Boots on ground in Libya, but not for combat
By Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jill Dougherty in Tripoli, Libya and Pentagon Producer Larry Shaughessy at the Pentagon
For the first time since the fall of the Gadhafi regime, US military troops are in Tripoli, Libya. The Defense Department sent in a four-member team to accompany State Department personel returning to Tripoli to assess the damage done to the US embassy since diplomats left earlier this year, a Pentagon spokesman said Monday.
"As I understand the embassy was pretty well trashed, and their trying to go back in and see if that facility is still usable, and if it is what needs to be done to bring it back on line," said Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman for the Pentagon. A US diplomatic team currently is evaluating whether the embassy can be renovated and/or reconstructed or whether a new embassy will have to be built.
A CNN team, including Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jill Dougherty visited the Tripoli embassy on Monday and saw the extent of damage done during what one State Department official said was a 38-hour rampage by pro-Gadhafi suppoerters on May 1 and May 2. The CNN team saw two buildings which had been trashed, burned and ransacked. In one building the ambassador's office was stripped and vandalized.
The embassy had already been evacuated when it suspended activity in February after the revolution began in the spring. No classified information or sensitive materials were left behind. On the night of the attack the compound was protected by just five local guards who fled, the State Department official said.
The military assignment does not negate President Barack Obama's insistance at the begining of operations in Libya that the US will not deploy any U.S. troops on the ground" as the four-member team are for diplomatic security, not combat.
He said the four troops arrived in Tripoli over the weekend with the State Department team and consist of two troops who are "explosive ordnance specialist, because one of the concerns was whether there was any presence of any kind of munitions there at the site, or any kind of hazards in that regard," Kirby said.
The other two are "general security."
Kirby said the four troops were not Marines, who traditionally assist the State Dept. with embassy security, but he didn't say which branch of the service the troops are with or if they will be wearing their uniforms.
Kirby did hint that they would be armed.
"There are no other security personnel with them, they are equipped and prepared to provide for their own defense," he said.
@natlsecuritycnn on Twitter
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But nevertheless, what I have discovered is that something marvelous happened since the Democrat's defeat at the midterm election. What the midterm defeat did was awoken the Democratic base and since then, I have discovered that the GOP's base has been out numbered 2 to one as far as reader comments goes. But that's not all, because where as the GOP's base or the rightwingers have been straigh out lying about the issues to defend the GOP's failed record or to downplay the success of the Obama administration, the liberals have resorted to all facts and this is what the mainstream media is afraid of. You see lies, fear mongering and propaganda is what won the GOP the House of Representatives to begin with but now that liberals are taking a stand and awakening the American people with the facts, CNN and other Republican owned and operated networks are starting to censor and block comments by liberals that are pointing to the GOP's failures and lies.
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There are other troops, covertly, that are in Libya.....how do you think the rebels are advancing....they had to have some outside professional help, not to mention NATO planes need someone to 'lase' up a target....
remember, they had mutinised troops that joined the anti- Ghaddafi forces, to teach them how to fight. As well as NATO Bombing, plus some Libyans combatants are not just from Libyya, sme may have come from England, America and possibly may have served with the US or British defence forces.
"and their trying to go back in"
There, they're, their: those pesky homophones.
For a professional news service, your grammar sucks a big one...
Hey ! Who you calling a homophone?
I told you "Obama, The Great War Monger" was going to get us sucked into this war. Pretty soon we'll have troops in Syria, Iran, Somalia, and god know's where else. Don't turn your back on "Obama, The Great War Monger".
We already have troops on the ground in Somalia
I cant tell if you are joking or not
Here we go again.
First it is "Humanitarian" efforts, but we do not want Qaddafi to step down, just show remorse and change his ways.
Then it is, Qaddafi must go.
It was I do not need to talk to Congress or get their approval as this is such a small operation, so I will talk to the UN.
Then it was no boots on the ground period.
Now it is boots on the ground, but.......just 4 people, of course fighting has not stopped, but if anything happens to them.......then what.
As already pointed out with JFK and Vietnam and we saw how messed up that became.
Wow Sharky – please tell us more. I enjoy losing IQ points listening to you.
So your suggestion is we stop providing security for our embassies in any country with hostilities?
JFK said the same thing when putting boots in Viet Nam. They were just advisors.
