U.S. struggles to free money for Libyan rebels

Source: The Washington Post

Despite its decision to grant diplomatic recognition to Libya’s rebels, the Obama administration is struggling to find ways to provide them with the $34 billion in frozen Libyan assets held in U.S.-controlled bank accounts, officials say.

Administration officials held at least two meetings this past week to explore ways to release the money, which the opposition Transitional National Council says it urgently needs to pay salaries and buy critical supplies. But the funds are ensnared in a thicket of legal regulations.

So far, State and Treasury department officials have identified only a small fraction of the vast Libyan holdings — estimated by some officials to be as little as a few hundred million dollars — that can be quickly freed, according to current and former officials familiar with the talks.

The administration is studying a variety of options to work around the obstacles. One, which could be put in place in weeks, would allow the frozen funds to be used as collateral for loans made to the rebels by other countries, such as Persian Gulf oil states, officials say.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/after-us-recognition-libyan-rebels-still-without-funds/2011/07/22/gIQAnd1LUI_singlePage.html

And give it to the legitimate government (of ever that may be) after the conflict to rebuild.

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But I just did a little cross checking on this Cartalucci fellow through Google... and honestly, he sounds like a tiny bit of a fruitcake.

Anyway, this article sounds a little bit too much like something Moussa "Tripoli Bob" Ibrahim would put out, or something from Gaddafi's speeches.

As to the whole Iraq thing... well, wherever there's a war to fight, the fighters will come.

will funnel to their latest "freedom fighter" heroes, a substantial portion will not find its way to the Al Quaeda fighters and their sympathizers who are apparently endemic in the area? It's not like the US and its designated flunkies and sock puppets in Iraq and Afghanistan have an outstanding record of keeping track of where all the dough that floods into the war zones ends up.
I think this is good peak into the real bogus nature of the so-called "war on terror," the war that won't end in our lifetime according to Dick Cheney. Well it sure will tend to drag on alright, with the US funding both sides.

Disappointed (as usual) that no journalists seem to be addressing this question.

and doesn't care. It has that fine tradition of funding al Qaeda (and the Taliban) to keep up. At least this time the government is giving away someone else's money and not money that belongs to the US taxpayer.

or Medicaid or Medicare or, well, you know US programs. Course, our hands are tied by some pipsqueaks who have been in office for 7 months now, but by all means, let's really work on Libya.


Or not.