BENGHAZI ANNIVERSARY HURTS WHITE HOUSE PUSH TO WIN SYRIA SUPPORT

Fox News on September 8, 2013, reported that the Obama administration’s effort to win support for a punitive military strike on Syria is facing opposition and criticism in part because of its handling of the fatal Benghazi terror attacks, which occurred one year ago on September 11, 2012. Excerpts below:

Federal prosecutors last month filed the first criminal charges related to the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on the U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed.

The sealed charges are against Libyan militia leader Ahmed Abu Khattalah. Though he has given interviews with several major news outlets, Khattalah has not been taken into custody. And others seen with Khattalah in videos from the outpost’s security cameras also have not been found by authorities.

“We’ve been very clear that we will hold those people who carried out this dastardly, heinous attack against our people to account,” White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told “Fox News Sunday.” “You know what the United States does? We track every lead until we …can accomplish what we say we will do.”

Other issues related to the 2012 attack in which U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed included whether the administration was up-front with Americans about intelligence reports. Officials said at first that the attacks appeared to be in response to an anti-Islamic video, then acknowledged they were terror related.

“When it happened, [President Obama] promised to hunt down the wrong-doers,” Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz said on ABC’s “This Week.” “Yet a few months later, the issue has disappeared. You don’t hear the president mention Benghazi. Now it’s a phony scandal. We ought to be defending U.S. national security and going after radical Islamic terrorists.”

Now administration officials are trying to convince Americans and Capitol Hill lawmakers that Syrian President Bashar Assad ordered an Aug. 21 attack on his own people and his forces used the deadly nerve gas sarin. Nearly 1,500 of Assad’s own people were killed in the attack.

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In July, Capitol Hill Republicans sent a letter to new FBI Director James Comey urging him to take action.

“It has been more than 10 months since the attacks,” states the letter, spearheaded by South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and Utah Rep. Jason Chaffetz. “We appear to be no closer to knowing who was responsible today than we were in the early weeks following the attack. This is simply unacceptable.”

US LAWMAKERS URGE ACTION ON SYRIA

VOA on August 25, 2013, reported that high-ranking U.S. lawmakers of both major parties are urging prompt action in response to evidence that chemical weapons have been used in Syria.

The United States cannot ignore the deaths of hundreds of Syrians believed to have been exposed to some form of nerve agent or toxin, according to Congressman Eliot Engel, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“We have to move, and we have to move quickly,” Democrat Congressman Eliot Engel said.

Engel spoke on the U.S. television program Fox News Sunday. He was joined by Senator Bob Corker, the ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

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“This [likely chemical weapons use] has happened. I think we will respond in a surgical way,” said Corker.

No one in Congress is urging U.S. soldiers on the ground in Syria. Representative Engle says there is much the United States can do short of a troop deployment.

“I certainly would do cruise missile strikes,” Engel said. “You can do that without boots on the ground, without having Americans in harm’s way. You could destroy [Syrian President Bashar] Assad’s runways, you could destroy his munitions, his fuel. We could even destroy the Syrian air force if we wanted to.”

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“I hope it is the kind of action that does not move us away from the policy we have right now of where we want to see the Syrian opposition group taking the lead on the ground,” said Corker.

U.S. naval forces have moved closer to Syria, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says America’s military is prepared to act on any orders President Obama may give.