The White House has put special operations strike forces on standby and moved drones into the skies above Africa, ready to strike militant targets from Libya to Mali — if investigators can find the al-Qaida-linked group responsible for the death of the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans in Libya.But officials say the administration, with weeks until the presidential election, is weighing whether the short-term payoff of exacting retribution on al-Qaida is worth the risk that such strikes could elevate the group's profile in the region, alienate governments the U.S. needs to fight it in the future and do little to slow the growing terror threat in North Africa.Details on the administration's position and on its search for a possible target were provided by three current and one former administration official, as well as an analyst who was approached by the White House for help. All four spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the high-level debates publicly.
But if we have an
opportunity to capture or kill the folks who had a hand in the attack on
our consulate and the murder of our ambassador and three other
Americans — and presuming the Libyan government is unable, unwilling, or
untrustworthy enough to take action against the perpetrators —
shouldn’t our government be doing this?
(By the way, with
three current and one former administration official, as well as an
analyst talking to the Associated Press on this . . . I guess it’s not
much of a sneak attack now, huh?)
As for the “untrustworthy enough” angle on the Libyan government . . .
U.S. State Department officials suspected that two Libyan guards hired by its own security contractor were behind an April incident in which a homemade bomb was hurled over the wall of the special mission in Benghazi, according to official e-mails obtained by Reuters.But the men, who had been taken into custody the day of the attack, were released after questioning by Libyan officials because of a lack of “hard evidence” that could be used to prosecute them, the State Department emails show.
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