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Hannah Allam

State Department officials take heat on Capitol Hill over Benghazi attack

Democrats asked gingerly, Republicans accusingly, but the main question from congressional hearings Thursday on the deadly Sept. 11 attacks in Benghazi boiled down to: Why did the State Department fail to respond to the well-documented deterioration of security in eastern Libya? | 12/20/12 17:38:50 By - By Hannah Allam

Panel finds that U.S. envoy shares blame for Benghazi security lapses

Perhaps the most uncomfortable aspect of an independent panel’s review of the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. posts in Benghazi is that part of the blame for security lapses lay with the incident’s most prominent casualty: Ambassador Chris Stevens. | 12/19/12 18:33:50 By - By Hannah Allam

Benghazi consulate security was ‘grossly inadequate,’ report finds

Three senior State Department officials in charge of diplomatic security resigned Wednesday after an independent panel found “systematic failures” in leadership that contributed to security lapses in the deadly Sept. 11 attacks on U.S. posts in eastern Libya. | 12/19/12 17:45:54 By - By Hannah Allam

Head of new U.S.-backed Syrian coalition endorses al Qaida-linked rebel faction

Right after the United States formalized its backing of a new Syrian opposition group Wednesday, the mutual unease underpinning the partnership surfaced as the group’s leader openly criticized the United States for declaring the rebel movement’s Nusra Front a terrorist group linked to al Qaida in Iraq. | 12/12/12 19:32:52 By - By David Enders and Hannah Allam

Obama backs new Syria coalition but maybe too late to stop al Qaida advance

In late 2011, U.S. officials say, battle-hardened commanders of al Qaida’s Iraq branch slipped into Syria to rally jihadists around the fight to unseat President Bashar Assad, espousing a militant Islamism that worried pro-democracy activists. | 12/11/12 19:42:10 By - By Hannah Allam

Nusra Front rebel group fighting in Syria is al Qaida in Iraq, U.S. says

The State Department said Monday that the Syrian rebel movement's Nusra Front is just another name for al Qaida in Iraq, an acknowledgment that the uprising to topple President Bashar Assad is led in part by foreign Islamist extremists who fought U.S. troops for years in the bloody Iraq war. | 12/10/12 19:28:22 By - By Hannah Allam and Jonathan S. Landay

U.S. might name Syrian rebel Nusra Front a foreign terrorist group

In an apparent bid to isolate Islamist extremists and bolster a new Western-backed Syrian opposition alliance, the United States is moving to declare one of the most effective Syrian rebel groups a foreign terrorist organization because of its alleged ties to al Qaida. | 12/04/12 20:08:35 By - By Jonathan S. Landay and Hannah Allam

Obama warns Syria about using chemical weapons, threatens ‘consequences’

President Barack Obama warned the embattled leader of war-torn Syria on Monday not to use chemical weapons against rebels fighting to topple his regime, as the United States voiced rising concern that he may be preparing to do so and consulted with regional allies on a range of responses. | 12/03/12 19:50:18 By - By Jonathan S. Landay and Hannah Allam

Chris Stevens felt risks at U.S. consulate were worth it, says judge who visited Libya

. Three months before U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens died when suspected Islamist militants stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Paul Anderson, in Libya under the auspices of the American Bar Association to advise on rebuilding the country’s justice system, paid a courtesy call to the U.S. embassy in Tripoli. | 11/30/12 18:34:00 By - By Hannah Allam

U.N. accepts Palestine as observer state by lopsided margin; U.S., 8 others opposed

Over staunch U.S. objections, the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to name Palestine a non-member observer state, a symbolic victory for the stateless Palestinians and a political boost for their embattled president, Mahmoud Abbas. | 11/29/12 19:36:45 By - By Hannah Allam and Sheera Frenkel

U.S. dilemma at UN – undermining Palestinian statehood may strengthen Hamas

On the eve of a Palestinian bid for U.N. recognition as a nonmember state – a move that’s expected to succeed despite strident U.S. opposition – the Obama administration’s policy conundrum over the Palestinians appears stark. | 11/28/12 19:37:11 By - By Hannah Allam

U.S. approach to Gaza-Israel talks shows new reluctance to referee Mideast conflicts

The Obama administration’s hands-off approach to Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza is emblematic of what analysts see as an evolving diplomatic approach that’s easing the United States out of its longstanding role as chief referee for Middle Eastern conflicts. | 11/19/12 19:40:22 By - By Hannah Allam

Women worry Petraeus scandal will hurt their role as advisers to military leaders

The burgeoning sex scandal that has swept up retired Army Gen. David Petraeus, his biographer, Paula Broadwell, and now Petraeus’ successor as the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. John Allen, is alarming the small cadre of women advisers who enjoy extraordinary access to top generals based on their expertise and scholarship. | 11/13/12 20:27:33 By - By Hannah Allam

Sex scandal punches holes in the Petraeus aura

Gen. David Petraeus’ affair with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, has muddied the carefully crafted narrative of America’s most eminent “soldier-scholar statesman,” allowing unprecedented scrutiny of the policies of a man who was so venerated in Washington that one could be labeled unpatriotic simply for challenging his strategies. | 11/12/12 21:29:14 By - By Hannah Allam and Nancy A. Youssef

When top Justice officials learned of Petraeus affair remains unclear

FBI Director Robert Mueller’s top aide was told former CIA chief David Petraeus was having an extramarital affair that might have compromised national security a week before the Nov. 6 elections, a congressional official said Monday. | 11/12/12 19:37:13 By - By Jonathan S. Landay, Franco Ordonez and Hannah Allam

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