Libya Dangerously Divided

[From article]
Unlike Tunisia, its neighbor to the west, Libya has been unable to form a cohesive government after ridding itself of Gaddafi.
The Arab Spring caused chaos in numerous nations, many having their ruling governments overthrown. Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt lost their longtime leaders and all three, as well as others, have had to contend with various terrorist groups while transitioning to new governments.
Currently, there are two competing governments that claim to be the legal representative of the Libyan people.
The internationally recognized, Western-backed Libyan Parliament, also known as the Council of Deputies, is based in the eastern port city of Tobruk. The Libyan Parliament, led by President Aguila Saleh Issa, governs the entire eastern portion of the country, as well as the southern desert region and an enclave near the northwest border with Tunisia.
The Islamist General National Congress is based in the country’s official capital city, Tripoli. The General National Congress is dominated by the radical Sunni organization Muslim Brotherhood, the same organization that assumed power after the fall of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak.
It’s worth repeating that the Muslim Brotherhood is a designated terrorist organization by Western and Arab governments. The General National Congress, led by its President Nouri Abusahmain, governs the majority of the northwest corner of the country.
The division has led to the establishment and expansion of the Islamic State in Libya, an offshoot of ISIS.
[. . .]
Regardless, the Islamic State has boldly taken advantage of the disorder in Libya, recruiting foreign fighters from Chad, Mali, and Sudan, plotting and carrying out acts of terrorism, including an attack in Tunisia on March 7 that led to the deaths of 52 people.
The international community also fears that Libya’s vast oil reserves will fall into the hands of ISIS, as is the case in Iraq and other countries.
[. . .]
Currently, several nations are taking part in operations in Libya to stem the expansion of the Islamic State. As of today, The United States, British, French, and Italians have special forces units in the country. The U.S. is carrying out airstrikes against ISIS targets and utilizing armed drones from bases in Sicily. As Matteo Renzi had alluded to, an international coalition of 5,000 to 6,000 soldiers has been discussed amongst the U.S., France, the U.K., Italy, Germany, and several Arab countries.
[. . .]
On December 23, 2015, the United Nations Security Council voted to endorse an agreement between the two rival Libyan governments to form a united governing body.
Currently, the Unity Presidential Council is based in relatively safe Tunisia, but hopes to eventually place itself in Tripoli.
[. . .]
The consequences of Libya being unable to unite and successfully combat the Islamic State would be far-reaching.
If the Islamic State is able to continue its growth in Libya, it would have a springboard to attack Europe with greater ease than conducting operations from Syria and Iraq. Currently, Libya is, for all intents and purposes, a failed state. That environment is extremely conducive for ISIS to strengthen and spread. One needs only to look at Syria and Iraq. In all three nations, the lack of a strong central government allows terrorism to operate more freely.
From Europe, ISIS operatives will be able to take advantage of the immigration system and enter the United States, as the Boston and San Bernardino bombers have.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/04/libya_a_nation_dangerously_divided.html

