On Saturday President Obama finally called for the removal of Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.  The pressure has continually grown on the White House to intervene to stop Moammar Gadhafi’s bloody crackdown in Libya.   But why the reluctance?   Why the hesitancy?  Many commentators have been wondering why Barack Obama has been cautious in his criticism of the dictator after the U.S. president so fervently supported the removal from office of U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak of Egypt. 

Perhaps the linkage starts with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s spiritual adviser for more than 23 years.  The Libyan dictator also has financed and strongly supported the Nation of Islam and its leader, Louis Farrakhan. Obama has direct ties to Farrakhan and his controversial group.

So far, White House officials have called for an end to the violence but have seemingly ruled out any unilateral action in Libya. Despite Gadhafi’s reported ordering of massacres that reportedly have killed hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians in recent days, Obama waited until Saturday to call for Gadhafi to leave office.

Pressure has been mounting on Obama to take a tougher stand, with the chairmen of the House and Senate foreign relations committees calling on the White House to re-impose economic sanctions on Libya that were lifted in 2004.   But why is it so hard to get Obama to crack down on this madman?   Why does it take legislators demanding action to force Obama to move forward on this insane leader who is terrorizing his own citizens.

Obama has multiple close ties close ties to activists who have had relationships with Gadhafi:

• Jeremiah Wright, former pastor of Obama’s longtime Chicago church, went with Farrakhan to visit Gadhafi in 1984
• During the 2008 presidential campaign, Wright himself noted the trip could cause problems for Obama.  Stating  “when [Obama’s] enemies find out that in 1984 I went to Tripoli to visit [Gadhafi] with Farrakhan, a lot of his Jewish support will dry up quicker than a snowball in hell.”
• Farrakhan, a close friend and associate of Wright, has been financed by Gadhafi, including with a $5 million interest-free loan in 1985.
• Later that year, Gadhafi spoke by satellite to Farrakhan’s Saviour’s Day Convention in Chicago, and reportedly told Farrakhan supporters he was prepared to provide weapons to a black army in the U.S. to destroy “white America.”
• In October 1995, Gadhafi called Farrakhan with congratulations on the success of the Million Man March. Gadhafi was said to have assured Farrakhan that together “we will unite our capabilities and efforts to achieve this.”
• According to reports in 1996 from Libya’s news agency, JANA, Farrakhan and Gadhafi agreed to work together to mobilize “oppressed blacks, Arabs, Muslims and Red Indians” to help reshape U.S. foreign policy.
• Gadhafi said that until his alliance with the Nation of Islam, “our confrontation with America was like a fight against a fortress from outside.”  He asserted his alliance with Farrakhan provides him with “a breach to enter into this fortress and confront it.”
• Farrakhan went to Libya for multiple other events. He was the recipient in 1996 of the Gadhafi Human Rights Award, which came with a $250,000 prize. Farrakhan accepted the prize despite U.S. sanctions on Libya.

Obama ties to Nation of Islam:

• Wright and Obama attended the Million Man March on Washington, which was led by Farrakhan and other prominent black leaders such as Al Sharpton.
• Rev. Willie Barrow, a member of the Obama campaign’s official Faith Outreach Team and an Obama superdelegate, is a close friend of Farrakhan’s and a staunch Nation of Islam supporter.   Farrakhan stated in a 2002 interview he met with Barrow to devise his Nation of Islam platforms.
• Marxist activist Cornel West, an adviser to Farrakhan, also had been an adviser to Obama’s 2008 campaign and is a close Obama associate and personal friend.
• During the period of Obama’s attendance at Wright’s Trinity United Church, which practices controversial Black Liberation Theology ideology, the Chicago church was openly allied with Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.
• Wright gave Farrakhan his 2007 Empowerment Award. Farrakhan delivered multiple guest lectures at the church.
• Wright has been involved in Farrakhan initiatives and labeled him “one of the most important voices in the 20th and 21st century” during a national address to the media in April at which Nation of Islam officials were invited guests.
• Obama has appeared at least three times on the cover of Trumpet magazine, founded by Wright. The magazine, to which Obama last year granted a lengthy, exclusive interview, regularly hails Farrakhan.  Obama’s face was featured on the cover of a 2006 issue of Trumpet alongside Farrakhan’s image.
• During the 2008 presidential campaign, a 2004 photo emerged of Obama’s wife, Michelle, posing with Farrakhan and Obama adviser Barrow at a woman’s luncheon for the Rainbow/Push Coalition for which Barrow serves as chairman emeritus.  In the picture with Michelle Obama is Khadijah Farrakhan, Louis Farrakhan’s wife.
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• Another Obama connection to supporters of Farrakhan comes from David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political strategist.  Although he is Jewish, Axelrod sits on the finance committee of St. Sabina, the Chicago Catholic parish that was led by controversial pastor Michael Pfleger, an outspoken Farrakhan supporter who hosted the Nation of Islam chief at his parish several times.
• The Archdiocese of Chicago temporarily removed Pfleger from his duties at St. Sabina in 2008 following a well-publicized guest sermon at Trinity church in which Pfleger claimed Hillary Clinton cried in public because she thought being white entitled her to the Democratic presidential nomination.
• Pfleger hosted Farrakhan at his church several times, including one May 2007 sermon that was Farrakhan’s first public appearance since he announced in 2006 he had been suffering from prostate cancer and was seriously ill.  According to reports, Pfleger spent hours with the Nation of Islam chief during his illness. Pfleger previously enlisted Farrakhan’s support for several of his initiatives, including an anti-gun protest in 2007.

