Posted on 02/23/2011 3:21:11 PM PST by bareford101
The United States says it has not been able to move some of its non-essential diplomats from Libya, as governments send airplanes and ships to pick up their citizens stranded by Libya's bloody unrest.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Tuesday the United States was looking at various ways to move the diplomats, their families, and other Americans out of Libya. HE DID NOT ELABORATE ON WHY THE US COULD NOT DO SO ON TUESDAY..
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the safety and wellbeing of Americans is the highest U.S. priority.
Meanwhile, Britain's foreign secretary says his country has redeployed a warship closer to Libya to aid in the evacuation effort. William Hague says the Royal Navy warship HMS Cumberland has been put on standby to help Britons get home should it be needed.
The U.S., Europe, and Libya's neighbors are evacuating thousands of foreign citizens trying to flee deadly violence triggered by a Libyan uprising against longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi.
The Netherlands and France have confirmed that their planes received permission to land in the city of Tripoli, but the French news agency reports that one of France's three planes has been diverted to Malta.
Italy's ENI natural gas company says it is evacuating all non-essential staff and their families from Libya Tuesday. The Associated Press reports that ENI is Libya's largest foreign operator and takes one-third of Libya's oil and gas production.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Tuesday Cairo is sending military and civilian aircraft to Libya to bring home some of the hundreds of thousands of Egyptians who live there. But he said the Egyptian planes would not be landing in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi -- one of the cities hit hardest by the violence -- saying airport has been destroyed.
Egyptian security sources say Cairo's new military rulers also ordered troop reinforcements to Egypt's side of the border with Libya in response to the unrest. Egyptian authorities also have extended the opening hours of the Slum border crossing with Libya and sent medical teams to the site to accommodate thousands of Egyptians fleeing by land.
Greece will evacuate as many as 15,000 Chinese nationals out of Libya this week after China asked for help. Greek officials say they are considering evacuation requests from other countries.
Turkey says it has sent several ships to the Libyan coast to pick up thousands of Turkish workers stranded in Benghazi. Many of the Turkish citizens gathered in a Benghazi stadium Tuesday to wai for the ships to arrive at the city's port.
Turkey says it has 25,000 citizens in Libya, many of them working in construction. Tunisia says more than 3,000 of its nationals already have fled Libya, mostly by land, and more are waiting to leave by air.
The Philippines said Tuesday it will help Philippine workers trying to leave Libya by paying for their flights. At least 26,000 Philippine citizens reside there. South Korea also urged its workers in Libya to return home after looters attacked several South Korean-operated construction sites
Obama is waiting for permission from Quadafi for us to fly Americans out.
I kid you not.
Our State Department did nothing to evacuate Americans from Egypt either.
Maybe we have a bigger and better stocked bomb shelter under our embassy there. Complete with Wii.
That would be anyone who hates or murders Americans.
I would bet that those people who do manage to get out will no longer be obamanation voters.
The United States of America can’t get its diplomats out of Libya. Echos of Iran, anyone?
Obama needs a hostage crisis he can drag out until October 2012 then payoff the revolution Libyan Gov. for the their release. He’ll give himself a ticker tape parade for pulling that off.
Maybe Zero wants a hostage crisis like Iran, but this time he will get the hostages home. Perhaps he believes this scenario will raise his poll numbers.
A ferry carrying ONLY 35 (THIRTY FIVE PEOPLE) U.S. diplomats and family members along with an unknown number of private Americans was to have left Tripoli for the Mediterranean island of Malta on Wednesday but was delayed due to poor weather.
• This is out of about 5000 who hold dual-citizenship with Libya, and about 600 who do not, including the families of about 35 diplomats.
Learning on the job is one thing. Purposely not supporting our people that are there is a crime.
That’s why there should be a frickin’ Nimitz Class flight deck floating in the Med 24/7. Since Enterprise transited the Suez there has been nothing but a destroyer left in the Med.
It makes you wonder if he wants a hostage situation.
Obama had better things to do and worry about then some Americans stuck in a third world country where their citizens are being gunned down by planes and killed by machettes and guns.
Message to Americans abroad: Your government does not have your back.
“Message to Americans abroad: Your government does not have your back.”
No, Message to Americans here in Obamaville: Your government does not have your back.
There’s still the Sixth Flt Command Ship (Mount Whitney); their own website brags they have enough food to feed the crew for 90 days and can transport supplies to support an emergency evacuation of 3,000 people. Guess they’re too busy monitoring the COMREL projects in Africa.
yah, that would help, but nothing beats 5 acres of flight deck and a whole bunch of jet fuel. It’s frustrating to watch this knowing full well what should already be underway. The situation in Libya has been deteriorating for some time and only now is the US getting around to considering what options they have??
A large part of the reason that the Middle East is as volatile as it is right now is because of the absence of the US Navy. You would be amazed at the affect of sailing 90,000 tons of Diplomacy within eyeshot of a place like Tripoli. At one time a show of the US flag was sufficient to calm brushfires down before they built into infernos like we have right now in Libya.
This did not happen overnight, we know what a piece of crap Kadaffy is and we should have bagged him years ago, and it wasn’t from a lack of trying either. He’s been a thorn in our side since 1968 and it is beyond me what keeps that wierd mofo alive after all this time.
I think we are missing a prime opportunity to make a lot of friends among the Libyan populace by not helping take out Kadaffy. I vote we drive him into his bunker, then bomb that bastard with as many improved bunker busters as we need to make a big enough burning hole in the ground to assure the world Kadaffy is pig food.
Instead, we are sending the Hildebeest to Geneva to deliver a strongly worded statement...
USS NIMITZ (CVN-68) 1985 - 1988. I recall one very foggy night going through the English Channel at 30 knots launching and recovering, just because we could. The ‘law of gross tonnage’ was in effect that night. Of course it was long before ‘Risk Analysis’ became a buzzword.
Totally in agreement with you. Big ‘E’ went through the ditch only a week ago - bring all 8 reactors online and reverse course.
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