April 9, 2016
Libya: A Nation Dangerously Divided
By Derek DeLuca

Three Libyan Soldiers In UK For Training Charged With Attacking Women

The Libyan soldiers were convicted of attacking three victims.
[From article]
Convicted sex attackers Khaled El Azibi, Naji El Maarfi and Mohammed Abdalsalam are three Libyan soldiers who carried out the drunken assaults while stationed at Bassingbourn Barracks last October.
After an unbelievably short time in prison they have now been released and transferred to secure immigration units, Cambridgeshire Police said.
They are now believed to be launching an tax-payer funded asylum bid to remain in the UK claiming they ‘risk persecution’ if sent home because their crimes have ‘brought Libya into disrepute’.
The implication is that while they are seemingly too depraved to return to their own country they are somehow welcome on the streets of Britain.
Even David Cameron has demanded the soldiers should not be allowed to stay here – but human rights legislation may yet see the Prime Minister over-ruled.
And even if the bid is ultimately futile the legal process is likely to extend their tax-payer funded stay in the UK for years.
A lawyer for one of their three victims said the feeling was one of “dismay”.
Solicitor Richard Scorer said: "These men were invited here as guests, to this country, to be trained and to provide help for them in their home country.
"They abused that hospitality in the most appalling way imaginable, and the idea that they would then be granted asylum - having committed these crimes - is completely wrong and unacceptable.
"It adds insult to injury for the women concerned.
"It's difficult enough to recover from a situation where you're set upon by a stranger and sexually assaulted.
"But if you have to do that in the knowledge that that person has now come to this country and is trying to build a life here, I think that is very, very, very difficult to deal with, and completely wrong and unacceptable.
"I think it's a breach of their human rights and really we can't allow this to happen."
The cadets were among 300Libyan troops being trained in England to support the newly-formed Libyan government.
They stole bicycles and rode into Cambridge city centre before accosting three teenage women during the early hours of October 26, 2014.
The attacks included trying to kiss a woman without consent and then sexually assaulting her. El Maarfi exposed himself to one of the women.
They each served sentences of between 10 and 12 months before being released from prison.
One of the victims has spoke of her anger at the asylum bid.
The woman, who received a letter yeseterday detailing their applications, said: "Seeing my attackers' faces again has brought what happened flooding back. They subjected me to a horrible, intimidating sexual assault which I will never be able to forget.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/608893/Khaled-El-Azibi-Naji-El-Maarfi-Mohammed-Abdalsalam-Libya-soldiers-asylum?_ga=1.238398080.1488248579.1453163999

Too depraved for Libya but fine for Britain? Sex attackers' claim UK asylum and YOU pay
THESE are the faces of the three animals who abused British hospitality to carry out vile sex attacks against women... and now they want YOU to pay for their asylum bid to stay in the UK.
By SCOTT CAMPBELL AND ROB VIRTUE
PUBLISHED: 06:34, Thu, Oct 1, 2015 | UPDATED: 14:28, Thu, Oct 1, 2015

Kissinger: Middle East Shambles

[From article]
That geopolitical pattern is now in shambles. Four states in the region have ceased to function as sovereign. Libya, Yemen, Syria and Iraq have become targets for nonstate movements seeking to impose their rule. Over large swaths in Iraq and Syria, an ideologically radical religious army has declared itself the Islamic State (also called ISIS or ISIL) as an unrelenting foe of established world order. It seeks to replace the international system’s multiplicity of states with a caliphate, a single Islamic empire governed by Shariah law.
ISIS’ claim has given the millennium-old split between the Shiite and Sunni sects of Islam an apocalyptic dimension. The remaining Sunni states feel threatened by both the religious fervor of ISIS as well as by Shiite Iran, potentially the most powerful state in the region. Iran compounds its menace by presenting itself in a dual capacity. On one level, Iran acts as a legitimate Westphalian state conducting traditional diplomacy, even invoking the safeguards of the international system. At the same time, it organizes and guides nonstate actors seeking regional hegemony based on jihadist principles: Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria; Hamas in Gaza; the Houthis in Yemen.
[. . .]



The fate of Syria provides a vivid illustration: What started as a Sunni revolt against the Alawite (a Shiite offshoot) autocrat Bashar Assad fractured the state into its component religious and ethnic groups, with nonstate militias supporting each warring party, and outside powers pursuing their own strategic interests. Iran supports the Assad regime as the linchpin of an Iranian historic dominance stretching from Tehran to the Mediterranean. The Gulf States insist on the overthrow of Mr. Assad to thwart Shiite Iranian designs, which they fear more than Islamic State. They seek the defeat of ISIS while avoiding an Iranian victory. This ambivalence has been deepened by the nuclear deal, which in the Sunni Middle East is widely interpreted as tacit American acquiescence in Iranian hegemony.
These conflicting trends, compounded by America’s retreat from the region, have enabled Russia to engage in military operations deep in the Middle East, a deployment unprecedented in Russian history. Russia’s principal concern is that the Assad regime’s collapse could reproduce the chaos of Libya, bring ISIS into power in Damascus, and turn all of Syria into a haven for terrorist operations, reaching into Muslim regions inside Russia’s southern border in the Caucasus and elsewhere.
[. . .]



Whatever the motivation, Russian forces in the region—and their participation in combat operations—produce a challenge that American Middle East policy has not encountered in at least four decades.

