Graham threatens Tunisia over U.S. access to Benghazi suspect
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is threatening to cut U.S. aid to Tunisia if the American government is not given access to Ali Ani al-Harzi, a Tunisian suspected of being involved in the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi. The Daily Beast first reported last week that Harzi was arrested, at the behest ...
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is threatening to cut U.S. aid to Tunisia if the American government is not given access to Ali Ani al-Harzi, a Tunisian suspected of being involved in the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi.
The Daily Beast first reported last week that Harzi was arrested, at the behest of the U.S. government, in Turkey, where he fled after posting information about the attack on social media. The Turks handed him over to the Tunisian government, where he was held in military custody and then transferred to a prison to await a court trial. Fox News reported Tuesday that U.S. officials are frustrated that they still haven’t been granted access to Harzi, and the State Department has refused to comment on the matter directly.
Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations State and Foreign Operations subcommittee, has been a huge supporter of sending U.S. aid to Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began last year after a fruit vendor lit himself on fire, sparking widespread outrage.
But in his letter Wednesday to the Tunisian chargé d’affaires in Washington, Tarek Amri, Graham said that he would rethink his support for such aid if Harzi remains outside the reach of U.S. officials.
"I have visited your country on several occasions and through my role as the Ranking Member on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Department of State and Foreign Operations, we have included multiple forms of assistance during the crucial new beginning of Tunisia. However, if these reports are true, our partnership could be in serious jeopardy," Graham wrote.
"I urge you to engage your government to ensure cooperation between our intelligence services, law enforcement officials, as well as their Libyan counterparts, so that we may question this individual about the horrific attacks that cost us the lives of four brave Americans. Please be informed that providing access to this suspect is of the highest importance to me and many other members of Congress."
Also Wednesday, the White House denied a widely circulated report that quoted former Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich saying a "fairly reliable senator" told him that there exists a series of emails from the office of National Security Advisor Tom Donilon to a counterterrorism group on the night of the Benghazi attack ordering them to "stand down" rather than mobilize assets to respond to the attack.
"Neither the President nor anyone in the White House denied any requests for assistance in Benghazi during the attack," NSC Spokesman Tommy Vietor told The Cable by email.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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