US Evacuates Embassy In Libya
EmailABC News' Kirit Radia reports: The US embassy in Libya has closed temporarily and evacuated all of its diplomats as violence mounts in the capital Tripoli, the State Department announced today.
“Given current security conditions in Libya, coupled with our inability to guarantee fully the safety and security of our diplomatic personnel in the country, the Department of State has temporarily withdrawn Embassy personnel from Tripoli and suspended all embassy operations effective February 25, 2011,” State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said in a statement.
The announcement came just an hour after a US government chartered flight carrying the remaining American diplomats took off from an airfield near downtown Tripoli, bound for Istanbul, Turkey.
Earlier this week the United States decided to evacuate 40 non-essential personnel and embassy family members, but their departure by ferry was delayed until today due to rough seas and bad weather.
- Kirit Radia
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Well….all you “neocons” and “warmongers” out there…I guess now you know why the President hasn’t said a whole lot to date about what was goin on over there. And I hope that he also doesn’t get “too involved” with it either. We do not need to be spread any thinner than we are.
Posted by: CND FOX | February 25, 2011, 5:14 pm 5:14 pm
Gross incompetence.Obviously Obama and Clinton (for that matter) don’t have a clue.Diplomacy by Brownian Motion.
Posted by: Nephron | February 25, 2011, 5:18 pm 5:18 pm
CND FOX,
Why are you bothered about what these rightwing loonies think about Obama.
Even if Obama rescued their dieing mothers or grandmothers, they will still think he is is not doing a good job.
Posted by: Steve_NJ | February 25, 2011, 5:39 pm 5:39 pm
Bet you the MARINE CORPS detachment is still there…..
Posted by: Solddaboat | February 25, 2011, 5:47 pm 5:47 pm
He’s NOT doing a good job…no matter how hard you wish.
Posted by: KS | February 25, 2011, 6:02 pm 6:02 pm
Mailonlineuk reports: President Obama has been under intense criticism for his muted response to the bloodshed in Libya, with speculation that Colonel Gaddafi had intimidated the White House into silence by blocking the evacuation of U.S. citizens.
And last night, while the Dolores remained stranded, the president enjoyed a White House pop concert in celebration of Black History month.
Tony Munoz Editor of shipping magazine The Maritime Executive said: ‘I don’t understand why this vessel didn’t leave earlier – The Maria Dolores is a new vessel built for Mediterranean seas.
‘I can only imagine the captain was refusing to sail because he felt the vessel was not capable enough of taking the sea on.
Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Munoz said that there was no comparison between the 68 metre Dolores and the 204 metre Hellenic Spirit, used by the Greek government to evacuate its citizens from Benghazi.
‘The U.S. needed to charter a bigger boat like the Greeks’ he said.
‘The fully hulled Spirit will be more durable outside a port, this much bigger vessel could take the rough seas on.
‘There is no question about it, they [U.S.] should have been out of there long ago – why haven’t they chartered a bigger boat like the Greeks or Turkish.
‘At the very least, the government should have had a larger back up vessel on the way.”
What a shame we have to read British papers to get the truth.
Posted by: wheresmymoney | February 25, 2011, 6:26 pm 6:26 pm
Gun-blazing rah, rah has gotten us into more trouble than we need — like Iraq, or Korea, or Viet Nam. Pounding the war drums over what’s happening in the Middle East is NOT what the U.S. needs to do. We need to get our personnel out of the war zones but we have to understand that the fight for freedom and democracy has to come from the people. We can serve as a role model for Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon, etc. and our Constitution and Bill of Rights is available to any who wish to adapt it to their own country’s needs. What we cannot do is impose democracy on a country; democracy by its very nature is the expression of the will of the people. Most Americans have no inkling of the tangled cultures of the Middle Eastern and North African countries. They are, for the most part, tribal/clan cultures where blood feuds are carried forward not just for generations, but for centuries. However, the uprising now taking place are spurred by young people who have become tech wise, who are no longer content to submit to dictators who enrich themselves and their cronies while the rest of the population lives in abject poverty. Obama has condemned what Ghadafi is doing in Libya while encouraging the revolutionaries. What good would it do for Obama to castigate a madman, for that is what Ghadafi is.
Posted by: Arlene Nidel | February 25, 2011, 6:32 pm 6:32 pm
ABC, will you delete this also, because you don’t want the truth out???
Mailonlineuk:
Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Munoz said that there was no comparison between the 68 metre Dolores and the 204 metre Hellenic Spirit, used by the Greek government to evacuate its citizens from Benghazi.
‘The U.S. needed to charter a bigger boat like the Greeks’ he said.
‘The fully hulled Spirit will be more durable outside a port, this much bigger vessel could take the rough seas on.
‘There is no question about it, they [U.S.] should have been out of there long ago – why haven’t they chartered a bigger boat like the Greeks or Turkish.
‘At the very least, the government should have had a larger back up vessel on the way.’
DO YOUR JOB ABC, REPORT THE FACTS!
Posted by: wheresmymoney | February 25, 2011, 6:57 pm 6:57 pm
A little Dubya shock and awe needed???
Posted by: Bigfoot | February 25, 2011, 7:39 pm 7:39 pm
The American diplomats may be gone, but my understanding is that there are many Americans still in Libya needing to get out.
Posted by: jane | February 25, 2011, 10:18 pm 10:18 pm
In most situations like this… it is completely appropriate to put a small contingent of marines ashore just by the landing zone of a LARGE rescue vessle to extract Americans in harms way! —- Even rouge forces in nations such as Libya know all too well not to mess with our soldiers and this will give added protection to those evacuating!! — This is only common sense.. to protect our citizens!!!
Posted by: TheLoyalOpposition | February 26, 2011, 12:15 am 12:15 am