Obama signs sanctions on Libya
WASHINGTON - The Obama administration is freezing assets held by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and four of his children in the United States.
The Treasury Department says the sanctions against Gadhafi, three of his sons and a daughter also apply to the Libyan government.
The action was taken under an executive order signed Friday by President Barack Obama.
Obama says the U.S. is imposing unilateral sanctions on Libya because continued violence there poses an "unusual and extraordinary threat" to America's national security and foreign policy.
The president acted after hundreds of Americans were safely evacuated from Libya following days of bloodshed across the country. Militias loyal to Gadhafi have been firing on protesters who have been demanding the Libyan leader's ouster.
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White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Obama will meet with the United Nations secretary general in Washington on Monday to discuss the situation in Libya.
Libya, which Transparency International ranks among the world's most corrupt countries, has enormous assets to plunder. According to a confidential U.S. State Department cable posted by WikiLeaks, the head of the Libyan Investment Authority said last year that "several" United States banks manage between $300 million and $500 million in Libyan assets. According to the cable, Mohamed Layas told U.S. Ambassador Gene Kretz that the country's so-called sovereign wealth fund, which invests Libya's enormous oil profits, had $32 billion in cash and other liquid assets.
The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute, a Canadian research organization, estimates that Libya's Investment Authority controls total assets of $70 billion, making it the 13th largest such fund in the world.
The U.S. maintained a stiff embargo against Libya, but in recent years had begun easing some restrictions as a result of Qaddafi's willingness to cooperate in ending his nuclear ambitions and aiding in counterterrorism efforts.
He said that U.S. intelligence agencies would closely monitor Libyan officials for any evidence of involvement in human rights violations. "We want to make sure that violations of human rights are held accountable," he said.
A U.S. official said the Tripoli embassy's operations were suspended when a chartered flight took the last embassy staff out of the country at 1:49 p.m. That followed a ferry that departed earlier Friday for Malta with 300 Americans aboard.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said the embassy was shut down because of the deteriorating security situation in Libya, where protests against Qaddafi's 42-year rule have become an armed insurrection.
"Any strategy to compel a leader attempts to put at risk the things that he values: his power, his money, his family," CBS News national security analyst Juan Zarate said Thursday.
Mr. Obama was briefing world leaders on U.S. plans and coordinating international pressure on Qaddafi's government to stop violence against opponents. International officials say thousands may be dead.
The president spoke Friday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and they discussed measures to hold Libya's government accountable for its "unacceptable" violence, the White House said. Mr. Obama spoke with leaders from the United Kingdom, France and Italy on Thursday.
The U.S. moves follow Thursday's order by the Swiss government blocking any assets in Switzerland belonging to Qaddafi.
In Geneva, U.S. diplomats joined a unanimous condemnation of Libya at the U.N. Human Rights Council. Countries there also agreed to establish an investigation into possible crimes against humanity in Qaddafi's crackdown on protesters and recommended that Libya be suspended from the body.
The U.N. Security Council in New York was expected to discuss the situation in the Arab country later Friday. NATO is discussing deploying ships and surveillance aircraft to the Mediterranean Sea.
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Strange the Obama Administration vetoed the resolution condemning Israel against violence towards Palestinians using no less - white phosphorous bombs against civilians - with all UN voting members in support and in favor of the resolution... and now we turn against Moammar Gadhafi, as though he's done something wrong, as compared to Israel.
Nobel Peace prize... What a joke.
For the USA to be respected, it needs to be consistently on the side of justice and not opportunistic in favor of the acquisition and maintenance of wealth at any cost at either the expense of non-Americans nor to our basic values to which we purport to stand for.
Our treachery against Moammar Gadhafi is no different than the Bush Administration's assessment that the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, but in actuality, it was the oil that was our concern for our petroleum industry, with Cheney at the helm.
Had Israel had oil that we wanted to plunder, we might have long ago have voted against them and absconded with what was lying beneath the surface long enough to empty it, and leave them to twist in the wind. But Israel keeps the area in foment - to our advantage.
The game is now changing and not to our advantage. The next Muslim generation has seen the true America and super powers like China, that mind their own business and actually pay for goods and services, will in the end dominate.
////// What would Hillary be doing if she had become PRESIDENT ???
Why not send in NATO ?
I can't decide either ... I feel like somebody in the Bush zone (ie slightly crazy himself) might have come out right away and denounced Gadhafi, even before he'd been able to organize removal of Americans. Then if any of them were targeted by the regime in retaliation, he might have used that as a pretext to enter the country and 'take him out' like he used to say about Saddam.
Either that or he might have stood by Gadhafi because of the oil and sent Condi over there to try and get him to calm down and make changes to appease the 'peasants' (ie we the people).
I too get the feeling though that 95% of past Presidents would feel the need to do more, even AFTER all that's happened Bush mucking things up in the Middle East by invading and starting a civil war when he was really after the oil, thereby using up all that goodwill currency ...
Who knows though ... just speculation ...
I'm sure you would, regardless of the fact that you have no credible evidence to support your argument. As is the case with the vast majority of the republican criticism, you have nothing to pin your argument on but your own ill-conceived fantasies. You are quick to criticise but you have absolutely no idea of what to do about anything. How about putting forth a plan or even a vague idea of how this situation should be dealt with? Anything? Anything at all? No? Just as I thought. Nothing but blind, rabid hate backed up by an over-abundance of ignorance!
He wants us to be broke physically and financially.
Ol Baggy hates America more than most.
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Too, little and days too late.
Typical of Obama and company to abandon their post in Libya while other Americans are still trying to get out.