American policy has sought to straddle the motivations of all parties and is therefore on the verge of losing the ability to shape events. The U.S. is now opposed to, or at odds in some way or another with, all parties in the region: with Egypt on human rights; with Saudi Arabia over Yemen; with each of the Syrian parties over different objectives. The U.S. proclaims the determination to remove Mr. Assad but has been unwilling to generate effective leverage—political or military—to achieve that aim. Nor has the U.S. put forward an alternative political structure to replace Mr. Assad should his departure somehow be realized.



Russia, Iran, ISIS and various terrorist organizations have moved into this vacuum: Russia and Iran to sustain Mr. Assad; Tehran to foster imperial and jihadist designs. The Sunni states of the Persian Gulf, Jordan and Egypt, faced with the absence of an alternative political structure, favor the American objective but fear the consequence of turning Syria into another Libya.
American policy on Iran has moved to the center of its Middle East policy. The administration has insisted that it will take a stand against jihadist and imperialist designs by Iran and that it will deal sternly with violations of the nuclear agreement.
[. . .]

 

In these circumstances, the traditional adage that the enemy of your enemy can be treated as your friend no longer applies. For in the contemporary Middle East, it is likely that the enemy of your enemy remains your enemy.
[. . .]
If nuclear weapons become established, a catastrophic outcome is nearly inevitable. A strategy of pre-emption is inherent in the nuclear technology.  
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/a-path-out-of-the-middle-east-collapse-1445037513-lMyQjAxMTI1MjE2NzIxMDcwWj

A Path Out of the Middle East Collapse
With Russia in Syria, a geopolitical structure that lasted four decades is in shambles. The U.S. needs a new strategy and priorities.
By Henry A. Kissinger
Oct. 16, 2015 7:18 p.m. ET

Donald Trump: Middle East Was More Stable With Saddam Hussein and Ghadaffi

Muammar Gaddafi
[From article]
“It’s not even a contest,” the GOP front-runner said onNBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Trump said ISIS came out of the unrest after Hussein was deposed in Iraq, and four Americans were killed in Benghazi, Libya when Gadhafi was being ousted from power.
“You wouldn’t have had your Benghazi situation which is one thing which was just a terrible situation,” Trump said when asked if the Middle East would be more stable with the two in power. “But, of course, it would. Libya is not even– nobody even knows what’s going on over there. It’s not even a country anymore.”


Saddam Hussein

Trump compared the “mess” in Iraq and Libya to the current attempts to oust Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad. “It’s going to be the same thing,” he said.

http://nypost.com/2015/10/04/trump-world-would-be-better-off-if-saddam-khadafy-still-in-power/

Trump: World would be better off if Saddam, Gadhafi still in power
By Marisa Schultz
New York Post
October 4, 2015 | 12:47pm

Oliver North Reveals White House Refused To Aid Egypt

ISIS held a massive military parade last week in Cyrenaica in eastern Libya.
[From article]
Oliver North told Greta Van Susteren tonight that the Egyptian government asked the US for information on ISIS targets in Libya yesterday after ISIS beheaded 21 Christians. But, the Obama Administration refused the request. The Obama administration also refused to give Jordan information on ISIS targets in Syria after their pilot was burned alive in a cage.
“President El Sisi asked for American intelligence targeting intelligence before today’s strikes and didn’t get it. King Abdullah of Jordan asked for Intelligence data on targets to respond to the murder of a Jordanian aircraft pilot. The Kurds are begging for arms and ammo from the United States, not one bullet has been delivered by the United States.”

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2015/02/report-obama-refused-to-give-jordan-egypt-information-on-isis-targets-video/

REPORT: Obama Refused to Assist Jordan, Egypt With Information on ISIS Targets (Video)
Posted by Jim Hoft

Monday, February 16, 2015, 6:45 PM

Published on Feb 16, 2015
Obama refused to give Egypt and Jordan information on ISIS targets.

U.S Refuses To Assist Egypt and U.A.E. Airstrikes on Libya

Egyptian President Abdul Fattah el-Sisi, right meets with Libyan parliamentary speaker Ageila Saleh Eissa in Cairo on Aug. 26, 2014. Amid fears by Libya's neighbors that it is sliding deeper into turmoil, the U.S. says Egypt and the UAE carried out airstrikes against Islamists there. 

