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A top State Department appointee told Libya´s president one day after the military-style assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that the terror group Ansar al-Shariah was responsible. But four days later, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations said on television that it was the product of a spontaneous protest. During a fiery and emotional congressional hearing on the 2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Rep. Trey Gowdy read aloud from an email dated Sept. 12, 2012 to senior State Department officers, from Elizabeth Jones, the acting Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs.

FBI agents have still not been granted permission to visit the consulate building where the American ambassador to Libya was killed, three weeks after the attack by militants in the eastern city of Benghazi. An FBI team was dispatched to Libya within days of the attack, in which three other Americans died. But they have been forced to remain in Tripoli as American and Libyan officials argue over the terms under which the two sides will co-operate in the investigation. The consulate building itself and the accommodation annexe which also came under attack have been left largely unsecured. "We are...

Straus captures District 121 Web Posted: 02/06/2005 12:00 AM CST Rebeca Rodriguez Express-News Political Writer Republican businessman Joe Straus III handily won the Texas House District 121 race Saturday over his closest challenger, Democrat Rose Spector. "It was a very strong signal that the voters in District 121 want consistent and conservative leadership," he said from his victory party at the Barn Door restaurant. Spector, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, said she had hoped to appeal to a broad swath of voters, but was unable to break through party politics in the conservative district. "He's a Republican, and that's...

LISBON, April 24: European leaders should stop visiting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat if they want to help the Mideast peace process, a top US state department official said in an interview published here on Thursday. "The more European prime ministers go visit Arafat, the more Arafat will feel tempted to interfere in a negative way" in the establishment of a new Palestinian government, US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Elizabeth Jones told the Publico daily. After days of wrangling and intense international pressure, Yasser Arafat and Palestinian prime minister-designate Mahmud Abbas on Wednesday reached a last-minute compromise on...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.LISBON (AFP) - A top US State Department official called former congressman and current Pentagon adviser Newt Gingrich an "idiot" in an interview published here. US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Elizabeth Jones was asked to comment on Gingrich's recent harsh criticism of her department's Middle East diplomacy. "Newt Gingrich does not speak in the name of the Pentagon and what he said is garbage," US Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs Elizabeth Jones told the Publico daily. "What Gingrich says does not interest me. He is an idiot...