Update on Libya

Here in D.C. we have Dennis Kucinich filing suit against President Obama saying he violated the War Power Act. Old Swizzle Stick John Boehner wrote a letter to Obama demanding to know what the purpose of the mission is. Kucinich and other members of the House are proposing bills to cut off funding for the mission, which is being handled for now out of the Pentagon's general funds. The cost of the intervention now far exceeds the GOP's hopes for budget cuts this term. The Obama Administration wants to switch over leadership of the mission in a few days in part to escape the War Powers Act, which then would demand that the Administration asked for approval from Congress.

Newt Gingrich was for the war before he was against it. On Fox, he had called for a No Fly Zone that night,a threat to invade and topple Qaddafi. But yesterday, since President Obama already intervened, he was against it. The clumsy contradiction forced him to try and explain these mutually contradictory positions on Facebook. You are better than I if you can understand what he said.

Nicholas Kristof posted an op-ed in the New York Times saying that as much as he hates war he hates the extermination of civilians. He writes about the Libyans thank-you rallies to the allies for saving their lives, a far cry from the situation of Darfur and Bosnia.

Juan Cole, never the Hawk, writes in Informed Comment that the UN No-Fly Zone has accomplished ten things. His full article is worth reading at his website.

1. The participation of the Muslim world in the United Nations' no-fly zone over Libya can not be underestimated for its political importance. The measure was called for by the Arab League, which has not changed its mind about its desirability. Of course, as Al Jezeera snidely pointed out, all Arab nations would love to get rid of Qaddafi anyway. Qatar will be flying missions this weekend and others will supply logistical support. Read cash. It should be pointed out that over 200 Arab organizations, including NGOs support the UN no-fly zone. That's rather incredible given the last decade of American activity in the region.

2. Turkey, while it is blocking NATO command of the whole operation,has sent frigates to enforce the naval blockade of the country. The kerfuffle over NATO control is interesting in that Sarkozy himself said that NATO did not have the confidence of the Muslim nations. Turkey has also called for Qaddafi to step down.

3. After one clash today between the French and a Libyan fighter, the Libyan air force, which has been terrorizing the population by bombing cities, effectively has ceased to exist.

4. Tobruk, the major petroleum depot on the Mediterranean,is no longer in danger of being attacked and its 120,000 people being massacred.

5. Benghazi, the center of the pro-freedom movement, has been saved from being bombarded and conquered by pro-Qaddafi army and air force. Plans had been drawn up to massacre the citizens of the city. This was one of the key factors in influencing Obama to use force--the plans to massacre the citizens of Benghazi and Tobruk.

6. Misrata, a city of 670,000, was given a brief reprieve yesterday when United Nations allies bombed pro-Qaddafi tank positions. But as of last night the Qaddafi forces crept back annd bombed the center of town, including a hospital with 400 patients in it. This morning however the bombing stopped. The death toll would have been much higher.

7. The no-fly zone allowed an aid ship to land in Misrata with medicines. Humanitarian assistance organizations are now gearing up for a larger role in the whole process.

8. Zintan, the city which had spawned the military revolt of the 1990s, was spared massacre when allied planes struck near the city and forced pro-Qaddafi forces out of the city for a brief time.

9. The oil city of Ajdabiya, once the base for attacks on Tobruk and Benghazi, has been turned into an area being contested by the freedom movement and a rump of the pro-Qaddafi forces. You may have seen footage of this by Richard Engel, who went along with the amateur fighters.

10. Since Benghazi is not being bombed, the freedom movement has been able to meet and form a transitional governing council.

Cole suggests the freedom movement controls over half the population and half the petroleum facilities. Eventually if the momentum holds, Qaddafi could run out of gas for his armored vehicles and cash for his mercenaries.

In other important news, the United States announced that they have found no evidence that Al Qaeda has any prescence in the country whatsoever. While Al Qaeda has piped up with support for the Libyan people and there have been rumors of cells in the country (which I wrote about),the United States was compelled to publicly dispel this notion.

The whole Al Qaeda issue has a fascinating twist. When Qaddafi became an American ally in the war against terror, he provided intelligence on what he claimed were Al Qaeda cells in northern Africa. One of these groups were Toureg nomads, who had not sworn allegiance to him. The Touregs, one of my personal favorite tribes, wander around the Sahel. To see them appearing, riding their camels over the dunes is a real thrill. Qaddafi envisioned a trans-Sahara project and tried to win their allegiance, which would have given him access to all the countries in the region. Some did buy in but many did not. Those who remained independent were the some of those he told the United States were Al Qaeda cells. Over the last few years, our own forces conducted operations throughout the region targeting the Touregs as possible terrorists. The notion is beyond absurd.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, said he was "100 percent" certain that his investigation into attacks on Libyan protesters will lead to crimes against humanity charges against the Qaddafi regime. Moreno-Ocampo is looking into six incidents of "massive shooting of civilians" by security forces in Tripoli, Benghazi and other Libyan cities. A later investigation will examine the regime's actions during the armed conflicts with the freedom movement.

In May, Moreno-Ocampo will present his findings to the United Nations Security Council, which had instructed the court to investigate in a unanimous decision on February 26. The Security Council then would play a role in having the suspects of the crimes arrested. If the Security Council approves his report, then Moreno-Ocampo must present his case to a judge ,who will decide if the case proceeds. This only enlarges the options against Qaddafi if he does stay in power.

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton said that Qaddafi's inner circle has been calling around to find out where they can find safe haven. While she didn't want to be definitive about their real purposes in making the calls, it does raise the speculations about how long they will hold out.

A dissenter on the Libyan operation is Frank Gaffney, who worries that Obama will use the same rationale to justify an attack on Israel. Well, someone had to bring it up. I guess.

Overlooked has been the endorsement of the United Nations actions by Nobel Peace Prize winner Bishop Desmond Tutu, who issued a statement that he backed it for humanitarian reasons.

Other Arab commentators have mentioned that if the United States had acted this way when the Iraqi Shia had risen up against Saddam Hussein after the Gulf War or when Saddam slaugheted the Kurds and used chemical weapons against them, we would not have faced such a long and costly war in Iraq and alienated the whole Muslim world.

Since our House of Representatives seems clairvoyant in their idiocy, I bet they repeat the cutting off of Tsunami monitoring funds stunt on the Libyan mission. They'll vote to cut it off and then either disaster strikes or Qaddafi falls.