Hoekstra: Obama Thought the ‘Power of His Personality’ Would Change Jihadists’ Behavior

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PJ Media:

Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) said late Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi was cooperating with the U.S. government before the Obama administration decided to intervene militarily in Libya in 2011.

 

Hoekstra, the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Libya remains “ungoverned” today and has become a “cesspool” of jihadists.

 

“The only time we thought about taking [Gadhafi] out was after 2003 when he was an ally that actually started to level the scale a little bit. And so in total, people can reach different conclusions as to whether he was a good guy or bad guy but the bottom line is when we decided to take him out he was doing everything we had asked him to do and had been doing it for eight or nine years,” Hoekstra said at the Center for Security Policy's Middle East and North Africa Briefing.

 

Hoekstra, a Shillman senior fellow at the Investigative Project on Terrorism, said Gadhafi was working with the U.S. military and U.S. intelligence networks to provide insight into the “radical jihadist movement” before the U.S.-led intervention. Hoekstra said Gadhafi’s cooperation was helpful to the U.S. because he had been fighting extremists for decades.