Libya

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Foreign Banks Got Majority of Secret Fed Loans

Court forces Fed to release info

(Newser) - When the Federal Reserve opened its “discount window” at the height of the financial crisis, a lot of foreign banks lined up. The 97-year-old program hit an all-time high during October 2008, and during its peak week, 70% of the $110.7 billion doled out went to foreign banks,...

US Ending Libya Air Combat Role

Gates, Mullen: Attack planes to be pulled out Saturday

(Newser) - The Pentagon is about to pull its attack planes out of the international air campaign in Libya, hoping NATO partners can pick up the slack. The announcement by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that American combat missions will end Saturday drew incredulous reactions from...

Gadhafi's Sons May Be Looking for Way Out

Top aide to Seif al-Islam holding secret talks in London

(Newser) - A senior aide to Seif al-Islam has visited London in recent days to hold secret talks with British officials, government sources tell the Guardian . The Foreign Office says it won’t “provide a running commentary” on the talks, but one Western diplomat says it’s looking increasingly like Seif...

Gadhafi Defiant After Second Big Defection

He says Western leaders deluded by 'madness'

(Newser) - Moammar Gadhafi struck a defiant stance today after two high-profile defections from his regime, saying he's not the one who should go—it's Western leaders who should resign. Gadhafi's message was undercut by its delivery, a scroll across the bottom of state TV as he remained out of sight. The...

Lockerbie Prosecutors Want to Interview Libyan Defector

Former official Moussa Koussa rumored to have played a role

(Newser) - The defection of Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa to Britain may not spell the end of his trouble: Scottish prosecutors want to interview him to determine whether he played a role in the 1988 bombing of Pam Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, reports the Wall Street Journal . British officials, meanwhile,...

Obama's Libya Blundering Could Wreck His Presidency
Obama's Libya Blundering Could Wreck His Presidency
andrew sullivan

Obama's Libya Blundering Could Wreck His Presidency

Andrew Sullivan: He's getting the US tangled up in a 'dumb war'

(Newser) - Andrew Sullivan delivers a withering critique of President Obama on the news that CIA agents are on the ground covertly helping anti-Gadhafi rebels. It means the president has been "at best vague" and "at worst deceptive" in his public pronouncements, Sullivan writes at his Daily Dish blog at...

Why Sirte Matters in Struggle for Libya

Battle will say a lot about the war

(Newser) - Earlier this week, Libyan rebels fought their way to the outskirts of Sirte, a city that could prove crucial to the outcome of the war—and which most Americans have probably never heard of. Not to fear; the Huffington Post has a full outline of the city’s history. Sirte...

What the CIA Is Doing in Libya
 What the CIA Is Doing in Libya 

What the CIA Is Doing in Libya

Obama secretly authorized spies to arm rebels

(Newser) - CIA and British MI6 agents are on the ground in Libya , working covertly to help the rebels defeat Moammar Gadhafi’s forces—and they've been there for weeks, reports the New York Times . Spies from both countries have been scouting the locations of military targets like munitions depots for coalition...

Gadhafi Plants Mines as Libya Rebels Flee

Gadhafi's forces continue to force Libyan rebels' retreat

(Newser) - Moammar Gadhafi’s forces have taken their fight against the Libyan rebels to the next level, sowing land mines around the city of Ajdabiya. The mines include both anti-personnel mines, which much of the world banned in the 1997 Mines Ban Treaty, and anti-tank mines; Gadhafi’s troops likely planted...

Libya: Coalition Air Strike Killed Toddler

Regime shows media first credible evidence of civilian casualty

(Newser) - The Libyan regime has presented what appears to be the first credible case of a civilian killed by coalition air strikes. Reporters were escorted to a village in western Libya where a family mourned their 18-month-old son, who authorities say was killed when a rocket pierced the home following a...

