Libya - Obama Presidency Oral History Back Libya Index / Locations Transcripts James Clapper ...spread from Tunisia to Egypt, and then Libya , throughout the region, I'm curiou... ...makes the decision to intervene in Libya to pursue the UN [United Nations... ...and coordinate the intervention in Libya . He's called that, and he called it i... ...intelligence about what was going on in Libya did factor in to— I'm going to try t... ...for my resignation, early on in the Libya situation before we intervened. I wa... ...be intractable issues, whether it was Libya , or Syria, or Iraq, or Afghanistan. ... ...think about the evolution of events in Libya , for example, and the discussion abou... Show more... John Brennan ...in the Middle East, from Tunisia to Libya to Egypt, and the Gulf states, an... ...on the streets of Cairo, or Tripoli [ Libya ] or Sanaa [Yemen], or other areas. Th... ...specifically of the decision on Libya , and Michael Lewis wrote that piece... ...making around the intervention in Libya , and how even in the backbenchers in ... ...article, he talks about the decision, Libya being a fifty-one-forty-nine call. I'... ...support the decision to intervene in Libya . I joined Bob Gates, Denis McDonough... ...that were coming across northern Libya from the east to the west, towar... ...general rabble-rousers. So I knew that Libya was unlike a country like Syria, wher... ...and a history and an economy and stuff. Libya was still very much forming, even afte... ...in terms of then trying to repair Libya , I was somewhat skeptical of that. S... ...whether or not more people have died in Libya because of the intervention that woul... ...was no intervention? But when I look at Libya today, and it is in such disrepair, ... ...for? Do you think that experience in Libya informed some secret decisions? I'... ...in their own way. The situation in Libya was much different than the situatio... Show more... Tawakkol Karman ...in Yemen, in Egypt, in Libya , in Syria, and also in Sudan, and als... Robert Gates ...or Somalia or a host of other places, Libya , there wasn't a single one of thos... ...to turn out well. To what extent did Libya feel like yet another piece of thi... ...between the United States and Libya , and also just Libya itself bein... ...United States and Libya, and also just Libya itself being somewhat of a—? Well... ...have the kind of relationship with Libya that we had with either Tunisia o... ...limited; in Tunisia, and so on. But in Libya , [Muammar al-] Qaddafi began shootin... ...was going on during the early days in Libya . Then the question began—when Qaddaf... ...following year—but it focuses on that Libya decision. He talks about the presiden... ...was essentially the same on acting in Libya as it had been on Egypt—with on... ...a red line somewhere between Tripoli [ Libya ] and Benghazi, and said, “This far an... ...particularly given where I stood on Libya , I would not have been an advocate fo... Show more... Susan Rice ...I want to move forward to talking about Libya , which is the first episode that ... ...your own sense of what happened in Libya , but also what happened after th... ...the stage, the challenge of helping Libya form a viable and cohesive nationa... ...who really didn't ever favor the Libya intervention and wanted it to be ove... ...Clinton had an interest. She went to Libya . I went to Libya as UN ambassador. ... ...interest. She went to Libya. I went to Libya as UN ambassador. I was working in Ne... ...everybody sort of recoiled from things Libya for about a year. And frankly, until ... ...my own interest, we tried to reelevate Libya to nearer to the top of our agenda an... ...Deputies Committee on how we could help Libya cohere. But by that point, there was ... ...the end of the section of your book on Libya , you say ultimately you think th... ...that could have changed the equation in Libya , that could have altered the politica... ...could have done it. It may well be that Libya was just a Humpty-Dumpty that nobod... ...think—because from my visit to Libya , in November of 2011, my impressio... ...of hope and a lot of interest in a new Libya from civil society, from governmen... ...focus away from what can we do to help Libya succeed, to who's to blame. And tha... ...on as well, that we began to look at Libya again not as purely a politica... ...because of Benghazi––much changed in Libya too that made that a very much mor... ...in is understanding how the events in Libya did or didn't shade the way th... ...there are really three elements to the Libya —excuse me, the Syria challenge. On... ...thought it was right to intervene in Libya in response to the use of chemica... ...more so than the politics, was Libya factoring into the thinking here? ... ...I wonder because Obama famously called Libya a fifty-one, forty-nine