(AP Photo/MENA)
[From article]
The United States does not support Egyptian and Emirati airstrikes against Islamist militias in Libya because the U.S. believes the crisis in Libya must be resolved politically and without outside interference, a Department of Defense spokesman said Tuesday.
Egypt and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) carrying out airstrikes in Libya was different from U.S. airstrikes against Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant forces in Iraq, Pentagon spokesman Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby told a briefing, because the U.S. was acting in Iraq, in a “very targeted” manner, at the request of its government.
[. . .]
Libya’s slide into anarchy has alarmed neighboring Egypt and several Gulf states, who have voiced concern that chaos there will help to spread the jihadist threat in the region. An al-Qaeda-linked group, Ansar al-Shariah, controls most of Benghazi and another Islamist faction, Fajr (“Dawn”), seized the Tripoli airport at the weekend.
Qatar, whose backing for Islamists including the Muslim Brotherhood across the region has angered its Gulf neighbors, has funneled support to the Islamists in Libya.
Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are believed to be supporting a former Gaddafi-regime chief of staff, Gen. Khalifa Hifter, who early this year declared war on the Islamist militias. The Islamists have accused him of being an “American agent,”

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/pentagon-egypt-uae-attacking-islamists-libya-differs-us-bombing-isis

Pentagon: Egypt, UAE Attacking Islamists in Libya Differs From US Bombing ISIS in Iraq
August 26, 2014 - 7:45 PM
By Patrick Goodenough

White House Shows Continuing Relaxed Rectitude

[From article]
Promising to "destroy" this group with the help of "a broad coalition" of "partners," President Obama said last week, "I welcome congressional support for this effort." He obviously thinks such support is optional, partly because this "effort," conducted by U.S. combat aircraft, is something other than war. There he goes again.
He spent seven months bombing Libya without congressional authorization and without complying with the War Powers Resolution. His lawyers argued that thousands of airstrikes, which professor Jack Goldsmith of Harvard Law School notes "killed thousands of people and effected regime change," did not constitute "hostilities." Professor Ilya Somin of George Mason University School of Law says, "Claims that large-scale air attacks don't count as warfare were specious when the administration trotted them out in defense of its intervention in Libya in 2011; and they have not improved with age."
[Obama says]
he also is empowered to strike the Islamic State by the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force that President George W. Bush sought before attacking the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. The AUMF says:
"The president is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons."
But the Islamic State did not exist in 2001 and was born in hostility to the perpetrator of the 2001 attacks, al-Qaeda.
[. . .]



William F. Buckley's axiom that liberals who favor tolerating other views seem amazed that there are other views.
[. . .]
Regarding war with the Islamic State, the Constitution requires what prudence strongly recommends — congressional authorization.

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/will091814.php3

Obama is defying the Constitution on war
By George Will
Published Sept. 18, 2014

New Book About Attack on Benghazi, Libya

[From article]
The story of the attacks on both Compounds, the bravery of the Annex Security Team and others — as well as the apparent cowardice of some, including the CIA station chief on location — is told in a riveting new book entitled 13 Hours: The Inside Account of What Really Happened In Benghazi.
The book, written by New York Times bestselling author Mitchell Zuckoff in collaboration with the remaining members of the Team, is a riveting account of heroism and tragedy, something that you might expect to find (and equally not be able to put down) in a Tom Clancy novel and from which there will no doubt be a most adrenaline-pumping movie.
[. . .]
It was about like every other Third World country I’d been in… kind of a piece of crap. It was a lawless city. After the fall of Gaddafi, it was controlled by several different militias and they were all vying for control of various entities within the city, like the airport, the port, commerce, things like that, so they can make money.

http://spectator.org/articles/60385/reliving-benghazis-13-hours

RELIVING BENGHAZI’S 13 HOURS
Five survivors of the attacks of Sept. 11-12, 2012, speak out.
By Ross Kaminsky