Obama Direct Ties to Muammar Gadhafi

To fully understand the links between Obama and Gadhafi it is worth remembering the back story surrounding the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdel Baset al-Megrahi.   Based on recent wikileaks discoveries we now know Barack Obama lied about being “shocked, shocked” over Scotland’s release of al-Megrahi.  So before we examine the Obama – Gadhafi connection, let’s review the facts of the Megrahi release:

Pan Am Flight 103 was on its way from London to New York Dec. 21, 1988, when it was destroyed by a bomb, killing all 243 passengers including 190 Americans, 16 crew members and 11 residents of Lockerbie, Scotland, when debris landed on the town.  In total, 270 people were killed in the bombing.   Libyan al-Megrahi was convicted of carrying out the attack and was serving a life sentence in Scotland until August 2009 when, inexplicably, officials there released him on “humanitarian” grounds, saying he was suffering from terminal cancer and had no more than three months to live.

Of course, al-Megrahi is alive and well 18 months later and doctors treating him now say he will likely live for years, perhaps a decade or more, in Libya, where he is treated like a national hero. In fact, British intelligence knew Gadhafi paid a premium to doctors for the phony diagnosis.   What did Obama have to say about all this at the time?

“I think all of us here in the United States were surprised, disappointed and angry about the release of the Lockerbie bomber,” he said. “And my administration expressed very clearly our objections prior to the decision being made and subsequent to the decision being made. So we welcome any additional information that will give us insights and a better understanding of why the decision was made.”

Most Americans were surprised, disappointed and angry that a mass-murdering terrorist was released. But it is now clear Obama wasn’t surprised, disappointed or angry. In fact, he was part of the fix from the beginning, and his administration encouraged the final outcome.   A week before al-Megrahi’s release, Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the U.S. embassy in London, sent a letter to Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond and justice officials saying the U.S. would prefer if the terrorist remained in prison, but protested only a prison transfer not a release.   “Nevertheless,” wrote LeBaron, “if Scottish authorities come to the conclusion that al-Megrahi must be released from Scottish custody, the U.S. position is that conditional release on compassionate grounds would be a far preferable alternative to prisoner transfer, which we strongly oppose.”

It now appears the release of al-Megrahi was part of a deal brokered by BP for a lucrative oil contract with Libya.   The scandal stinks no matter how you look at it. It’s a story of politicians doing what they do without regard to the safety, security and best interests of their constituents – unless those constituents happen to be multinational oil conglomerates and terrorist mass murderers.  

But what were Obama’s motivations? Consider this mini-history review of Obama’s odd links with Libya’s Muammar Gadhafi:

• Gadhafi received Obama’s Kenyan grandmother, Sarah Obama, in Tripoli December 2009.  She went to see Gadhafi to congratulate him on his efforts to unify the African continent, the official Jamahiriya News Agency said. According to the Jamahiriya News Agency, she told Gadhafi she had come “to tell him of her pride as an African citizen in the efforts he has made to unify the African continent and his humanitarian initiatives for Africans.”
• Obama’s pastor of 20 years, Jeremiah Wright, met with Gadhafi in Libya in 1984 on a trip with Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
• After the freeing of al-Megrahi, the Obama administration gave $400,000 to a Libyan charity run by the Gadhafi family. The money went to two foundations – $200,000 to the Gadhafi Development Foundation, run by Gadhafi’s son, Saif, and another $200,000 to Wa Attassimou, an organization run by Gadhafi’s daughter, Aisha. Saif Gadhafi, by the way, brokered the prisoner exchange with BP oil officials.
• Gadhafi had nice words to say about Obama last September when he visited the United Nations – calling Obama “my son” or “our son” several times. “Can you guarantee after Obama how America will be governed? We are content and happy if Obama can stay forever as president of America.” Gadhafi also reportedly referred to the U.S. president as a “black African Kenyan.”
• Obama sat two seats away from Gadhafi at the annual Group of Eight summit a year ago – separated only by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
• In 2008, Gadhafi said Obama was a Muslim of Kenyan origins who studied in Islamic schools and whose campaign may have been financed by people in the Islamic and African worlds.
• Gadhafi has repeatedly expressed concern that Obama might someday be assassinated.

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To most Americans, Gadhafi is a monster – a psychopathic killer and tyrant, perhaps even a madman.  But he has a fondness for Obama. And, by all indicators, Obama, despite his claims to the contrary, has a soft spot in his heart for Gadhafi.