By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-ambassador-20110923,0,3856407.story
September 23, 2011
Reporting from Tripoli, Libya—
Fugitive leader Moammar Kadafi remains a danger and Libya faces "stubborn resistance" from former regime loyalists, but the U.S. ambassador to Libya said Thursday that he did not envision a long-term insurgency against the nation's fledgling government.
"I don't think the Libyan people, after all the blood that has been shed in the last six months, are going to let their revolution be hijacked," Ambassador Gene Cretz said after a flag-raising ceremony at the ambassador's residence, now the site of the U.S. Embassy.
A mob sacked and set fire to the embassy in May after a NATO airstrike that, the regime said, killed one of Kadafi's sons.
Cretz, who returned to Libya this week, had left nearly nine months ago after revelations on the website of WikiLeaks, the anti-secrecy group. Leaked cables attributed to Cretz exposed some undiplomatic revelations about Kadafi, including his hatred of flying over water, his phobia about staying on upper floors of buildings, his love of flamenco dancing and his constant companion, a "voluptuous blonde" nurse from Ukraine.
On Thursday, the 61-year-old career diplomat said he had received threats after the revelations and left Tripoli, where he had served since late 2008 as the first U.S. ambassador in more than three decades.
In his first public comments since his return, Cretz also voiced the hope that moderate elements would prevail as Libyan authorities endeavor to craft the nation's first representative government.
"They're going through the natural throes of a democratic process," the veteran diplomat from Albany, N.Y., said after the flag-raising ceremony, which was accompanied by a brass trio playing "The Star-Spangled Banner."
Islamists pushing for a voice in the new Libya were a concern, Cretz said, but he noted that they have voiced support for democracy. Kadafi brutally repressed Islamists, whom he viewed as a threat to his hegemony.
Islamists "have been in words, at least, espousing a moderate platform," Cretz said. "They speak a good game.... But at the end of the day they need to be watched."
The ambassador said he expected that whatever government emerges in Libya would be "a reliable partner" against terrorism.
The Kadafi regime, once an international pariah because of its alleged sponsorship of terrorism, had in recent years cooperated with the United States and other Western nations in tracking down suspected militants.
Although he said there was a "possibility that things could go wrong," Cretz was enthusiastic about Libya's future.
"It's a very exciting time but it's a massive undertaking," said Cretz, a former Peace Corps volunteer.
As for Kadafi's whereabouts, the U.S. envoy said the "best guess" was that the former leader was somewhere in the vast desert of southern Libya. But Libyans, he said, had largely put Kadafi behind them.
"He remains a danger and it is necessary that he be brought to justice. But this country is moving on."
Two towns, the Mediterranean port of Surt, Kadafi's hometown, and the tribal stronghold of Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli, remain in Kadafi's camp. Fighters loyal to the transitional government have met fierce resistance trying to storm the towns, stoking fear of a drawn-out insurgency here.
A "very high priority" for the White House, Cretz said, was for Libyan authorities to secure the proliferating array of weapons, including surface-to-air missiles, that have been found in ransacked warehouses and armories since Kadafi fled. Some fear that Libyan arms cold end up on the international black market and even in the hands of terrorists.
"It's not just a Libyan problem," Cretz said of the weapons. "It's an international problem."
As foreign firms seek contracts in the new Libya, Cretz voiced the hope that U.S. companies would face "a level playing field" in what is expected to be a robust competition with firms in Europe, Asia and elsewhere looking to cash in on this nation's reconstruction plans and oil-industry contracts.
He was effusive in praise of U.S. policy in aiding the NATO air campaign, saying that Washington "did the right thing."
Americans "are very proud of the role we played" in helping to liberate Libya, he said, but there was no quid pro quo expected in terms of payoffs for U.S. firms.
The new government, Cretz said, was going to have to "find a way" to deal with reports of revenge killings by rebels and the "mistreatment" of African migrants, many of whom have been mistakenly detained as suspected mercenaries, human rights groups say.
patrick.mcdonnell@latimes.com
US ambassador returns to Libya
http://www.news24.com/World/News/US-ambassador-returns-to-Libya-20110921
2011-09-21 20:35
Tripoli - The US ambassador to Libya returned to Tripoli on Wednesday to lead a newly reopened American embassy in a post-Muammar Gaddafi era.
