Obama's secret plan to spin his Libyan misadventure

Forget the debt crisis, the budget, the failing economy and millions of unemployed Americans.  What Obama needs is a way to reverse his bad poll numbers and shut up the critics of the humanitarian intervention (unauthorized war) in Libya.  

The poll bounce after OBL was killed should have lasted longer, in his view. The greatest and most heroic action by any U.S. President since Abraham Lincoln should have lasted until November 2012.  A white president would still be riding high.  How about taking out Gaddafi?

Without putting boots on the ground in Libya, it will be impossible to assassinate Gaddafi and get full credit for the heroic mission.  Besides, since Admiral Locklear blabbed about NATO's plan to kill the Libyan leader, it just wouldn't look right.  Even if he is "accidentally killed" in an air strike, Obama wouldn't be able to claim credit because the U.S. is acting only in a limited support role, despite what those loud-mouths at Air Force Times reported last week.

Air Force and Navy aircraft are still flying hundreds of strike missions over Libya despite the Obama administration's claim that American forces are playing only a limited support role in the NATO operation.

 An Africa Command (AFRICOM) spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday that since NATO's Operation Unified Protector (OUP) took over from the American-led Operation Odyssey Dawn on March 31, the U.S. military has flown hundreds of strike sorties. Previously, Washington had claimed that it was mostly providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and tanker support to NATO forces operating over Libya.

There must be some other way to get a poll bounce out of Libya.  Hey, how about capturing the Lockerbie Bomber?  He's still living in Libya and after he was released from prison (on compassionate medical grounds) the American people were really angry.  Since some critics felt that OBL should have been captured and put on trial, maybe the Lockerbie Bomber could be captured and brought to America for a show trial.  Talk about a poll bounce!   

How to capture Abdel Baset al-Megrahi without putting boots on the ground?  Maybe a deal can be struck with al-Qaeda (a.k.a. the freedom fighting, pro-democracy rebel forces) to capture al Megrahi and turn him over to U.S. special-forces.  Now, the challenge will be to keep this plot from leaking out.

 Another leak, say it ain't so!  The UK Daily Mail reports:

Senior Congressional sources in Washington have disclosed to The Mail on Sunday that President Obama has told the Libyan rebels through intermediaries that a condition of continued support from the US is that they must hand over Megrahi if they enter Tripoli.

The mission would involve Megrahi being flown to a neutral Arab country by US Special Forces once he is handed over by the rebels, and then on to America to face trial. British SAS soldiers are unlikely to be directly involved in the operation  [...]

The plan to capture the  bomber came after US Senators Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez met Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder last week to demand the US 'continue working to return Abdelbaset Al Megrahi to prison'. 

By now nobody could possibly remember that Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Holder were consulted by the Scottish government prior to the release of the infamous Lockerbie Bomber.  That was way back in 2009 and even then nobody important read the CNN.com Q&A article.

Q: So how was the decision made to release him?

A: Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill considered a Libyan government request to transfer al Megrahi to Libya to serve out his sentence there.

He talked to families of British and U.S. victims, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, British authorities, Libyan officials, and al Megrahi himself, declassified Scottish government records show.

The MSM never picked up the story, so Eric and Hillary should be in the clear on this one.  This could be the solution to the Libya problem and give BHO a badly needed bounce in the polls.  If only they can keep it a secret...so don't tell anyone.