U.S. to Name a Liaison to Libyan Rebels

4/17/2010

Libyan Pres Gaddafi Praises Obama: "Barakeh Obama is friend, our son, he is of Muslim descent, his policy should be supported"

2/25/2011

Barack Obama said Moammar Gadhafi has lost his legitimacy to rule and urged the Libyan leader to leave power immediately.

3/11/2011

“I have not taken any options off the table,” but “when it comes to U.S. military action, whether it’s a no-fly zone or other options, you’ve got to balance costs versus benefits, and I don’t take those decisions lightly,” Mr. Obama said.

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U.S. to Name a Liaison to Libyan Rebels

By HELENE COOPER NYT
March 11, 2011

WASHINGTON — President Obama said Friday that he would appoint a special representative to Libya’s rebel leaders and that the Treasury Department had placed sanctions on nine more family members and friends of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in an effort to force the Libyan leader to resign.

Mr. Obama said the representative, who White House officials said would probably be chosen by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the next few days, would determine how the United States could help the Libyan opposition.

The move is significant because although the United States has not formally recognized the rebels as legitimate representatives of the Libyan people, the appointment of a special representative is bound to be interpreted as a move toward de facto recognition.

France was the first country to recognize the Libyan National Council, the rebels’ shadow government, as the representative of the Libyan people on Thursday, after a meeting between President Nicolas Sarkozy and two representatives of the movement, which has its headquarters in Benghazi, Libya.

At the news conference on Friday where Mr. Obama announced the move toward engagement with the rebels, he said the international community was “tightening the noose” on Colonel Qaddafi through sanctions and other actions.

He said he was considering a no-flight zone, but administration officials continued to indicate privately that the situation in Libya would have to get much worse before Mr. Obama would risk the lives of American pilots to take out Libya’s air-defense systems.

“I have not taken any options off the table,” Mr. Obama said. But “when it comes to U.S. military action, whether it’s a no-fly zone or other options, you’ve got to balance costs versus benefits, and I don’t take those decisions lightly.”

Separately, the Treasury Department announced additional sanctions on Colonel Qaddafi’s family and high-ranking members of his government, including Abu Zayd Umar Dorda, the director of Libya’s external security organization, and Abdullah al-Senussi, the chief of military intelligence. Mr. Senussi, the Treasury Department said in a statement, “organized mass killings in Benghazi” and is “allegedly responsible for the deaths of 1,200 Islamists in Abu Selim prison.”

The Treasury Department also froze the American assets of Defense Minister Abu Bakr Yunis Jabir and Matuq Muhammad Matuq, the secretary general of the People’s Committee for Public Works.
Colonel Qaddafi’s wife and more of his children were also added to the list. Two weeks ago, the United States froze the assets of Colonel Qaddafi and four of his sons, but did not single out other Libyan officials. So far, Treasury officials said, the United States has frozen $32 billion in Libyan government assets.

David Cohen, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said that the moves on Friday “should send a strong signal to those responsible for the violence inflicted by Qaddafi and his government that the United States will continue steps to increase pressure and to hold them accountable.”