Obama says Gaddafi "has lost all legitimacy and must leave the country NOW" -- !!

[defendandprotect]

Obama says Gadhafi must leave Libya 'now'

Share AP foreign, Saturday February 26 2011 WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi must leave the country now. Obama made the comments to German Chancellor Angela Merkel in a private telephone conversation Saturday as they discussed the violence in Libya. The White House says Obama told Merkel that when a leader's only means of holding power is to use violence against his people, then he has lost the legitimacy to rule and needs to do what's right for his country by "leaving now."

The comments mark the first time that Obama has called on Gadhafi to step down.

Gadhafi has launched a violent crackdown against protesters demanding his ouster. He has vowed a bloody fight to the end.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/9519868

[defendandprotect]

1. Applause for Obama on this one -- !!!

:applause:

[bobbolink]

2. Credit where credit is due. Dept. Of Better Late Than Never.

[ClarkUSA]

4. So waiting until the last of the American & British left Libyan waters is "Late" to you?

Get a clue. He did what any responsible CIC and EU partner would have done, so give it a rest.

[gateley]

7. Good point - so often we're impatient and don't think of the considerations a

leader of a country has to. :hi:

[social_critic]

8. Dudes, I've been overseas most of my life

And we do pay taxes too. So please try to remember we got to make our way to the gathering point, then get to the port, and get out before the bombs drop or we are used as hostages.

[Kurovski]

3. It's a shame that it would be so unseemly for Obama to say...

"It's time to take a dirt nap now, Mr. Doodlepooper."

[PufPuf23]

5. Good but hearsay through Merkel.

Why not a press release or official statement of record from POTUS?

[pinboy3niner]

6. It was released by the White House

I believe USA Today has the text of both the WH statement and the subsequent statement of SOS Clinton.

[Arkana]

9. So much for "Obama is friend", eh, Moammar?

[gateley]

10. He was Bushco's Friend - They made the peace so our Big Oil could get in there

and rebuild their crumbling oil infrastructure. Nice, huh?

I'm guessing Obama would never had made the deals Bush did w/Libya.


Edit: wrong "there"

[Arkana]

12. Listening to Gadhafi exhorting his paid militiamen and mercs to "defend the oil",

I think you might be right.

[Skidmore]

11. If the President had said this before all Americans there were evacuated

and a bunch of them were killed, the public would be screaming for his head on a platter. He waited to protect American lives, and now he'll act.

[gateley]

13. +1 nt

[David__77]

14. Bravado. Nonetheless I appreciate Obama's restraint.

I applaud the fact that Obama has not heeded the interventionists.

[eleny]

15. Good!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. Where would he go?

Should those who close off his every avenue for retreat also bear some responsibility if there is a blood bath? Not an original thought but an interesting one.

[defendandprotect]

17. The Global gun-runners -- US, UK, France, etal -- should bear much of the responsibility ....

for everything that Gaddafi does to his citizens with those weapons!!


Presume he may go into neighboring African states? Like Chad -- etal where he

has raised his mercenaries from?

Mugabe may offer something?

[ProgressiveProfessor]

18. The vast majority of his weapons are Soviet/Russian

He was getting some newer stuff from the west.

The question I think is a good one. If the only option he has is the ICC, what would be his incentive to surrender? Scorched earth would at least be vengeance on those attacking him. Idi Amin and Marcos both were allowed to leave with enough to live out their days. If Gahhafi has the same opportunity, would be more likely to leave?

[defendandprotect]

19. UK, USA and France delivered heavy weapons --

UK has weapons deals going back to at least 2004 --

Britain sold Libya about $55 million worth of military and paramilitary equipment in the year ending Sept. 30, 2010, according to Foreign Office statistics. Among the items: sniper rifles, bulletproof vehicles, crowd-control ammunition and tear gas.

"What did the Foreign Office think Colonel Gadhafi meant to do with sniper rifles and tear-gas grenades - go mole hunting?" asked Britain's Guardian newspaper.



Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/02/25/20110225gadhafi-west0225.html#ixzz1F8HQfj7l


AND ----

The U.S. also approved the sale of military items to Libya in recent years, giving private arms firms licenses to sell everything from explosives and incendiary agents to aircraft parts and targeting equipment.

The Bush administration approved the sale of $3 million of materials to Libya in 2006 and $5.3 million in 2007. In 2008, Libya was allowed to import $46 million in armaments from the U.S. The approved goods included nearly 400 shipments of explosive and incendiary materials, 25,000 aircraft parts, 56,000 military electronics components and nearly 1,000 items of optical targeting and other guidance equipment.

The U.S. State Department has not yet provided figures for materiel licensed to Libya during the Obama administration. But according to one U.S. government official, Congress spurned a 2009 Obama administration request for approval of a license to allow the private shipment of M113 armored personnel carriers.

The official, who insisted on anonymity because the licensing process is classified, would not detail the number of armored cars sought by Libya. Libyan military officials had pressed U.S. officials as far back as 2007 for the cars and troop-carrying Chinook helicopters, but the Bush administration balked at the requests, the official said.



Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/02/25/20110225gadhafi-west0225.html#ixzz1F8HfW5Wd


And ---

Britain's elite Special Air Service, or SAS, also participated in recent training for Libyan soldiers in counterterrorism and surveillance. Robin Horsfall, a former SAS soldier, said at the time that the training was a mistake: "People will die as a result of this decision," he warned.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gsFJWQJuWP2wOErfN_NWaCG41MAQ?docId=7bcdf11e54af477ea8f88355d3c963c2


And ---

France to Supply Libya with European Weapons | Europe ...
France has agreed to sell Libya anti-tank missiles as part of ... type worth around 100 million euros in France," Gadhafi ... What do you think of the decision to sell weapons ...
www.dw-world.de/dw/article/​0,2144,2717655,00.html - Cached.


France has agreed to sell Libya anti-tank missiles as part of the military agreement reached last week by French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.



"We are going to buy rocket-propelled grenades of the Milan type worth around 100 million euros in France," Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam Gaddafi was quoted as saying in an interview published in Thursday's French daily Le Monde. "There's also a project for a weapons factory."



A shoulder-mounted anti-tank weapon, the Milan is built by a subsidiary of Europe's joint EADS defense and aerospace company.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2717655,00.html


---------------

Bush, of course, 'NORMALIZED' relations with Gaddafi --

Arms embargo ended in 2004 --