As Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak toppled, Feb. 11, Libya began telegraphing its current uprising — as I noted in a Pajamas Media post last Sunday, “In Libya, Gaddafi Sounds Scared.” Apparently, the U.S. State Department has only just tuned in. Today, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley declared the U.S. “gravely concerned” over the carnage in Libya, with “multiple credible reports that hundreds of people have been killed and injured in several days of unrest.”
Here’s the same spokesman, P.J. Crowley, fielding a question just two days ago, at Friday’s press briefing — after the Gaddafi regime’s killing of protesters had already begun.
A reporter, citing dispatches about protesters already killed over the previous 24 hours in Benghazi and Baida, asks Crowley if State is “Worried about the situation in Libya?”
Crowley: “Absolutely, which is why yesterday the Secretary talked to the Bahraini foreign minister. expressed our concern about — “
The reporter tries again: “I’m talking about Libya.”
Crowley: “Okay, I’m sorry. About what?”
Reporter: “Libya.”
Crowley: “Yeah. All right. Are we — we have the– we have some feedback here. Okay. All right. Start again.”
… Actually, if you read the rest of the exchange (linked here, just search on “Libya”), it’s far from clear that feedback was the real problem.
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