Obama OKs Support for Libya Rebels: Report

 CIA Agents Helping  
 Libyan Rebels 
UPDATED

CIA Agents Helping Libyan Rebels

Meanwhile, Britain Says Libya Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa Defected

(Newser) - CIA operatives are on the ground in Libya helping anti-Gadhafi rebels, reports the New York Times . They're apparently not in combat mode—instead they're collecting intelligence on military movements to guide airstrikes and setting up communication with the rebels. British agents are doing the same. The report lends credence to...

Approval Rating Hits All-Time Low for Obama

In wake of Libya intervention, just 42% like job he's doing

(Newser) - President Obama’s poll numbers are in the doghouse again. Just 42% of the public approves of the job Obama’s doing, compared to 48% who disapprove, an all-time low for the president, according to a new Quinnipiac poll. Meanwhile, a Gallup poll found that Americans were less likely than...

US Finds Hints of al-Qaeda Among Libyan Rebels

But general stresses it's not the people in charge

(Newser) - US intelligence indicates “flickers” of evidence that there are fighters among the Libyan rebels with ties to al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, but neither group holds significant sway over the movement, Admiral James Stavridis told Congress today. “The intelligence that I'm receiving at this point makes me feel that the...

Obama's Speech Ratings Keep Dropping

...and dropping ... and dropping

(Newser) - Obama just isn't reeling them in like he used to: It turns out 25.6 million of us tuned in to Obama's Libya speech on Monday night. That's down 12% from his August 2010 Iraq speech, whose 29.2 million viewers were down 9% from his speech in June of...

Stewart Slams Obama's Libya Speech

What was up with the anger—and unanswered questions?

(Newser) - “Ten days after we started bombing Libya, President Obama took to the podium to convince Americans that we should … bomb Libya. Starting 10 days ago,” noted Jon Stewart last night. The speech may have been basically well-received , but not by Stewart: First of all, the president seemed...

As Rebels Lose Ground, a Debate: Do We Arm Them?

Meanwhile, Gadhafi drives rebels out of oil town Ras Lanuf

(Newser) - Rebels suffered a significant setback on their main front yesterday, as Gadhafi’s heavily-armed forces drove them out of the oil port of Ras Lanuf, according to the Wall Street Journal . Defeats like that raise the possibility that the coalition will need to arm the rebels, a move Barack Obama...

If Gadhafi Kept His Nukes, We'd Have a Different Story

So now's the time to force Iran to give them up, too: Israeli ambassador

(Newser) - Moammar Gadhafi made a calculated decision to abandon his nuclear program earlier this decade, mainly because it was in his own self-interest to do so, writes Israeli ambassador Michael Oren in the Wall Street Journal . Gadhafi feared the US would do to him what it did to Saddam Hussein if...

Gadhafi Forces Keep Rebels in Retreat

US, allies meet in London; Obama reaffirms policy

(Newser) - The seesaw fight in Libya continued to tilt in Moammar Gadhafi's favor as his better-organized forces kept rebels in retreat mode, reports the Los Angeles Times . Gadhafi maintained control of his pivotal hometown of Sirte as panicked rebels fled east to Bin Jawwad and demanded more airstrikes: "Where is...

Iraq Paved the Way for Libya


 Iraq Paved 
 the Way 
 for Libya 
Christopher Hitchens

Iraq Paved the Way for Libya

And we ought to just admit we're out to oust Gadhafi: Christopher Hitchens

(Newser) - The uprisings sweeping across the Arab world could never have happened if we hadn’t taken out Saddam Hussein—and we ought to admit we’re trying to give Moammar Gadhafi the same treatment, writes Christopher Hitchens of Slate . “Can anyone imagine how the Arab spring would have played...

US Price Tag for Week 1 of Libya Mission: $600M

But money has all come from Pentagon's existing budget

(Newser) - Week one of the United States' intervention in Libya has cost us at least $600 million, according to new data from the Pentagon. That figure includes $268.8 million worth of Tomahawk cruise missiles, tens of thousands of dollars worth of precision guided bombs, and more than $60 million to...

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