Not exactly Earth-shattering news, special forces were probably already there to begin with.

(NYT) — 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.

In addition, the American spies are meeting with rebels to try to fill in gaps in understanding who their leaders are and the allegiances of the groups opposed to Colonel Qaddafi, said United States government officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the classified nature of the activities.  American officials cautioned, though, that the Western operatives were not directing the actions of rebel forces.

Disaster in the making.

(Reuters) — 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.”

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.

Keep reading…

Note: This post was bumped from the Zip Wire.

If there’s only one story you read all day, make it this one.

(Daily Beast) — As the battle for the future of Libya continues, the excitement is almost palpable among Libyan-born al Qaeda fighters and other Arabs hunkered down in Pakistan’s remote and lawless tribal area.

According to Afghan Taliban sources close to Osama bin Laden’s terrorist group, some of the 200 or so Libyans operating near the Afghan border may be on their way home to steer the anti-Gaddafi revolution in a more Islamist direction.

“We have heard a number of fighters have already departed from the tribal area,” says an Afghan commander who is linked to the powerful Haqqani network, a North Waziristan-based organization that shelters many al Qaeda fighters. Others may be on their way. “Libyans and Arabs seem to be getting ready for departure and are eager to go home and fight,” says the Afghan source. “I’ve heard that some fighters are saying goodbye and giving thanks with kind words to their (Pakistani) tribal friends who have been sheltering them.”

Since the anti-Gaddafi revolution began last month, al Qaeda — especially Libyan-born affiliates — have viewed the fighting as an opportunity to spread their radical Islamist ideology. Indeed, as one Afghan Taliban operative who helps facilitate the movement of al Qaeda militants between the tribal area and Pakistani cities told The Daily Beast earlier this month: “This rebellion is the fresh breeze they’ve been waiting years for. They realize that if they don’t use this opportunity, it could be the end of their chances to turn Libya toward a real Islamic state, as Afghanistan once was.”

Now, as the White House and NATO continue to debate the possible ramifications of arming the Libyan opposition, the Haqqani network-linked Afghan commander says Libyan al Qaeda affiliates seem to be more “enthusiastic” about the war against Gaddafi every day. And from what the Afghan Taliban commander has seen, there appears to be more than “flickers” of al Qaeda’s presence in Libya, the description given by NATO commander Admiral James Stavridis. According to the Afghan commander, al Qaeda fighters can’t believe their good luck that U.S. and NATO aircraft — the same forces that have dropped bombs on their heads in Afghanistan and Pakistan — are now raining down ordnance against Gaddafi.

Today, along the tribal border region, al Qaeda’s thirst for more immediate news has led even top leaders like Abu Yahya al-Libi, a Libyan who serves as the movement’s senior Islamist ideologue and bin Laden’s head of operations for Afghanistan, to become almost foolhardy. The Afghan commander says that Yahya and some of his countrymen have even risked visiting villagers’ houses that have satellite television dishes on the roof to watch the latest Western and Middle Eastern news feeds from Libya. Their movements in public areas could easily expose these high value targets to human and UAV surveillance, and a deadly drone strike. . . .

Whether Yahya himself will return to Libya remains to be seen, but speculation about what he’ll do is rife in the tribal area. “What Yahya will do is on the mind and in the words of everyone,” the Taliban commander adds. “But I think he is probably preparing for his next move, contacting mujahideen in Libya and watching the situation in Libya.” Earlier this month, he broke his public silence over the Libyan revolt, issuing a call to arms to his countrymen in a 30-minute video that was posted on al Qaeda-linked Internet sites. He urged Libyans to fight on and kill Gaddafi. “Now it is the turn of Gaddafi [to die] after he made the people of Libya suffer for more than 40 years,” he said. “Retreating will mean decades of harsher oppression and greater injustices than what you have endured.” He also called for the institution of Islamic law once an Arab nation has cast off its former, Western-supported rulers. Overthrowing these Western-backed Arab regimes, he added, was “a step to reach the goal of every Muslim, which is to make the word of Allah the highest.”

