of course it s a war. people s lives are being put at risk. about you he is the commander in chief, right? you know what? yes, but that doesn t go into effect until the congress authorizes a war, and he s not only the administration has not only abided by the constitution, not even abiding by the war powers act, but exceeded the u.n. mandate. it you with go after gadhafi s army, because eventually you re going to go into civilian areas where people support gadhafi. since world war ii, the u.s. has acted militarily against other countries without a formal declaration of war being approved. the supreme court has said that s okay. well, you know what? the supreme court actually has left this contest open between congress and the administration sbu there s a difference. when the stakes are as high as they are in the region.
agreement on what the allies want. does gadhafi have to be killed or as an incentive to stand down, given sanctuary in another country. some are going to put on standby. and if the situation gets bad enough, the nato commander could call on them. although, that request would have to come back up the u.s. chain of command, wolf. you know andrews rasmussen said the security council resolution does not authorize arming the rebels. the obama administration has a different interpretation of that resolution. they don t rule it in. they don t rule it out. what that an issue that came up in the hearings today? it did, wolf. secretary gates said that s a responsibility best left to america s allies. he said whether the rebels are armed or not, there are allied nations that are perfectly
brega is once more under the control of libyan government forces, and the rebels say even with a no-fly zone and nato air and missile strikes, there s still no match for gadhafi s men. this is useless, says this fighter, giving me his antiquated soviet made machine gun, adding it s only good for pigeon hunting. the fighters fire their weapons all day long. but by the afternoon they start to run out of ammunition. which means, of course, they have to retreat. dramatic advances are followed by dramatic retreats. high moral doesn t make up for lack of progress. the ammunition is replenished each day when the rebels move to the front.
and this afternoon, wolf, late this afternoon, word from cnn s ivan watson that in fact libya s choice for u.n. representative is defeking, too. yeah, i suspect there s going to be more of that going on as well. thanks for that, jill. let s bring in cnn national security criminal intent tor fran townsend. she s a member of the cia external advisory committee. she met with high ranking libyan officials last year. you met moussa koussa. what s he like? he s incredibly bright, but also incredibly manipulative person as you would expect in the head of an intelligence service. he held the job for decades. it is true to say he is one of two officials outside of the gadhafi family who have been with gadhafi and remain very close to him. one is moussa koussa, the former head of libyan intelligence. the other who we ve not talked about is abdullah sanusi, the current head of libyan intelligence.
it s a fluid situation. they got a tough grilling today by congress. let s go to capitol hill. our senior correspondent was there watching it all unfold. how did it go, dana? reporter: there were four hearings today, and for the first time the congress got a chance to question parts of the war council. in hearings across the capitol, frustration and doubts about the libya mission boiled over. this is just the most muddled definition of an operation probably in u.s. military history. i am very worried about this whole idea of mission-creep. it s a heck of a situation when we go into a conflict and we don t know who we re supporting. reporter: agitated lawmakers tried and failed to get answers from the defense secretary and joint chiefs chairman on how long the mission will last and when gadhafi will go. the bottom line is no one can predict for you how long it will