Libya: Obama Admits Clinton's "Greatest Moment" Was His "Worst Mistake"

[Zira]

Given that the overthrow of Gaddafi is "one of the policies cited by Clinton as one of her chief accomplishments," as Vanity Fair's Tina Nguyen notes, Obama's statements could be problematic for the former secretary of state.

During a television interview in 2011, Clinton infamously joked about the fall of Gaddafi saying, "We came, we saw, he died." Even on the campaign trail, the presidential hopeful defended the employment of military support in Libya, describing it as "smart power at its best."

Nguyen writes:
Obama’s comments highlight a growing divide with Clinton as she seeks to win the Democratic presidential nomination. As secretary of state, Clinton was one of the strongest proponents of the U.S. intervention in the Libyan civil war against Gadhafi; according to the New York Times, the decision to commit military assets to ending the dictator’s 42-year-old regime was “arguably her moment of greatest influence as secretary of state.” While Obama has now pointed to that decision multiple times as one of his biggest regrets, he has also used the same logic to defend his reticence to intervene in Syria, where Clinton has urged a more militaristic approach, including a no-fly zone.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/04/12/libya-obama-admits-clintons-greatest-moment-was-his-worst-mistake


--------------
Hillary came, she destabilized the country by removing the ruler, and many people have died ever since - because it has never been stabilized. This is a repeat story for Hillary Clinton. Like Donald Trump and his repeat bankruptcies, Hillary never learns.

[MisterP]

1. only cuz we didn't intervene hard enough to him *sigh*

[Zira]

2. Excellent article you linked for Hondurian Coup

The Hillary Clinton emails released last week include some telling exchanges about the June 2009 military coup that toppled democratically elected Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, a leftist who was seen as a threat by the Honduran establishment and U.S. business interests.

"At a time when the State Department strategized over how best to keep Zelaya out of power while not explicitly endorsing the coup, Clinton suggested using longtime Clinton confidant Lanny Davis as a back-channel to Roberto Micheletti, the interim president installed after the coup.

During that period, Davis was working as a consultant to a group of Honduran businessmen who had supported the coup.

In an email chain discussing a meeting between Davis and State Department officials, Clinton asked, “Can he help me talk w Micheletti?”

Davis was not the only foreign agent with access to Clinton. As The Guardian and Politico have reported, other emails point to lobbyists with direct access to Clinton’s personal email.

The request to talk to Davis came on October 22, 2009, a crucial turning point for the “de facto” government that had ousted Zelaya.

A week later, Clinton and her top aides reportedly brokered a deal to bring Zelaya back to power through a national unity government. But the deal was no “breakthrough,” as some media outlets reported. Rather, there was a huge loophole, providing the pro-coup Honduran legislature with veto power over Zelaya’s return. The supposed plan fell apart, and the “de facto” government sponsored what many considered a fraudulent election while denying Zelaya’s return.

https://theintercept.com/2015/07/06/clinton-honduras-coup/
---------------------------
Zelaya threatened the establishment and Hillary was part of the coup.

[MisterP]

9. and Davis was used to end-run the WH on Honduras just as Blumenthal end-ran him on Libya!

[appal_jack]

3. Secretaries of State are supposed to employ diplomacy, not coups and war.

Hillary seemed to function as a wannabe-Secretary of Defense rather than as an effective SoS.

The least she could have done was to prepare for the aftermath, but instead she took a page from the B*sh/Cheney/Rumsfeld playbook on that as well.

k&r,

-app

[Avalux]

8. That's what happens when you idolize Henry Kissinger. n/t

[2cannan]

4. Great read, thanks for posting. Good points about the double standard Obama has re: classified info

too.

snip

In recent days, Obama received fierce criticism for acknowledging that, in his mind, there are different levels of "classified" information—a revelation which critics said betrays his favoritism for Clinton.

"And what I also know, because I handle a lot of classified information, is that there are—there’s classified, and then there’s classified," Obama said in the "Fox News Sunday" interview. "There’s stuff that is really top secret top secret, and there’s stuff that is being presented to the president or the secretary of state, that you might not want on the transom, or going out over the wire, but is basically stuff that you could get in open source."

snip

"It’s a two-tiered system of justice for people who have allegedly mishandled classified information," Jesselyn Radack, a whistleblower attorney and director of national security and human rights for the Whistleblower and Source Protection Program at Expose Facts, told Shadowproof journalist Kevin Gosztola. "If you are powerful or politically connected, you have nothing to worry about. But if you’re a low-level whistleblower whose made revelations that the government doesn’t want people to know about torture, about secret surveillance, about drones, that makes you fair game for prosecution and prosecution for espionage."

[IamMab]

5. You heard it here: Ostensible "progressives" want the dictator back in charge of Libya.

[thesquanderer]

7. No, but in hindsight, it's not impossible that that was the lesser of two evils. (n/t)

[Lucinda]

10. Very likely. n/t

[frylock]

11. 4 days in, and making quite a splash already!

[IamMab]

13. Goodbye forever.

[frylock]

14. NOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo.....

[pampango]

12. Dictators ARE terrorists. They just use a 'kinder, gentler' form of terrorism than

modern terrorists use.

Dictators use midnight arrests, torture in government jails our of our sight and 'disappearance' to spread terror among the citizens who may oppose him. Modern terrorists use car bombs and videos on youtube to spread their terror. Terror works. Both dictators and modern terrorists use it extensively.

[rhett o rick]

6. The one thing her supporters love about Clinton is her toughness. "We came, we saw, he died."

She is tough. Watch out Iran and Russia. No war is off the table.