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Libya's Competing Governments Contend for Washington Influence

Michael Rummel

   WASHINGTON - The Libyan civil war has found a new battlefield:the halls
   of Washington. The eight-year conflict shows little sign of ending, and
   the warring governments are stepping up their efforts to influence
   policymakers in the United States.

   Crucial to these efforts, and the Libyan conflict as a whole, is the
   country's oil output. Production currently stands at more than a
   million barrels a day, and the revenue is crucial to all aspects of the
   conflict. It funds the weapons, the militias, and the lawyers lobbying
   officials in the United States.

   Most of the oil is shippedto Western Europe, where Libyan oil retains
   an "outsized significance to the European market," according to Dr.
   Cullen Hendrix, professor at the University of Denver and nonresident
   senior fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics.

   Under army's control

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