Meanwhile in Tripoli and Benghazi ...

While the House Oversight Committee prepares to hear testimony from three whistleblowers that may expose a cover-up in the Obama administration, the Libyans have their own problems after the “liberation” provided by Barack Obama and NATO’s air campaign.  After a blockade of government offices in the capital of Tripoli by armed “militias” for more than [...]

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Ramirez: Another Watergate?

Give Glenn Kessler credit; he was almost alone among the mainstream media in immediately calling Susan Rice’s explanation of the attack on the Benghazi consulate fishy, awarding her two Pinocchios at the time. (Perhaps not too much credit, says Ann Althouse, via Instapundit.)  Should that get bumped up now that whistleblowers are prepared to blow [...]

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Smart power.

For some reason, American politicians in both parties want to see the US intervene to some extent in Syria’s civil war, even after the disastrous intervention in Libya that almost made Mali an al-Qaeda state.  Only a French military intervention prevented that outcome, and that may still only be temporary, but more on that in [...]

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US, Britain increasing commitment?

Residents of Timbuktu celebrated today as French troops liberated the fabled city from the grip of Islamist terrorists and Touareg rebels, ending ten months of control by the uprising. With this victory in hand, France is now signaling that they will reduce their offensive operations in Mali: The rapid advance to Timbuktu, a day after [...]

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"So far."

With the terrorist networks of eastern Libya unleashed, no one questions the threat that they pose to stability in North Africa.  Both the White House and Pentagon agree that al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, the most virulent of these and a long-standing branch of Osama bin Laden’s network, could do a tremendous amount of damage.  The [...]

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Unintended consequences.

The history of the last thirty years of American policy in the Middle East and North Africa can be summed up in two words: unintended consequences.  The US has found itself pressured by outside events into interventions that have ended up backfiring in substantial ways. In most cases, one can argue with good reason that [...]

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20 escaped, including Americans.

CBS reports that the hostage situation at an Algerian natural-gas facility may be deteriorating — but for whom? Twenty hostages have escaped, according to the AP, including some of the Americans, but the Algerian military wounded two Japanese hostages in an attempt to end the standoff with Islamist terrorists. Al Jazeera spoke with the terrorists, [...]

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Crisis.

The number of Americans could be as high as seven but the State Department hasn’t specified yet. Two workers, one British and one French, are reportedly already dead. Algeria’s a clever choice of targets, not only because France is using the country’s airspace for strikes in Mali but because putting Algerians at risk over French [...]

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Interventions.

Via Walter Russell Mead. To follow-up on Ed’s post this morning, with French boots on the ground and America providing logistical support, it’s time to start paying attention to Mali if you aren’t yet. The U.S. strategy here was simple, and familiar: Support the elected government against jihadis by training their army in counterterror operations. [...]

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Obama to offer "limited support"?

Ten months after condemning a military coup in Mali, the Obama administration may end up having to ride to its rescue.  Islamists in the West African nation have begun a new offensive after France sent its military to fight the insurgency, and have now sworn to open a new front in the war in France [...]

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A disaster for Western credibility.

On Sunday, the one-year anniversary of the declaration by Barack Obama of American military intervention in Libya passed without much notice.  The reason Obama and NATO gave for their undeclared war on Moammar Qaddafi was the “responsibility to protect” civilian populations from military force by the dictatorship, known as R2P, and to free Libya from [...]

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