BY KIMBERLY DOZIERAP Intelligence Writer

WASHINGTON — Small teamsof special operations forces ar-rived at American embassiesthroughout North Africa in themonths before militantslaunched the fiery attack thatkilled the U.S. ambassador inLibya. The soldiers’ mission: Setup a network that could quicklystrike a terrorist target or rescuea hostage.

But the teams had yet to domuch counterterrorism work inLibya, though the White Housesigned off a year ago on the planto build the new military taskforce in the region and the ad-vance teams had been there forsix months, according to threeU.S. counterterror officials and aformer intelligence official. Allspoke only on condition ofanonymity because they werenot authorized to discuss thestrategy publicly.

The counterterror effort indi-cates that the administration hasbeen worried for some timeabout a growing threat posed byal-Qaida and its offshoots inNorth Africa. But officials say themilitary organization was toonew to respond to the attack inBenghazi, where the administra-tion now believes armed al-

Qaida-linked militants sur-rounded the lightly guarded U.S.compound, set it on fire andkilled Ambassador Chris Stevensand three other Americans.

Republicans have questionedwhether the Obama administra-tion has been hiding key informa-tion or hasn’t known whathappened in the immediate after-math of the attack. They areusing those questions in the finalweeks before the U.S. electionsas an opportunity to assail Presi-dent Barack Obama on foreignpolicy, an area where he has heldclear leads in opinion polls sincethe killing of Osama bin Laden in2011.

On Tuesday, leaders of a con-gressional committee said re-quests for added security at theconsulate in Benghazi were re-peatedly denied, despite a stringof less deadly terror attacks onthe consulate in recent months.Those included an explosion thatblew a hole in the securityperimeter and another incidentin which an explosive device wastossed over the consulate fence.Secretary of State Hillary Rod-ham Clinton told Congress in aletter responding to the accusa-tions that she has set up a groupto investigate the Benghazi at-tack, and it is to begin work thisweek.

As of early September, thespecial operations teams stillconsisted only of liaison officerswho were assigned to establishrelationships with local govern-ments and U.S. officials in the re-gion. Only limitedcounterterrorism operationshave been conducted in Africa sofar.

The White House, the CIA andU.S. Africa Command all declinedto comment.

“There are no plans at thisstage for unilateral U.S. militaryoperations” in the region, Penta-gon spokesman George Littlesaid Tuesday, adding that thefocus was on helping Africancountries build their own forces.

For the Special OperationsCommand, spokesman Col. TimNye would not discuss “the mis-sions and or locations of itscounterterrorist forces” exceptto say that special operationstroops are in 75 countries dailyconducting missions.

The go-slow approach beingtaken by the Army’s top clandes-tine counterterrorist unit —known as Delta Force — is an ef-fort by the White House tocounter criticism from some U.S.lawmakers, human rights ac-tivists and others that the anti-terror fight is shifting largely to asecret war using special opera-

tions raids and drone strikes,with little public accountability.The administration has been tak-ing its time when setting up thenew unit to get buy-in from allplayers who might be affected,such as the U.S. ambassadors,CIA station chiefs, regional U.S.military commanders and localleaders.

PAST AL NEUHARTH AWARD WINNERS

Jack Marsh, president Al Neuharth Media Center

555 Dakota St., Vermillion, SD 57069jmarsh@freedomforum.org

605/677-6315

THURSDAY October 4

6:15 p.m. Doors open for general seating.

7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Award presentation and

remarks by Marilyn Hagerty.

Aalfs Auditorium, Slagle Hall The University of South Dakota

414 East Clark Street Vermillion, South Dakota

General seating is first-come, first-served.

PRESENTED BY

Rebroadcast Sun., Oct. 7, at 1 p.m. CT

Televised live by

This event is free and open to the public.

Coming to USD, Thursday, Oct. 4

2012 Al Neuharth Award for Excellence in the Media Honoring Marilyn Hagerty

Join us for an evening with

newspaper columnist and Internet

sensation Marilyn Hagerty, 86, as

she receives the 2012 Al Neuharth

Award for Excellence in the Media.