9.9.14

Muslim Terrorists in Libya Control Jetliners at Airport

[From article]
Intelligence reports of the stolen jetliners were distributed within the U.S. government over the past two weeks and included a warning that one or more of the aircraft could be used in an attack later this month on the date marking the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and Washington, said U.S. officials familiar with the reports.
“There are a number of commercial airliners in Libya that are missing,” said one official. “We found out on September 11 what can happen with hijacked planes.”
[. . .]
Meanwhile, officials said Egyptian military forces appear to be preparing to intervene in Libya to prevent the country from becoming a failed state run by terrorists, many with ties to al Qaeda.
Libya remains an oil-rich state and if the country is taken over completely by Islamist extremists, U.S. counterterrorism officials believe it will become another terrorist safe haven in the region.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/missing-libyan-jetliners-raise-fears-of-suicide-airliner-attacks-on-911/

MISSING LIBYAN JETLINERS RAISE FEARS OF SUICIDE AIRLINER ATTACKS ON 9/11
Egypt set for military intervention as Libya spirals toward failed state
BY: Bill Gertz
September 2, 2014 4:55 pm

Brother of CBS News President Suspect in Misleading Benghazi Memo

U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC)

[From article]
Republican South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the Benghazi Select Committee, said this week that no witnesses are off limits in his committee’s investigation into the Benghazi cover-up. So who will he subpoena? Here’s a suggestion: How about Ben Rhodes.

Ben Rhodes, the 37-year old little brother of CBS News president David Rhodes, is a national security adviser to President Obama. He also happens to be an Upper East Side literary type who took a Master’s in Fiction from NYU. Real serious artist. Rhodes was the one who edited the White House’s Benghazi talking points to focus the blame on spontaneous reaction to a YouTube video, rather than an al-Qaeda attack.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/03/the-ben-rhodes-story-how-a-hack-writer-crafted-the-benghazi-talking-points-of-a-lifetime/

The Ben Rhodes Story: How A
Hack Writer Crafted the Benghazi Talking Points of a Lifetime
4:27 PM 08/03/2014
Patrick Howley

British Navy Evacuates British Nationals From Libya

[From article]
A British navy ship evacuated British nationals from Libya on Sunday, the defence ministry said, as worsening security there is forcing thousands to flee.
The HMS Enterprise, which had been on a Mediterranean deployment, evacuated 110 people, mostly British, from the capital Tripoli, ambassador to Libya Michael Aron wrote
[. . .]
Fighting between the rival militias has forced the closure of Tripoli's international airport, while Islamist groups are battling army special forces in the eastern city of Benghazi.

http://news.yahoo.com/british-navy-evacuating-nationals-libya-114116545.html;_ylt=AwrSyCRXlN5Tj38Ai1TQtDMD

British navy evacuates nationals from Libya
AFP
August 3, 2014

Benghazi Declared Emirate of New Caliphate

[From article]
“Benghazi has now become an Islamic emirate,” said Mohammed al-Zahawi, the spokesman, to Radio Tawhid.

http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/07/31/Libya-s-Ansar-al-Sharia-declares-Islamic-state-in-Benghazi.html

Benghazi declared ‘Islamic emirate’ by militants
By Staff writer | Al Arabiya News
Thursday, 31 July 2014

Libyan Terrorists Take Control of Benghazi

[From article]
Militant fighters overran a Libyan special forces base in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday after a battle involving rockets and warplanes that killed at least 30 people.
A special forces officer said they had to abandon their main camp in the southeast of Benghazi after coming under sustained attack from a coalition of Islamist fighters and former rebel militias in the city.
"We have withdrawn from the army base after heavy shelling," Saiqa Special Forces officer Fadel Al-Hassi told Reuters.
[. . .]
A member of the new Libyan parliament Mustafa Abushagor, due to take office in August, was kidnapped in Tripoli on Tuesday by unknown assailants, the state news agency LANA reported, citing security sources.
Three years after Gaddafi's fall, the OPEC nation has failed to control ex-rebel militias who refuse to disband and who are threatening the unity of the country. The extent of recent hostilities has increased Western worries that Libya is sliding towards becoming a failed state and may once again go to war.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/29/us-libya-security-idUSKBN0FY1D420140729

