Rumsfeld to Obama: Hey, Wars Have Consequences

It's time for him to obey the War Powers Resolution

(NEWSER) - President Obama has finally gotten Democrats and Republicans to agree on something. Unfortunately for him, it’s their distaste for his “odd stand on the Libyan war’s legality,” a Washington Times editorial observes. With this resolution , Congress told the president that his present stance on Libya—that the mission is so limited that he didn't have to report on it to Congress as required under the War Powers Resolution—isn’t going to fly. More»

Praises intel, SEALs, says hit was years in the making

(NEWSER) - Add Donald Rumsfeld to the list of Republicans heaping praise for Osama bin Laden's killing on anyone but the Obama administration: "The capabilities to do it were developed over time by previous administrations, and they benefit the country, and the intelligence had been gathered over a long period of time," Rumsfeld tells the AP in an interview yesterday. "And it came to fruition in the Obama administration, to the credit of the intelligence community." More»

He writes another letter to the president

(NEWSER) - Moammar Gadhafi has written a rambling but cordial letter to President Obama in which he wishes him luck in 2012 but pleads with Obama to stop "an unjust war," reports AP . Some excerpts, complete with typos:

• "You are a man who has enough courage to annul a wrong and mistaken action."
• "Despite all this you will always remain our son whatever happened. We still pray that you continue to be president of the U.S.A. We Endeavour and hope that you will gain victory in the new election campaigne."

Andrew Sullivan: He's getting the US tangled up in a 'dumb war'

(NEWSER) - Andrew Sullivan delivers a withering critique of President Obama on the news that CIA agents are on the ground covertly helping anti-Gadhafi rebels. It means the president has been "at best vague" and "at worst deceptive" in his public pronouncements, Sullivan writes at his Daily Dish blog at the Atlantic. This "emphatically must be where this war ends. No arms, no troops, and no more CIA shenanigans (God help us)." If not, this misguided war "could wreck, derail, and distract Obama's presidency." More»

Meanwhile, Britain Says Libya Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa Defected

(NEWSER) - CIA operatives are on the ground in Libya helping anti-Gadhafi rebels, reports the New York Times . They're apparently not in combat mode—instead they're collecting intelligence on military movements to guide airstrikes and setting up communication with the rebels. British agents are doing the same. The report lends credence to an earlier dispatch from Reuters saying that President Obama had authorized some kind of covert operation to aid the anti-Gadhafi movement. More»