Hagerty, who writes columns for the

North Dakota Grand Forks Herald,

drew widespread media attention

earlier this year when her straightforward feature story

about the opening of the first Olive Garden restaurant

in Grand Forks went viral on the Internet. Her long and

storied journalism career included time at the University

of South Dakota, where she was Al Neuharth’s first

editor at the student newspaper, The Volante.

The award, recognizing lifetime

achievement, is named for

USA TODAY and Freedom Forum

founder Al Neuharth, a South Dakota

native and 1950 USD journalism

graduate, who will be on campus

to honor Hagerty as a model

journalist dedicated to serving local

communities through consistently fair, truthful and

relevant coverage.

Marilyn Hagerty

Al Neuharth

Cokie Roberts Garrison Keillor Brian LambWalter Cronkite Katie CouricBob SchiefferTim Russert

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NEWS DEPARTMENT: news@yankton.net12 PRESS DAKOTANthe world

Official: Hezbollah Commander Killed In SyriaBEIRUT (AP) — A Hezbollah commander and several fighters have

been killed inside Syria, a Lebanese security official said Tuesday, a devel-opment that could stoke already soaring tensions over the Lebanese mili-tant group’s role in the civil war next door.

Hezbollah’s reputation has taken a beating over its support for the Syr-ian regime, but any sign that the group’s fighters are taking part in the bat-tle raises fears that the conflict could expand into a wider fight engulfingthe region.

Hezbollah has stood by Syrian President Bashar Assad since the upris-ing began 18 months ago, even after the group supported revolts in Egypt,Tunisia, Libya and Bahrain.

Assad’s fall would be a dire scenario for Hezbollah. Any new regime ledby Syria’s majority Sunni Muslims would likely be far less friendly — oreven outright hostile — to Shiite Muslim Hezbollah. Iran remains thegroup’s most important patron, but Syria is a crucial supply route. Withoutit, Hezbollah will struggle to get money and weapons as easily.

NYPD Monitoring Facebook To Fight GangsNEW YORK (AP) — Police investigating two gangs called the Very

Cripsy Gangsters and the Rockstarz didn’t need to spend all their timepounding the pavement for leads. Instead, they fired up their computersand followed the trash talk on Facebook.

“Rockstarz up 3-0,” one suspect boasted — a reference to the bodycount from a bloody turf war between the Brooklyn gangs that ultimatelyresulted in 49 arrests last month.

Authorities in New York say a new generation of gang members is in-creasingly using social media to boast of their exploits and issue tauntsand challenges that result in violence. And police and prosecutors have re-sponded over the past several years by closely monitoring Facebook andother sites for leads and evidence.

On Tuesday, New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly an-nounced plans to beef up the NYPD’s cyber crackdown by expanding theuse of aggressive online investigative tactics and doubling the size of thedepartment’s gang unit to 300 investigators.

The reinforcements will focus less on established gangs like the Bloodsand Crips and more on loosely knit groups of teenagers who stake out acertain block or section of a housing project as their turf and exactvengeance on those who trespass or fail to show the proper respect.

Border Patrol Agent Killed While On PatrolNACO, Ariz. (AP) — A Border Patrol agent was shot to death Tuesday

in Arizona near the U.S.-Mexico line, the first fatal shooting of an agentsince a deadly 2010 firefight with Mexican bandits that spawned congres-sional probes of a botched government gun-smuggling investigation.

The agent, Nicholas Ivie, 30, and a colleague were on patrol in thedesert near Naco, Ariz., about 100 miles from Tucson, when shootingbroke out shortly before 2 a.m., the Border Patrol said. The second agentwas shot in the ankle and buttocks, and was reported to be in stable condi-tion Tuesday afternoon.

Authorities have not identified the agent who was wounded, nor didthey say whether any weapons were seized at the site of the shooting.

BY KASIE HUNTAssociated Press

DENVER — Offering deficit-cutting ideas beforehis first debate with President Barack Obama, MittRomney says he might be willing to reduce incometax deductions used by millions of families forhome mortgage interest and health care costs.