Libyan militants overrun Benghazi special forces base as chaos deepens
BY AYMAN AL-WARFALLI
BENGHAZI Libya

Tue Jul 29, 2014 1:51pm EDT

British Embassy Convoy Attacked in Libya

Smoke billows near Tripoli International Airport as rival factions clash
[From article]
A British Embassy convoy in Libya has been fired at during an attempted carjacking, as UK nationals were urged to leave the country immediately.
All staff escaped unscathed from the attack, which happened on the road between the capital Tripoli and Zawiya, which is en route to the Tunisian border.
Michael Aron, the UK's ambassador to Libya, wrote on Twitter: "There was an attempted carjacking on a British Embassy convoy this morning.
"Shots were fired at our vehicles but all staff safe."

http://news.sky.com/story/1308452/british-embassy-convoy-attacked-in-libya

British Embassy Convoy Attacked In Libya
The Foreign Office urges all Britons to leave as further attacks on foreigners are likely amid a "greater intensity of fighting"

US Embassy in Libya Evacuated Due To Violence

Meet the Ambassador - Deborah K. Jones, U.S. Ambassador to Libya
[From video]
The United States shut down its embassy in Libya on Saturday and evacuated its diplomats to neighboring Tunisia under U.S. military escort amid a significant deterioration in security in Tripoli as fighting intensified between rival militias, the State Department said.

http://news.yahoo.com/us-evacuates-embassy-libya-amid-clashes-115645465--politics.html

US evacuates embassy in Libya amid clashes

By MATTHEW LEE
July 26, 2014

Filipino Beheaded in Libya, For Not Being Muslim

[From article]
Suspected militiamen have beheaded a Philippine worker in Libya after singling him out because he was not a Muslim, the Philippine Foreign Department said.
Department spokesman Charles Jose said this reinforced the government's order to all Filipinos to evacuate the country because of the worsening security situation.
He told reporters the Filipino construction worker was kidnapped on July 15 and his beheaded remains were found in a hospital on July 20.
"The vehicle he was riding in was stopped in a checkpoint. There were three of them-- a Libyan, a Pakistani and a Filipino -- and he was allegedly singled out because he was non-Muslim," said Jose.
The kidnappers had initially negotiated with the Filipino's company for a $160,000 ransom but eventually "they received a call from the abductors on July 20 (that) referred them to a Benghazi hospital", he added.

http://www.timesliveo.za/africa/2014/07/21/filipino-beheaded-in-libya-for-not-being-a-muslim

Filipino beheaded in Libya for not being a Muslim
AFP

21 July, 2014 16:13

Woman Human Rights Lawyer Shot Dead In Her Home in Benghazi, Libya

[From article]
A leading Libyan human rights lawyer was gunned down inside her own home shortly after she had cast her vote in national elections.
Salwa Bugaighis was murdered on Wednesday evening after gunmen burst into her compound in Benghazi and shot her in the head.
Libyan state media reported that Ms Bugaighis was rushed to hospital but died of her wounds.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2670556/Prominent-female-activist-killed-Libya.html

Gunmen assassinate Libyan female human rights lawyer inside her own home hours after she cast her vote in national elections
Salwa Bugaighis was shot in the head inside her home in Benghazi
The human rights activist had just returned after casting her vote in election
Ms Bugaighis spoke on TV hours before her death urging Libyans to vote
The interview was interrupted because of heavy fighting outside in the street
By DARREN BOYLE
Daily Mail (UK)

PUBLISHED: 08:09 EST, 26 June 2014 | UPDATED: 12:01 EST, 26 June 2014

Obama May Not Want War But He Is Getting It

[From article]
Today, Libya is an anarchy of hundreds of rival militias.
[. . .]
But the prolonged attempt to assassinate Gadhafi from the air made no provision for a replacement regime.
[. . .]
Americans prefer not to think about, and rarely allow elections to turn on, foreign policy. Events, however, are not cooperating. Leon Trotsky probably did not really say this, but someone should: “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.”

http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/opinion/op_ed/2014/06/george_will_us_foreign_policy_in_disarray

George Will: U.S. foreign policy in disarray
Prez keeps sounding retreat call
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
By: George F. Will
Boston Herald

