waltky
Wise ol' monkey
Playin' whack-a-mole with the jihadis...
Officials: Libya crisis poses increasing Islamist threat
September 10, 2014 ~ As the nation braced for the possibility of new military action against the Islamic State in Iraq, a House panel heard Wednesday that Libya is also spiraling into a failed state and a potential staging ground for Islamist terrorists.
Officials: Libya crisis poses increasing Islamist threat
September 10, 2014 ~ As the nation braced for the possibility of new military action against the Islamic State in Iraq, a House panel heard Wednesday that Libya is also spiraling into a failed state and a potential staging ground for Islamist terrorists.
Militias there have shown interest in IS and its goal of creating a worldwide caliphate after plunging the country into renewed fighting three years after U.S. airstrikes helped overthrow Moammar Gadhafi, according to testimony by a senior State Department official before the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is deeply concerned that weapons and fighters flowing through the increasingly chaotic North African country could end up on the battlefields in Iraq and Syria, said Ambassador Gerald Feierstein, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs.
The U.S. closed its embassy in Tripoli this summer as Libya’s government splintered and the country descended into battles between Islamist-leaning groups and other militias. At the end of a recent NATO summit in Wales, the Obama administration and member countries agreed to press for a cease-fire and a political solution to the crisis. “It is going to be a long-term problem that is going to require a long-term commitment from the United States,” Feierstein said. So far, he said militias such as the Dawn of Libya, which claimed last month that it had seized a U.S. Embassy residence in Tripoli, have not made any real movement toward joining IS, which seized large swaths of Iraq in a violent blitz in recent months. “Some are more secular, some are more Islamist,” Feierstein said. “Our view is, primarily it is a fight for power and for resources.”
The laundry room, shown on November 8, 2012, at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, remains in shambles, two months after the attack.
He said there were high hopes within Libya following the end of the Gadhafi regime in 2011 but those hopes have largely been dashed in recent months. “Despite the efforts of many brave Libyans as well as the active engagement of the United States and our international partners, too many of Libya’s power brokers and militia commanders have rejected principles of dialogue, consensus-building and compromise in favor of narrow-minded interests and a scramble for control of Libya’s resources,” Feierstein testified.
The events in Libya drew criticism from Republicans on the committee, who blamed the Obama administration for neglecting the country. “It is an absolute necessity, I think, that the administration lay out a strategy to lead in Libya,” said Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., committee chairman. Royce said the situation is a national security threat and could be an accelerant for conflicts in Iraq and the greater Middle East that President Barack Obama and his administration has been slow to recognize and counter.
Officials Libya crisis poses increasing Islamist threat - News - Stripes
