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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;color:#1F497D'>From the Facebook of Dennis Kucinich - <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:22.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Exclusive: Secret tapes undermine Hillary Clinton on Libyan war<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Joint Chiefs, key lawmaker held own talks with Moammar Gadhafi regime<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>By <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/jeffrey-scott-shapiro/">Jeffrey Scott Shapiro</a> and <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/staff/kelly-riddell/">Kelly Riddell</a> - The Washington Times - Wednesday, January 28, 2015 <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Top <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> officials and a senior Democrat in Congress so distrusted Secretary of State <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Hillary Rodham Clinton</a>’s 2011 march to war in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> that they opened their own diplomatic channels with the Gadhafi regime in an effort to halt the escalating crisis, according to secret audio recordings recovered from <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/tripoli/">Tripoli</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The tapes, reviewed by The Washington Times and authenticated by the participants, chronicle U.S. officials’ unfiltered conversations with <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Col. Moammar Gadhafi</a>’s son and a top Libyan leader, including criticisms that <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> had developed tunnel vision and led the U.S. into an unnecessary war without adequately weighing the intelligence community’s concerns.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><hr size=2 width="100%" align=center></span></div><div style='margin-bottom:11.25pt'><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><hr size=2 width="100%" align=center></span></div></div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“You should see these internal <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> reports that are produced in the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> that go out to the Congress. They’re just full of stupid, stupid facts,” an American intermediary specifically dispatched by the Joint Chiefs of Staff told the Gadhafi regime in July 2011, saying the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> was controlling what intelligence would be reported to U.S. officials.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>At the time, the Gadhafi regime was fighting a civil war that grew out of the Arab Spring, battling Islamist-backed rebels who wanted to dethrone the longtime dictator. <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> argued that <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> might engage in genocide and create a humanitarian crisis and ultimately persuaded President Obama, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/">NATO</a> allies and the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/united-nations/">United Nations</a> to authorize military intervention.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/multimedia/image/1_282015_ap070725083953-58201jpg/" target="_blank"><span style='font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=220 height=322 id="Picture_x0020_182" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D03BD2.0025E9C0" alt="Description: Losing control: Col. Moammar Gadhafi ruled Libya with an iron fist, but U.S. military leaders were looking for a way to avoid a power vacuum."></span></a></span><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Losing control: Col. Moammar Gadhafi ruled Libya with an iron fist, but ... <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/multimedia/image/1_282015_ap070725083953-58201jpg/" target="_blank">more ></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a>’s son and heir apparent, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/seif-gadhafi/">Seif Gadhafi</a>, told American officials in the secret conversations that he was worried <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> was using false pretenses to justify unseating his father and insisted that the regime had no intention of harming a mass of civilians. He compared <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a>’s campaign for war to that of the George W. Bush administration’s now debunked weapons of mass destruction accusations, which were used to lobby Congress to invade <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/iraq/">Iraq</a>, the tapes show.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><hr size=2 width="100%" align=center></span></div><div style='margin-bottom:11.25pt'><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><hr size=2 width="100%" align=center></span></div></div><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“It was like the WMDs in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/iraq/">Iraq</a>. It was based on a false report,” <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> said in a May 2011 phone call to <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/dennis-j-kucinich/">Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich</a>, an Ohio Democrat serving at the time. “Libyan airplanes bombing demonstrators, Libyan airplanes bombing districts in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/tripoli/">Tripoli</a>, Libyan army killed thousands, etc., etc., and now the whole world found there is no single evidence that such things happened in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/seif-gadhafi/">Seif Gadhafi</a> also warned that many of the U.S.-supported armed rebels were “not freedom fighters” but rather jihadists whom he described as “gangsters and terrorists.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“And now you have <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/">NATO</a> supporting them with ships, with airplanes, helicopters, arms, training, communication,” he said in one recorded conversation with U.S. officials. “We ask the American government send a fact-finding mission to <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a>. I want you to see everything with your own eyes.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The surreptitiously taped conversations reveal an extraordinary departure from traditional policy, in which the U.S. government speaks to foreign governments with one voice coordinated by the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Instead, the tapes show that the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a>’s senior uniformed leadership and a congressman from <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a>’s own party conveyed sentiments to the Libyan regime that undercut or conflicted with the secretary of state’s own message at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“If this story is true, it would be highly unusual for the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> to conduct a separate set of diplomatic negotiations, given the way we operated when I was secretary of state,” James A. Baker III, who served under President George H.W. Bush, told The Times. “In our administration, the president made sure that we all sang from the same hymnal.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/dennis-j-kucinich/">Mr. Kucinich</a>, who challenged <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> and Barack Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, acknowledged that he undertook his own conversations with the Gadhafi regime. He said he feared <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> was using emotion to sell a war against <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> that wasn’t warranted, and he wanted to get all the information he could to share with his congressional colleagues.