In response to peaceful protests against the Gadhafi regime, the Libyan government has responded with a brutally violent crackdown on the demonstrators.  Military, police, and mercenaries have been deployed in an outrageous assault on peaceful citizens petitioning for an orderly end to the corrupt regime.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_LIBYA_PROTESTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_MIDEAST_UNREST?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_MIDEAST_PROTESTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

In 2008, the United States ended its sanctions against the Gadhafi regime.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=93163479

Since then, US investment has flowed into the country, propping up a failed state which is sustained by a campaign of terror.  The people of Libya deal with grinding poverty and oppression, facing a 30% unemployment rate.

US investment must end.  The US government must send a clear message to the Gadhafi regime and the Libyan people that violent suppression of basic human rights cannot and will not be tolerated.  Threatening to cut off the flow of US capital places pressure on the police, military, and mercenaries:  if they believe that supporting the regime is a lost cause, they will abandon the campaign of violence.  The survival or toppling of the Gadhafi regime is, in many ways, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Demand that the US government immediately impose sanctions against the Gadhafi regime, and exert pressure on the United Nations and other international organizations to do the same.