Ambassador Gene Cretz arrived in Tripoli, a day before plans to raise the US flag over the embassy building in the Libyan capital.
It was about eight months after he left for consultations in Washington in January after WikiLeaks posted his opinions of Gaddafi's personal life and habits in a classified 2009 diplomatic cable.
At the time, the Obama administration was considering replacing him due in part to strains in ties caused by the blunt assessment.
Cretz returns to a country much changed since revolutionary forces seized control of Tripoli and forced the authoritarian leader into hiding after an uprising that began in mid-February.
Cretz was nominated to be the first US ambassador to Libya in 36 years by President George W Bush in July 2007 after a remarkable turnaround in US relations with the North African nation.
The seismic shift in ties followed Gaddafi's 2003 renunciation of weapons of mass destruction and payment of compensation to the families of victims of 1980s terror attacks, including the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, blamed on Libyan agents.
Cretz had kept a relatively low profile in Libya until November, when WikiLeaks posted his assessments of Gaddafi's personal life and habits in a classified 2009 diplomatic cable.
Voluptuous blonde
The secret document said Gaddafi "appears to have an intense dislike or fear of staying on upper floors, reportedly prefers not to fly over water, and seems to enjoy horse racing and flamenco dancing."
It also discussed Gaddafi's long time reliance on a Ukrainian nurse named Galyna who the cable said had been described as a "voluptuous blonde".
President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that the ambassador would return, telling Libyans: "This is your chance. And today the world is saying, with one unmistakable voice, we will stand with you."
The United States, along with its Nato allies, launched the military air campaign that helped rout Gaddafi's forces after the UN Security Council passed a resolution in March authorising a no-fly zone and approving all necessary steps needed to protect civilians.
Nato later took charge of the mission.
On Wednesday, Nato's decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, granted approval to extend the mission for another 90 days, an alliance official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because a formal statement had not yet been prepared.
Without an extension, permission for the operation would have expired September 27.
While many in the nation of 6 million people are enjoying new found freedoms, well-armed Gaddafi loyalists are still fighting on three fronts, and Libya's new rulers are struggling to form a government.
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
Published: September 22, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/world/africa/us-reopens-its-embassy-in-libya.html
TRIPOLI, Libya — The United States formally reopened its embassy in Libya on Thursday as the returning ambassador said that his government was cautiously optimistic about the country’s future and already trying to help American companies exploit business opportunities here.
Speaking to reporters after the ceremonial flag-raising over a makeshift post that was once his residence, Ambassador Gene A. Cretz said that about two weeks ago — roughly a week after forces loyal to the deposed Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, were driven out of Tripoli — he participated in a State Department conference call with about 150 American companies hoping to do business with Libya.
“We know that oil is the jewel in the crown of Libyan natural resources, but even in Qaddafi’s time they were starting from A to Z in terms of building infrastructure and other things” after the country had begun opening up to the West six years ago, he said. “If we can get American companies here on a fairly big scale, which we will try to do everything we can to do that, then this will redound to improve the situation in the United States with respect to our own jobs.”
His remarks were a rare nod to the tacit economic stakes in the Libyan conflict for the United States and other Western countries, not only because of Libya’s oil resources but also because of the goods and services those resources enable it to purchase.
Oil was never the “predominant reason” for the American intervention, Mr. Cretz said, but his comments — which came at a moment when the fighters who chased out Colonel Qaddafi have not yet caught him or fully vanquished his forces — underlined the American eagerness for a cut of any potential profits.
Elsewhere on Thursday, Tripoli’s new leaders continued to inch forward toward their twin goals of subduing the old government and building a new one. Officials of neighboring Tunisia said Thursday that on the previous night their security forces had arrested the last of Colonel Qaddafi’s figurehead prime ministers, Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, for crossing its border illegally while fleeing Libya. A Tunisian court immediately sentenced him to six months in prison for illegal entry, the government said.
