Obama critical of UK lack of follow up action after Gadaffi overthrown

In an interview in the April issue of Atlantic, Obama lashes out at David Cameron for losing interest in developments in Libya after the coalition bombing campaign.

Rather than being burdened with being the leader in military interventions after problems and casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has attempted when possible to ensure that other countries lead interventions and serve as proxies fighting for U.S. interests in return for a share in power and any benefits that might result.

In the case of Libya, it was countries such as the UK and France who were anxious to overthrow Gadaffi and Obama encouraged them to take the lead. While the UK and France did support the campaign to degrade the power of Gadaffi's forces, after the war was over, they lost interest, allowing the present chaotic situation to develop.

Obama made his criticism of the UK and David Cameron in a long article and interview in The Atlantic by Jeffrey Goldberg, a national correspondent for the magazine. Obama told Goldberg that free riders aggravated him. Obama even warned the UK that if it did not increase its spending on defense to at least 2 percent of GDP, then the UK will no longer be able to claim a "special relationship" with the U.S. Obama told UK Prime Minister David Cameron: "You have to pay your fair share." The UK has since reached the two percent spending level on defense.

Obama insisted the anti-Gadaffi campaign receive a UN mandate, and European and Gulf countries should be actively involved in the coalition, although with its unique capabilities the U.S. would be a key player. Other countries, however, were expected to carry their weight. Obama said:'And we worked with our defense teams to ensure that we could execute a strategy without putting boots on the ground and without a long-term military commitment in Libya. So we actually executed this plan as well as I could have expected: We got a UN mandate, we built a coalition, it cost us $1 billion—which, when it comes to military operations, is very cheap.

We averted large-scale civilian casualties, we prevented what almost surely would have been a prolonged and bloody civil conflict. And despite all that, Libya is a mess.'

Obama claims he had too much faith in the Europeans investing more in followup operations. For his part, Cameron defended the coalition Libya action in December 2015, telling the Spectator magazine that Libya was better off without Gadaffi: “What we were doing was preventing a mass genocide. Then, as you say, the coalition helped those on the ground to get rid of the Gaddafi regime and it’s very disappointing that there hasn’t been an effective successor regime.”

British-Iranian BBC reporter not allowed to board flight to US.

Rana Rahimpour, a dual Iranian-British citizen was stopped from boarding a plane at Heathrow airport about to fly to New Jersey. She was told she needed a visa and was not eligible to fly under the visa waiver program since she was an Iranian citizen.

Rahimpour is a presenter with the BBC's Persian service based in London. Legislation was just recently passed by the US Congress that forces some dual citizens of some countries to obtain visas, whereas previously they could visit the U.S. for up to 90 days without a visa. The new regulations will apply to all dual Iranian nationals. Previously, the waivers could be obtained through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization(ESTA).

After she was stopped, Rahimpour tweeted: 3 days after lifting #Iran sanctions, #US denied #ESTA/visa waivers for me and another 2 #British citzns cos we have Iranian nationality too.

The law will also apply to those of UK and other nationalities who have visited Iran in the last 5 years. One commentator said: “Europeans who want to visit Iran for tourism purposes or European companies who want to do business in Iran now have to be worried about their travel to the US. Which EU businessman is prepared to jeopardise his or her ability to travel to the US by going to Iran?”Ironically, Rahimpour has not been able to visit Iran for more than seven years as Iran has been hostile to the BBC Persian service staff and is alleged to have mistreated family members in Iran.

Rahimpour said of the change in regulations: “I just feel it’s unfair, it’s unfair to many Iranians, My cousins who were travelling with me and faced similar problems have left Iran 20 years ago, they don’t know how to write or read Farsi and they are paying the price for the politics of a country that they have nothing to do with.”Rahimpour that the new regulations risk alienating many Iranians. The new regulations were confusing and even her Washington contacts were not sure what changes had been made. Rahimpour pointed out: “Iranians feel they are being treated very unjustly and over the last few weeks. They have said that there has never been a terrorist attack by an Iranian national on American soil. This is very unfair, they referred to the nationality of those involved in 9/11 and you can’t find any Iranians involved.”

Dr. Firouz Naderi an Iranian-American who has served at NASA for 35 years and landed a spacecraft on Mars and even met Michelle Obama at the White House says he now is being treated like a second-class citizen in the country he regards as his home.

Rahimpour had been told by contacts she has in Washington that the new rules would not take effect until April. She had then applied for the visa waiver through the ESTA visa clearance site. She was told she would have a response within 72 hours. Given the information from her Washington contacts she had bought a ticket to fly to New Jersery. The response from ESTA was still pending when she arrived at the airport. She called an ESTA official there to check on her status and was told that her request had been denied due to the new law.

Rahimpour was born in Iran but has lived in the UK since 2008. Her husband is British. She had planned to surprise her brother and her family by traveling to New Jersey to celebrate her nephews' sixth birthday. She was taking her two-year-old daughter and two cousins, also British-Iranian along with her.

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/life/travel/bbc-iranian-british-reporter-unable-to-board-flight-to-usa/article/455323#ixzz3yDYEu8Xa