Obama stays cautious on Libya as Americans await evacuation

Source: McClatchy

WASHINGTON — With hundreds of U.S. citizens trapped for now in Libya, the Obama administration is responding cautiously to leader Moammar Gadhafi's brutal attempt to suppress a rebellion, fearing that the wrong move might bring retaliation against Americans, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
The fate of about 600 U.S. citizens, along with 35 non-essential Embassy staff, whom the State Department is trying to evacuate, puts President Barack Obama in an excruciating diplomatic bind.

Despite the regime's ongoing massacres that have killed hundreds of civilians, and executions of security personnel who refuse to take part in the atrocities, Obama hasn't called on Gadhafi to leave. That's a striking difference from his role in easing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power after a much less bloody revolution earlier this month.
There was mounting pressure Tuesday on the Obama administration to take a tougher stand.

-snip-

The relatively small embassy staff is also helping some of the roughly 600 U.S. citizens in the country, many of whom work for energy companies, depart.
Concerns that U.S. citizens might get caught up in the chaos grew Tuesday when Gadhafi gave a defiant, rambling speech in which he appeared to blame the U.S. for the insurrection that's divided the country.
"We defy America," Gadhafi said at one point.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement that British nationals in Libya "have encountered significant difficulties" trying to leave.

Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/02/22/109225/obama-stays-cautious-on-libya.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_term=news

issue.

take a real stand.

Damn, we shouldn't have lifted the sanctions against Gaddafi. Now, we have to walk a tight rope trying to rescue US oil workers before anything can happen.

This is why we shouldn't placate despots and thugs.

At least since Tunisia fell.

Any American companies that are not evacuating workers and families from any of the ME countries that are in danger of falling are simply being irresponsible.

What's an energy (oil) company to do!?!?!?

Thank GOD & Dow Jones that the workers don't belong to a union and there's no pesky shop stewards pokin' their noses in and harming corporate profits!

as the only reason for the tepid Obama response. I think the administration does not want to appear weak to the other pro-American rulers in the region who have grown more uneasy that Washington will abandon them when the going gets tough. I think our focus right now is with preventing democratic revolutions from toppling Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq...

That "We defy America" quote from Gadhafi is a desperate plea to rally some support from the masses and deflect criticism from the opposition that he is a U.S. client.

My 2 cents fwiw.

Not defending government institutions, but in intentional mass firings on people in large groups and at random, protesters and bystanders, even people in their homes. Fired on by paid foreign mercenaries, from unmarked cars driving around, from helicopters and from jets. Even bombed from jets.

Top air force personnel defected to Malta saying they were ordered to fire, from their jets, on civilian populations.

I feel bad for the 600 U.S. citizens. I also feel very bad for millions of Libyan citizens, who are being slaughtered in horrifying numbers.

I guess I would rather see Obama take strong action to stop a massacre, than to see him angle and negotiate with a madman.

But that's just me.

The wrong lesson from misunderstood history.

'Today is the 382 day that the American Hostages have been held in Tehran".

It's the madman dictator potentially holding the hostages, not the youth revolution.

The revolution is on the same side as we are: democracy and freedom from tyranny.

So it would seem like our best move is to exterminate the madman as quickly as possible

Source: AP



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Per CNN, there's no assurance the ferries will actually be able to sail into port.

I'm old enough to remember the Iranian hostage situation, and I don't want a repeat.

is going to try to make it to the port? Doesn't sound like a good plan to me. I would hate to be there and have to consider trying to get out.

Who do not want another Iran either.

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Ferry carrying Americans can't leave Libya
Associated Press, 02.24.11, 04:09 AM EST

VALLETTA, Malta -- Americans trying to flee the chaos of Libya's uprising are stuck waiting aboard a ferry because of rough seas.

The 600-passenger ferry at Tripoli's As-shahab port, which has been chartered by the U.S. government, was supposed to leave for Malta on Wednesday.

But a spokesman for the American Embassy in Malta said Thursday that bad weather made that impossible. Strong winds have been whipping up high waves in the Mediterranean.

The spokesman said provisions are aboard the ferry for the passengers.

more:http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/02/24/general-libya-evacuations_8323608.html