The Libyan provisional government said that anti-Qaddafi fighters continued to battle loyalist forces in the area around Colonel Qaddafi’s southern stronghold and onetime childhood home of Sabha. Anti-Qaddafi fighters also remained locked in standoffs with Qaddafi forces in his other two remaining bastions, Surt on the Mediterranean coast and Bani Walid in the desert south of Tripoli.
Libya’s provisional government has already said it is eager to welcome Western businesses, although both Mr. Cretz and the Libyan leaders acknowledged that addressing the rampant corruption of the Qaddafi era remains a potential hurdle.
In a news conference last week, Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, chairman of Libya’s Transitional National Council — the civilian leadership of the former rebels — said the new government would even give its Western backers some “priority” in access to Libyan business.
There had been no promises to its Western supporters, he said, “But as a faithful Muslim people we will appreciate these efforts and they will have priority within a framework of transparency.”
But he also acknowledged that the “framework of transparency” could be a significant qualification, at least as far as the many contracts with Western companies signed under the Qaddafi government. While the provisional government had respected “all legitimate contracts” from the Qaddafi period, it was undertaking a systematic review “for whatever financial corruption may have tainted them.”
Cleaning up the former government’s habitual corruption was all the United States hoped for, Mr. Cretz said, but he acknowledged it was a tall order. “The stench of corruption affected everything that the Qaddafi regime did with respect to commercial entities,” he said. “The bureaucracy was rife with it because that was the way it was done, and the family was at the top. Every deal involved a payoff to the Qaddafi family or a crony.”
Still, Libya’s new leaders, he said, appeared “willing to accede to international standards of transparency and accountability, and I think that is a good thing.”
In the final years of the Qaddafi government, Mr. Cretz wrote vividly of its rampant corruption in diplomatic cables released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, including a 2009 dispatch titled “Al-Qadhafi: The Philosopher-King Keeps His Hand In.” After the release of those cables late last year, he said Thursday, he had been “physically threatened” and “I had to leave immediately.”
The United States abandoned its embassy when the uprising began in February, and on May 1, the empty building was ransacked by Qaddafi forces, ostensibly in retaliation for the death of Colonel Qaddafi’s son, Seif al-Arab, in a NATO bombing.
Reviewing the situation he found on his return, Mr. Cretz cited several factors for concern, including the challenge of disarming the newly armed populace and many autonomous militias; the many fissures within the anti-Qaddafi forces along regional or other lines; and the potential for militant or at least anti-Western Islamists to take control.
But so far, he said, the Islamists were emphasizing moderation, democracy and pluralism, and the Libyan leaders deserved a chance to overcome their differences. “Don’t underestimate the Libyan people because they have shown for the last six months what a truly heroic people is,” he said.
TRIPOLI, Libya — The U.S. ambassador returned to work in Libya on Thursday, raising the U.S. flag over a re-opened embassy, a month after Muammar Gadhafi was driven from power with the help of a NATO-led bombing campaign.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44626544/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/
Gene Cretz pledged support for Libya's transitional government and said he expected the last Gadhafi loyalists to lay down their arms imminently.
Also Thursday, Tunisia's Interior Ministry said Libya's former prime minister under Gadhafi, Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoud, had been arrested overnight.
He was captured in the southern town of Tameghza, near Tunisia's border with Algeria, according to ministry spokesman Hichem Meddeb.
Stiff resistance
The forces of the interim Transitional National Council (TNC) are confronting stiff resistance in the last strongholds of Gadhafi loyalists within Libya, and the provisional leadership faces questions about whether it can unify a country divided on tribal and local lines.
Seeking to bolster Libya's new leaders, President Barack Obama said this week Cretz would return to Tripoli and "the American flag that was lowered before our embassy was attacked will be raised again."
The embassy building was ransacked by a mob of Gadhafi supporters before Tripoli was taken over by forces loyal to the new government.
"I think it is a matter of time before Gadhafi and his remaining loyalists, their resistance is finished," Cretz told reporters at a ceremony to mark the re-opening of the U.S. mission.
The White House felt vindicated in its approach to Libya when rebel forces took Tripoli late last month.