Returning to Libya, however, does not guarantee that Yahya or his fellow al Qaeda affiliates will have any success. The long, dangerous trip from Pakistan’s tribal areas can take weeks if not months. At least one Taliban source says Yahya made the trip two years ago and returned safely, although no one else seems able to confirm that story. And even if he or other al Qaeda Libyans manage to get home again, the Taliban facilitator says they know they’ll have a tough time influencing the largely pro-democracy uprising.

“They know they must tread cautiously, and not push too hard, for too much, too soon,” he says. Instead, he says, they expect to take a moderate line at first, while quietly trying to persuade rebel leaders that the preservation of Libyan sovereignty against Western “colonialists” depends on taking an anti-Israeli, anti-American line. Any move toward imposing Islamic sharia law, Yahya’s specialty, will have to come later. Still, Taliban sources say, if Yahya is successful in reaching rebel-held territory inside Libya, at least he’ll be able to operate with relative freedom, without worrying about Gaddafi’s secret police. In the meantime, the betting among the Taliban is that bin Laden may already have found his replacement in the tribal area. “Al Qaeda will not leave this place empty,” says the facilitator.

Hope and change.

(Business Insider) — Americans are getting more conservative, both ideologically and politically, according to new polling results from Gallup.

Although conservatives have outnumbered liberals nationally for quite a while, the new numbers show that even liberal-leaning states are drifting to the right. Conservatives now outnumber liberals in deep-blue bastions like Vermont, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Oregon.

Pre-Obama:

Post-Obama:

More here…

This guy gives shameless liars a bad name.

(RCP) — “It is use of military force in concert with our allies,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in response to a question asking if we are at war with Libya.

“What it is not, in the context of what we live in today — we use today, anything like a situation you have at one point 170,000 U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq,” Carney said. “That’s not what’s happening in Libya.”

How sad, I’ve always had a lot of respect for Kristol, especially his support for Israel but this is absurd. You think Kristol meeting privately with Obama prior to his Libya speech had something to do with his sudden admiration for Fearless Leader?

It’s not an endorsement Barack Obama probably expected — or wanted — but Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol gave the president high marks for his recent foreign policy gestures.

In his “You’ve come a long way, baby” post Monday night, Kristol praised Obama for his address to the American people about the action he took against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. On Wednesday’s “Red Eye” on the Fox News Channel, Kristol took things a step further and declared Obama “a born-again neo-con.”

Host Greg Gutfeld asked Kristol how he felt about Obama coming to him for help (reportedly the president had met with him and others prior to his Monday night address).

“He didn’t come to me for help, of course,” Kristol said. “I’m not going to acknowledge that. He came to me to make sure I was supporting his sound policies. Of course, since his sound policies are more like the policies people like me have been advocating for quite a while, I’m happy to support them. He’s a born-again neo-con.”

Keep reading…

He never ceases to amaze me.

(POLITICO) — President Obama finally and quietly accepted his “transparency” award from the open government community this week — in a closed, undisclosed meeting at the White House on Monday.

The secret presentation happened almost two weeks after the White House inexplicably postponed the ceremony, which was expected to be open to the press pool.

This time, Obama met quietly in the Oval Office with Gary Bass of OMB Watch, Tom Blanton of the National Security Archive, Danielle Brian of the Project on Government Oversight, Lucy Dalglish of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and Patrice McDermott of OpenTheGovernment.org, without disclosing the meeting on his public schedule or letting photographers or print reporters into the room.

Just hours before the White House put off the original event, White House press secretary Jay Carney was defiant in his defense of Obama’s transparency record against criticism that it might have been premature.

“This president has demonstrated a commitment to transparency and openness that is greater than any administration has shown in the past, and he’s been committed to that since he ran for President and he’s taken a significant number of measures to demonstrate that,” Carney said in a testy exchange with Fox News reporter Wendell Goler on March 16.

