The success of Libya’s uprising will have a great deal to do with the willingness of its leadership to break its dependency on the US and NATO. In what might or might not be a positive sign in that direction, TNC officials have said they intend to call for United Natinos assistance in holding new elections within eight months of taking power. But more immediately, if the US and European countries turn over the billions in frozen Libyan assets directly to the TNC, the question of the breadth of its representation and its legitimacy become even more crucial. Will the TNC, eager to claim the billions of oil money being held by European and US banks, demand that NATO and the US pull back and allow Libya to sort out its own problems and develop its own trajectory for an independent future? That may be difficult with President Obama announcing that the US “will join with allies and partners to continue the work of safeguarding the people of Libya.” During a Monday press conference the president of the TNC, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, thanked the international community as a whole but singled out those countries that had been especially supportive of the TNC; the implication was unmistakable that those countries, presumably the US, other NATO members and Qatar (whose special forces had trained the TNC’s “Tripoli Brigade”) could expect closer ties and privileged access to Libyan resources in the future….
