Defense Secretary Hagel said the Islamic State poses a threat to the US as well as to Europe and other US allies in the Middle East. The Treasury Department today sanctioned a Lebanon-based Hezbollah technology procurement network with subsidiaries in China and the United Arab Emirates, and yesterday sanctioned a U.A.E.-based petroleum products company and two Syrian front companies for supplying materials to the Assad regime and its weapons program. Matthew Olsen, head of the National Counter-Terrorism Center, is resigning. Newly-released testimony by Gen. Carter Ham, former head of US Africa Command, indicated his view that the second wave of the 2012 attack on the US Mission in Benghazi was carried out by a “well-trained” crew from outside Benghazi.
