Epstein Secrets

der of business for any new government is establishing control over its domain. In Libya, EFTA00584931 21 pockets of resistance remain in Sirte (Qaddafi's hometown) and Bani Walid, and even with NATO's air support and the insurgents' superiority in weaponry and numbers, wresting control of these pl

ents began to receive weapons and training from the outside, special forces from France, Britain, Jordan, and Qatar were deployed to help them, the Qaddafi regime's financial assets were frozen, a naval quarantine was imposed, and stream of states began to recognize the National Transitional Council (

ad been teaching economics in the United States when the uprising against Qaddafi erupted) and others who have endured the hardships of life inside Qaddafi's Libya, including torture and imprisonment, and are therefore apt to believe that their sacrifices give them a superior claim to power. 2) Islami

eld as a world power. Al-Qaeda attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, to provoke America into what it calls a "bleeding war" in Afghanistan. Bin Laden's goal was to recreate the quagmire that bled dry the Soviet Union in the 1980s with America as the victim. George W. Bush gave him a bonus — a war i

iddle East these dictators remain the exception to the rule, and this is why quasi monarchies of the iron-fisted Assad or the crazed and tyrannical Qaddafi are now under assault. THE PLACE where benevolent autocracy has struck deep and has systematic roots is Asia. Any discussion of whether and how de

required to hold the state together. To be sure, Egypt's Mubarak and Tunisia's Ben Ali neither ran police states on the terrifying scale of Libya's Qaddafi and Syria's Assad nor stifled economic progress with such alacrity. But while Mubarak and Ben Ali left their countries in conditions suitable for t

gun-shy about using ground troops to kill Osama bin Laden, arguing that Obama should opt for an airstrike

nd both fears and trusts to manage the transition. In Iraq, that was America. The kind of low-cost, remote-control, U.S./NATO midwifery that ousted Qaddafi and gave birth to a new Libya is not likely to be repeated in Syria. Syria is harder. Syria is Iraq. And Iraq was such a bitter experience for Ame

fact that Mr. Obama ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden. He has tried to focus instead on how details be

r. Some see similarities with Libya's civil war, during which persistent fears revolved around terrorist seizure of Libyan chemical weapons, or the Qaddafi regime's use of them against insurgents. Those fears turned out to be unfounded. But the Libyan chemical stockpile consisted of several tons of agi

ieve it is in the core national interest of the United States, to direct military actions, even when they entail enormous risks. And obviously, the bin Laden operation is the most dramatic, but al- Qaeda was on its [knees] well before we took out bin Laden because of our activities and my direction. In Af

ominated regime has lost control over significant territory, its co-optation strategy so far has headed off the rapid internal atrophy that brought Qaddafi to his knees last October (although it has not stopped recent high- level defections). However, the Damascus blast that killed Assad's defense mini

the economy. And criticizing the slayer of Osama bin Laden requires a more sophisticated critique than the

rones, the way you went after terrorists was you sent your troops," says Goure. "You sent your Navy, you sent your Marines, like Reagan going after Qaddafi in the Eighties. You bombed their camp. Now you have drones that can be operated by the military or the CIA from thousands of miles away." The low

bout drone strikes that have successfully taken out enemy combatants in the War on Terror. The RQ- 170 Sentinel was deployed in the raid that killed bin Laden, and U.S. officials boast of eliminating two more of Al Qaeda's top operatives in Pakistan in recent months. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has cal

ck in Libya, the counterrevolution made its stand, and a despot bereft of mercy declared war against his own people. In the calendar of Muammar el- Qaddafi's republic of fear and terror, Sept. 1 marks the coming to power, in 1969, of the officers and conspirators who upended a feeble but tolerant monar

he shah. And it also has aided the recruitment efforts of Bin Laden and other Islamist terrorists since the early 1980s. We should not forget that Bin Laden's original and ultimate goal was to spark a revolution to overthrow the Saudi government, just as his deputy's, Ayman Zawahiri, was to overthrow Muba

Erdogan was one of the first world leaders to call on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to step down, yet one of the last to ask the same of Libya's Qaddafi. In Syria, meanwhile, the Turkish government remains unable to let go of Bashar al-Assad: It has condemned the violence but not the perpetrator. T

2 months. Tellingly, Obama already gave public voice to their rationale. "We will begin a transition this summer," he said a week ago. "By killing bin Laden, by blunting the momentum of the Taliban, we have now accomplished a lot of what we set out to accomplish 10 years ago." In other words, most of th

by aggressive men. Libya, in its civil war, has women far more prominent as victims than as leaders. Iman al-Obeidi, who complained of gang rape by Qaddafi soldiers, was then forcibly abducted by agents of the government from a hotel lobby where she was meeting with journalists.[21] After release from

ly given, displaced by news of the death of Osama bin Laden), p. 2. [11] Christopher Alexander, "Authoritari

ir. Some see sim=larities with Libya's civil war, during which persistent fears revolved ar=und terrorist seizure of Libyan chemical weapons, or the Qaddafi regime's =se of them against insurgents. Those fears turned out to be unfounded. But the Libyan chem=cal stockpile consisted of several tons of agi

lieve it is in the core national in=erest of the United States, to direct military actions, even when they ent=il enormous risks. And obviously, the bin Laden operation is the most dramatic, but al- Qaeda was on its [kne=s] well before we took out bin Laden because of our activities and my dire=tion. In Afg