See

• White House Cancels Obama’s Openness Award After Being Called out on Their Flaming Hypocrisy
• Obama’s Wednesday Schedule: Hold Four Closed-to-the-Press Meetings, Then Accept Openness Award

Hypocrite.

(CNS) — President Barack Obama, as an Illinois state senator in 2002, said that using military force to topple a murderous dictator amounted to a “dumb war” and should be opposed.

The “dumb war” Obama was criticizing was the planned invasion of Iraq and the murderous dictator was its leader, Saddam Hussein. Obama, speaking at an anti-war rally in Chicago on Oct. 2, 2002 said that while Saddam was a brutal tyrant, that was not enough to justify using military force to remove him from power.

“Now, let me be clear — I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein,” said Obama in his speech. “He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied U.N. resolutions, thwarted U.N. inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He’s a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.”

“. . . After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration’s pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again,” said Obama. “I don’t oppose all wars. . . . What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne.”

Keep reading…

The leftist-Islamist fifth-columnists up to their old tricks again.

(IPT) — When we called attention to a flier published by the Council on American Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) San Francisco chapter in January, urging people to “Build a Wall of Resistance” to the FBI, officials insisted it wasn’t what it looked like.

CAIR supports law enforcement, they said, and the poster was created more than 30 years ago. Since then, however, the organization has filed two lawsuits against the FBI. Now, the same chapter that published the anti-FBI flier has joined several other groups in calling on the San Francisco and Oakland Police Departments to stop collaborating with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) immediately.

The Department of Justice created the JTTF after 9/11 in order to better coordinate information sharing between federal, state and local law enforcement.

CAIR and the other groups argued Tuesday that Bay Area law enforcement assigned to the JTTF would be forced to violate the California Constitution, which prohibits intelligence gathering without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. Additionally, the groups condemned the police departments for not releasing “their now-secret agreements with the FBI,” which they said would “provide assurances that their officers are adhering to the standards of state and local law.”

Keep reading…

ACLU press release here

The most radical administration in history.

(Daily Caller) — During a speech in Washington Wednesday on the need to secure the country’s energy security, President Obama told Americans not to worry: “We’ve been down this road before.”

“Remember, it was just three years ago that gas prices topped $4 a gallon,” said Obama. “Working folks haven’t forgotten that. It hit a lot of people pretty hard . . . So here’s the bottom line — there are no quick fixes.”

The president’s speech comes after weeks of rising oil prices and outrage over the administration’s de facto moratorium on offshore drilling. But while Obama talked about the need to produce more oil domestically to help ease the pain at the pump, his chief energy adviser has a history of advocating for high gas prices, once saying, “coal is my worst nightmare.”

As director of the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, Steven Chu, Obama’s secretary at the Department of Energy, said in an interview that gas taxes should slowly be increased over the next 15 years in order to force people to turn to alternative energy sources.

“Somehow, we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to levels in Europe,” said Chu.

In Europe, the price for a gallon of gas consistently hovers around $10 a gallon.

Keep reading…

But Congressman Peter King is a “racist, bigot and Islamophobe” for holding hearings into this threat.

AQAP Urges US Sympathizers to Attack Malls, Nightclubs — Jawa

Question: As-Salâm ‘Alaykum. I live in the West and greatly desire hijrah to the lands of jihad such as Afghanistan or Yemen. I have the money ready and have an idea of where to go…

RESPONSE: . . . . What we recommend is that you focus on planning out attacks in the West. . . . Similarly, the mujahidin leadership are today asking the brothers in the West specifically to attack Western interests in the West instead of coming here to Yemen for example. . . .

The foreign brothers that join the mujahidin, many amongst them, conclude that it would have been better for them to return to the West and launch operations. This is because killing 10 soldiers in America for example, is much more effective than killing 100 apostates in the Yemeni military.

