Whereas the people of Libya have risen up in rebellion
against the tyrannical rule of Mu’ammar al-Qadhaffi, a man who seized power by
force and has ruled by force ever since;
Whereas Qadhaffi has oppressed the people of Libya and
squandered their wealth;
Whereas, on March 3, 2011, President Barack Obama said
about the situation in Libya, The violence must stop; Mu’ammar Qadhaffi
has lost the legitimacy to lead and he must leave
, a position he
reaffirmed on March 21, 2011;
Whereas, on March 17, 2011, Qadhaffi threatened a civilian
massacre by claiming in a radio address, We are coming tonight … We will
have no mercy and no pity with them
;
Whereas Qadhaffi has shown himself to be an enemy of the
United States and a threat to international security, including—
(1)the April 5, 1986,
bombing by Libyan agents of the La Belle discotheque in West Berlin, which
killed 2 United States soldiers and wounded 50 others, among some 200 total
victims of the blast;
(2)the December 21,
1988, destruction of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, by a bomb
planted by a Libyan agent, killing 190 United States citizens out of the total
loss of 243 passengers, 16 crew members, and 11 civilians on the ground;
and
(3)a clandestine nuclear weapons program,
which was only ended after the seizure by the United States Navy of a shipment
of uranium-enrichment components bound for Libya in October 2003; and
Whereas the Libyan people have not asked for United States
ground troops to do their fighting for them, and President Barack Obama has
pledged not to deploy ground troops: Now, therefore, be it
That—
(1)it is the sense of
the House of Representatives that—
(A)the regime of Mu’ammar al-Qadhaffi is no
longer the legitimate government of Libya;
(B)the Transitional National Council, based in
eastern Libya at Benghazi and headed by Mustafa Abdul Jalil, consisting of
those Libyans who have declared their intentions to establish a constitutional,
multi-party democracy, should be considered the legitimate representatives of
the Libyan people and nation;
(C)the United States should encourage the
post-Qadhaffi government to repay the expenses incurred by the United States
Armed Forces during military operations undertaken to protect the Libyan
people; and
(D)as Speaker of the House of Representatives
John Boehner wrote in his letter to President Obama on March 23, 2011, “a UN
Security Council resolution does not substitute for a U.S. political and
military strategy”, the United States course in Libya must be determined in
accord with United States interests and values and in consultation with allies;
and
(2)the House of
Representatives—
(A)supports President Barack Obama’s strategy
of protecting the Libyan people in their struggle for freedom from the Qadhaffi
tyranny without risking the direct intervention of United States ground forces
in the Libyan civil war;
(B)supports the freezing of the assets of
Qadhaffi and his regime wherever they can be found, with the understanding that
these assets will be made available to the legitimate representatives of the
Libyan people once they have been duly recognized by the United States
Government; and
(C)calls for the United States in cooperation
with its allies to provide the Libyan freedom fighters with the arms, supplies,
and other materials needed to oust the Qadhaffi regime from power and liberate
the entire country.