CONFUSION OVER LIBYA – AT 8:39 A.M. ET:  The situation involving Libya can best be described this morning as confused.  Yesterday saw the defection of some high-level Libyan officials, but also saw government forces pushing the rebels back.

At the same time there is an increasing, and increasingly anxious, debate in Washington over just who the rebels are.  Our intelligence is, as usual, thoroughly inadequate, and some members of Congress and observers are warning that the people we're helping may turn out to have Al Qaeda connections.  CNN reports on the latest:

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- NATO took sole command of air operations in Libya on Thursday as CIA operatives worked the field to connect with rebel fighters who have seen their surge toward Tripoli impeded.

The NATO mission -- called Operation Unified Protector-- includes an arms embargo, a no-fly zone and "actions to protect civilians and civilian centers," the alliance said Thursday.

It follows a U.N. Security Council resolution allowing member states to take all necessary measures -- with the exception of foreign occupation -- to protect civilians under the threat of attack in Libya.

Over the weekend, CNN reported that rebels had taken al-Brega, Ras Lanuf and Bin Jawad and reached a town just east of Sirte. But in the last three days, opposition fighters have been pushed back eastward.

There are reports that the U.S. is considering supplying arms to the rebels. 

While U.S. and British officials say no decision has been made about whether to arm the opposition, a U.S. intelligence source said the CIA is in the country to increase the "military and political understanding" of the situation.

"Yes, we are gathering intel firsthand, and we are in contact with some opposition entities," the source told CNN.

COMMENT:  Remember, about a week ago, how many people were saying that this story would end quickly?  It isn't ending quickly.  We hope not, but the military operations in which we're involved can go on for a very long time, with no guarantee of the outcome.

A word about CNN:  We have been properly critical of some of their reporting in the past, and there's no question that CNN leans left.  But its reporting on the recent upheavals in the Mideast has, I think, been quite good, and generally free of the usual ideological bias.  Some of the grown-ups at CNN, like Wolf Blitzer, have asserted themselves, and the news outlet has sought the wisdom of Fouad Ajami, often quoted here, who's raised the knowledge level of CNN by about 300 percent.

I suspect CNN's improvement is largely due to the departure of Christiane Amanpour, one of the most wildly overrated reporters in all of human history, who now is working her black magic at ABC.  She was CNN's chief international correspondent for many years, and the operation seems to have blossomed, both in content, and in attitude, in her absence. 

March 31, 2011