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CAIRO: Libya’s Islamist militias said Sunday they have consolidated their hold on Tripoli and its international airport, driving out rival militias to the outskirts of the capital following a weekslong battle for control of the strategic hub. ...

Libya seems to be heading towards a major civil war, waiting for its next strong man to put a lid on the chaos and control the various parties. The Libyan government is unable to control its territory. The situation in the country has deteriorated so much that the US suspended training by US special forces after a local militia stole a cache of American-provided weapons. According to a report published in the British newspaper, The Times, on Friday, quoting Olivier Guitta, the director of the London-based Henry Jackson Society think-tank, French, American and Algerian special forces are on their way...

The US is sending 1,000 Marines in an amphibious assault ship to Libya's coast as a “precautionary” move should the US embassy require evacuation, a US official said. Security concerns also led the US to suggest Americans in Libya "depart immediately." Adding to tensions, gunmen attacked the Tripoli home of Libya’s new prime minister, Ahmed Maiteeq, on Tuesday. Businessman Maiteeq, 42, and his family escaped harm, according to AFP. An aide to Maiteeq said "there was an attack with rockets and small arms on the prime minister's house" in Tripoli at 3:00 a.m. (0100 GMT). Maiteeq’s guards opened fire on...

Washington (AFP) - The US State Department recommended Americans in Libya "depart immediately," in its latest travel warning on Tuesday.

Saturday, May 24, 2014 Will a Rogue General Undo Obama's Regime Change in Libya? Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog It didn't take Egypt very long to revert back to a military oligarchy with elections. That oligarchy wasn't brought back by an armed coup in the dead of night, but by popular protests. The Arab Spring was trumpeted by liberals as a new era in the history of the Middle East. But the Middle East is better at undoing history than the media is at writing it. In Egypt, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi brushed away the effects...

It didn’t take Egypt very long to revert back to a military oligarchy. The Arab Spring was trumpeted as a new era in the history of the Middle East. But the Middle East is better at undoing history than the media is at writing it. In Egypt, General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi brushed away the Arab Spring. Now in Libya, General Khalifa Hifter is set to undo Obama’s military intervention which put the Muslim Brotherhood on the road to taking over Libya. Forty-five years ago a group of officers led by Colonel Gaddafi seized control of Libya. Gaddafi enjoyed support from...

OME (Reuters) - Western countries voiced concern on Thursday that tensions in Libya could slip out of control in the absence of a functioning political system, and they urged the government and rival factions to start talking. Two-and-a-half years after the fall of former leader Muammar Gaddafi, the oil-rich North African state is struggling to contain violence between rival forces, with Islamist militants gaining an ever-stronger grip on the south of the country. "The situation in Libya is very worrying," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters on the margins of a conference in Rome to discuss the Libyan crisis.

(Reuters) - Gunmen have ended a siege of Libya's foreign and justice ministries but the two-week standoff has left many unresolved questions about the government's ability to impose its authority in the capital, let alone the restive east of the country. The episode heightened security concerns that prompted oil group BP, one of the biggest foreign companies active in Libya, to announce on Sunday it was withdrawing an unspecified number of employees from Tripoli. The U.S. and British governments had already pulled out some diplomats temporarily. In a separate development, two more police stations were attacked in Libya's eastern city...

Remember when President Obama assured us his Libyan adventure would be over in "days, not weeks"? To employ a Clinton-era euphemism, "That statement is no longer operative." (Translation: I lied.) On Friday the 60-day clock ran out, leaving Obama in clear violation of the War Powers Resolution, passed in 1973 to "fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution ... [and] insure that the collective judgment of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities." Instead of withdrawing U.S. forces, the president sent a letter to congressional leaders insisting—bizarrely—that...

Col Muammar Gaddafi is “increasingly worried” he will be killed by Nato and has taken to hiding in Libyan hospitals to avoid air strikes, British intelligence reports suggest. Diplomatic sources last night disclosed that recent intelligence suggested the Libyan dictator was “paranoid” and “on the run” from Nato’s escalating attacks on his regime. Hadeiba Hadi, Libya’s ambassador to the European Union, said on Thursday he was defecting along with all his staff. The envoy said he and his colleagues wanted “to place ourselves at the service of the Libyan people in the struggle for democracy”. In the latest move to...

