Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is one of a small group of Republican senators calling for a Special Committee to investigate the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya. But he may be the first to run campaign ads on the issue ahead of the 2014 elections. These web ads via AmericaBlog:

Clicking on the petition brings the reader to a splash screen on Graham’s campaign website:

On Friday, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) rejected the need for a Special Committee, noting that several committees in the House and Senate are already investigating the tragedy. Reid also called on Republicans to stop politicizing the tragedy and national security. “[E]lections are over; it is time to put an end to the partisan politicization of national security and begin working together to strengthen our efforts to dismantle and destroy the terrorist networks that threaten us,” he said in a letter to Graham’s ally Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) also see no need for the committee.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has rejected Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) request to establish a Select Committee to investigate the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya on Sept. 11. In a strongly worded letter delivered to the former GOP presidential hopeful on Friday, Reid rebuked Republicans for politicizing the killings and baselessly claiming that the Obama administration is engaged in a cover-up of the incident. “I refuse to allow the Senate to be used as a venue for baseless partisan attacks,” Reid wrote, noting that several committees in the House and Senate are already investigating the tragedy.

Earlier this week, McCain, along with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), held around the clock press conferences and media appearances insisting that U.N. Ambassador misled the public when she described, five days after the attacks, the incident as a “spontaneous attack” inspired by an anti-Islam video. McCain and Graham promised to block Rice should she be nominated to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State; Ayotte said she would consider the nomination.

In his letter, Reid reminded McCain that “elections are over; it is time to put an end to the partisan politicization of national security and begin working together to strengthen our efforts to dismantle and destroy the terrorist networks that threaten us.” He also rebuked the Arizona senator for skipping a closed-doors committee hearing on Benghazi in order to hold a press conference demanding more information about the attacks:

I am concerned that a Select Committee, as you propose, would duplicate and, ultimately undermine the numerous investigations into the attack that are already proceeding in the Senate committees of jurisdiction, and may serve to further politicize an issue that has already been manipulated by Members of both the House and Senate in service of partisan agendas. [...]

For instance, on Wednesday, Senator McCain failed to attend a classified briefing held by the Senate Homeland Security Committee on this very issue. [...]

One of you, Senator McCain, has gone so far ast o make the outrageous claim that this event was “worse than Watergate” — despite the fact that there is no evidence that any crime was committed, no evidence of any cover-up, and no evidence that the administration has characterized the incident in any way that has not been consistent with the Intelligence Community’s contemporaneous assessments.

Indeed, the GOP’s accusations of an administration cover-up seemed to fall apart after testimony from former CIA chief Gen. David Petraeus on Friday revealed that the CIA approved the declassified talking points used by Rice during her television appearances. The hearings also confirmed that the agency had received conflicting intelligence reports in real time during the attacks.

While one stream of intelligence “from multiple sources, including video at the scene, indicated the group was behind the attack,” other reports “emerged at the same time indicating the violence at the consulate was inspired by protests in Egypt over an ostensibly anti-Islam film that was privately produced in the United States.” Twenty intelligence reports “indicated that anger about the film may be to blame.”

As Reid noted in his letter to McCain, several prominent Republicans have rebuked the GOP’s efforts to politicize the incident. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said, “It’s easy to try and jump to conclusions about what might have happened here. It’s probably better to let the relevant bodies do their work.” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has also dismissed McCain’s call for a Select Committee.

A United Nations Group of Experts (GoE) has suggested a new target for sanctions related to the ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo: the Rwandan Minister of Defense. The experts offered Defense Minister James Kabarebe’s name up for blacklisting due to his suspected role in arming and leading the M23 rebel group in the Congo, as detailed in a report earlier this year.

The GoE made its pitch to the United Nations Security Council committee responsible for sanctions on the Democratic Republic of Congo on Monday. While no action was taken on that specific suggestion, the committee did decide to send forward the rebel leader Sultani Makenga to the full Council for potential repercussions. Among the punishments that the U.N. has at its disposal for individuals accused of breaching international peace and security are travel bans, freezing of financial assets, and even potential referral to the International Criminal Court.

Drama of being named aside, the question of whether the Security Council will take action against any Rwandan officials is a different story:

Diplomats said it was unlikely the council would find the consensus necessary to add any Rwandans to the U.N. blacklist.

“But the fact that the Group of Experts would make this recommendation will itself send a strong political message to Rwanda about the need to curtail support for M23 rebels,” another diplomatic source said.

The accusations against Kabarebe have prompted the United States, Sweden and the Netherlands to suspend some aid to Rwanda, which relies on donors for about 40 percent of its budget. In September the European Union froze further budgetary support to Rwanda.

Even a slim chance that a member of President Paul Kagame’s cabinet be sanctioned puts Rwanda in an interesting position. Rwanda was elected last month to join the Security Council for a two-year term, starting in January. While no vote will likely come of the GoE’s suggestion at this point, it does still lend itself to the potential that further revelations of the link between Rwanda and the M23 could spur a U.N. response. In that event, Rwandan diplomats would have their work cut out for them.

The situation has the potential to be awkward for for U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice as well. Rice, thought to be the front runner for the position of Secretary of State once Hillary Clinton departs, is particularly close with Kagame. Also, the United States has been accused of holding back the release of the initial GoE report that accused Rwanda of aiding the Congolese rebels, possibly at the behest of Rice.