Abdurraheem el-Keib, a dual US-Libyan citizen, has been elected prime minister of Libya by members of the National Transitional Council who voted in a televised event on Monday, sticking ballots into a transparent box.
Expectations are high for el-Keib in a country with persisting battles going on in loyalist pockets of Libya, large unsecured weapons stockpiles, serious charges of war crimes committed by NTC fighters, and a war torn country to try to mend together.
Keib attended University of Tripoli in 1973, earned his M.S. at the University of Southern California in 1976, and his Ph.D. at North Carolina State University in 1984. He has taught as a professor for many years at the University of Alabama, the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Most recently, he served as Chair of the Electrical Engineering Department at The Petroleum Institute in UAE before joining Libya’s interim council last spring. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the US Department of Energy (US DoE), Southern Company Services (SC), and Alabama Power Company (APCO).
The fact that the new Libyan Prime Minister is a US citizen and has at least tenuous ties to the petroleum and energy industry is raising the eyebrows of some who viewed the US-NATO intervention as an attempt to change the Libyan regime to one more favorable to Western interests. How it will play out among the people, who had no say in his election, remains to be seen.
So this guy hasn't lived in Libya since the 70s? Any chance he's a puppet of the West? What if the Libyans get tired of being ruled by someone who doesn't have their interests at heart? Libya could yet go through another revolution.
An amazing transformation…! Libya moving from a dog rule to a puppy!
The CIA puts it's man in charge, what a surprise, wow, I'm sure no one saw that coming.
Why, what better preparation could one have to be prime minister than a lifetime of immersion in Electrical Engineering? Surely Mr. el-Keib won't be toyed with by lifelong diplomats, nor will he be tricked into ceding control of Libya's industries to foreign interests.
Why is everyone so cynical. Look how well Afghanistan has been run since an oil company lobbyist was installed as head crook. Academics don't do well administering a country like Libya. He won't even have time to change the carpet color or drapes.
After the scum, halloed by the 'civilized' inhumans, tortured, raped, hacked the feet of, bemocked Gaddafi and then exhibited his body in an old meat refrigirator – all this camarilla is putting some son of a bitch as 'Prime Minister'. "El-Keib may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch."
The really sad part about the WaPo story is the way it treats a foreign country naming an American as their PM as something that's perfectly normal and understandable.
What if the Libyans get tired of rule by this American outsider? Well, see Iraq and the long campaign against 'terrrorists' there to know how we'll deal with exactly the same thing.
Who "chose" him? Did i miss the election there? In any case i oppose dual citizenship, but that's off-topic.
Hi Libya, you are the new Afghaniscam. Sock-puppet and all. Ahhh, one could suppose you'll be alright. Slavery probably isn't so bad.
Regime change for the better?
HA ha ha ha! What a joke! Oil industry experience, but……..
can't remember the name of the guy mentioned here at the beginning if of this 'kinetic' adventure who lived near Virginia, what happened to him?
You mean Khalifa Hifter. Oh, he's still there:
"Among the key commanders are the controversial Islamist Abdul Hakim Belhaj, head of the Tripoli military council. Mr. Belhaj's deputy resigned two weeks ago, a potential signal of internal strife. Also important are Khalifa Hifter and Omar al-Hariri, the other main NTC commanders, who are based in Benghazi and are both vying for the job of top military chief. Other figures may yet emerge from the woodwork."
It wouldn't surprise me if it later came out that the CIA whacked the rebel military commander Abdel Fattah Younes back in July rather than the Islamists to give their man a head start in the race. But then again the CIA has a long history of using Islamists to fight the CIA's wars and kiss the Saudis' arses!
A momment of joy was to watch Gaddafi being kicked, beaten, slapped, sodomized, bleeding and finally shot by a young freedom fighter. I watch the tape over and over again, to convince myself that this beast was dead. The coward Gaddafi demanded that people die for him, yet now we know that he was hiding from house ot house and finally hiding in a sewer. At least Hitler had the courage to kiil himself, but this phoney criminal was scared to comit suicide. Ronald Reagan ( the best president America ever had) finally got his wish and the mad dog Gaddafi is no more.
Did you wank off and cum to it too? You Sick, Sicko Scumbag…
Another Karsai.
Well that will be a rip roaring success – NOT.
And we had nothing to do with it.NOT.
Ban dual citizenship.
It does put a nice ribbon on the whole evil affair though,and good propaganda for US; see they really like US!
You mean Americans haven't been told that Libyans are already angry that the NTC does NOT represent them? And the WashPo didn't tell them (no surprise for our Pravda-style state media)?
The bubbling anger in Libya is all over foreign news media.