Libya

Interesting quote from James Stafford of Oil Price:

[Libyan prime minister Ali Zeidan] was apparently seized by militias linked to Libya’s Interior and Defense Ministries, which makes one ask whether he was kidnapped or arrested, or indeed whether it is even worth getting into the semantics.

France 24, Time, and the AP back him up on that, naming the militias as the Revolutionaries Operations Room and the Anti-Crime Department. Other reports suggest that ACD is not a militia but the part of the Interior ministry that Zeidan was taken to. One report describes the Revolutionaries Operations Room as a combination of rebel fronts from various cities, suggesting both a recent formation under high command and that the specific team that arrested the PM could have been anybody.

The short version of the story seems to be that the Prime Minister was arrested by the state police on suspicion of cooperating with the US in the war against al-Qaeda.

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My thoughts on the al-Libi raid can be summarized:

1. The raid to capture al-Libi was an act of war.
2. So was allowing al-Libi to operate.
3. Obama needed Congressional authorization for the raid.
4. He had it.

Are the US and Libya at war? That is for the diplomats to work out. And this is another example of why contained dictators are sometimes preferable to the chaos that results from carelessly removing them.

If the US knew where al-Libi was, why wait so long to get him? And if the US had the intelligence to find him and the guy in Somalia that escaped, why go after only two guys instead of rolling up their entire networks? While taking out the enemy's leaders is warfare 101, their organizations are robust enough that this action is more symbolic than strategic.