White House caution in response to Gaddafi's actions was guided by fears for the safety of Americans

[Pirate Smile]

Source: Washington Post

By Scott Wilson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 26, 2011; 9:32 PM

As President Obama and his advisers measured their response to the mass killing in Libya over the past week, they were mindful of one particular scene unfolding thousands of miles away.

The U.S. Embassy and other diplomatic posts in Tripoli, reopened only five years ago, comprise a series of lightly protected compounds and trailers. The guards there were Libyan, not the U.S. Marines posted outside most embassies. And an armed and angry Libyan opposition was approaching the city from the east, as hundreds of Americans awaited evacuation across rough seas.

Administration officials said the diplomats in Tripoli told them that, in the words of one official, "certain kinds of messaging from the American government could endanger the security of American citizens." There were fears that Americans could be taken hostage.
"Overruling that kind of advice would be a very difficult and dangerous thing to do," said Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.

"That was the debate, and frankly we erred on the side of caution, for certain, and at the cost of some criticism," he continued. "But when you're sitting in government and you're told that ignoring that advice could endanger American citizens, that's a line you don't feel very comfortable crossing."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/26/AR2011022604172.html?wprss=rss_world&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=main-twitter

[tabatha]

1. I suspected as much.

[aquart]

2. Thought it was obvious.

Our people were stalled there. We couldn't move till ours were safe.

[Pirate Smile]

3. Can you imagine if Gaddafi had grabbed some of them in Tripoli? What a huge friggin

disaster that would have been. He is such a lunatic and totally willing to do anything - and do it while yapping on TV. Negotiating or refusing to do so ... can you imagine the media? Ugghhh. I can just imagine the nightmare scenarios the White House and State Department were imagining.

[tabatha]

4. They did attack foreigners.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-brutality-20110227,0,4259996.story

[IamK]

5. there is a fine line between wimp and intellectual i guess...

[tabatha]

7. No, there is reserving judgment until all facts are known.

[applegrove]

6. I saw a report, I think on CNN, where they said that the US considers Gadhafi a borderline

personality who will go crazy when pushed. So they were cautious about using his name or calling him out to much. I guess they did that until they could get Americans out.

[madrchsod]

8. libyan guards? wow, our state dept really is pathetic

[sabrina 1]

9. So what is he doing now that the Americans are out?

He's still just issuing 'stern' statements. Taking no action. If the U.S. and the UN had instituted a no-fly zone to protect ALL the people in Libya, NOT just Americans, he might not have had to worry so much about 'being careful' about what he said.

And this is false:

And an armed and angry Libyan opposition was approaching the city from the east, as hundreds of Americans awaited evacuation across rough seas.

The Libyan opposition, like the Tunisian and Egytian oppositions, ARE NOT ARMED! They were peaceful protesters and no foreign person had anything to fear from them. Why is the Post lying about this?

The only people anyone in Libya had to fear was the Qaddafi mercenaries and loyalists. The reason Qaddafi did not capture any of the them is because the would have provided an excuse for the U.S. to send in troops, and he did not want that.

Let's what the U.S. does now. Maybe the warnings will become 'sterner'? That ought to save lives! :eyes:

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. No, the opposition is armed now too

With arms taken from army depots - either parts of the army have joined the opposition, or they've left the depots unguarded. For instance:

As clashes in the Libyan capital continued Friday between government security forces and anti-regime protesters, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters unequivocally: "The violence must stop."
...
More than 1,000 people have been killed, according to estimates cited Friday by Ban. He noted that the eastern part of the country "is reported to be under the control of opposition elements, who have taken over arms and ammunition from weapon depots."

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/02/25/libya.protests/?hpt=T1

If they weren't armed, then they wouldn't have control of Benghazi and other places - Gaddafi's units are quite willing to shoot unarmed people. The Post wasn't saying the opposition would attack foreigners; but there could be heavy fighting in Tripoli, with both sides armed. And Gaddafi could have got desperate in that situation, and taken hostages.

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. Thanks for posting that....

:thumbsup:

[Imagevision]

10. Can we get the show on the road now, - Gadaffi brought down the lockerbe jet killing Americans also!

[rabs]

11. Somehow, lost in the shuffle ...

White House/AP photo

BUSH SPEAKS WITH GADDAFI IN HISTORIC PHONE CALL


Associated Press
Tuesday, November 18, 2008

President Bush called Libya's Moammar Gaddafi yesterday -- apparently the first time any president has spoken to the African leader -- to voice his satisfaction that Libya had settled a long-standing dispute over terrorist attacks, including the bombing of a Pan Am jet over Scotland, the White House said.

In their conversation, Bush and Gaddafi "discussed that this agreement should help to bring a painful chapter in the history between our two countries closer to closure," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement.

---------- snip ----------

A senior White House official told the Reuters news agency that there was no record of any previous U.S. president speaking to Gaddafi, who seized power in a 1969 military coup. Rights groups say Gaddafi's reign has been marked by human rights abuses and restrictions on freedom of expression.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to meet Tuesday with Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who will be in Washington on a private visit, officials said. In early September, after the settlement deal, Rice became the most senior U.S. official to visit Libya in more than a half century.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111702975.html

--------------------

And who can forget this




By Tim Butcher, Middle East Correspondent 5:05PM BST 05 Sep 2008
Miss Rice said her visit proved Washington was prepared to forgive former enemies even ones like Libya that perpetrated acts of terrorism that cost American lives.

By flying to Tripoli and shaking the hand of Colonel Gaddafi, Miss Rice effectively ended three decades of hostility between the oil-rich desert nation and America, an enmity that claimed lives in the 1980s when Libyan-backed terrorists perpetrated attacks such as the Lockerbie bombing.

"This demonstrates that the U.S. doesn't have permanent enemies," Miss Rice said. "It demonstrates that when countries are prepared to make strategic changes in direction, the United States is prepared to respond.


------------- snip ----------

Col Gaddafi, a leader who straddles the divide between Africa and the Arab world, used typically colourful language to express admiration for Miss Rice in an interview last year.

"I support my darling black African woman," he said.

"I admire and am very proud of the way she leans back and gives orders to the Arab leaders.

"Yes, Leezza, Leezza, Leezza ... I love her very much.

"I admire her, and I'm proud of her, because she's a black woman of African origin."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/2689360/Condoleezza-Rices-visit-opens-new-era-in-US-Libya-relations.html

[tanyev]

13. Thank goodness the shoot from the hip cowboy wanna-be is no longer president.