6 months after 9/11 Benghazi attack, Obama nominates replacement for
slain ambassador Stevens
By Associated Press,
Updated:
Wednesday, March 13,
2:25 PM
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama nominated a new
ambassador to Libya on Wednesday, filling a post that has been vacant since
Chris Stevens was killed in the Sept. 11 Benghazi attack and signaling the
United States’ commitment to the North African country as it undergoes a
perilous transition from decades of dictatorship.
The announcement came as Secretary of State John Kerry was
meeting Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zidan, and two days after the six-month
anniversary of the storming of the
U.S.
diplomatic mission in the eastern Libyan city. No one has yet been captured for
the attack, which has caused significant political
headaches for Obama
and his foreign policy team.
“The
United States
will
continue to stand with
Libya during
this difficult time of transition,” Kerry told reporters. “The Libyan people
have begun to chart the course for their own future, and they’re defining it.
Obviously there are challenges ahead and we understand that, from building
political consensus to strengthening the security and protecting human rights,
and growing the Libyan economy.”
Kerry thanked the Libyan government for its cooperation
after the Benghazi attack and
insisted that “those who killed Americans in Benghazi
will be brought to justice.” He promised Zidan that America
would continue working for a stable Libya.
“We must not walk away from the difficult work that Chris
Stevens and his cohorts were so dedicated to,” Kerry said. Stevens was the
first ambassador killed in the line of duty since the U.S.
ambassador to Afghanistan
in 1979.
To replace Stevens, the White House tapped Deborah K. Jones,
a career diplomat who has served in Kuwait,
United Arab Emirates
and the now-shuttered U.S. Embassy in Syria.
Jones, who currently works as a scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington,
also has spent time at embassies in Turkey
and Ethiopia.
Jones will assume a difficult position heading the embassy
in Libya’s
capital, Tripoli. The North African
country has been beset by lawlessness, militant group rivalries and political
instability since rebels, with the help of the U.S.
and other governments, overthrew long-time dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
“She is a very capable and experienced diplomat,” Kerry said
of Jones. “I have no doubt that she will help to strengthen the partnership
between us.”
Zidan also met with Obama and his national security adviser
Tom Donilon at the White House.
The president added his support Libya’s democratic efforts
and outlined areas the U.S. could help the government strengthen its
institutions and improve the rule of law, according to a statement by Caitlin
Hayden, spokeswoman for the National
Security Council.
From Washington’s
perspective, the most pressing problem is insecurity.
Stevens and three other Americans were killed a half-year
ago when a large group of men, possibly tied to Islamic extremist groups,
assaulted the American outpost in Benghazi, and the help that arrived proved
far too little and too late.
The militant group Ansar Al-Shariah is suspected of carrying
out the attack, which the administration initially attributed to a protest over
an American-made, anti-Islam
videothat spiraled out of
control. Officials later retracted that account and called it a terror attack.
But no one has been punished in
Libya
or elsewhere for involvement.
Zidan has been trying to reassert government control over
Libya.
Last month, he called on militias to evacuate buildings and headquarters and
join
government security forces,
vowing that his government will take a hardline stand against any armed group
that tries to hijack control of “Tripoli or Benghazi or any other city.”
However, the Libyan government heavily depends on security
provided by commanders of several powerful militias that the president has
labeled “legitimate” forces. Militias in Libya
often act with impunity, running their own prison cells, making arrests and
taking confessions in total absence of state control and oversight.
The lawlessness also has allowed Gadhafi’s once-vast stock
of weapons to fall into the hands of extremists who’ve sparked a civil war in
neighboring Mali.
A France-led intervention has pushed back the Islamist militants after they
seized half the country last year.
Speaking next to Kerry, Zidan thanked Obama and the U.S.
for its key contribution in the effort to defeat Gadhafi. He said Libya
would partner the U.S.
in stabilizing his country and region.
“This relationship will be at the best level,” Zidan, in his
first to trip to Washington as
prime minister, said through an interpreter.
___
Associated Press National Security Writer Lara Jakes
contributed to this report.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Comments
Mr Michael Richards
Right into the war zone of post-Benghazi Libya...guess
what??...a dud diplomat with little experience. Before being a nothing scholar
she was a tester for the Foreign Service...
...Why?...Just to prove you can send a woman that Arabs hate to an Arab country
that hates us??
Obama to nominate new
Libya ambassador
By Jonathan Easley - 03/13/13 12:58 PM ET
President Obama will nominate Deborah K. Jones as the State
Department’s new ambassador to Libya,
the White House announced on Wednesday.
If confirmed, Jones would replace Chris Stevens, the
ambassador killed in the Sept. 11,
2012, attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi,
Libya.
The deaths of Stevens and three other Americans ignited a
political firestorm at the height of the 2012 presidential election and Jones’s
nomination could provide GOP lawmakers the
opportunity to again
press the administration over the deadly attack.
Jones served as U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait
from 2008 to 2011, and has been with the State Department since 1982, holding
posts in Abu Dhabi, United
Arab Emirates, Turkey
and Syria.
White House spokesman Jay Carney praised Jones as a
"career foreign service officer who has served admirably in diplomatic
posts across the world."
Despite her extensive Middle East
experience, the Benghazi attack is
likely to overshadow her nomination.
Republicans have charged that the State Department, under
the leadership of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ignored the
existence of credible threats in the region.
GOP lawmakers also criticized U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations Susan Rice after she initially blamed the attacks on a spontaneous
protest of an offensive anti-Islam
video.
The administration later acknowledged the attack was terrorism
and that no demonstration or protest had taken place in Benghazi.
But officials defended Rice, saying that her statements had been based on
then-current intelligence.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said this week that he does not
believe the White House has shared all its information in the incident. Graham
said he intended to write to Secretary of State John Kerry and demand access to
survivors from the attack.
Graham and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) had initially
threatened to block John Brennan’s nomination for
CIA
director until the administration answered their questions, before relenting
and voting for this confirmation. Both, though, have vowed to
continue investigating
the matter.
Democratic lawmakers have charged Republicans with
continuing to press the issue for political gain.
Carney on Wednesday also said that Libyan Prime Minister Ali
Zeidan was arriving for his first official visit to the U.S. Zeidan is meeting
with Secretary of State John Kerry Wednesday afternoon, and will visit the
White House later.
Carney did not say whether Jones would be involved in any of
those meetings.
