House intelligence chairman: Obama Cabinet split on arming rebels

Responding to reports President Barack Obama secretly authorized covert action to support the Libyan rebels, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said that actually arming the Libyan rebels would require his approval and he hasn’t given it.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) said in a late Wednesday interview that the Obama administration’s top national security officials were deeply split on whether arming the rebels was a good idea. In a classified briefing Wednesday with lawmakers, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Rogers said it was clear that there were deep divisions between the cabinet officials regarding the wisdom of arming the rebels.

"I’ve never seen an uneasiness amongst their national security cabinet members as I have seen on this. It’s kind of odd," said Rogers. He declined to say which cabinet members were supporting arming the rebels and which were opposed, but he said it was obvious that they disagreed.

"Everything from body language to the way they are addressing members of Congress, it’s very clear that there’s lots of tension inside that Cabinet right now. This to me is why it’s so important for the president to lead on this," said Rogers. "I think [Obama’s] reluctant on this, at best. And there are differences of opinion and you can tell that something just isn’t right there."

Rogers wouldn’t confirm or deny the report that Obama issued what’s known as a "presidential finding" authorizing the intelligence community to begin broadly supporting the Libyan rebels, because such findings are sensitive and classified. But he said that if Obama wanted to arm the rebels, the president would need Rogers’ support, which he doesn’t yet have.

"Any covert action that happens would have to get the sign off of the intelligence chairmen, by statute. You won’t get a sign off from me," Rogers said referring to National Security Act 47. "I still think arming the rebels is a horrible idea. We don’t know who they are, we only know who they are against but we don’t really who they are for. We don’t have a good picture of who’s really in charge."

Rogers said that the issues of providing covert support and actually arming the rebels are separate issues.

"There is a public debate about arming the rebels… that somehow got intertwined and it probably shouldn’t have."

But Rogers has no objections to putting CIA operatives on the ground to gather information on who the rebels are. National Journal reported late Wednesday that about a dozen CIA officers are now on the ground in Libya doing just that.

"That should be happening anyway, through public means, through intelligence, all of that should be happening," he said. "The agencies are by statute and by law allowed to go overseas to collect information, that means any country."

The intelligence committees do need to be notified about major intelligence operations, either before or immediately after in exigent circumstances, a committee staffer said.

Rogers said he was concerned about al Qaeda’s involvement with the Libya opposition.

"The number 3 guy in al Qaeda right now is Libyan. They have put a fair number of fighters into Iraq from Libya. So it is a place where al Qaeda is, [but] that doesn’t mean this is an al Qaeda effort."

He also said that the Libyan regime, led by Col. Muammar al Qaddafi, still possesses stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

"The administration missed a big opportunity when they didn’t talk about chemical weapons stockpiles. I’ve seen it personally with these eyeballs. Their biological weapons program, we think we got it all but we’re not sure," said Rogers. I worry a lot about who is safeguarding that material. We believe right now it is in the hands of the regime."

"Mustard gas in the hands of bad guy, you don’t have to have a large scale event to have that be an incredibly dangerous terrorist weapon. And there are other things that he has as well."

The White House issued a statement late Thursday from Press Secretary Jay Carney that the Obama administration was not arming the rebels as of now.

"No decision has been made about providing arms to the opposition or to any group in Libya. We’re not ruling it out or ruling it in. We’re assessing and reviewing options for all types of assistance that we could provide to the Libyan people, and have consulted directly with the opposition and our international partners about these matters," the statement read.