Murder of General Raises Questions About Libyan NTC

Libyan rebel General Abdel Fattah Younis' bullet riddled and burned body was dumped July 28 in the dust of a sun-bleached expanse between Ajdabiya and Benghazi. A short time before his death, Younis had been summoned for questioning by a troop of rebel fighters who summoned him for what they said was an official inquiry.

Within a short time, Younis' burned body was found in the desert. Who killed General Younis, how did he die, and why was he murdered? It's a question that could further undermine U.S. support for the war, already at a low ebb.

Until he defected to the side of the Libyan rebels, Abdel Fattah Younis was the former Libyan Interior Minister, and close associate of Moammar Gadhafi. The defection was all the more bitter for Gadhafi since Younis participated in the 1969 coup which brought Gadhafi to power.

On July 15, the U.S. recognized Libya's National Transition Council as the legitimate Libyan government, after other European and Middle Eastern governments had done so.

The mysterious circumstances surrounding Younis' murder is not the kind of action that creates confidence in a new Libyan government. It has also revealed deep divisions and factional disputes within the Libyan opposition.

Were the people who killed Younis Al Qaeda operatives or other militant Islamists, as Gadhafi claims? It's a question that the Libyan leadership would prefer not to answer, preferring that America sees American flag waving crowds rather than bearded Islamists governing Libya with Kalashnikovs.

While Gadhafi official Mussa Ibrahim blamed Al Quaida, the rebels blame Gadhafi for the killing, and Younis' supporters blamed the NTC.

General Younis had been one of the first and most highly placed Gadhafi officials to defect to the rebel side. His defection was just the sort of thing that allowed Obama administration officials to reassure Americans that the kinetic military action in Libya would be brief and effective.

Mrs. Clinton promised more defections in March, saying the Gadhafi regime would collapse in a matter of days.

That was in February. Yet, a relentless NATO bombardment run by Canadian Lt. General Charles Bouchard has failed to dislodge the Bedouin strongman who, when visiting the U.S. in 2009 , wanted to pitch his tent in New York's Central Park.

General Bouchard bristles at the comment made by U.S. Joint Chief General Mike Mullen that NATO progress had stalled.

"I disagree with the term 'stalement,'" said Bouchard on Friday.

Meanwhile, the defiant Gadhafis occasionally appear in the spotlight to harangue the West, contradicting accounts of their imminent departure, by one means or another.

The Libyan transitional government promises a full investigation of Younis' killing, but this seems pro forma. In the factionalized and tribal north African country, the optics of the killing do not favor transparency.

Though the U.S. led off with the NATO bombing, the Obama administration has stopped short of providing arms to the Libyan rebels, a justifiable position in a conflict where weapons are certain to end up in the wrong hands.