Andrew Quinn
Reuters
10/12/2012
The United States must look past the violence and extremism that has erupted after the “Arab Spring” revolutions and boost support for the region’s young democracies to forge long-term security, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday.
Clinton, seeking to reinforce the Obama administration’s Middle East policy following a wave of anti-American violence and last month’s deadly attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, said Washington cannot be deterred by “the violent acts of a small number of extremists.”…
…The Obama administration has earmarked some $1 billion in assistance for countries emerging from the Arab Spring revolutions, and has asked Congress for a separate $770 million fund tied to specific political and economic reforms.
But Republican lawmakers remain wary, citing political uncertainties in the region and the need for careful accounting in an era of fast-rising budget deficits.
Clinton urged the lawmakers to release the money, citing U.S.-sponsored programs and security partnerships she said could both reinforce democratic gains and increase pressure on extremist groups…
The complete article is at Reuters.
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Update: Benghazi Cover-up: Hillary not going to go under the bus quietly [Darleen Click]
Today the confusion only worsened yet again when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters that her agency was not the source of misinformation concerning the attacks, charging instead that the White House was the source of…
Update 2: Hillary Clinton on Libya: ‘Arabs across the region have firmly rejected the extremist argument’
What planet is she on? The whole region is turning into one huge steaming cauldron of jihadism, Islamic supremacism, caliphate dreams, and seething hatred of Israel.
During a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., on Friday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Arabs have “firmly rejected the extremist argument.”“By starting down the path of Democratic politics, Libyans and Arabs across the region have firmly rejected the extremist argument that violence and death are the only way to reclaim dignity and achieve justice,” Clinton said….
