Even as the Obama administration celebrates the killing of American-born al-Qaeda operative Anwar al-Awlaki and his traitorous friend Samir Khan in Yemen, its analysts are beginning to admit their war by decree in Libya empowered Islamic extremists bent on exporting jihad throughout the region. Thanks to Obama’s policies, al-Qaeda-linked radicals may be pillaging Muammar Qaddafi’s stockpile of weapons and receiving shipments of contraband from overseas.
In the closest thing to an admission Obama administration figures lied us into war, Reuters reports:
During the half-year campaign by rebels to drive Muammar Gaddafi from power, U.S. and NATO officials downplayed fears that al Qaeda or other militants would infiltrate anti-Gaddafi forces or take advantage of disorder to establish footholds in Libya.
Since then, however, the assessment of top experts inside the U.S. government has sharpened.
Former CIA asset and Obama adviser Bruce Riedel summarizes, “There is a great deal of concern that the jihadi cadre now are going to be exporting their ideas and weapons toward the east and west.”
This author reported the cause of their alarm a month ago. The National Transitional Council (NTC), the body the United States now exclusively recognizes as the official government of Libya, elected Abdel Hakim Belhaj commander of the Tripoli Military Council in late August. Belhaj is the co-founder of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), which the State Department designated a foreign terrorist organization in December 2004. The New York Times relates that LIFG members received “combat experience in Iraq or Afghanistan” — fighting the United States. Belhaj, who met Osama bin Laden twice, now commands 8,000 troops, Libya’s largest fighting force.
U.S. analysts, who covered up the links the “rebels” have to Islamic fundamentalists, now worry Belhaj and his LIFG warriors have raided Qaddafi’s arsenal, despoiling it of anti-aircraft weapons that could one day be turned against U.S. or NATO planes.
The radicals may not need Qaddafi’s weapons, as other nations in the area are reportedly replenishing their cache. Rebels in the city of Zintan intercepted a cargo shipment to Belhaj from the nation of Qatar, which Belhaj insisted contained food and milk. Those who opened it say it contained weapons. Taking note of the interference Mohamed Benrasali, a leading figure in the Libyan government, replied, “We are very sorry the Qataris have taken the decision to support Belhaj’s brigade. This will backfire on our Qatari friends.”
Despite Benrasali’s tough talk, one suspects the fire will aimed in his direction.
Qatar was influenced to support the rebels by Sheik Ali Salabi, a Libyan Islamic scholar who lives in the monarchy. The Washington Times states, “Mr. Salabi has close ties to Mr. Belhaj. The sheik’s brother, Ismail, is the commander of a powerful rebel brigade in eastern Libya.”
With Belhaj’s control of Libya’s strongest militia and the apparent backing of a foreign nation, the nation’s self-proclaimed “Islamists” are well-positioned to topple any provisional government and seize power by force. The current prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, is under fire from all sides. Sheik Salabi has denounced the NTC’s leadership as “rabid secularists.” Even Benrasali said the rebels’ inability to form a permanent government is “testing our patience.”
Despite all the evidence, some American politicians have a different assessment. The story broke the same day a delegation of four Republican senators met with Libya’s (temporary) government to tell them they “inspired the world.” The quartet included Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Mark Kirk — all confirmed RINOs — and the much-hyped Marco Rubio, whom the Beltway GOP establishment has anointed as the next vice presidential nominee. The senators stressed, as have European diplomats, that the new government must continue its cooperation with the U.S. war on terrorism. Although McCain said, “This is Libya’s revolution, not ours,” he instructed his hosts to ensure “that past wrongs do not become a license for future crimes, especially against minorities” — which, in fact, they already have.
