AP: White House Considering Retaliatory Strike in Libya

Wag the dog.

From Boston Globe, citing AP (10/16/2012):

White House faces dilemma in Libya attack response
Strike forces, drones on alert in North Africa

WASHINGTON — The White House has put special operations strike forces on standby and moved drones into the skies above Africa, ready to strike militant targets from Libya to Mali — if investigators can find the Al Qaeda-linked group responsible for the death of the US ambassador and three other Americans in Libya.

But officials say the administration is weighing whether the short-term payoff of exacting retribution on Al Qaeda is worth the risk that such strikes could elevate the group’s profile in the region, alienate governments the United States needs to fight it in the future, and do little to slow the growing terror threat in North Africa.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is taking responsibility for security at a US consulate in Libya where an assault by extremists on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks killed the four Americans.

Pushing back against Republican criticism of the Obama administration for its handling of the situation, Clinton said Monday in Lima, Peru, that security at all of America’s diplomatic missions abroad is her job, not that of the White House. She made the comments in several television interviews.

‘‘I take responsibility,’’ she told CNN. ‘‘I’m in charge of the State Department’s 60,000-plus people all over the world (at) 275 posts. The president and the vice president wouldn’t be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They’re the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision.’’

(Full article at the link)

I still remember how the government and the media put the spin on the news of the attack. It was blamed on the anti-Islam movie, or that's how they wanted us to sort of believe.

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