It had faced criticism for an initially slow response to the Libyan uprising and then set strict limits on the U.S. role in the NATO air assault, which was officially described as a means of stopping the massacre of civilians.
Obama this week met Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) when he and interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril came to the United States for the United Nations General Assembly.
The U.S. president held out promise the United States would build new partnerships with Libya, a top oil producer.
Cretz praised the NTC for its efforts to date, but said the formation of new institutions may be drawn out, as regional tensions and frictions between Islamists and those who envision a secular state come to the fore in a new Libyan politics.
"These are splits and fractures in the body politic that are a result of 42 years of mismanagement by Muammar Gadhafi," Cretz said. "There is an East-West problem, the problem of the old regime versus the new regime, the problem of the potential challenge of the Islamists."
"I expect when Mr. Abdel Jalil and Mr. Jibril come from their journey to the U.N., the process will begin in earnest. But it will take what it takes."
US ambassador returns to Libya
http://www.news24.com/World/News/US-ambassador-returns-to-Libya-20110921
2011-09-21 20:35
Tripoli - The US ambassador to Libya returned to Tripoli on Wednesday to lead a newly reopened American embassy in a post-Muammar Gaddafi era.
Ambassador Gene Cretz arrived in Tripoli, a day before plans to raise the US flag over the embassy building in the Libyan capital.
It was about eight months after he left for consultations in Washington in January after WikiLeaks posted his opinions of Gaddafi's personal life and habits in a classified 2009 diplomatic cable.
At the time, the Obama administration was considering replacing him due in part to strains in ties caused by the blunt assessment.
Cretz returns to a country much changed since revolutionary forces seized control of Tripoli and forced the authoritarian leader into hiding after an uprising that began in mid-February.
Cretz was nominated to be the first US ambassador to Libya in 36 years by President George W Bush in July 2007 after a remarkable turnaround in US relations with the North African nation.
The seismic shift in ties followed Gaddafi's 2003 renunciation of weapons of mass destruction and payment of compensation to the families of victims of 1980s terror attacks, including the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, blamed on Libyan agents.
Cretz had kept a relatively low profile in Libya until November, when WikiLeaks posted his assessments of Gaddafi's personal life and habits in a classified 2009 diplomatic cable.
Voluptuous blonde
The secret document said Gaddafi "appears to have an intense dislike or fear of staying on upper floors, reportedly prefers not to fly over water, and seems to enjoy horse racing and flamenco dancing."
It also discussed Gaddafi's long time reliance on a Ukrainian nurse named Galyna who the cable said had been described as a "voluptuous blonde".
President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that the ambassador would return, telling Libyans: "This is your chance. And today the world is saying, with one unmistakable voice, we will stand with you."
The United States, along with its Nato allies, launched the military air campaign that helped rout Gaddafi's forces after the UN Security Council passed a resolution in March authorising a no-fly zone and approving all necessary steps needed to protect civilians.
Nato later took charge of the mission.
On Wednesday, Nato's decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, granted approval to extend the mission for another 90 days, an alliance official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because a formal statement had not yet been prepared.
Without an extension, permission for the operation would have expired September 27.
While many in the nation of 6 million people are enjoying new found freedoms, well-armed Gaddafi loyalists are still fighting on three fronts, and Libya's new rulers are struggling to form a government.
“We know that oil is the jewel in the crown of Libyan natural resources, but even in Qaddafi’s time they were starting from A to Z in terms of building infrastructure and other things” after the country had begun opening up to the West six years ago, he said. “If we can get American companies here on a fairly big scale, which we will try to do everything we can to do that, then this will redound to improve the situation in the United States with respect to our own jobs.” –Oil was never the “predominant reason” for the American intervention, said US Ambassador Gene Cretz
“The stench of corruption affected everything that the Qaddafi regime did with respect to commercial entities,” he said. “The bureaucracy was rife with it because that was the way it was done, and the family was at the top. Every deal involved a payoff to the Qaddafi family or a crony.”
Still, Libya’s new leaders, he said, appeared “willing to accede to international standards of transparency and accountability, and I think that is a good thing.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/world/africa/us-reopens-its-embassy-in-libya.html?_r=2&ref=global-home
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