With that said, based on your ability, you choose the target. Your pool of targets are large, so make sure to think of all of the available options. An example of something local, easy and effective is attacking an army recruiting center, nightclub, highway or busy shopping mall.

Yeah, the nerve of these people!

In a recent call with liberal college groups (at 6:14 on the podcast), Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, regarding Obamacare: “Now, it’s really disappointing that some in Congress are still trying to repeal the law and argue the results of the last two years.” Hmm. Well, let’s look back at those last two years.

In March of 2009, the Democrats enjoyed a 79-seat majority in the House of Representatives and a filibuster-proof 20-seat majority in the Senate, President Obama had an approval rating of over 60 percent, and, by a margin of 13 percentage points, Americans trusted Democrats more than Republicans on health care.

Then, after plainly losing (at that point) a year-long public debate over Obamacare, the Democrats stubbornly passed their 2,700-page overhaul by a margin of just 7 votes in the House, and (seven months later) the elections of 2010 ensued.

Keep reading…

Written in Arabic (of course).

Translated from the website of Dr. Salah al-Sawy, the secretary-general of the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America (AMJA), 28 March 2011:

Between the Shura and Democracy

Q: What is the difference between the Shura and democracy, and which is preferred? Are there any books which could benefit me on this topic? May Allah reward you well.

A: In the name of Allah, the most merciful and gracious.

Praise be to Allah, and peace be upon him the Messenger of Allah, and upon his family, companions, and those that follow him. The Shura comes from the rulings of the shari’a, and an entire surah of the Qur’an was sent down with this name. The difference between it and democracy is that the Shura does not exist (under Islam) except in the areas of permissible actions or legislative amnesty. For things which have been stipulated in the texts of Islam, the Ummah possesses no power except to acknowledge and obey, following the saying of the Most High: “It is not fitting for a Believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Messenger to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Messenger, he is indeed on a clearly wrong Path” [Qur'an 33:36]. For example, it is not for the Shura to consider, “Should the noon prayer contain four or five bows?” Or, “Should we fast during the month of Ramadan, or should we replace it with the month of Shawwal?” Or, “Should we forbid wine or allow it?” Or, “Should we forbid adultery, or permit it if it’s done by consensual agreement of those who have reached the legal age, and it’s not done on the married couple’s bed?”

Al-Bukhari said in his Sahih: “The Imams after the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him) would consult the trustworthy scholars in things which were permissible, to take the best option. But if the Qur’an or the Sunnah was clear on the matter, they wouldn’t transgress against it, following the example of the Prophet (peace be upon him). The reciters of the Qur’an would consult, whether old or young, and they were careful to adhere to the book of Almighty Allah.”

But democracy gives free reign to the authority of the Ummah, and puts no ceiling on it. The law is the expression of its will, and if the law says it, the conscience must be silent! A constitutionalist even said: “We have departed from the divine right to rule for kings, and replaced it with the divine right to rule for parliaments!” The shari’a, on the other hand, differentiates between the source of the legal system and the source of the political authority. The source of the legal system is the shari’a, while the source of the political authority is the Ummah. Meanwhile democracy makes the Ummah the source of both. On my website there is a book named “Political Pluralism.” If you review it, it will you benefit you in regards to this topic, Allah-willing. Allah Almighty is all-powerful, all-knowing.

Keep reading…

Heh.

(CNS News) — The former home congressional district of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama ranks dead last in the United States for “healthy behavior,” according to the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index released this month.

Out of 436 districts measured by the Well-Being Index — including the 435 U.S. Congressional Districts plus the District of Columbia — the 1st Congressional District of Illinois ranked 436th for the “healthy behavior” of its residents in 2010. That was down from the district’s ranking of 408th for “healthy behavior” in 2009, which was Mrs.Obama’s first year as first lady.

Every one of the Gallup-Healthways top ten Congressional Districts for “healthy behavior” was in California. That state’s 46th District, represented by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R.), was ranked No. 1, and its 14th District, represented by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D.), ranked No. 2.