Lara Logan, Bold, Beautiful, Risk Taker

Lara Logan


[From article]
She began an affair with Michael Ware, a swashbuckling correspondent for Time and CNN known for his emotional reportage from the streets of Baghdad.
By late 2007, Logan had another boyfriend in the wings: Joe Burkett, a government contractor in Baghdad who, Gawker uncovered, had worked for a firm called the Lincoln Group. Burkett was a former Texas Army National Guard member whose company did public relations for the military, courting reporters and trying to inject positive war stories into the media. Logan had met and dated Burkett once before in Afghanistan, but it became more serious when they reconnected in Iraq. He began paying regular visits to the CBS compound.
Nobody was as surprised by this turn of events as Ware. After a few drinks one night, Ware entered the CBS compound, walked up to her quarters on the second floor, and discovered Logan and Burkett in flagrante delicto. A loud fight ensued.
[. . .]
With tensions high, Logan blamed Pilgrims for letting Ware enter her quarters when its people knew she was with Burkett.
[. . .]
“Jeff [Fager] believes in popular TV,” says a colleague. “The part of the business that involves reporting scary stories, on which you have to spend time and resources on investigations and fact-checking and sources—all of that annoys the hell out of him.”
[. . .]
“Fager has gotten rid of any structural oversight,” says a former 60 Minutes producer. “He doesn’t like people challenging him. There’s nobody to go to if you have a problem.”

http://nymag.com/news/features/lara-logan-cbs-news-2014-5/

Benghazi and the Bombshell
Is Lara Logan too toxic to return to 60 Minutes?
By Joe Hagan

Published May 4, 2014

Nader: Obama Should Be Impeached, Book Review

[From article]

"Libya was the most egregious violation of the Constitution by President Obama," Nader told ABC News-Yahoo News. "He attacked Libya with European nations without a declaration of war, he didn't ask Congress for an authorization of funds. He didn't get an appropriation of funds from Congress. He found a billion and a half dollars somewhere in the Pentagon budget. That is an impeachable offense flat out."
"The reason why Congress doesn't want to do it is because it abdicated its own responsibility under the Constitution."

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/204670-nader-obamas-libya-mission-was-impeachable-offense-flat-out

April 29, 2014, 11:41 am
Nader: Libya mission was 'impeachable offense'
By Mario Trujillo

* * *

[From article]
That’s the premise of the new book “Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State” by longtime political activist and five-time presidential candidate Ralph Nader, who contends that such a left-right alliance is not just the stuff of imagination but is actually emerging.
“On Capitol Hill, I'm seeing more and more in Congress, left and right,” Nader told “The Fine Print.” “It was a vote in the House over a year ago over the NSA snooping, it almost broke through … so we're beginning to see formulations that once they click together, they're unstoppable.”
Nader was referring to a vote in July 2013 over a measure known as the Amash Amendment that would have curtailed the National Security Agency’s ability to collect bulk phone call data. The measure narrowly failed by 12 votes, in part due to a concerted White House lobbying effort on Capitol Hill.
[. . .]
When it comes to the current president, Nader said that Obama has violated the Constitution on several occasions and should be impeached.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/ralph-naders-america-impeach-obama-decriminalize-drugs-libertarians-progressives-unite-110418813.html

Ralph Nader's America: Impeach Obama, decriminalize drugs, libertarians & progressives unite!
By Jeff Zeleny, Jordyn Phelps, and Alexandra Dukakis
April 29, 2014

* * *

[From article]
Anyone who now considers Benghazi a “fake scandal” is a either a complete liar or a moron. This new release of emails thanks to Judicial Watch is literally a call to arms. We will now see if there is even a figment of honesty in our mainstream media and if our elected representatives are to be trusted in any way.
It is our duty as citizens to put as pressure on those representatives as possible to carry through this investigation to its natural conclusion — impeachment

http://pjmedia.com/rogerlsimon/2014/04/29/new-benghazi-emails-mean-obama-impeachment-trial-must-be-launched/?singlepage=true

New Benghazi Emails Mean Obama Impeachment Trial Must Be Launched
April 29th, 2014 - 11:39 am
Roger L. Simon