More foreign affairs in a crazy, mixed-up world

Greenland targeted for U.S. spying; Libya, already hell on earth for visitors, could get unwanted U.S. immigrants

It was only a matter of time, and there wasn’t far left to go—but the new Trump administration has officially taken complete leave of its collective senses. Two foreign policy decisions taken this week by Trump and his gang of idiots mark the point of no return for any hope of common sense resurfacing before 2029.

First, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, the United States is plotting efforts to spy on its NATO ally, Denmark, and the Danish national territory of Greenland, which Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen categorically refuses to consider selling. Someone—probably the cartoonish villain in charge of intelligence, Tulsi “Take it to Thule” Gabbard—must think this is perfectly appropriate behavior.

[See “Denmark plans to call in U.S. ambassador,” May 7, https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2025-05-07/denmark-plans-to-call-in-us-ambassador-over-greenland-spying-report .]

“High-ranking officials working under Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, issued the instruction to agency heads in a ‘collection emphasis message,’ [which] customarily help to set intelligence priorities and direct resources and attention to high-interest targets,” the Guardian newspaper wrote in a follow-on report.

The Central Intelligence Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency were all included in the message. It told chiefs to study Greenland’s independence movement and attitudes to American efforts to extract resources on the island, according to the Journal, citing two unnamed officials familiar with the matter.

[See “Denmark to summon US envoy,” May 7, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/07/greenland-spying-surveillance .]

And second, the nitwits in Washington, led by Homeland Security czarina Kristi Noem, AKA Ice Barbie for her fashion sense—and for mismanaging the jet-propelled deportation of undocumented aliens, without even a shred of due process, in jeering defiance of federal judges’ orders—have begun planning to send at least one planeload of Asians to an unstable country racked by civil conflict: Libya. (Apparently, neither Panama nor El Salvador’s super-security prison were quite far enough away to send them.)

The unprecedented move would now begin transferring the unwitting aliens to a handful of countries in Africa, including a hell on earth for migrants and asylum seekers, Libya, where a sporadic shooting war between two competing governments in Tripoli and Benghazi has turned much of the desert country into a no-man’s land. U.S. citizens have been warned for nearly a year—in the strictest possible terms—NOT to travel there at all. And at least one of the competing governments has publicly said “no” to the plan. Meanwhile, because U.S. airlines are forbidden even to land there, special military flights would be necessary—but without permission, would violate national sovereignty.

The other countries being considered include Angola, Benin, Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), and Rwanda. The Asian migrants being deported include citizens of the Philippines, with whom the U.S. has an extradition treaty—and of Laos and Vietnam, who do not have such a treaty.

A federal judge stepped in almost immediately to prohibit any military or DHS deportations of any third-country immigrants to Libya—but given Trump’s disdain for federal judges, that question may soon be up to the Supreme Court to decide. [See “Federal judge halts deportations to Libya,” May 7, https://foxbaltimore.com/news/nation-world/federal-judge-halts-deportations-to-libya-citing-potential-court-order-violations-trump-administration-dhs-ice-immigration-customs-enforcement .]

[See “Trump administration plans to deport migrants to Libya,” May 7, https://www.npr.org/2025/05/07/nx-s1-5389739/libya-immigration-crackdown-trump-deportations ; https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/libya-travel-advisory.html .]

Earth to ICE Barbie: quit making those pointless TV commercials kissing Donald Trump’s butt, and check first with Miniscule Marco over at State before you tell your boss Libya is an acceptable option. Better yet, why not just resign. We hear a reverse redeye to Pierre is gassed up and waiting. Don’t forget your $3,000 Gucci handbag, your $50,000 Rolex, and your hair dryer …

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As a “reformed” Foreign Service Officer—I walked away from the U.S. State Department in 1997—I keep my eyes out for unusual and outrageous events occurring in countries of interest to the United States, particularly those I have served in or visited. This often includes analyses of U.S. actions affecting those countries, whether wise or effective—or neither, as here—and in some cases, simply mind-boggling.

I served for two years as a junior officer at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, home to one of America’s most loyal and supportive allies—as well as my own Viking ancestors. It was a magical experience—with friendly English-speaking Danes, outstanding beer, and beautiful historical buildings, plus the world-famous Tivoli amusement park. I never got to see Greenland, missing my only opprtunity to tag along on a military flight to Thule Air Base because of schedule conflicts.

That friendly era seems to be fast approaching an inglorious end at the hands of Donald Trump, whose childish, single-minded, and avaricious desire to “own” Greenland has brought him to this point—despite repeated, polite, but increasingly firm admonitions from Frederiksen and Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, and even a subtle rebuke from King Frederik X, who pointedly redesigned the royal coat of arms to emphasize just how important Greenland is to the monarchy.

Rasmussen has taken the unusual step of calling in the acting U.S. ambassador to read her the riot act—a grave step generally reserved for unfriendly nations, not allies, and sometimes even a precursor to declaring the ambassador persona non grata, not for a friendly chat.