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“I had facts that indicated America was headed once again into an intervention that was going to be disastrous,” <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/dennis-j-kucinich/">Mr. Kucinich</a> told The Times. “What was being said at the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> — if you look at the charge at the time — it wasn’t so much about what happened as it was about what would happen. So there was a distortion of events that were occurring in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> to justify an intervention which was essentially wrong and illegal.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/dennis-j-kucinich/">Mr. Kucinich</a> wrote a letter to Mr. Obama and <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> in August explaining his communications in a last-ditch effort to stop the war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Clinton</a> blocks <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> outreach</span></b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>On the day the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/united-nations/">U.N.</a> resolution was passed, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> ordered a general within the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> to refuse to take a call with <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a>’s son <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/seif-gadhafi/">Seif</a> and other high-level members within the regime, to help negotiate a resolution, the secret recordings reveal.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A day later, on March 18, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> called for a cease-fire, another action the administration dismissed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Soon, a call was set up between the former U.S. ambassador to <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a>, Gene Cretz, and <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> confidant Mohammed Ismael during which Mr. Ismael confirmed that the regime’s highest-ranking generals were under orders not to fire upon protesters.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“I told him we were not targeting civilians and <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/seif-gadhafi/">Seif</a> told him that,” Mr. Ismael told The Times in an telephone interview this month, recounting the fateful conversation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>While <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> urged the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> to cease its communications with the Gadhafi regime, the intelligence asset working with the Joint Chiefs remained in contact for months afterward.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“Everything I am getting from the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> is that they do not care about being part of this. Secretary <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Clinton</a> does not want to negotiate at all,” the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> intelligence asset told <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/seif-gadhafi/">Seif Gadhafi</a> and his adviser on the recordings.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Communication was so torn between the Libyan regime and the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> that they had no point of contact within the department to even communicate whether they were willing to accept the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/united-nations/">U.N.</a>’s mandates, former Libyan officials said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> eventually named Mr. Cretz as the official U.S. point of contact for the Gadhafi regime. Mr. Cretz, the former ambassador to <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a>, was removed from the country in 2010 amid Libyan anger over derogatory comments he made regarding <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> released by Wikileaks. As a result, Mr. Cretz was not trusted or liked by the family.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Shutting the Gadhafis out of the conversation allowed <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> to pursue a solitary point of view, said a senior <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> official directly involved with the intervention.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“The decision to invade [<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a>] had already been made, so everything coming out of the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> at that time was to reinforce that decision,” the official explained, speaking only on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>As a result, the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> went its own way and established communications with <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/seif-gadhafi/">Seif Gadhafi</a> through one of his friends, a U.S. businessman, who acted as an intermediary. The goal was to identify a clear path and strategy forward in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> — something that wasn’t articulated by the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/white-house/">White House</a> or <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> at the time, officials said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“Neither the intervention decision nor the regime change decision was an intelligence-heavy decision,” said one senior intelligence official directly involved with the administration’s decision-making, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “People weren’t on the edge of their seats, intelligence wasn’t driving the decision one way or another.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Instead of relying on the Defense Department or the intelligence community for analysis, officials told The Times, the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/white-house/">White House</a> trusted <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a>’s charge, which was then supported by Ambassador to the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/united-nations/">United Nations</a> Susan E. Rice and National Security Council member Samantha Power, as reason enough for war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“Susan Rice was involved in the Rwanda crisis in 1994, Samantha Power wrote very moving books about what happened in Rwanda, and Hillary Clinton was also in the background of that crisis as well,” said Allen Lynch, a professor of international relations at the University of Virginia. “I think they have all carried this with them as a kind of guilt complex.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Humanitarian crisis was not imminent</span></b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In 2003, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> agreed to dismantle his weapons of mass destruction and denounce terrorism to re-establish relations with the West. He later made reparations to the families of those who died in the bombing of Pan-Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>News media frequently described the apparent transformation as <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> “coming in from the cold.