On a day when a poll found President Barack Obama getting his lowest polling numbers ever, and as the big political story playing out is whether or not there will be a government shutdown, a new story has surfaced via an exclusive report that promises to spark a new extensive debate. And it already has — a debate sweeping like lightning through the Internet and on cable news and cable talk shows:
Reuters reports that Obama has authorized secret help for Libya rebels:
President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert U.S. government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.
Obama signed the order, known as a presidential “finding”, within the last two or three weeks, according to government sources familiar with the matter.
Such findings are a principal form of presidential directive used to authorize secret operations by the Central Intelligence Agency. This is a necessary legal step before such action can take place but does not mean that it will.
As is common practice for this and all administrations, I am not going to comment on intelligence matters,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a statement. “I will reiterate what the president said yesterday — no decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any group in Libya.”
The CIA declined comment.
News that Obama had given the authorization surfaced as the President and other U.S. and allied officials spoke openly about the possibility of sending arms supplies to Gaddafi’s opponents, who are fighting better-equipped government forces.
The United States is part of a coalition, with NATO members and some Arab states, which is conducting air strikes on Libyan government forces under a U.N. mandate aimed at protecting civilians opposing Gaddafi.
Interviews by U.S. networks on Tuesday, Obama said the objective was for Gaddafi to “ultimately step down” from power. He spoke of applying “steady pressure, not only militarily but also through these other means” to force Gaddafi out.
News agencies, news websites and often partisan political blogs are already jumping on the story. Here’s a cross section of news reports and viewpoints so you can make up your own mind on whether this was justified, legal, illegal, a bad move, a smart move or the kind of behind-the-scenes action that may not be unusual except for the fact that it has come out into the political light of day:
—ABC News confirms the story:
President Obama has a signed a secret presidential finding authorizing covert operations to aid the effort in Libya where rebels are in full retreat despite air support from U.S. and allied forces, a source tells ABC News.
The presidential finding discusses a number of ways to help the opposition to Moammar Gadhafi, authorizing some assistance now and setting up a legal framework for more robust activities in the future.
The finding does not direct covert operatives to provide arms to the rebels immediately, although it does prepare for such a contingency and other contingencies should the president decide to go down that road in the future.
The White House press office issued a statement saying it does not comment on intelligence matters.
“I will reiterate what the President said yesterday – no decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any group in Libya. We’re not ruling it out or ruling it in,” the statement said. “We’re assessing and reviewing options for all types of assistance that we could provide to the Libyan people.”
The revelation of the finding comes as Washington is debating whether to arm the rag tag army trying to oust Libya’s long time strongman Moammar Gadhafi.
The ABC News TV report:
—The New York Times:
The Central Intelligence Agency has inserted clandestine operatives into Libya to gather intelligence for military airstrikes and to contact and vet the beleaguered rebels battling Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s forces, according to American officials.
While President Obama has insisted that no American military ground troops participate in the Libyan campaign, small groups of C.I.A. operatives have been working in Libya for several weeks as part of a shadow force of Westerners that the Obama administration hopes can help bleed Colonel Qaddafi’s military, the officials said.
In addition to the C.I.A. presence, composed of an unknown number of Americans who had worked at the spy agency’s station in Tripoli and others who arrived more recently, current and former British officials said that dozens of British special forces and MI6 intelligence officers are working inside Libya. The British operatives have been directing airstrikes from British jets and gathering intelligence about the whereabouts of Libyan government tank columns, artillery pieces and missile installations, the officials said.
American officials hope that similar information gathered by American intelligence officers — including the location of Colonel Qaddafi’s munitions depots and the clusters of government troops inside towns — might help weaken Libya’s military enough to encourage defections within its ranks.
—Time Magazine’s Mark Halperin:
Obama’s Bush-like (which is not to say “Bush-lite”) national security practices have long included a reliance on covert operations to deal in some of the darker corners of the world. Anyone who is surprised that Obama would do this hasn’t been paying attention.
As always, the fear is that Islamists may end up in power, and thus the U.S. will have backed a (new) regime opposed to American interests and those of our allies, especially Israel. Not only that, the administration’s been all over the map, with confused and contradictory statements, and of course a Jello policy on regime change or not. More on that from Melanie Phillips, “Humpty in Toytown and the Arab Boomerang.”
Now of course this is yet another leak of classified info for political gains. But who did it and why? It could be an Obamanaut making sure the country knows he is not a complete muppet. It could also be someone trying to derail the multinational hugs and love fest (with a few bombs) that Barry had sent our military over to run. If we are covertly, well I guess more overtly now, helping the rebels then the whole bold-faced lie he told on television was a bold-faced lie. I mean you can call it misdirection or discretion and you would be correct. But you can dang sure call it a prime time prevarication and it makes it impossible to pretend we are just refueling some planes for our buddies the French.
So I am against whoever leaked it doing so to either help or hinder Obama. I think it is kinda interesting that there are reasons for both to do so. But hey let’s enjoy this rare moment of transparency and just be happy that O is willing to allow the skulking about with satchels of cash and supressed weapons that really makes the best diplomacy. I just assume his aides are reading B5 for their strategery needs.
I wonder if this finding has anything to do with the Libyan expat resident of Northern Virginia, 10 miles from Langley, showing up in Benghazi to command the rebel army?
So this “debate” looks like a clown show. Maybe Obama will officially authorize arms shipments under the UN resolution and maybe he will show “restraint.” But as Hosenball says, the pieces are in place for Obama to permit weapons to funnel to the rebels under the covert action. He may have to give a follow-up assent – known as a “Mother May I” finding – but that’s not too difficult. Arming and training insurgents falls within the scope of this order, the President need only give the go-ahead.
Apparently the proper way to go about this, according to the White House, is to authorize first and ask questions later….
If Gaddafi is overthrown, then Obama wins in 2012 (albeit with an all-GOP Congress), and if there’s any jihadist presence whatsoever in the new Libyan government, would Republicans try to impeach Obama for precisely this — giving materil aid to terrorists? Hell, if he wins again, they’re going to try to impeach him for something, right? This seems as likely a cause as any.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.