Defense Secretary: Libya Did Not Pose Threat to U.S., Was Not 'Vital National Interest' t...

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Defense Secretary: Libya Did Not Pose Threat to U.S., Was Not 'Vital
National Interest' to Intervene
March 27, 2011 8:16 AM

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that Libya did not pose a threat to the United
States before the U.S. began its military campaign against the North African country.

On “This Week,” ABC News’ Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper asked
Gates, “Do you think Libya posed an actual or imminent threat to the United States?”

“No, no,” Gates said in a joint appearance with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. “It was
not -- it was not a vital national interest to the United States, but it was an interest and it
was an interest for all of the reasons Secretary Clinton talked about. The engagement of
the Arabs, the engagement of the Europeans, the general humanitarian question that was
at stake,” he said.

Gates explained that there was more at stake, however. “There was another piece of this
though, that certainly was a consideration. You've had revolutions on both the East and
the West of Libya,” he said, emphasizing the potential wave of refugees from Libya could
have destabilized Tunisia and Egypt.

“So you had a potentially significantly destabilizing event taking place in Libya that put at
risk potentially the revolutions in both Tunisia and Egypt,” the Secretary said. “And that
was another consideration I think we took into account.”

During his campaign for the Presidency, in December, 2007, Barack Obama told The
Boston Globe that “The President does not have power under the Constitution to
unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual
or imminent threat to the nation.”

Earlier in 2007, then-Senator Hillary Clinton said in a speech on the Senate floor that, “If
the administration believes that any -- any -- use of force against Iran is necessary, the
President must come to Congress to seek that authority.”

Tapper asked Clinton, “Why not got to Congress?”

“Well, we would welcome congressional support,” the Secretary said, “but I don't think that
this kind of internationally authorized intervention where we are one of a number of
countries participating to enforce a humanitarian mission is the kind of unilateral action that
either I or President Obama was speaking of several years ago.”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/03/defense-secretary-libya-did-not-pose-thr... 3/28/2011
Defense Secretary: Libya Did Not Pose Threat to U.S., Was Not 'Vital National Interest' t... Page 2 of 2

“I think that this had a limited timeframe, a very clearly defined mission which we are in the
process of fulfilling,” Clinton said.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2011/03/defense-secretary-libya-did-not-pose-thr... 3/28/2011