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Still, he ruled <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> with an iron grip, and by February 2011 civil war raged throughout the country. Loyalist forces mobilized tanks and troops toward Benghazi, creating a panicked mass exodus of civilians toward Egypt.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> met with Libyan rebel spokesman Mahmoud Jibril in the Paris Westin hotel in mid-March so she could vet the rebel cause to unseat <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a>. Forty-five minutes after speaking with Mr. Jibril, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> was convinced that a military intervention was needed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“I talked extensively about the dreams of a democratic civil state where all Libyans are equal a political participatory system with no exclusions of any Libyans, even the followers of <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> who did not commit crimes against the Libyan people, and how the international community should protect civilians from a possible genocide like the one [that] took place in Rwanda,” Mr. Jibril told The Times. “I felt by the end of the meeting, I passed the test. Benghazi was saved.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>So on March 17, 2011, the U.S. supported U.N. Security Council Resolution 1973 for military intervention in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> to help protect its people from <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a>’s forthcoming march on Benghazi, where he threatened he would “show no mercy” to resisters.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“I have been contacted by an intermediary in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> who has indicated that President Muammar Gadhafi is willing to negotiate an end to the conflict under conditions which would seem to favor Administration policy,” <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/dennis-j-kucinich/">Mr. Kucinich</a> wrote on Aug. 24.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Neither the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/white-house/">White House</a> nor the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> responded to his letter, he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>A spokesman for <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> declined to provide any comment about the recordings.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> also declined to answer questions about separate contacts from the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> and <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/dennis-j-kucinich/">Mr. Kucinich</a> with the Gadhafi regime, but said the goal of <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> and Mr. Obama was regime change in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“U.S. policy during the revolution supported regime change through peaceful means, in line with UNSCR 1973 policy and <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/">NATO</a> mission goals,” the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> said. “We consistently emphasized at the time that <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Moammar Gadhafi</a> had to step down and leave <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> as an essential component of the transition.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>‘President is not getting accurate information’</span></b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Both inside and outside the Obama administration, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> was among the most vocal early proponents of using U.S. military force to unseat <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a>. Joining her in making the case were French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, and her successor as secretary of state, John F. Kerry.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a>’s main argument was that <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> was about to engage in a genocide against civilians in Benghazi, where the rebels held their center of power. But defense intelligence officials could not corroborate those concerns and in fact assessed that <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> was unlikely to risk world outrage by inflicting mass casualties, officials told The Times. As a result, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, strongly opposed <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a>’s recommendation to use force.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>If <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> runs for president next year, her style of leadership as it relates to foreign policy will be viewed through the one war that she personally championed as secretary of state. Among the key questions every candidate faces is how they will assess U.S. intelligence and solicit the advice of the military leadership.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Numerous U.S. officials interviewed by The Times confirmed that <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a>, and not Mr. Obama, led the charge to use <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/">NATO</a> military force to unseat <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> as <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a>’s leader and that she repeatedly dismissed the warnings offered by career military and intelligence officials.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In the recovered recordings, a U.S. intelligence liaison working for the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> told a <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> aide that Mr. Obama privately informed members of Congress that <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> “is all Secretary <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Clinton</a>’s matter” and that the nation’s highest-ranking generals were concerned that the president was being misinformed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> liaison indicated on the tapes that Army Gen. Charles H. Jacoby Jr., a top aide to Adm. Mullen, “does not trust the reports that are coming out of the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a> and CIA, but there’s nothing he can do about it.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In one conversation to the Libyans, the American intelligence asset said, “I can tell you that the president is not getting accurate information, so at some point someone has to get accurate information to him. I think about a way through former Secretary Gates or maybe to Adm. Mullen to get him information”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The recordings are consistent with what many high-ranking intelligence, military and academic sources told The Times:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> was headstrong to enter the Libyan crisis, ignoring the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a>’s warnings that no U.S. interests were at stake and regional stability could be threatened. Instead, she relied heavily on the assurances of the Libyan rebels and her own memory of Rwanda, where U.S. inaction may have led to the genocide of at least 500,000 people.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“In this particular country — <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> — at this particular moment, we were faced with the prospect of violence on a horrific scale,” Mr. Obama declared in an address to the nation on March 28. “We had a unique ability to stop that violence: An international mandate for action, a broad coalition prepared to join us, the support of Arab countries and a plea for help from the Libyan people themselves.