Libya’s future ‘in the hands of its people’ –Obama

CHILMARK, Massachusetts— As rebels celebrated in Tripoli, President Barack Obama declared that Moammar Gadhafi’s long rule is over. “The future of Libya is in the hands of its people,” he said.

Speaking Monday from a rented vacation home on Martha’s Vineyard, Obama heralded US and international military efforts that helped bring about the outcome. But with Gadhafi’s precise whereabouts unknown, Obama cautioned that uncertainty and threats remained.

He urged Gadhafi to surrender and end the bloodshed, and the opposition to seek a just transition into an uncertain future.

“The rights of all Libyans must be respected,” he said. “True justice will not come from reprisals and violence; it will come from reconciliation and a Libya that allows its citizens to determine their own destiny.”

The crumbling of Gadhafi’s 42-year rule was being described by some analysts as vindication of Obama’s much-criticized decision to limit US involvement in Libya and let NATO take control after the US led the initial air campaign in March.

Obama stopped well short of declaring a military or political victory, leaving it to a spokesman to credit US strategy and “the president’s robust leadership” with producing “a lot of favorable results.” But the president highlighted NATO’s success after months of doubts about whether the alliance would be able to prevail.

“NATO has once more proven that it is the most capable alliance in the world and that its strength comes from both its firepower and the power of our democratic ideals,” Obama said.

And with his re-election campaign under way and a war-weary public focused on jobs, Obama was quick to note that it all happened “without putting a single US troop on the ground,” a policy that aides said Obama would maintain.

It has come at a cost, though: The Pentagon says that as of July 31, the US had spent about $820 million, including the daily military operations, munitions and humanitarian assistance.

Obama’s comments Monday were his first since a weekend push by the rebels into the Libyan capital, and since he arrived on this island retreat off the coast of Massachusetts on Thursday for a 10-day stay.

On Monday, Obama was briefed over the telephone by top national security staff, including Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. Then he donned a suit jacket to speak to the press in the yard of his rented waterside farm, before heading out to play basketball.

Obama also fit in a call to British Prime Minister David Cameron, as the US and international partners that have recognized the rebel Transitional National Council worked to find a way forward. Secretary of State Clinton telephoned the leader of the Libyan Transitional National Council on Monday.

A State Department spokesman said Monday that no decision had been made about whether to send US experts to Libya to help prevent the Gadhafi regime’s massive arsenal of anti-aircraft missiles from slipping into the hands of terror groups.

US intelligence also has been “keeping a close eye” on Gadhafi’s chemical arsenal, which “at this point appears to be well-guarded,” according to a US official briefed on the Libyan operations, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss matters of intelligence.

An Obama administration official said Monday that US officials and NATO partners had not been in contact with Gadhafi during the siege of Tripoli. The US has no indication that Gadhafi has left Libya. If Gadhafi were captured in Libya, the official said it would be up to the Transitional National Council to determine whether he might be tried in Libya or transferred to the International Criminal Court.

Also Monday New York Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand asked the Transitional National Council to arrest Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie airplane bomber who was freed by the Scottish government in 2009 after prison doctors said he had prostate cancer and three months to live. He still is alive.