Stay updated with breaking news from On qaddhafi. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
improv being part of the game here. gates is the most reluctant warrior when it comes to libyan. you had susan rice pushing much harder for an intervention. what you have is this compromise. part of the problem is we've been in this war for a week and eyes only now that president obama is actually going to tell the person people why we are there. gregg: the president has said tkpwafqaddhafi has to go. another people are saying, if he says it's clearly a failure. secretary of state gates said this was never about regime change. then what is the point. >> that's what is confusing. on the one hand we want qaddhafi to go but we are not saying we're going to make him go. we are not saying either we are for the rebels even though we are bombing only qaddhafi's military installations.
mission right now. >> reporter: there were premature celebrations in benghazi among opposition forces. they thought that surt, which is the hometown of qaddhafi had fallen to opposition forces. i'm told from latest intelligence reports, that surt has not fallen yet. they are fighting on the out seurts and along the road towards surt. once surt falls it is a pretty clear ride from there to tripoli. it is halfway between surt and tripoli. it will be a key point in the battle. the nato allikes along with coalition partners, 35 countries are gearing up to meet in london where they will be discussing how nato takes military control of the entire operation. one nato official says that there is minimal sort of interest in striking ground forces among some nato members. we know that the dutch now are coming to the alliance with some
government again. yes, we are all here again, it's all new, "happening now." a busy way to start the week, everybody, we are so glad you are with us, i'm jenna lee. gregg: i'm greg jarrett in for jon scott. the rebels making huge gains closing in on qaddhafi's ohm town. this as international air strikes are flying for the first time. jenna: qaddhafi forces pulling back by getting bombarded by coalition air strikes. so many information coming out of that part of the world. gregg: the opposition recovering all of the ground they initially lost including control of key oil refineries. jenna: very important to watch. why the libyan leader hasn't made any appearance today,
plan to hand over to allies. the nato mission will be to enforce the no-fly zone which is essentially already in place, but u.s. british and french jets will still go off the no drive zone for qaddhafi forces and that involves another kind of element of things, and he'll also be taking to leaders on capitol hill who have had a lot of disparaging comments about how this has been rolled out, both from the left and from the right. jenna: there has been so many questions, as you point oud, about libya and our mission there directly, but there's been broader questions about our role in the mideast, do you expect the president to discuss other policies in other regions or do you expect him to focus on libya. >> reporter: i assume just from talking to some folks who have some insight into how this speech is coming together, how
casualties caused by any of the nato air strikes. take a listen to defense secretary robert gates yesterday. >> the truth of the matter is we have trouble coming up with proof of any civilian casualties that we have been responsible for, but we do have a lot of intelligence reporting about qaddhafi taking the bodies that he's killed and putting them at sites that we have attacked. >> reporter: we heard from the libyan ambassador to washington, basically as this whole mission began over a week ago, that that was qaddhafi's plan to take civilians and those that his forces had killed, to role themm out of the portion and put them at sites and say nato air strikes had killed them. there are very, very serious allegations taking place on the ground. rick leventhal doing amazing reporting from eastern libya. he'll have more reports on what
appear to be opposition figures who were tortured before they were killed by qaddhafi's forces. gregg: jennifer griffin thank you. jenna: the president getting ready to address the people on libya tonight. this is the first military campaign president obama has launched before taking office. some critics contend the speech is over do. let's talk a bit about the timing and the content with bret bair. that is what some have said, that it's too late. why hasn't this address come sooner? >> reporter: well it's a have question, jenna. i think one of the answers to the question is that the mission had to develop and then nato had to agree to take command and control of the overall no-fly zone so that the president had something positive to say in the administration's point of view. there are a lot of folks inside government, and inside the pentagon who still have a lot of questions about the future of this mission, and how long it may take, and what involvement
thanks. jenna: syria intensifying a crackdown on protests there. secretary of state khreupb hilly clinton is insisting the u.s. will not get directly involved. senator joe lieberman says it can't be ruled out. >> i'd say with regard to syria that assad, the dictator there, ought to and probably is getting a very clear message. if he turns his weapons on his people and begins to slaughter them as qaddhafi did he's going to run the risk of having the world community come in and impose a no-fly zone and protect civilian population, just as we are doing in libya. jenna: it's another tricky foreign policy issue for the united states. michael singh is former director of middle eastern affairs at the security council. let's approach this conversation from the syrian point of view. do the syrians want us involved? >> well, i think, you know, certainly the syrian president