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Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was placed in custody on Tuesday as part of an investigation into allegations he received millions of euros in illegal campaign financing from the regime of the late Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. A judicial source with direct knowledge of the case told The Associated Press that Sarkozy was being held at the Nanterre police station, north-west of Paris. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Sarkozy has vehemently and repeatedly denied wrongdoing in the case, which involves funding for his winning 2007 presidential campaign. Though...

The New York Times' Maureen Dowd captured the moment last weekend when she referred to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as "the midwife to chaos" in Libya. Dowd apparently came to that conclusion after watching Clinton bobbing and weaving and admitting and denying as she was confronted with the partial record of her failures and obfuscations as secretary of state, particularly with respect to Libya. The public record is fairly well-known. In March 2011, President Barack Obama declared war on Libya. He did this at the urging of Clinton, who wanted to overthrow Libyan strongman Col. Moammar Gadhafi so...

Benghazi: Hillary Clinton Adviser Sidney Blumenthal Had Financial Stake In US Libya Policy, Says GOP Lawmaker [ full title ] . Sidney Blumenthal was a principal character in Hillary Clinton's Libyan policy discussions, even though he was neither an official adviser nor an impartial party, according to the Republican chairman of the House committee investigating the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack. In a letter, Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina claims there was a financial stake for Blumenthal in Libya as he pressed for Clinton to intervene. "Blumenthal was not merely acting as a steward of information to Secretary Clinton but...

Libyan officials were deeply concerned in 2011, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was trying to remove Moammar Gadhafi from power, that weapons were being funneled to NATO-backed rebels with ties to al Qaeda, fearing that well-armed insurgents could create a safe haven for terrorists .. The reports included a 16-page list of weapons . ... the Qataris, they are doing this with every country, with every country,” Mr. Gadhafi said. “This is their plan, I mean in public. This is their own agenda. I mean, it’s not something hidden, ... A lot of jihadists that had been locked...

Sarah Palin says although America should be “very glad” that Libyan despot Moammar Gadhafi is dead the United States needs to be wary of who will replace him. The former Alaska governor also told Fox News’ Sean Hannity Thursday she finds it “ironic” that those on the left who condemned President Ronald Reagan for his 1986 Libyan air strikes now are lauding President Barack Obama for his contributions to Gadhafi’s demise. “Certainly we need to be cognizant of the evolving situation and who will replace Gadhafi — what government will replace that regime — we are very glad that this...

Tripoli, Libya, Aug 23, 2011 / 11:42 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As Libya's conflict rages on between rebel forces and troops loyal to Moammar Gadhafi, Catholics in the capital city of Tripoli are seeking protection.  “Currently there are three Franciscan friars barricaded in the convent in Tripoli,” a source told the Vatican-based Fides news on Aug. 23. “No one dares to walk in the street because people are shot on sight, even if it is not clear who shoots who.” The fighting in Libya has continued for around six months and is being waged by the rebel Transitional Authority—which is being...

CAIRO -- Mystery shrouded the startling appearance early Tuesday of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's son and onetime heir, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, at a hotel in Tripoli, less than 48 hours after Libyan rebels had reported that he'd been captured. Had he escaped? Had he ever been captured? Was his reported capture, with its confirmation by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, intentional disinformation to demoralize Gadhafi supporters, or just another instance of the fog of war clouding events? On Tuesday, no one who was in a position to know would offer an opinion. The leader of the rebels' National...

Al Qaeda Releases New Web Video, Official Says Al Qaeda in Yemen More Dangerous Than Osama Bin Laden's 'Core' Group. On the same day reports emerged of a new al Qaeda video that praised the revolutions sweeping the Arab world, one the U.S.'s top counter-terror officials warned the terror organization "thrives" in the political unrest that follows. ... Al Qaeda thrives in such conditions and countries of weak governance and political instability -- countries in which governments may be sympathetic to their campaign of violence." Giuliano made the comments at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy just hours before...

The U.S. on Sunday claimed initial success two days into an assault on Libya that included some of the heaviest firepower in the American arsenal — long-range bombers designed for the Cold War — but American officials said Sunday it was too early to define the international military campaign's endgame. The top U.S. military officer suggested that Libyan strongman Moammar Gadhafi might stay in power in spite of the military assault aimed at protecting civilians, calling into question the larger objective of an end to Gadhafi's erratic 42-year rule. Other top U.S. officials have suggested that a weakened and isolated...

Following the UN resolution on Thursday night that paved the way for military strikes against Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, Obama had been silent for 20 hours. While the French and British were making preparations for military action, and the Germans pondered the wisdom of their abstention, the White House preferred to wait. That was partly because no one in Washington really knows what to make of Gadhafi's recent maneuvering. But mainly it is because Obama finds himself trapped in a dilemma: He must explain to his people why he gone from being a staunch opponent of US military action to...

