Money quote(s):
"The Libyan rebels, who are represented in Washington by former Qaddafi envoy Ali Aujali, have been working out of donated office space in northwest Washington for months. The State Department signed an order last week handing control of the Libyan embassy, located in the Watergate complex, over to the rebels."
The Watergate, as well as being famous as a Nixon administration crime scene and the onetime residence of Monica Lewinsky, is only a relatively short distance from Main State (i.e., "Foggy Bottom") and the rest of official Washington.
"There is probably only about $150 to $200 million of frozen Qaddafi money in U.S. banks, but even that money is affected by the U.N. sanctions. The rest of the $30 billion is held outside the U.S. banking system."
A few hundred million here, a few hundred million there; pretty soon you're talking about real money.
"(T)he State Department continues to communicate privately to the TNC that the investigation into the killing of their military commander, Abdel Fatah Younis, last month is crucial to maintaining the TNC's credibility and reputation.
Publicly, Nuland portrayed the killing and the reorganization of their cabinet as a watershed moment in the TNC's evolution into a functioning, democratic organization ‘So, frankly, while the killing was an awful event, the fact [is] that the TNC has not just stood pat but has really taken this as an opportunity for internal reflection, for renewal," she said.
One of the State Department press corps members responded to her, "I'm not sure I've ever heard a glass-half-full explanation better than that one in a long time." "
Mr. Rogin originally posted this back in August. That's a lifetime (several, actually; especially if your family name is Qadhafi) in terms of the Libyan civil war. Does anyone even remember this particular murder? Does anyone, in light of the late dictator's fate, think the TNC got any valid "lessons learned" from Younis' assassination?
(Other than that they could get away with it?)
(8/9)
