Obama, officials mourn 4 slain in Libya

WASHINGTON -- On a day mixing somber ceremony with campaign clamor, President Barack Obama on Friday eulogized four Americans killed in a suspected terrorist attack on a diplomatic post overseas, while Republicans pledged a tougher foreign policy to confront U.S. enemies.

"Four Americans, four patriots -- they loved this country and they chose to serve it, and served it well. . . . They didn't simply embrace the American ideal. They lived it," Obama said of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others who died when the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, was overrun this week.

With four flag-draped containers holding the remains nearby, attended by Marines, the president vowed, "We will bring to justice those who took them from us."

Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney and running mate Paul Ryan also paid tribute to Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen A. Doherty and Tyrone S. Woods. But they added disapproval of an American foreign policy they said lacked resolve.

With Romney facing criticism from some quarters that he had fumbled the issue earlier in the week, Ryan spoke the sharpest words. Pointing to recent events throughout the Middle East and Northern Africa, he said, "We know who America is dealing with in these attacks. They are extremists who operate by violence and intimidation. . . . Amid all these threats and dangers, what we do not see is steady, consistent American leadership."

The day's events unfolded a little more than seven weeks before Election Day.

The ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base had little precedent -- White House aides pointed to only one other like it, in 1998 -- and when it was over, the bodies were taken to Dover Air Force Base where most of those killed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been flown.

Each transfer case was carried off the plane by seven Marines as Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta watched silently. Two of Clinton's Republican predecessors, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, also attended in a bipartisan show of respect for the dead and their survivors.

Moments after the ceremony ended, Romney told a campaign audience in Painesville, Ohio, that he had delayed his speech to watch on television. He led the crowd in a moment of silence "in recognition of the bloodshed for freedom."

Earlier in the day, at a fundraiser in New York, he accused Obama of failing to schedule a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, due in the United States later this month. He called it an "extraordinarily confusing and troubling decision," and added, "There have been, over the years, confusing messages sent by the president of the United States to the world."

The White House has denied reports that Obama decided not to meet with the Israeli leader.