By Haley Cook.
Washington. 16 October 2013:
As suspected Al Qaeda terrorist Nazih Al-Ruqaii (alias Abu Anas Al-Libi) went before a US judge in . . .[restrict]the Southern District of New York against the wishes of the Libyan government, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki explained yesterday that the US values its relationship with Libya saying, “we work closely with [Libya] on a range of issues, and we expect that will continue”.
After the Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, was kidnapped for several hours on 10 October just days after US Army special forces captured Ruqaii (and removed him from Libya on 5 October, US authorities in Washington are say they have no fears over the future of the close ties between the US and Libya that developed after the 2011 Libyan revolution.
While recognising the challenging militia problems facing the Libyan government, the State Department does not view the political setbacks in Libya and other Arab countries in transition, including the kidnapping of Zeidan, as evidence of impending disintegration. “I would take…issue with the notion that these countries are falling apart,” said State Department deputy spokesperson Marie Harf said last Thursday.
Official US statements have not yet referred to the kidnapping of Prime Minister Ali Zeidan as an attempted coup, and State Department officials have neither confirmed nor denied a connection between the US kidnapping of Ruqaii and the kidnapping of Zeidan.
The State Department denied last Friday that the US would send a military task force to Libya to act as a security force in addressing the political instability demonstrated by the kidnapping of the Prime Minister. Reports of possible revenge attacks on American targets and strategic infrastructure in Libya are uncorroborated at this time. According to Harf, the solution for better security in Libya lies in US efforts for “increasing [Libyan] capacity to confront security challenges themselves.”
However, the US did move 200 Marines of the Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force Crisis Response, a special force for the protection of US diplomats, from Spain to Italy on 8 October.
When asked specifically about any ties between the raid to take Ruqaii into US custody and the later coup attempt against the Libyan Prime Minister, the US Defense Department declined to comment.
Meanwhile, US business sources privately expressed growing concern over ongoing issues of security and public safety and the continued inability of the state to dismantle militias and re-integrate their members back into society. They said they looked forward to increased stability and the predictability of a transparent business legal environment that was hoped for after the establishment of a constitution and permanent government.
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