US has plans to train Libya security force

The US plans to help Libya build a commando force to fight extremists like those that staged the deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, officials said yesterday. President Barack Obama’s administration is seeking congressional approval for $6.2mn in Pentagon funds and $1.6mn from the State Department’s budget for the initiative, according to documents from each department. Plans to train a Libyan security force were already in the works before dozens of heavily-armed militants laid siege to the American mission in Benghazi last month, killing the ambassador and three US staff. “It was marching down the path to being approved prior to the Benghazi attack. It was already before Congress,” a defence official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP. The initiative is designed to “train and equip Libya Special Operations Forces to counter and defeat terrorist and violent extremist organisations,” said an August 24 Pentagon document. The funds are being shifted from other projects in the Defence and State department budgets, officials said. The planned Libya commando force would receive training “to conduct special operations missions, including counterterrorism operations to fight Al Qaeda and its affiliates”, according to a State Department document. The September 11 attack on the Benghazi mission has turned into a major issue in the US election campaign, weighing heavily over last night’s make-or-break debate between Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The Obama administration is accused of failing to ensure adequate security for the consulate and misleading the American public by only belatedly admitting that the assault was a terror attack by Al Qaeda-linked extremists. On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton helped Obama out by accepting the blame for any shortcomings in the handling of the attack. “I take responsibility,” she said, according to the news networks CNN and Fox, which interviewed her during a visit to the Peruvian capital Lima. “I’m in charge of the State Department - 60,000 plus people all over the world, 275 posts,” she said, in a brief excerpt of the CNN interview, in which she absolved Obama from blame. “The president and the vice president certainly wouldn’t be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals,” she said. Clinton played down initial communications errors, saying there is always “confusion” in the first hours after an attack. “The decisions about security are made by security professionals, but we’re going to review everything to be sure we’re doing what needs to be done in an increasingly risky environment,” Clinton said, according to Fox News. The State Department has launched an investigation into possible security failures in Benghazi. Since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime last year, Libya’s fragile interim government has struggled to maintain security amid tribal conflicts and an array of militias, including those with ties to Islamist groups. Details of the plan to bolster Libya’s security forces still have to be worked out between officials in Washington and Tripoli. If approved by lawmakers, the project would mark the first use of a new Global Security Contingency Fund—the brainchild of former Pentagon chief Robert Gates and Clinton—intended to provide a way for their departments to take joint action quickly in response to crises. The defence official confirmed a New York Times report that the Libyan special forces would consist of about 500 troops. The State Department has also proposed to shift $4mn from a fund for Pakistan’s counter-insurgency campaign to bolster border security for Libya. According to the Pentagon document, the proposed funding for the Libya commando force was part of a larger plan for counterterrorism assistance to the Philippines, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. l A security source told AFP that “precautions” were being taken to prevent any attack by pro-Gaddafi elements hoping to mark the anniversary of his death, which falls on Saturday. No ceremonies are planned that day in Libya, which will celebrate instead the first anniversary since the declaration of “liberation” that was announced on October 23, 2011.