WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has imposed personal sanctions on Libya's Moamer Qadhafi and four of his sons, in a clear attempt to further weaken his teetering regime and punish brutal assaults against his people.
Obama wielded presidential power in an executive order Friday to seize the assets of Qadhafi and named family members in the United States and globally within the auspices of US financial institutions, saying the "human dignity" of Libyans "cannot be denied."
Washington also shuttered its Tripoli embassy, warned its spies were seeking evidence of "atrocities" in Libya and said that Qadhafi had lost the confidence of his people, in an apparent broad hint that Washington wanted him gone.
Officials said the US sanctions were a direct attempt to prevent any looting of Libya's assets and sovereign wealth by Qadhafi and his sons amid turmoil which reports said has killed over 1,000 people and split the country.
Privately, sources said, Washington hoped the measures would encourage defections from the regime.
The move also came on the eve of a UN Security Council meeting to consider multilateral sanctions on the Qadhafi government, and after the Libyan strongman warned of a looming battle in Tripoli to protect his four-decades-old regime.
"By any measure, Moamer Qadhafi's government has violated international norms and common decency and must be held accountable," Obama said in a statement.
"These sanctions therefore target the Qadhafi government, while protecting the assets that belong to the people of Libya."
"We will stand steadfastly with the Libyan people in their demand for universal rights, and a government that is responsive to their aspirations. Their human dignity cannot be denied," Obama said.
US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Stuart Levey told reporters on a conference call that Obama had taken "decisive steps" to hold the Qadhafi regime accountable.
The sanctions contained an annex specifically naming Qadhafi and four sons, but did not single out any other Libyan officials, a sign Washington was hoping to peel off key members of the ruling elite in Tripoli.
The administration did retain the power under the executive order to name other Libyan officials who could be targeted.
Earlier, a plane carrying more US citizens away from the violence took off from Tripoli, after a chartered ferry carrying nearly 300 other Americans cast off from the harbor after bad weather relented, and sailed to safety in Malta.
White House spokesman Jay Carney appeared to acknowledge that US rhetoric in recent days was tempered by anxiety that US citizens trapped in the vicious violence could face reprisals.
The US embassy in Tripoli, which was only opened in 2006, during a tentative rapprochement in US-Libya ties, was shuttered for security reasons and all diplomatic personnel withdrawn, Carney and the State Department said.
The White House also fleshed out its attempts to hold Qadhafi "accountable" in addition to the new sanctions regime.
It warned that it would use the full extent of its "intelligence capabilities to monitor the Qadhafi regime's actions" and would particularly seek evidence of violence or atrocities committed against the Libyan people.
Carney, however, would not go as far as to say that the White House backed calls for Qadhafi and his lieutenants to eventually face some kind of formal justice, perhaps at the International Criminal Court.
In an editorial on Friday, The New York Times called for establishihng a no-fly zone over Libya similar to the one that protected Iraqi Kurds during Saddam Hussein's rule.
But The Wall Street Journal said US and European officials discounted the prospect of NATO taking military action.
In Brussels on Friday, ambassadors of the 28 NATO allies agreed only to monitor events, The Journal said, citing unnamed diplomats and officials.
NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday the situation in Libya couldn't be considered a direct threat to NATO or its members, according to the newspaper.
On the financial front, the US Treasury warned US banks to watch out for transfers linked to Libya's political leaders.
The department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network told banks to be aware of "the potential increased movement of assets that may be related to the situation in Libya," in a statement released Friday.
Libya and its leaders are suspected of holding billions of dollars in foreign bank accounts, cash largely gleaned from the country's vast oil wealth.
According to a 2010 message from the US embassy in Tripoli, obtained by WikiLeaks, Libya's sovereign wealth fund holds $32 billion in cash and "several American banks are each managing $300-500 million."
Obama's sanctions specifically targeted Qadhafi's sons Ayesa Qadhafi, Mutassimi Qadhafi, Seif al-Islam and Khamis Qadhafi.
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