In 2000, then-Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama challenged incumbent U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush in the Democratic primary for the 1st District of Illinois. Rush defeated Obama, 61 percent to 30 percent. After that race, the 1st District was redrawn — putting the Obamas’ home just beyond its borders. “Surely not by coincidence, redistricting shifted Obama’s Hyde Park home two blocks outside the new lines and removed the 19th Ward that he had carried,” says the Almanac of American Politics.

Depending on how you look at it, the 1st District of Illinois’ dead last ranking for “healthy behavior” may be either ironic or fitting, given that Mrs. Obama has made encouraging healthy behavior a hallmark of her service as first lady.

Keep reading…

Sorry for the misleading headline, I keep forgetting this is not a war according to Fearless Leader.

Opposition members in Libya said Wednesday their fighters are working to regain momentum in the face of punishing assaults by forces loyal to leader Moammar Gadhafi.

After days of dramatic advances by rebels, government forces have cranked up their firepower, pushing from Bin Jawad to Ras Lanuf, a key eastern oil town that the opposition seized Sunday, and launching escalated strikes in the western town of Misrata.

HT: Ed M.

No, you can’t keep your insurance if you like it.

As the Hill reports, Joel Ario, director of Obamacare’s newly created Office of Health Insurance Exchanges, says, “If it plays out [that] the Exchanges work pretty well, then the employer can say ‘This is a great thing. I can now dump my people into the Exchange and it would be good for them, good for me.’” This doesn’t quite have the same ring as, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan” — but it does have the benefit of being much closer to the truth. Since the employer would be the one making the decision, however, it’s not at all clear that this would be good for the employee, the one being “dumped.”

It certainly wouldn’t be good for the taxpayer, who would have to subsidize the insurance provided through the government-run exchanges if Obamacare isn’t repealed. If employers start dumping employees into the exchanges en masse, it would make Obamacare cost much more even than the $2 trillion-plus that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects for its real first decade (2014 to 2023). Ario’s words are a reminder that, whatever Obamacare would really end up costing, the CBO projection is pretty much the floor — certainly not the ceiling. His words are also a reminder that, if you like your health care, you should support the repeal of Obamacare.

Keep reading…

Hey, he’s only off by 2,300 years (Athens 500 BC).

MICHAEL MOORE: And if he can build coalitions and have other people do the necessary humanitarian work that needs to happen when people are threatened, then I think we’re all behind that. We’re all for that. We all wish that.

ROSEANNE BARR: Doesn’t it look like we’re all kind of really go to war against all Muslim people? I mean, it’s like five nations now. It’s scary.

MOORE: And I think if you live in the Muslim world, you’re scared by that too. That’s why I think our involvement in this has got to be of a different caliber than military. We can provide other things. I mean we’re the oldest democracy in the history of the world.

HT: David

Douche.

(The Hill) — President Obama took a dig at the “drill, baby, drill” slogan employed by Republicans and popularized by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin during a speech Wednesday on energy.

The president made an offhand reference to the slogan as an example of the empty rhetoric politicians have used in the past when it comes to energy policy.

“But here’s the thing — we’ve been down this road before. Remember, it was just three years ago that gas prices topped $4 a gallon. Working folks haven’t forgotten that,” Obama said in a speech at Georgetown University, according to prepared remarks. “It hit a lot of people pretty hard. But it was also the height of political season, so you had a lot of slogans and gimmicks and outraged politicians waving three-point-plans for two-dollar gas — when none of it would really do anything to solve the problem.”

Then the president made a departure from his prepared remarks: “You remember, ‘drill baby drill.’”

(click image for video)

“The country doesn’t care much about the tea party. There is a new CNN poll out today that says this very directly. Well more than — let’s put it this way: The people who care about the tea party are a very small number who care about them positively,” Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said on the Senate floor this morning.