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen, not smiling these days. Courtesy Omar Havana, Getty Images

According to a Reuters report reprinted in U.S. News, Rasmussen told reporters during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Warsaw that “I have read the article in the Wall Street Journal and it worries me greatly because we do not spy on friends." [Italics are the author’s.]

In the absence of a confirmed ambassador, the task of defending these troubling reports falls to the current acting ambassador: charge d’affaires Jennifer Hall Godfrey, a career diplomat and deputy chief of mission in Copenhagen since 2022. President Trump has nominated billionaire venture capitalist Kenneth Howery, a former U.S. ambassador to Sweden, as the next U.S. ambassador to Denmark—but he has yet to be confirmed by the Senate.

U.S. charge d’affaires Jennifer Hall Godfrey, who may not be smiling long. Courtesy U.S. Department of State

This may be serendipitous. A respected veteran public diplomacy officer of senior rank, Godfrey was Under Secretary of State from 2021 to 2022, before being assigned to Copenhagen. She has also served in a number of overseas U.S. posts, coincidentally including Libya from 2007 to 2009.

If anyone can explain the current situation satisfactorily—and that’s a mighty big “if”—she is probably far more qualified than most to present a logical case to the Foreign Minister than even the wealthiest political appointee, or their titular boss, Miniscule Marco himself.

But there is just no acceptable explanation for the stupid plan. It makes no sense, at any level, to spy on an ally of long standing, and at worst is infinitely more warlike than peaceful. Even the Director of Artificial Un-Intelligence herself—as her singularly unenlightened testimony before Congress in recent days has underscored—would be hard put to design a workable plan for collecting intelligence on the world’s largest island, covered by ice and snow. There are perhaps 200 Space Force personnel at Pituffik Space Base, once known as Thule—more than 1,000 miles from Nuuk, the capital, where a skeleton force runs the tiny U.S. consulate, as long as Denmark allows it to remain open.

Perhaps J. Dunderhead Vance, always eager for a new vice-presidential assignment, will volunteer to lead an undercover cross-country dogsled team of robotic polar bears. Having no first-hand experience in the field, perhaps Gabbard will try to gain some by doing a little intelligence gathering herself … parachuting in with Maxwell Smart and Inspector Gadget, no doubt already on her speed-dial as backups.

In any event, Godfrey will have her hands full in Copenhagen—even with a Foreign Minister she knows well and trusts.

Good luck to her, at any rate. It may be among the last official acts she takes as charge d’affaires, assuming Howery is confirmed later this month—and brings along a new deputy chief of mission, as is customary—and perhaps among her last official acts as a diplomat. When she comes home, the Department of State is undergoing a historic downsizing now being engineered by Miniscule Marco—and firing or forced retirement await …

In a perfect world, Godfrey would have gone on to be an ambassador herself.

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Libya is no tourist destination, nor is it recommended for the fainthearted traveler—or officially, any American traveler at all. Since the downfall and execution of former dictator Muammar Qadhafi in 2011, the country has survived a nasty civil war which killed thousands of civilians and a continuing state of unrest.

A huge swath of desert along the Mediterranean coast of North Africa between Tunisia and Egypt, parts of it are currently ruled by two distinct regimes: the listless Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli, the traditional capital, led by Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, and a rogue government in Benghazi supported by the warlord Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), eagerly supported by Russia—and who have publicly rejected the idea of accepting U.S. deportees.

Spheres of influence in modern Libya. Map courtesy Congress.gov

According to a 2024 report prepared by Congress, the situation in Libya remains confusing, at best:

In 2021, members of a UN-appointed Libyan Political Dialogue Forum (LPDF) and the HOR approved an interim Presidential Council (PC) and Government of National Unity (GNU) to replace the GNA, with a mandate to serve until elections or through June 2022. The LPDF and HOR endorsed Abdul Hamid Dabaiba as GNU Prime Minister, along with a three-member Presidential Council. The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) facilitated discussions among the GNU, the HOR, and the High Council of State (HCS, an advisory representative body), but was unable to establish a constitutional and legal basis for parliamentary and presidential elections then-planned for December 2021.

The elections were postponed indefinitely and have yet to be rescheduled amid ongoing disputes over electoral laws and the possibility of a new interim government. Since that time, eastern Libya-based actors have revived efforts to have a rival government, led by Osama Hamad, recognized as legitimate. Competition among Libyans has intensified for control over the National Oil Corporation (NOC) and Central Bank, which govern the oil operations, revenues, and public sector payments on which most Libyans rely.

[See “Libya and U.S. policy,” https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IF11556 .]

I have never visited Libya, nor under the circumstances, do I ever plan to. My only indirect contact with Libyans during my Foreign Service career was with the country’s handful of diplomats in Denmark, who resided in the same large, privately-owned apartment building that housed many of the Embassy staff in the mid-1980s. They generally kept to themselves, but quickly ran afoul of a very strict municipal rule forbidding use of charcoal grills or barbecues on wooden building balconies.

The determined Libyans responded to that restriction by building charcoal fires for cooking in the underground parking garage—endangering both the cars in the garage and the entire building, and drawing a swift response from both Copenhagen firemen and the Foreign Ministry.

