The Abu Anas Caper: Blowback in Libya

Dear Mr. President,

Was the kidnapping and rendition of Abu Anas al-Liby worth it? Today’s NYT reports that the backlash from the raid “could bring down the government of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.” (“U.S. Officials Say Libya Approved Commando Raids” p. A1) Win the battle, lose the war. As for Libya’s “approval” of the raid, the article reveals that the approval came after months of lobbying by American officials and that it was “tacit.” My dictionary defines tacit as: “understood without being openly expressed; implied.” Not exactly official or legal or whole-hearted. Maybe that’s why they weren’t informed ahead of time or why they didn’t participate in the operation—contrary to official statements yesterday. And the tacit approval occurred weeks, maybe months ago. So here’s Libya which we saved from humanitarian disaster by bombing, droning and strafing Qaddafi’s forces, making sure he was toppled—as in dead—and 18 months later the country is in chaos, militias—militant s, insurgents, jihadists, Al Qaeda affiliates and franchises—control much of the country and now their weak government is about to fall because your action heroes snatched one of their citizens off the street in front of his home. And, it turns out, he wasn’t the real prize in the two Saturday raids, anyway; Abu Anas has been inactive for years and any information he has is dated. The real prize was the one Navy SEAL Team 6 failed to capture in Somalia, Abdikadir Mohamed Abdikadir. (NYT, “Imperfect Intelligence Said to Hinder U.S. Raid on Militant in Somali” p. A10). Abdikadir is active, he plots and carries out raids and his information is current. Abdikadir is also a member of Shabab, a group your overconfident intelligence officials say is supposed to be on the run. “The Somali militant group had lost ground and manpower.” Well, apparently not. Imperfect Intelligence indeed. French Special Forces, the article goes on, also tried to raid a Shabab stronghold earlier this year to rescue a hostage and lost two men and the hostage. We never learn. Not from experience, not from history, not from the example of others. Especially not that violence begets violence. And we’re still at it. The page 1 article reports that “An American surveillance drone has flown virtually every day over Benghazi gathering information” on 6 other Libyans you want to snatch. One, Ahmed Abu Khattala, is accused of the U.S. embassy raid in Benghazi. War without end. Good for business if you’re in the business of war.