call and as yo... ...were intervening in the way we had in Libya or the way some were suggesting w... ...what Obama realized was we went to Libya on his Article II authority. It ende... ...to authorize it the way they authorized Libya , and we knew that. There wasn'... ...to understand his thinking on Libya and chemical weapon... Show more... Chuck Hagel ...prospect of anything coming together in Libya . I think that also, you're right—an... William Taylor ...a little later in the spring, then Libya , then Syria. And here I was at th... ...worked in Afghanistan; he'd worked in Libya . And when I was first starting thi... ...to do with supporting Egypt, Tunisia, Libya , and Syria—the Arab Spring countries... ...was going to look like in Egypt, in Libya , Tunisia? And we can talk about Syri... ...of its—we can talk about that, and Libya , as well, was different. Libya wa... ...and Libya, as well, was different. Libya was different because the Congress wa... ...Egypt, less so on Syria, less so on Libya . I'd like to, at this point, div... ...this question requires us to expand to Libya as well. I imagine it's a completel... ...so that we can make sure to talk about Libya and Syria to the extent that you thin... ...trying to nourish. Let's talk about Libya and Syria, which you mentioned are tw... ...makes them unique? Let's talk about Libya and maybe how the unique dimension... ...The big thing about the assistance of Libya was the attitude of our Congress towar... ...not going to need very much money for Libya .” Someone said that early on, and tha... ...when we tried to get some resources for Libya . They said, “Wait, wait. You told u... ...better in Egypt and Tunisia, and in Libya it was really constrained. There wa... ...would be possible in a place like Libya ? I think it's along the lines tha... ...so my attitudes and impressions of Libya were much more filtered through ou... ...whole different military action. But on Libya , in answering your question, I don'... ...Egypt and Tunisia. Then we were given Libya , and we started to do some work there... ...don't think we had much of an effect in Libya , or my office in Syria—didn't do tha... Show more... Michael Posner ...what's going on. We saw that vividly in Libya when Chris Stevens was killed i... ...springing up at this time in Syria and Libya and Bahrain, for example. What's s... ...aside as it considered what to do in Libya and Bahrain, for example. Was it you... Roberta Jacobson ...“Well, the most recent examples are Libya , restoration of diplomatic relation... Jake Sullivan ...in Russia's abstention on the Libya intervention in 2011. So I will defen... ...in Tunisia, then in Egypt, then in Libya , then in Syria, then in Yemen, then i... ...the instances that came out of it in Libya and Syria, which I really want to tal... ...or not to use force, particularly in Libya and then a little bit later in Syria... ...in Syria. So I wanted to start with Libya , if we could, and I wanted to ask wha... ...intervention in [Muammar al-] Gaddafi's Libya in March of 2011. I had taken over a... ...Clinton about the situation in Libya and what the options were for which sh... ...Clinton's memoir and the chapter on Libya , and it's striking how much emphasi... ...Michael Lewis called “The Decision on Libya : 51-49 Call” [read: “Obama's Way”] ... ...For her part, when the crisis in Libya began—when Gaddafi began shootin... ...coalition to protect civilians in Libya was that set of consultations wit... ...Obama has said he regrets about Libya was the inability or failure to pla... ...thinking that what was playing out in Libya was not adhering to what the US plan... ...the reconstruction and the security of Libya . The issue was, to me, that we ha... ...rebuilt, the politics on the ground in Libya simply didn't permit those things t... ...our actual capacity to shape events in Libya was extraordinarily limited. And tha... ...explicit talk about, “Well, we've done Libya ; we're not doing Syria. We can't d... ...Obama engaged in the operation in Libya , took that step when he had som... ...engaged in the military operations in Libya . Then it escalated after the Liby... ...in Libya. Then it escalated after the Libya operation had finished, as things wer... ...to deteriorate on the ground in Libya . So you also had a circumstance wher... ...where we've just done this thing in Libya . It was an extended, protracte... ...move in Syria, because it just, after Libya , was not a particularly thinkabl... Show more... Load more Transcripts Related Topics go to the Elections and Campaigns Elections and Campaigns go to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Nuclear Nonproliferation go to the Transparency and Media Transparency and Media go to the Immigration Immigration go to the Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa