House reseloution recognizing the Libyan Transitional National Council

112th CONGRESS 1st Session

H. RES. 188

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the regime of Mu’ammar al-Qadhaffi.

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IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVESMarch 30, 2011

Mr. Rohrabacher submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

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RESOLUTION

Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the regime of Mu’ammar al-Qadhaffi.

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

Resolved, 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.

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