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Yet Human Rights Watch did not see the humanitarian crisis as imminent.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“At that point, we did not see the imminence of massacres that would rise to genocidelike levels,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of the Middle East and North Africa division for Human Rights Watch. “<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a>’s forces killed hundreds of overwhelmingly unarmed protesters. There were threats of Libyan forces approaching Benghazi, but we didn’t feel that rose to the level of imminent genocidelike atrocities.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Instead, she said, the U.S. government was trying to be at the forefront of the Arab Spring, when many dictator-led countries were turning to democracy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“I think the dynamic for the U.S. government was: Things are changing fast, Tunisia has fallen, Egypt has fallen, and we’d better be on the front of this, supporting a new government and not being seen as supporting the old government,” Ms. Whitson said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“Our big thing was: ‘What’s a good way out of this, what’s a bridge to post-<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> conflict once the military stops and the civilians take over, what’s it going to look like?’” said a senior military official involved in the planning, who requested anonymity. “We had a hard time coming up with that because once again nobody knew what the lay of the clans and stuff was going to be.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“The impression we got from both the businessman and from Seif was that the situation is bad, but this [<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/">NATO</a> intervention] is even worse,” the official said, confirming the sentiments expressed on the audio recordings. “All of these things don’t have to happen this way, and it will be better for <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> in the long run both economically and politically if they didn’t.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> looks for a way out</span></b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a> wasn’t alone in questioning the intervention.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The week the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/united-nations/">U.N.</a> resolution authorizing military force was passed, Sen. Jim Webb, Virginia Democrat, expressed his own concerns.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“We have a military operation that’s been put to play, but we do not have a clear diplomatic policy or clear statement of foreign policy. We know we don’t like the Gadhafi regime, but we do not have a picture of who the opposition movement really is. We got a vote from the Security Council but we had five key abstentions in that vote.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Five of the 15 countries on the U.N. Security Council abstained from voting on the decision in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> because they had concerns that the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/">NATO</a> intervention would make things worse. <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/hillary-rodham-clinton/">Mrs. Clinton</a> worked to avoid having them exercise their veto by personally calling representatives from Security Council member states.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Germany and Brazil published statements on March 18, 2011, explaining their reasons for abstention.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“We weighed the risks of a military operation as a whole, not just for <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> but, of course, also with respect to the consequences for the entire region and that is why we abstained,” Germany said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Brazil wrote, “We are not convinced that the use of force as contemplated in the present resolution will lead to the realization of our most important objective — the immediate end of violence and the protection of civilians.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>We are also concerned that such measures may have the unintended effect of exacerbating tensions on the ground and causing more harm than good to the very same civilians we are committed to protecting.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Sergey Ivanovich Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., told The Times that history has proved those concerns correct.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“The U.N. Security Council resolution on <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> was meant to create a no-fly zone to prevent bombing of civilians,” said Mr. Kislyak. “<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/">NATO</a> countries that participated in this intervention were supposed to patrol the area. However, in a short amount of time the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/">NATO</a> flights — initially meant to stop violence on the ground — went far beyond the scope of the Security Council-mandated task and created even more violence in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>On March 19, the U.S. military, supported by France and Britain, fired off more than 110 Tomahawk missiles, hitting about 20 Libyan air and missile defense targets. Within weeks, a <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/">NATO</a> airstrike killed one of Gaddafi’s sons and three grandsons at their the family’s <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/tripoli/">Tripoli</a> compound, sparking debate about whether the colonel and his family were legitimate targets under the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/united-nations/">U.N.</a> resolution.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Mr. Gates, the defense secretary, said the compound was targeted because it included command-and-control facilities.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Even after the conflict began, U.S. military leaders kept looking for a way out and a way to avoid the power vacuum that would be left in the region if <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> fell.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>As the intelligence asset working with the Joint Chiefs kept his contacts going, one U.S. general made an attempt to negotiate directly with his Libyan military counterparts, according to interviews conducted by The Times with officials directly familiar with the overture.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Army Gen. Carter Ham, the head of the U.S. African Command, sought to set up a 72-hour truce with the regime, according to an intermediary called in to help.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Retired Navy Rear Adm. Charles Kubic, who was acting as a business consultant in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> at the time, said he was approached by senior Libyan military leaders to propose the truce. He took the plan to Lt. Col. Brian Linvill, the U.S. AFRICOM point of contact for <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a>. Col. Linvill passed the proposal to Gen. Ham, who agreed to participate.