The office will seek to address China’s growing number of international business disputes.

The House report, based on classified and unclassified reports, concluded that “the United States should view with suspicion the continued penetration of the U.S. telecommunications market by Chinese telecommunications companies.”

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