He suggested the changes could be part of aplan that includes a 20 percent cut in tax ratesacross the board, continuation of upper incometax cuts that Obama wants to end and a compre-hensive tax overhaul plan that the Republicanpresidential contender has so far declined to fleshout in detail. Romney says his overall plans wouldinvigorate the slowly recovering U.S. economy.

Both Romney and Obama spent their timemostly in private on Tuesday, preparing for the de-bate, the president in Henderson, Nev., near LasVegas, Romney already in Denver where the face-off will take place Wednesday at 9 p.m. EDT. Nei-ther held public campaign events, but Obama tooka break from preparation to visit nearby HooverDam, and Romney picked up lunch at a ChipotleMexican Grill near his hotel.

In an interview Monday night with Denver TVstation KDVR, Romney said, “As an option youcould say everybody’s going to get up to a $17,000deduction. And you could use your charitable de-duction, your home mortgage deduction, or oth-ers — your health care deduction, and you can fillthat bucket, if you will, that $17,000 bucket thatway. And higher income people might have alower number.”

A Romney adviser said changes in other areas— a taxpayer’s personal exemption and the de-

duction or credit for health care — would also betaken into account if deductions were limited asRomney suggested. Combining changes to thosetwo areas with the limit on deductions wouldmaintain Romney’s goal of keeping tax burdensthe same for wealthy and middle income taxpay-ers, the adviser said.

On another controversial subject, in a separatelocal interview ahead of the debate, Romney toldThe Denver Post that he would honor the tempo-rary permission the Obama administration hasgranted to many young illegal immigrants to allowthem to stay in the country.

Obama announced in June that he would pre-vent deportation for some children brought to theUnited States by illegal immigrant parents. Appli-cants must not have a serious criminal record andmust meet other requirements, such as graduatingfrom high school or serving in the U.S. military.

Romney had previously refused to say if hewould retain the policy if he won the election.

He granted the interviews as he and Obamalooked ahead to the debate, the first of three theywill hold before Election Day on Nov. 6.

The debates, expected to draw a huge nation-wide audience, takes place with most polls show-ing Obama slightly ahead both nationally and inthe battleground states expected to settle theelection.

Away from Denver, the campaign pressedahead Tuesday on TV airwaves, in courts and inlocal election officials’ offices across the states.

The Romney-supporting independent groupCrossroads GPS launched an $11 million, 10-day adcampaign in eight swing states. Its new ad criti-cizes Obama’s assertion that unemploymentwould fall if Congress passed his proposed stimu-

lus law. The national unemployment rate stillstands above 8 percent.

In Pennsylvania, meanwhile, a judge struckdown a much-debated voter identification law, avictory for state Democrats who argued that itwould prevent many minorities and elderly peoplefrom voting. The judge, Robert Simpson, wrotethat he was concerned by the state’s stumbling ef-forts to create a photo ID that would be easily ac-cessible to voters. Pennsylvania, while longconsidered a battleground state, has backed De-mocrats in presidential elections for decades, andRomney has trailed Obama in polls there.

On another voter-eligibility matter, Romney’scampaign has sent letters to election officials inWisconsin, Mississippi and Vermont asking thatthe deadline for receiving ballots from military andoverseas voters be extended.

In Denver, in his comments on taxes, Romneyalso cited the tax plan included in the Simpson-Bowles deficit commission recommendations as apossible course. That plan calls for reducing thetop income tax rates. To pay for that, the planwould eliminate or reduce many popular taxbreaks, including deductions for charitable dona-tions and mortgage interest.

While Romney did not commit to making anyspecific changes, saying he would work with Con-gress, his suggestions were more specific thanthose he had offered in the past and provided anew window into his thinking on the subject. Inthe spring, Romney told donors that he wouldconsider eliminating home mortgage deductionsfor second homes. That conversation, behindclosed doors, was overheard by reporters stand-ing on a private sidewalk.

Romney Says He Might Cut Deductions

White House Widening Covert War In North Africa