US Assumed Libya’s ‘Tacit’ Approval of Saturday Raid

Reiterates That No Advance Notice Was Provided of Raid

US officials say that they had fully expected Libya would claim to have “known nothing” about the weekend US raid into the capital city of Tripoli to capture a Libyan citizen, and that shouldn’t be surprising, since they reiterated today that they had not actually told Libya in advance of the operation.

At the same time, officials say they assumed they had Libya’s “tacit” approval to carry out such a raid because of comments made during talks in previous weeks and months, and didn’t feel the need to inform them of the specifics of what they were doing.

Libyan officials have insisted they are very much not okay with the kidnapping operation, demanding the return of Abu Anas al-Liby, and saying that the raid violated Libyan sovereignty.

The Obama Administration has refused to address the actual legality of the operation, much in keeping with their attacks on Pakistan, during which they likewise claimed an understand existed.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.