Friday, April 8, 2011
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Libya war costs $4 million a day: US Air Force
The total cost of the operation for the entire US military was estimated at $500 million on March 28.
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| © AFP Mahmud Hams |
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The war in Libya is costing the US Air Force $4 million a day but the cost likely will drop now that American fighter jets pulled out of the operation, the air force secretary said Tuesday.
As of Tuesday morning, "we're probably (at) about 75 million dollars for the cost of the operation thus far," said Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, the top civilian overseeing the service.
"And our best estimate was about four million dollars a day."
Speaking to defense reporters in Washington, Donley said the price tag "will probably be adjusted here as the US participation in strike operations has now gone away."
But Donley could not say how much the cost of the operation might be reduced after the withdrawal of US combat aircraft.
About 50 warplanes -- including fighter jets and ground-attack aircraft -- were deployed for combat flights over Libya in the past few days, while the air force has contributed 39 "support aircraft" for refueling, surveillance and other tasks, according to Donley.
He said the "strike" aircraft would return to European bases and remain on standby in case NATO requested help from Washington in the air campaign, launched March 19.
US combat sorties ended at 2200 GMT on Monday as NATO allies take over strike missions, under a UN-mandate to enforce a no-fly zone and protect civilians from the Libyan regime's forces,
The total cost of the operation for the entire US military was estimated at $500 million on March 28.
For relief efforts in Japan after that country's earthquake and tsunami, the air force had spent about $40 million evacuating 5,000-6,000 Americans and about $8-$9 million on humanitarian assistance, including food supplies, Donley said.
The air campaign in Libya and the disaster relief operation in Japan have aggravated mounting financial pressures on the Pentagon, as Congress has yet to approve spending to cover the current fiscal year for the military or the rest of the federal government.
© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license
Monday, April 4, 2011
The Non-War Illusion
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| NATO air strike on Libya / USA Watchdog image |
USA Watchdog
The President and his supporters are going to great lengths to make it appear the military operation in Libya is not a war. Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes called the NATO bombing in Libya “kinetic military action,” but not war. President Obama is also going out of his way to send the message that this is not an American led operation. A week ago, in a nation-wide address, Mr. Obama said he was handing over control to our European allies,“. . . because of this transition to a broader NATO based coalition the risks and cost of this operation to our military and American taxpayers will be reduced significantly.” I don’t see how Mr. Obama knows how much this will reduce the cost of this war if there is no clear plan or goal.
The Obama administration doesn’t even know who they are helping to unseat Gadhafi in the Libya War. The President’s own former national security advisor, General Jim Jones, said yesterday, “We don’t know exactly who the opposition is.” General Jones appeared on ABC’s “This Week” with Christiane Amanpour. She said, “The United States is making a great fanfare about now giving over to NATO, but you are a former NATO commander. NATO for all intents and purposes is an American organization. It’s run by an American commander, the chain of command is American, the biggest command and control and resources are American. This is still an American led operation, right?” And sticking to the Obama administration script, General Jones replied, “I’m not sure I agree with that. . . in the sorties that are being flown now . . . it’s roughly 50/50 and it’s going to go down to where the Americans are going to be supporting and reconnaissance, search and rescue, intelligence and refueling and things like that.” (Click here to see the complete ABC Amanpour interview.)
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Sunday, April 3, 2011
US senators seek to force Libya vote
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| US Sen. Rand Paul © AFP/Getty Images/File Chip Somodevilla |
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Two senators concerned about US military strikes on Libya warned Friday they aimed to force a vote on whether President Barack Obama has the authority to wage war without congressional approval.
"We believe the answer is that he does not," Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee said in a letter to Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Paul and Lee said they would block legislation pending in the Senate until Reid schedules a debate and vote on a resolution offered by Paul that states Obama "does not have the power to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve an actual or imminent threat to the nation."
"While we realize there are other matters the Senate had planned to work on, it is our belief that there is very little we are doing that rises to the level of a constitutional question regarding war," they wrote.
"We do not take this responsibility lightly, and we believe the Senate is abdicating its responsibility at this very moment," they said in the letter, which Paul's office made public.
"The bombing and military action against the Libyan government will be two weeks old by the time we return to session next week. That means congressional debate on this war is two weeks overdue," they said.
Jon Summers, a spokesman for Reid, said the Obama administration had done a "good job of consulting with Congress and conveying as much information to us as is possible."
"Further, the Senate has had hearings and briefings, which Senators Paul and Lee have been invited to attend, throughout the week to carefully examine the effectiveness of our operations, and will continue to do so as operations continue," he said.
The US Constitution reserves to Congress the right to declare war, though US presidents have often deployed forces without first getting lawmakers' explicit say-so, despite a 1973 law that aimed to curtail their ability to do so.
The War Powers Act allows the president to use force in response to an attack on the United States, its territories, or its armed forces, but calls for notifying Congress within 48 hours and says US troops must start to withdraw 60 days later unless specifically authorized to remain by lawmakers.
© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license
Saturday, April 2, 2011
US Fed loaned Libya-backed bank billions
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| Dees Illustration |
WASHINGTON (AFP) - The Federal Reserve lent a Libyan state-backed bank billions of dollars during the financial crisis, documents made public on Thursday have revealed.
The Arab Bank Corporation, which is today 59.3 percent owned by the Libyan government, borrowed in slices as big as $1.175 billion from the US central bank.
At the time the bank was not majority owned by the Tripoli government; other shareholders included the Kuwait Investment Authority and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
The Bahrain-headquartered firm appears frequently in the Fed's records of its emergency short-term lending facilities between March 2009 and March 2010.
Since then the United States has slapped sanctions on the Libyan regime and sought to isolate Moamer Kadhafi and his top lieutenants.
The Arab Bank Corporation, which is chaired by the head of Libya's state investment fund, however is not subject to Libyan sanctions.
But some US lawmakers were incredulous about the Fed lending to the Libyan-government backed banks.
Democrat-allied Senator Bernie Sanders said the Fed made "46 emergency, low-interest loans" to the bank, providing a total of $26 billion in credit, though not at one time.
"It is incomprehensible to me that while creditworthy small businesses in Vermont and throughout the country could not receive affordable loans, the Federal Reserve was providing tens of billions of dollars in credit to a bank that is substantially owned by the Central Bank of Libya."
The Fed records show huge numbers of short-term liquidity loans made to American banks and the US units of banks from all over the world at the peak of the financial crisis, many for far larger sums.
A New York unit of the French-Belgian bank Dexia, which had huge potential liabilities in guarantees on municipal bonds, garnered loans for as much as $33.5 billion.
© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license
Friday, April 1, 2011
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