Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States is moving to authorize up to $25 million worth of nonlethal assistance to Libya's Transitional National Council as part of its effort to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas from forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi.

Speaking in Washington with Haitian President-elect Michel Martelly April 20, 2011, Clinton said the assistance includes medical supplies, uniforms, boots, tents, personal protective gear, radios and halal meals that will be "drawn down from items already in government stocks that correspond with the needs that we have heard from the Transitional National Council."

Clinton said the U.S. action "is consistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which among other actions authorized member states to take all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas."

She also said officials in the U.S. State and Defense departments are working closely with other countries to help coordinate "who among the international community can provide which goods and services."

She noted that Libya's opposition began as a spontaneous response to Qadhafi's rule, consisting mainly of "business people, students, lawyers, doctors, professors who have very bravely moved to defend their communities and to call for an end to the regime in Libya."

The group was not an organized militia when protests began in February, but has "held its own against a brutal assault by the Qadhafi forces," the secretary said. She said the United States will continue to take actions that are consistent with the U.N. authorization in order to fulfill the international community's commitment to the Libyan people.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said April 20 that Chris Stevens, a former official at the U.S. Embassy in Tripoli, has been in Libya talking to members of the opposition to assess their needs and relay them to U.S. officials in Washington.
Stevens "has allowed us to get a better sense of what kind of nonlethal assistance we can provide to them … in a relatively quick fashion," Toner said.

"We are getting a better sense of their command structure, of their coherence as an entity, and that's helping us … make better decisions about how we can help them," he added.

"There's an urgent situation here and they need our help," Toner said.