By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
The State Department on Thursday dismissed accusations that it retaliated against one of the key witnesses at this week's Benghazi hearings by demoting him after he questioned the Obama administration's account of the terrorist attack.
U.S. air power could have headed off at least part of last year's terrorist attack on the diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, but American officials didn't have the capability to refuel warplanes in time, the second-ranking U.S. diplomat in the country has told House investigators.
Raising the stakes in the high-profile clash with congressional Republicans over last year's terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, a person familiar with the State Department-chartered inquiry said investigators talked last year with CIA personnel who were on the ground during the attack and were briefed about the CIA's activities at their secret base in the Libyan city.
President Obama defined his approach to dealing with dictators in his first inaugural address, telling tyrants he would "extend a hand" if they unclench their fists.
Former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on Sunday vigorously defended President Obama's nomination of Chuck Hagel to run the Defense Department, saying the former Republican senator is "superbly qualified."
Eric Boswell is still on the government payroll, even though he quit his Senate-confirmed post last week after he was singled out in a report on the department's failings in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the State Department said Thursday.
While preparing for overseas deployment with the U.S. Marines last year, Staff Sgt. Nathan Hampton participated in a series of training exercises at Camp Pendleton, Calif. There were weapons qualifications. Grueling physical workouts. High-stress squad counterinsurgency drills. And weekly meditation classes.
How long would it have taken President Obama to get help to the U.S. Consulate in Libya if his wife and children had been there? The four American citizens who were killed, U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service information officer Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, were husbands, fathers and sons -- not "bumps in the road," as Mr. Obama said. What a travesty. These men's families will endure their loss until the day they die.
We have all watched the recent events in Libya with horror, which took the life of Ambassador Chris Stevens, our envoy in Tripoli. Americans across our country have shaken their heads in disbelief that a man who devoted his life to helping the Libyans achieve their freedom should have been viciously murdered in the very city he helped protect.
To most Libyans, J. Christopher Stevens was one of them. The U.S. ambassador had stood by them, as they rose up and toppled Moammar Gadhafi's regime last year. What they cherished most was his unwavering optimism about their future.
Who is to blame when embassies are overrun and a U.S. ambassador is killed? Most of all, what do we do about it?
Galo Guarderas is starting off on five years of study in Spain to make himself an expert in photovoltaics, a vital field for a world tapping into solar energy.
Faced with terrorist attacks (and conventional military attacks) by its Palestinian and Arab state neighbors since the earliest days of its existence, Israel has had to develop exceptionally effective counterterrorism capabilities to protect its citizens on all fronts, making it one of the world's most innovative and toughest counterterrorism "powers."
In the past four years, Russia's intelligence services have stepped up a campaign of intimidation and dirty tricks against U.S. officials and diplomats in Russia and the countries that used to form the Soviet Union.
With President Kennedy permanently glorified for history by a battalion of hagiographers (Arthur M. (Schlesinger Jr., Theodore C. Sorensen and uncountable other droolers) debunkers of his mythology face a serious public-opinion obstacle.
