Yesterday the Vatican took the unusual step of ordering the Papal Nuncio to the UK, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, to attend the London conference as an impartial observer.
This is because intelligence from the ground in north Africa has been warning the Vatican that some of the rebel formations may not be quite as freedom-loving and democratic as they may seem. Supporting Alexander Cockburn's warning on The First Post last week, the Vatican's sources believe some of the rebels have links with al-Qaeda in Iraq and Hezbollah.
The doubts of the Vatican and many of its pastoral workers in the Maghreb were lent credence last night by none other than the senior Nato military commander, Admiral James Stavridis.
Libya: London warriors ignore Obama’s caution
Robert Fox: Rush to back Libyan rebels is foolhardy as more hints emerge of al-Qaeda links
For once, Barrack Obama's words of caution on Libya, delivered in Washington on Monday, sounded less like intellectual indecision and dithering and more like the
product of some serious statesmanlike reflection.
He has tried to set the limits of American intervention in the mishmash of insurgency and sectarian civil war that is now taking place in Libya.
American military leadership had, he said, helped save the lives of innocent civilians and avoided "a potential massacre". But, he warned explicitly, the US would not get involved in the business
of regime change – removing Gaddafi from power by its own and Nato military muscle.
"To be blunt we went down that road in Iraq ... regime change there took eight years, thousands of American and Iraqi lives, and nearly a trillion dollars. That is not something we can afford to
repeat in Libya."
Much of this statesmanlike wisdom seemed lost on many of the delegates from 40 nations at yesterday's London summit on Libya. The conference agreed that the present aerial campaign should continue,
and that Gaddafi and his clan should be forced to surrender, flee, and if necessary be pursued to the international criminal court in The Hague.
How this goal is to be achieved, the London meeting gave little clue. It decided that there should be a 'contact group' of regional interested parties chaired by Qatar – though how this should go
about its business wasn't clear. Assistance is to be given to some 80,000 refugees now displaced within Libya – again, something easier said than done.
Finally it was resolved that a wide number of Libyan organisations, from tribal councils to new ad hoc self-appointed bodies like the General Council in Benghazi, should be consulted in order to
achieve a new stable, broad-based, democratic governance for Libya. Frankly, this paragraph in the London communique might well have come from the script of The Wizard of Oz.
In truth, the muddled thinking and rhetoric at the conference seemed to be nudging the international coalition into taking sides in what looks like being a difficult, bloody and dangerous north
African civil war. Hillary Clinton, taking the lead for the US administration, was probed and pummelled at her press conference into pledging some means of delivering weaponry to the Libyan rebels,
and for the US to winkle Gaddafi and his men out of power in Tripoli by fair means or foul.
Though clearly exhausted, Mrs Clinton kept her nerve and refused to offer outright military support to the insurgents. She said that no final decision had been made about what should be done about
the clan Gaddafi – though "all kinds of feelers are being put out."
Mrs Clinton has always shown she knows her history, and above all her movie history. Her unwritten text yesterday was that the follies of an enterprise like the infamous 'Charlie Wilson's War' -
when the US backed the Taliban's Mujahideen predecessors in Afghanistan - were not for her or her boss President Obama.
The same spirit of enlightened caution does not seem to have spread to Whitehall and the Elysee Place. "I think for once the Americans may have got this one right, and we and the French have got it
wrong," a senior official said yesterday, speaking on conditions of anonymity. "And things have a habit of going wrong when the British and French decide to take the lead without the Americans –
look at Suez [in 1956], and the Bosnian intervention [1992]."
There has been one other global leader speaking up for caution. Pope Benedict XVI at first endorsed international efforts to restrain Gaddafi and his forces, but now he has called for an immediate
ceasefire and an immediate humanitarian mission to help the victims of the fighting.
Yesterday the Vatican took the unusual step of ordering the Papal Nuncio to the UK, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, to attend the London conference as an impartial observer.
This is because intelligence from the ground in north Africa has been warning the Vatican that some of the rebel formations may not be quite as freedom-loving and democratic as they may seem.
Supporting Alexander Cockburn's
warning on The First Post last week, the Vatican's sources believe some of the rebels have links with al-Qaeda in Iraq and Hezbollah.
The doubts of the Vatican and many of its pastoral workers in the Maghreb were lent credence last night by none other than the senior Nato military commander, Admiral James Stavridis. He said that
while "responsible men and women" had been fighting for the rebels, "we have also seen flickers in the intelligence of potential al-Qaeda and Hezbollah." He then added that intelligence had not yet
identified specific functioning terrorist cells.
When fighting first erupted over a month ago, Gaddafi accused "al-Qaeda and foreign elements" of being at play. Despite his bizarre speeches, and the psycho violence of his militias, his
pronouncements may not have been as far off the dial as first appeared.
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