Americans love a revolution. Their own great nation having been founded by a revolutionary declaration and forged by a revolutionary war, they instinctively side with revolutionaries in other lands, no matter how different their circumstances, no matter how disastrous the outcomes. This chronic reluctance to learn from history could carry a very heavy price tag if the revolutionary wave currently sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East breaks with the same shattering impact as most revolutionary waves. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson hailed the French Revolution. “The French have served an apprenticeship to Liberty in this country,” wrote the...

As the apostle Paul wrote, we need to pray "for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives" (1 Timothy 2:2). So I pray for President Obama while I oppose his agenda. In fact, our prayers have never been more urgently needed than right now. A quick check of the headlines shows that President Obama faces enormous challenges around the globe. The Muslim world is in upheaval, and there's no telling if the result will be the rise of democracy -- or a descent into Iran-style theocracy. Imagine being the president of the United...

Wolfowitz: Obama slowness on Libya is 'a devastating image' By Bridget Johnson - 02/26/11 04:45 PM ET Former deputy secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said he's been "mystified" at how the White House has handled the bloody crisis in Libya. "We've been just way too slow," Wolfowitz said in an interview airing Sunday on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS." "And that slowness, we're going to pay a price for, for a long time. "Al Jazeera, which is no friend to the United States but which has become, with some justification, a hero of these revolutionary movements is taking the -- showing...

The difference between voting present and real leadership. (Big Hollywood) Yesterday, Sarah Palin called on NATO to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya. From her Facebook Page, via FOX Nation: It’s a little perplexing looking at the White House today. There was a statement on the horrible earthquake in New Zealand, and certainly our hearts go out to all those affected by this horrible natural disaster. But nothing on the slaughter in Libya? The protests in many places in the Middle East affect regimes that have cooperated with the U.S. on issues from peace with Israel, fighting al Qaeda, hosting...

"This administration makes the Keystone Cops look organized. "

When President Obama made Susan Rice his ambassador to the United Nations, in 2009, he thought the job was so vital that he gave her cabinet rank. Now, here we are, with the Arab world in tumult, two dictators gone in the past two months, and the UN aflutter over scenes of Libyans dying this past week by the hundreds, or thousands, in outright rebellion against a raving Moammar Qaddafi — who has been vowing to “fight to the last drop of blood.” Qaddafi’s atrocities are so visibly horrific that the UN Security Council has been meeting on Libya in...

The Libyan leader has lost all three pillars of his rule - tribal, military and diplomatic. Judging from his desperate speech last night, he seems to be losing his mind and perhaps his nerves. That's why it's only a question of time for his regime to breakdown. For the last four decades, Gaddafi has based the stability of his rule on a careful balancing act among more than 100 tribes and clans, especially the 30 influential among them, that pride themselves on playing an important role in freeing Libya from colonialism. Gaddafi has used bribes when possible, blackmail and scare...

After almost a week of escalating violent reprisals against protestors and soldiers who have joined the anti-regime forces, Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi and his sons have yet to quell the uprisings—and the White House has yet to take a public stand. Last night, Secretary Clinton released a statement, and pathetic as it was, it’s more than the president has offered—a president who has spent considerable energy burnishing his image for the Muslim and Arab public. It is rumored that there are differences within the administration, but it is still unclear who could be counseling silence, or for what purpose. To be...

Democracy: As the flames of freedom sweep Libya, longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi's days look to be numbered. With the outcome still uncertain, a question arises: Why is the U.S. sitting on its hands? The Obama administration's approach to yet another revolt in an Arab country seems weirdly passive, as if sitting on the sidelines and watching was a policy. It's not. People are being butchered in the streets of Libya — as many as 400 at last count. Libya's diplomatic corps has resigned en masse in protest. But so far, the White House has managed only tepid remarks in condemnation...