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“The Libyans would stop all combat operations and withdraw all military forces to the outskirts of the cities and assume a defensive posture. Then to insure the credibility with the international community, the Libyans would accept recipients from the African Union to make sure the truce was honored,” Mr. Kubic said, describing the offers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“[<a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a>] came back and said he was willing to step down and permit a transition government, but he had two conditions,” Mr. Kubic said. “First was to insure there was a military force left over after he left <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> capable to go after al Qaeda. Secondly, he wanted to have the sanctions against him and his family and those loyal to him lifted and free passage. At that point in time, everybody thought that was reasonable.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>But not the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Gen. Ham was ordered to stand down two days after the negotiation began, Mr. Kubic said. The orders were given at the behest of the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/department-of-state/">State Department</a>, according to those familiar with the plan in the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/pentagon/">Pentagon</a>. Gen. Ham declined to comment when questioned by The Times.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“If their goal was to get <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> out of power, then why not give a 72-hour truce a try?” Mr. Kubic asked. “It wasn’t enough to get him out of power; they wanted him dead.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Libyan officials were willing to negotiate a departure from power but felt the continued <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/">NATO</a> bombings were forcing the regime into combat to defend itself, the recordings indicated.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“If they put us in a corner, we have no choice but to fight until the end,” Mr. Ismael said on one of the recordings. “What more can they do? Bomb us with a nuclear bomb? They have done everything.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Under immense foreign firepower, the Gadhafi regime’s grip on <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> began to slip in early April and the rebels’ resolve was strengthened. <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> pleaded with the U.S. to stop the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/north-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/">NATO</a> airstrikes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Regime change real agenda</span></b><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Indeed, the U.S. position in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> had changed. First, it was presented to the public as way to stop an impending humanitarian crisis but evolved into expelling the Gadhafis.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>CIA Director Leon E. Panetta says in his book “Worthy Fights” that the goal of the Libyan conflict was for regime change. Mr. Panetta wrote that at the end of his first week as secretary of defense in July 2011, he visited <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/iraq/">Iraq</a> and Afghanistan “for both substance and symbolism.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“In Afghanistan I misstated our position on how fast we’d be bringing troops home, and I said what everyone in Washington knew, but we couldn’t officially acknowledge: That our goal in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> was regime change.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>But that wasn’t the official war cry.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Instead: “It was ‘We’re worried a humanitarian crisis might occur,’” said a senior military official, reflecting on the conflict. “Once you’ve got everybody nodding up and down on that, watch out because you can justify almost anything under the auspices of working to prevent a humanitarian crisis. <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> had enough craziness about him, the rest of the world nodded on.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>But they might not be so quick to approve again, officials say.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“It may be impossible to get the same kind of resolution in similar circumstances, and we already saw that in Syria where the Russians were very suspicious when Western powers went to the <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/united-nations/">U.N.</a>,” said Richard Northern, who served as the British ambassador to <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> during part of the conflict. “Anything the Western powers did in the Middle East is now viewed by the Russians with suspicion, and it will probably reduce the level of authority they’re willing to give in connection to humanitarian crises.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/dennis-j-kucinich/">Mr. Kucinich</a>, who took several steps to end the war in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a>, said he is sickened about what transpired.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>He sponsored a June 3 resolution in the House of Representatives to end the Libyan war, but Republican support for the bill was diluted after Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, proposed a softer alternative resolution demanding that the president justify his case for war within 14 days.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“There was a distortion of events that were occurring in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> to justify an intervention which was essentially wrong and illegal because [the administration] gained the support of the U.N. Security Council through misrepresentation,” said <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/dennis-j-kucinich/">Mr. Kucinich</a>. “The die was cast there for the overthrow of the Gadhafi government. The die was cast. They weren’t looking for any information.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“What’s interesting about all this is, if you listen to Seif Gaddafi’s account, even as they were being bombed they still trusted America, which really says a lot,” said <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/dennis-j-kucinich/">Mr. Kucinich</a>. “It says a lot about how people who are being bombed through the covert involvement or backdoor involvement of the U.S. will still trust the U.S. It’s heart-breaking, really. It really breaks your heart when you see trust that is so cynically manipulated.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>In August, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a>’s compound in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/tripoli/">Tripoli</a> was overrun, signaling the end of his 42-year reign and forcing him into hiding. Two months later, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a>, 69, was killed in his hometown of Sirte. His son Seif was captured by the Zintan tribe and remains in solitary confinement in a Zintan prison cell.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='font-size:16.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Since <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/moammar-gadhafi/">Gadhafi</a> was removed from power, <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/libya/">Libya</a> has been in a constant state of chaos, with factional infighting and no uniting leader. On Tuesday, an attack on a luxury hotel in <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/tripoli/">Tripoli</a> killed nine people, including one American. A group calling itself the Islamic State-Tripoli Province took responsibility for the attack, indicating a growing presence of anti-American terrorist groups within the country.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>