Obama points finger at Britain, France over Libya chaos

President Barack Obama has strongly criticized the leaders of Great Britain and France for their policy toward Libya after the 2011 overthrow of dictator Muammar Qaddafi, saying that he was mistaken to believe the U.S.' European allies would be "more invested in the follow-up" to Qaddafi's fall.
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Islamic State terrorists threaten oil wealth in Libya

The Islamic State threatens to seize Libyan oil refineries -- and gain a major new revenue source -- as the terror group expands its presence in the war-torn country. Islamic State fighters have pushed toward critical port facilities near their Libyan stronghold of Sirte, according to a senior State Department official who was not authorized to talk publicly about the issue and asked not to be named.
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Is a secret sniper killing off Isil's high command in Libya?

As befits all the best practitioners of his shadowy trade, no-one is quite sure whether he is one man or many, or even simply an urban legend.

But after a string of assassinations of its local henchmen, the Islamic State's new "Caliphate" in the Libyan city of Sirte is abuzz with talk that an anti-Isil sniper is at work.
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Gaddafi and Obama: One of them was fighting Islamist terrorists in Libya

Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi warned the West about the Islamic extremists in the months before his murder by a mob.  In a series of phone calls, Gaddafi told Britain’s ex-prime minister, Tony Blair, that the Libyan unrest was because of “[a] campaign of colonization; we have to defy the colonization.” --And he predicted that after North Africa was overtaken, the radical Islamists would go after Europe. Gaddafi’s words are now reality.
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State Department Warns Americans to Get Out of Libya Now

The State Department has warned all Americans in Libya to get out of the country “immediately.”
The new travel warning stresses that “extremist groups continue to plan terrorist attacks against U.S. interests in the Middle East region, including Libya.”
“The Libyan government has not been able to build its military and police forces and improve security following the 2011 revolution. Many military-grade weapons remain in the hands of private individuals, U.S. and UN-designated terrorists, and other armed groups, including antiaircraft weapons that may be used against civilian aviation.


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Chaffetz: State Department Hiding Benghazi Survivors

"Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) told Breitbart News on Wednesday that he has been 'thwarted' by the State Department from seeing any Americans who survived the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi. Many people forget that there were Americans who survived the Benghazi attack, some of whom were badly injured and are still recovering." Read more at Breitbart/Big Peace...

Rep. Chaffetz is a member of Congress, and Chair of a foreign relations and national security subcommittee. Read More......

Issa: State Dept. sitting on $2 billion-plus for embassy security

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) says the State Department is sitting on $2.2 billion that should be spent on upgrading security at U.S. embassies and consulates worldwide, but the Obama administration will not spend the funds.

Issa made his comment during an appearance on CBS's "Face the Nation" to discuss the recent attack in Benghazi, Libya, that left U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans dead. Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, held a highly partisan hearing on the incident last week.

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Background Conference Call With Senior State Department Officials

OPERATOR: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the State Department call on Libya. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. Should you require any assistance during the call, please press *, then 0.

I’d now like to turn the conference over to your host, [Moderator]. Please go ahead.

MODERATOR: Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us on such relatively short notice, late on a Tuesday evening. You know that since the beginning, we’ve been working with Congress on trying to ascertain the facts and convey the facts of what happened on 9/11 in Benghazi. In the last 24 hours and in the next 24 hours, we’re going to be engaging with Congress, and we wanted to give you a sense, in the press, of what we’ve been telling them.
So joining us tonight are two Senior State Department Officials, and this will be on background, and they will be Senior State Department Official Number One, who is [Senior State Department Official Number One]; and Senior State Department Official Number Two, [Senior State Department Official Number Two].

So in any case, thank you for joining us, and I’m going to hand it over to Senior State Department Official Number One. And just a reminder before I do, again, this is on background. Thank you.

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL NUMBER ONE: All right. Let me proceed. I’m going to give you as much information as possible about the events of that night, but I am going to start with a scene-setter.

So let me set the stage. On April 5^th, 2011, a small Department of State team headed by Chris Stevens arrives by chartered boat in Benghazi. They set up shop in a hotel. This is at a time when Benghazi was liberated, Qadhafi was still in power in Tripoli, the war was going on, our Ambassador had been expelled from Tripoli by Qadhafi, the Embassy staff had been evacuated because it was unsafe. So Chris Stevens coming back into Benghazi – coming into Benghazi on April 5^th, 2011, is the only U.S. Government people in Libya at this time.

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Revealed: inside story of US envoy's assassination

The killings of the US ambassador to Libya and three of his staff were likely to have been the result of a serious and continuing security breach, The Independent can reveal.

American officials believe the attack was planned, but Chris Stevens had been back in the country only a short while and the details of his visit to Benghazi, where he and his staff died, were meant to be confidential.

The US administration is now facing a crisis in Libya. Sensitive documents have gone missing from the consulate in Benghazi and the supposedly secret location of the "safe house" in the city, where the staff had retreated, came under sustained mortar attack. Other such refuges across the country are no longer deemed "safe".

Read more at the Independent

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OPEC's Most-Hostile Meeting Since 1990 Gulf War

OPEC’s decision on production quotas this week may be complicated by hostilities in Libya as members meeting in Vienna find themselves supporting opposing camps of a military conflict for the first time in 21 years. Read more at Bloomberg... Read More......

U.S. House vote on U.S. Military action in Libya

VOICE OF AMERICA, 6/3/2011, US House Criticizes Obama on Libya - The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has adopted a resolution [Boehner] criticizing President Barack Obama for dispatching U.S. military forces to the NATO mission in Libya without first getting congressional approval. A separate resolution [Kucinich] that would have required an immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Libya mission was defeated. Read more at VOA...

How Oregon's U.S. Representatives voted:

• Kucinich resolution to remove US troops from Libya: Failed 148-265 (Blumenauer - no, Defazio - yes, Schrader - yes, Walden - no, Wu - no).
  
• Boehner resolution that Obama shall not deploy,maintain, etc., US troops on the ground in Libya (rebuke to Obama) [without congressional approval]: Passed: 268-145 (Blumenauer - no, DeFazio - yes, Schrader - yes, Walden - yes, Wu - yes). (Hat tip: D'Ann Matthews)

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Behind The Thugs' New Boldness: A U.S. Broke And Starved For Oil

INVESTORS.COM, 10/01/2009 by Victor Davis Hanson - Last week, three dictators — from Iran, Libya and Venezuela — delivered lunatic hate speeches at the General Assembly of the United Nations. ∴ Why do these anti-Semitic dictators feel so free to damn America from downtown New York? Why do their abettors spurn our requests for help? And why do creepy regimes plot to get nukes, and fund terrorists? ∴ Easy. They do not fear, much less listen, to an indebted and energy-hungry America that either needs their cash or oil — or both. Read more at Investors.com (IBD Editorials)... Read More......