Obama defies critics over Rice appointment
President Barack Obama defied Republican critics and named outspoken diplomat Susan Rice as his national security adviser, despite accusations that she misled the nation in the aftermath of the deadly attack on Americans in Libya.
The appointment, along with the nomination of human rights advocate Samantha Power, who comes from Dublin, to replace Ms Rice as US ambassador to the United Nations, signals a shift by Mr Obama towards advisers who favour more robust American intervention overseas for humanitarian purposes.
But it is unclear whether that philosophy will alter the president’s policies in Syria, where he has resisted pressure to use US military force to stem its civil war.
Ms Rice’s appointment provides a measure of redemption after the contentious Benghazi investigations forced her from consideration as Mr Obama’s second-term secretary of state.
The president, who vigorously defended Ms Rice from the Republican criticism at the time, lauded his close friend yesterday as a “patriot who puts her country first”.
“Susan is a fierce champion for justice and human decency. But she’s also mindful that we have to exercise our power wisely and deliberately,” Mr Obama said in a White House Rose Garden ceremony.
Ms Rice, 48, takes the influential national security post in the president’s inner circle from Tom Donilon, who is stepping down in July after more than four years in the Obama White House.
The shake-up at the top echelons of Mr Obama’s team comes just as he starts tackling a heavy foreign policy agenda. He is due to hold an unusual summit in California with Chinese President Xi Jinping starting tomorrow, then travel to Europe and Africa later this month.
The announcements came as Mr Obama seeks to regroup from three controversies that have emboldened Republicans and threatened to overshadow his agenda: the US tax collection agency’s targeting of conservative political groups, the Justice Department’s seizure of phone records of Associated Press journalists and the resurgent investigation into the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, including ambassador Chris Stevens.
Ms Rice became entangled in the Benghazi case after asserting in television interviews that the September attack was probably spontaneous, a statement that was later proven false.
While Ms Rice said she was relying on talking points provided by the administration, she became a target for Republicans accusing the White House of trying to cover up a terror attack during the presidential election.
But because her new job does not require Senate confirmation, some of the Republican politicians who doled out the most aggressive attacks appeared resigned to her promotion through the ranks of Mr Obama’s national security team.
Senator John McCain, one of Ms Rice’s harshest critics, said on Twitter that he disagreed with her appointment but would “make every effort” to work with her on important matters.
The toughest criticism of Ms Rice came from Rand Paul, a Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and possible 2016 presidential candidate, who tangled with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton over Benghazi at a hearing earlier this year.
In a series of tweets, Mr Paul said he questioned “the president’s judgment in promoting someone who was complicit in misleading the American public on the Benghazi attacks”.
But in an ironic twist for her Republican adversaries, Ms Rice may end up wielding more authority in US foreign policy from within the White House than she would have as head of the State Department.
Under Mr Obama, the White House, not the State Department or other agencies, has become the power centre for the administration foreign policy decision-making.
Standing alongside Mr Obama in the Rose Garden, Ms Rice said she looked forward to working with politicians from both parties “to protect the United States, advance our global leadership and promote the values Americans hold dear”.
She first started working for Mr Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign and already has a close friendship with the president as well as the trust of many of his advisers.
She’ has been a strong advocate at the UN for stricter sanctions against Iran and North Korea, and also pushed for the US and allies to use military force to help Libyan rebels oust long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Ms Rice previously served in various national security positions in President Bill Clinton’s administration, including key roles on peacekeeping and African affairs. Her world view is said to have been shaped by Mr Clinton’s decision to not intervene in the Rwandan genocide, a move she later said deeply affected her.
Ms Power, a human rights advocate and genocide expert, was among the fiercest critics of Clinton officials, including Ms Rice, who kept the US out of Rwanda.
A former journalist, Ms Power won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in general non-fiction for her book A Problem From Hell: America And The Age Of Genocide, which examined US foreign policy towards genocide in the 20th century.
She served as an informal adviser to Mr Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, but resigned after calling then-rival Hillary Clinton a “monster”. She later joined Mr Obama’s national security staff at the White House, overseeing the human rights portfolio.
Despite their reputations as interventionists on humanitarian grounds, neither Ms Rice nor Ms Power has staked out a public position on Syria that differs from the president’s.