Several of those Libyan diplomats were then expelled from Denmark, but not for setting fires. Their expulsion resulted instead from Qadhafi’s connection to the April 1986 bombing of a crowded discotheque in then-West Berlin, in which three people—including two Americans—were killed and more than 200 others injured. The U.S. government had accused Qadhafi’s government of sponsoring the bombing, and President Reagan ordered retaliatory strikes on both Tripoli and Benghazi 10 days later.

I happened to be vacationing in Paris the weekend after the bombing, where a friendly but diligent gendarme stopped my out-of-country-plated vehicle to check my ID. (Before leaving Copenhagen, I had neglected to affix the obligatory “DK” sticker to my car.) After verifying my diplomatic passport, he explained—in clear English, thankfully—that Parisian police were being extra-cautious in the wake of the terrorist acts, and proceeded to lead my wife and me to a local hotel, as a gesture of cordiality.

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Flash forward 39 years: Despite its immense oil wealth, the country of Libya remains dangerously unstable. More than 300,000 displaced persons require humanitarian aid in Libya, according to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Already “a top transit country for people trying to reach Europe, with smugglers sending migrants across the Mediterranean in unsafe, overcrowded vessels,” Libya’s chaotic environment “has contributed to the nearly 30,000 people who have died or disappeared crossing the sea since 2014,” according to the Council on Foreign Relations’ Center for Preventive Action.

Human rights groups have called conditions in Libya’s network of migrant detention centers “horrific” and “deplorable,” according to the New York Times. [See “Trump Administration Plans,” May 7, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/us/politics/trump-libya-migrants.html?algo=combo_clicks_decay_6_lda_unique_80_diversified&block=3&campaign_id=142&emc=edit_fory_20250507&fellback=false&imp_id=5282999688893293&instance_id=154075&nl=for-you&nlid=66543734&pool=channel-replacement-ls&rank=1&regi_id=66543734&req_id=5106602003754001&segment_id=197495&surface=for-you-email-channelless&user_id=9e758cd9bf637abc0a14a155f872e540&variant=0_channel_translated_pool_popularity_pers .]

Those who cannot pay smugglers to get out of Libya, and are detained there, will hardly fare any better than those who drown escaping, according to the UNHCR:

Libyan forces have also committed significant human rights abuses against migrants detained in Libyan facilities, including forced labor, extortion, torture, and sexual assault. A mass grave containing the bodies of sixty-five migrants was discovered in March 2024, leading the UN human rights chief to launch a full investigation. Meanwhile, the sex and labor trafficking of migrants and asylum-seekers at the hands of criminal networks, militia groups, government officials, and private employers remains largely unchecked.

[See “Civil Conflict in Libya,” https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/civil-war-libya; https://www.unhcr.org/us/countries/libya# .]

Deported immigrants from the United States, of course, will enjoy no protection from either government in the conflict, and of course, no right to seek redress from the U.S. embassy for Libya, which technically does not operate in country. (In 2014, it was relocated from Tripoli to Valetta, Malta, and is now housed in Tunis, Tunisia.) In 2024, at the request of the Biden administration, Congress appropriated funds “to reestablish a U.S. full-time diplomatic presence in Libya, which could enable more robust U.S. engagement,” with mid-2025 set as a target date.

That timetable appears extremely unrealistic, with the retirement—announced just this week—of former U.S. ambassador Richard Norland as Special Envoy to Libya, after serving in that capacity since 2019. No replacement has yet been named by the Trump administration. Small wonder.

Benghazi, the nation’s second largest city, was once home to a special U.S. mission, including a consulate and a special CIA annex which were both attacked by militant terrorists in September 2012. U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were murdered in that attack, for which one person—Ahmed Abu Khattala—has been charged and convicted in U.S. courts.

And in case you’re still looking for it, Kristi, the Level 4 Travel advisory for Americans considering travel to Libya, in effect since August 1, 2024, reads in part as follows:

Do not travel to Libya due to crime, terrorism, unexploded landmines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict.

Crime levels in Libya remain high, including the threat of kidnapping for ransom. U.S. citizens have been targets of these crimes.

Terrorist groups are present in Libya. No terrorist incidents that involved foreigners have been publicly reported in Libya since 2015. Nevertheless, terrorist attacks could occur with little or no warning, targeting public spaces like tourist locations, hotels, transportation hubs, markets/shopping malls, and government facilities. Kidnapping is widespread, and victims have included U.S. citizens.

Outbreaks of violence between competing armed groups can occur with little warning and have the potential to impact U.S. citizens. The capital, Tripoli, and other cities, such as Surman, Al-Jufra, Misrata, Ajdabiya, Benghazi, and Zuwara, have witnessed fighting among armed groups. Hotels and airports frequented by U.S. citizens have been the targets of these attacks. Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence.

Armed groups sometimes detain travelers for arbitrary reasons, do not grant detainees access to a lawyer or a legal process, and do not allow detainees to inform others of their status.

But despite all this, the Troll King himself and his team of incompetents believe it is the perfect place to begin dumping our unwanted Asian migrants—without even a semblance of due process.

Next time: More foreign affairs in a crazy, mixed-up world