Even if Libya’s leadership were not ideologically committed to the destruction of the West, it seems unlikely it would heed any further American entreaties. Two of the four senators who visited this week, McCain and Graham, met with Muammar Qaddafi and his son Muatassim on August 14, 2009. Sens. Joseph Lieberman and Susan Collins joined them. All four assured Qaddafi his new relationship with the United States would be a long-lived affair and they would attempt to help him improve his military capabilities, especially getting new C130s. They requested that he continue to cooperate with the war on terrorism and allow the U.S. to build a more secure embassy.
Less than two years later, the same senators were the most outspoken in supporting Qaddafi’s ouster. McCain went on to blast his own party’s alleged “isolationism” for refusing to help Belhaj, et. al, conquer Tripoli.
No national leader would cooperate with “allies” like this. Libyans have every incentive to stand against the United States. We’ve given it to them.
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New Orleans Councilwoman, Ray Nagin Try To Remove Anti-Obama Signs On Private Property
A series of anti-Obama signs in New Orleans’ Uptown neighborhood have raised the ire of a local city councilwoman, who promises to exploit “whatever we can use” to have them removed. And former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has personally intervened to try to talk the homeowner, Timothy Reily, into squelching his freedom of speech.
Reily posted three placards expressing his displeasure with the president on his property at the corner of Calhoun and Coralie streets. One depicts Obama as a crybaby, complete with diaper, proclaiming, “It’s Not My Fault.” Rush Limbaugh recently read six pages of headlines featuring Obama blaming the sad state of national affairs on everything from the Arab spring to the Japanese tsunami.
Another portrays Obama in a dunce cap translating the economic maxims of “Obamics 101″ into plain English. It includes such phrases as “Progress=”Redistribution of Wealth” and “Stimulus=9.2 percent unemployment.”
A third states Obama is a puppet of George Soros. Last November, this author noted the Soros-funded Center for American Progress issued a paper encouraging Obama to rule by executive order the same day word leaked that George Soros told a meeting of the Democracy Alliance, “if this president can’t do what we need, it is time to start looking somewhere else.” Obama has since stepped up his use of executive powers and federal regulations.
The signs have incensed some in Reily’s neighborhood. Maya Rodriguez of WWL-TV reports some of Reily’s neighbors gathered outside his home and complained:
Former Mayor Ray Nagin went into the home, apparently to pressure Reily to remove the signs, but thankfully came out empty-handed. (Reily’s refusal will not be remembered as Nagin’s most catastrophic failure.)
Incensed, the Left called out the boys in blue. WWL-TV reports City Council Member Susan Guidry called the police. Guidry, a Democrat who was elected in March 2010 with the endorsement of SEIU Local 21, said she would investigate any grounds that could be used to remove the sign, “perhaps the size of the sign, perhaps the way that it’s erected.” She told the press, “Whatever we can use, we will,” adding as an afterthought, “but of course, we do have to balance that with First Amendment rights.”
Of course.
The president has progressively intensified his war on any expression of disapproval. During the 2008 campaign, Sinclair Broadcasting reported that the Obama campaign pressured its stations not to air an ad tying Obama to Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers. He has established multiple ways for citizens to turn in anyone who speaks ill of his far-Left political agenda, from flag@whitehouse.gov to the new Attack Watch. He has engaged in a taxpayer-funded covert propaganda campaign, which Congressman Darrell Issa has said may be illegal, and which employs blogger Tracy Russo to respond to anti-Obama internet postings anonymously or under a pseudonym. Issa is investigating allegations that the Obama administration pressured Ford to pull an anti-stimulus ad from the airwaves and the internet.
Even signs posted on someone’s private property as an expression of the First Amendment are not beyond the reach of the Left’s duly elected thugs.
If the government cannot stifle free speech, it hopes acts of demonization and shame will, hence the empty allegations of “racism.” And no, surely no one would do that to George W. Bush.
The crybabies on the Left represent the greatest threat to our freedom, whether the First, Second, or Tenth Amendments. America needs more citizens willing to stand up for their beliefs. Apparently the Democrats believe nothing represents a greater threat to their hold on power.