Obama wants to be part of socialist Europe so bad, he'll do anything the Euro clowns want, just to be part of the elitist group.
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and we don't have soldiers in over 50 other countries? give me a break, if your going to hate the man, hate him for the right reasons, not a handful of soldiers chilling in libya
True, but he still is commander-in-chief, so what he says(with permission from congress) goes.
This hyperbole is getting boring, learn something.
These aren't advisors but personnel to certify the compound as safe.
While it is possible to understand the current deployment of four troops to provide security for the embassy assessment people, history has shown that this will be the launching point for a much larger deployment. Obama like many other presidents has demonstrated that the art of deception and lying is a given.
I must have been hearing things when Obama said "there will be no boots on the ground in Libya". If a car bomb explodes and kills the 4 "boots" that ARE on the ground in Libya.....just how will Obama explain THIS lie to the American people? HE LIED to us.With a straight face he LIED TO US.....AGAIN. And,the reader is correct....this how we weaseled our way into Vietnam.
Really? Your comment is truly un-believable. The boots on the ground are there to protect State Department Employees assessing damage to the US Embassy. Like it or not, the US is going to have diplomatic ties with the new Libyan Government – this is part of that process.
You are grasping at straws to support something that is not true. Of course your response to me will most likely be this: "You believe everything, you are naive, Obama lies, Obama lies, Obama lies".
Yeah, well, so did Bush – where were the WMDs in Iraq? Umm, there weren't any – yet that cost us tax payers a Trillion dollars – I hope you have a problem with that lie as well.
Guess what? They BOTH lied to us.
Guess what? Your a dumbass who knows nothing about the realities of life.
US embassy = boots on the ground. An embassy is in any country we have diplomatic relations with. Seriously? SERIOUSLY? Do I have to REALLY explain this to someone? God people are dumb these days.
I guess no one remembers the satillite photos on Fox AND CNN showing a convey of trucks leaving Iraq and driving into the Syrian desert. Where they were promptly buried. Bush decided not to violate Syrian borders to go get them. I say bad chioce on his part.
Your Sir, are an idiot. The dims wanted to the war even before W was elected. Please do not try to revise history and lie about the present.
actually you are very very wrong about that. i have many people who work as chemical specialists in the army. they found stock piles of mustard gas. just because the news doesn't report it doesn't mean they aren't there. while i may not agree with the war. there were WMDs whether people want to admit it or not.
Wow I knew some idiot would make a comment like this. Its the US embassy. Are we to send our staff there with no security and no check over of the facilities? Also to somehow equate 4 member of the US military protecting State officials to the Iraq or Vietnam war is absurd. You people are really sad
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Technically, these four soldiers are not being deployed to Libya. The US embassy grounds is considered US soil.
...and "their" trying to go back in and see......
Really? You don't know the difference between there, their and they're? Look it up.
Another broken Obama promise.
Are you serious? Because he sends four soldiers to look at our embassy to examine its viability as an embassy, you're saying this is exactly the same thing as having fighting troops on the ground?
Wow. I guess the natural extension of such flawed logic states that every country we have military personnel stationed in is considered to be at war with us. Looks like we're at war with dozens of countries. Even Britain!
You sir, are an idiot.
another ignorant dumbass.
An embassy WILL have security. Stop playing the internet's token idiot and get with reality.
Isn't the same as Vietnam? Sent in advisors that got killed that led to America getting involved.
Embassy security are not advisers, nice try at reading the article but you may be off your dyslexia pills.
ready Embassy security are not advisers -- So, if 2 get killed and 2 are hostages, you mean America will not sent troops?
You are exactly right Bailousos. Has anyone told Obama that there is still fighting going on and there is no legit government right now? It's lunacy to put any American on the ground until the war is OVER. Even the rebels admit they are having trouble finishing the job. Bottom line...we have 4 miltary men on the ground. Bottom line....there is no need for an embassy yet. Bottom line...Obama lied to us again.
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Soldiers became troops, troops became boots. Sigh.
And of course they're lying about the 4 that are there. We've had our military there for months. If the lazy American sheep would just go to another country's (Yes even Canada) media outlets and simply read. Our mainstream garbage is rife with lies and distortions. BTW. We're not in Egypt, Yemen, Iran, Somalia and roughly 80 other countries. But let's not tell John Q. And they're here too. Ask Germany.