BP Snags Libyan Gas Fields

Monster or treasure trove?

(NEWSER) - Villain-of-the-hour Moammar Gadhafi apparently wasn't too much of a monster for at least one US investment bank. The Telegraph is reporting that former PM Tony Blair lobbied Gadhafi and his family for business on behalf of JP Morgan. Blair was one of three "prominent Western businessmen," including an unidentified former American diplomat, who regularly tried to curry favor with Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, who wielded a significant influence over how the Libyan Investment Authority's $70 billion was spent, according to a senior executive with the organization. "Tony Blair's visits were purely lobby visits for banking deals with JP Morgan," said the source. More»

Critics in UK already warning of 'mission creep'

(NEWSER) - With anti-Ghadafi rebels still bickering over who's actually their leader, Britain plans to dispatch a team of miitary advisers to Benghazi to help them get their act together. London insists the advisers won't arm or train rebels or go beyond the UN mandate, reports al-Jazeera . Their biggest order of business may simply be figuring out which of two rival commanding officers to deal with, notes the New York Times . More»

Army chief at odds with government over targeting leader

(NEWSER) - The head of Britain's armed forces is embroiled in a public dispute with government ministers over the legality of killing Moammar Gadhafi. Gen. David Richards, apparently wary of "mission creep," has rejected ministers' suggestions that Gadhafi is a legitimate target for assassination, reports the Daily Mail . Targeting Gadhafi "is not allowed under the UN resolution and is not something I want to discuss any further," the general told reporters. More»

Not national interest, the real reason is about credibility

(NEWSER) - How did Libya, a desert nation of 6.5 million people and less than 2% of the world's oil reserves, become a French and British war? Michael Elliot in Time checks off a bunch of wrong answers first: No, the outcome in Libya is not a vital national interest of France or Britain, nor would a possible refugee crisis affect either country very much. Libya's terrorist-linked history is too far in the past to be relevant, and military intervention too risky to help their nations' international standing. So why did Nicolas Sarkozy and David Cameron go to war? More»

(NEWSER) - A British official today denied suggestions that the government struck a deal to free the Lockerbie bomber in exchange for a nice price on Libyan oil, reports the Guardian. "It's not only completely wrong to make such a suggestion, it's also quite offensive," said the business secretary. The allegation arose after Moammar Gadhafi's son said the release of Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi had been linked to trade talks over gas and oil, followed up by Gadhafi himself publicly thanking Gordon Brown. More»