Louis Farrakhan: Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi Remains a Friend ...Feb 28, 2011... of the Libyan leader, Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan said Sunday that he considers Moammar Gadhafi a friend and won't distance ...

More than 40 European Union and African leaders met in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, for the third African Union-European Union Summit. Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi chaired the summit, slamming international organizations, including the WTO, World Bank and the United Nations... lashing out at the World Trade Organization and the World Bank, claiming they had done little during their years of existence to help developing countries. He says developing countries are facing debt payments to the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organization... stresses that poor countries in the developing world, especially those in Africa, do...

Moammar Gadhafi and Hugo Chavez urged nearly 30 leaders from throughout Africa and South America on Saturday to form a strong intercontinental alliance to make the two regions a new global power. Gadhafi proposed a defense alliance of South American and African nations, calling it "a NATO of the South" -- an idea Chavez has raised with other allies in the past. Seven South American leaders signed an agreement to create a regional development bank with $20 billion in startup capital, and Chavez offered to help create a "South-South bank" with African countries in the future. The two-day meeting that...

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi marked the 40th anniversary of the bloodless coup that brought him to power, with celebrations attended by African, Arab and Latin American leaders but largely ignored by the West. At the end of a two-hour show late Tuesday retracing the 40 years since Kadhafi ousted King Idriss in 1969, a brief video clip showed the return to Libya last month of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, but the western delegations present did not react. Kadhafi's party kicked off around midnight on Monday at the former US military base of Matega near Tripoli with a two-hour...

Libya staged a lavish spectacle Tuesday, parading white-robed horsemen and gold-turbaned dancers as jets streaked overhead to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Moammar Gadhafi to power in the oil-rich nation. The four-day festivities were designed to highlight the volatile leader's acceptance on the world stage, but were overshadowed by new controversies about the recent return of Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the only man convicted in the 1988 bombing of a Pan Am jet over Lockerbie, Scotland. While African leaders held a summit to coincide with the celebrations, most Western leaders stayed away. Libya's decision to include a...

BANGKOK, Thailand - A Russian dubbed the "Merchant of Death" for allegedly supplying weapons to Africa's bloody conflicts over power and diamonds was arrested Thursday in Thailand on suspicion of conspiring to smuggle guns to Colombia's leftist rebels. Viktor Bout, 41, whose dealings reportedly inspired a 2005 movie about the illicit arms trade, was arrested at U.S. request in his hotel room in Bangkok, said police Lt. Gen. Pongpat Chayapan. Bout had eluded arrest for years and was finally seized after a four-month sting organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. In New York, federal authorities unsealed a criminal complaint...

Something is very wrong at our elite universities. Last month Larry Summers resigned as president of Harvard; today Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi will speak by video to a conference at Columbia University that his regime is cosponsoring. (Columbia won't answer questions about how much funding it got from Libya or what implied strings were attached.) Then there's Yale, which for three weeks has refused to make any comment or defense beyond a vague 144-word statement about its decision to admit Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi--a former ambassador-at-large of the murderous Afghan Taliban--as a special student. The three backers of the foundation that,...

NEW YORK (AP) - Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, in a rare moment of self-criticism, lashed out at what he described as "backward" societies in the Middle East, arguing that government heavy-handedness in dealing with political opposition stemmed from the violent nature of that dissent. "You ask us, 'Why do you oppress opposition in the Middle East?"' Gadhafi told attendees at a Columbia University panel discussion on democracy Thursday, speaking in Arabic during a live video appearance. "Opposition in the Middle East is quite different from opposition in advanced countries. In our countries, the opposition takes the form of explosions, assassinations,...

By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF, Associated Press Writer CAIRO, Egypt - The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Wednesday Arab countries should support President Bush's campaign to promote democracy in the Middle East. Numerous Arab governments have rejected Bush's democracy initiative, notably Egypt's and Saudi Arabia's, as an imposition unsuited to Arab culture and traditions. "Instead of shouting and criticizing the American initiative, you have to bring democracy to your countries, and then there will be no need to fear America or your people," said Seif al-Islam Gadhafi. "The Arabs should either change or change will be imposed on them from...

<p>The United States intercepted an illegal shipment of thousands of parts of uranium-enrichment equipment bound for Libya in October, leading to Tripoli agreeing to cap its weapons program, U.S. officials confirmed yesterday.</p> <p>Senior State Department official John R. Bolton plans to fly to London today to make plans with Britain for holding Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to his pledge to dismantle his nuclear-weapons program.</p>