The Libya thread

[Jeff]

Libya: 'Recall Parliament to debate regime change'

James Kirkup 4:52PM BST 15 Apr 2011

MPs have called for Parliament to be recalled to debate David Cameron’s admission that military action in Libya will continue until Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is toppled.

Conservative and Labour members said that the Prime Minister’s statement – made jointly with Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy – showed that the Libyan mission had moved from its original humanitarian purpose and was now about regime change.

Fuelling concerns about mission creep in Libya, a French minister admitted that the Western coalition risks “moving beyond” the original United Nations resolution that authorised military action to protect Libyan civilians.

When the conflict started last month, Mr Cameron told MPs that the allies were not seeking to remove Col Gaddafi. But in a joint article with his fellow leaders, he declared: “So long as Gaddafi is in power, Nato and its coalition partners must maintain their operations.”

...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... hange.html

[JackRiddler]

.

Definitely related, though the Libya intervention goes unmentioned...

http://www.businessinsider.com/berlusco ... ion-2011-4

Right Wing Pressure Grows In Europe As Berlusconi And Sarkozy Team Up To Stop Flow Of African Immigrants

Adam Taylor | Apr. 27, 2011, 12:04 PM
Image: AP

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi are calling for border checks and changes to Europe's open border policy to combat the influx of approximately 30,000 Norther African immigrants.

The move comes as a result of surging immigration from the revolutionary states of North Africa. Both leaders are also under pressure from rising right-wing, anti-EU and anti-immigration sentiment in their countries.

Italy has born the brunt of the emigres due to its proximity to Africa, while France has been a destination for many Francophone Tunisians.

Germany thus far has not backed the call for changes in the treaty, and seem much more comfortable with the flow of immigrants, with their economy running full steam.

Analysts doubt the Shengen Agreement will be amended, instead the action is seen many to be a response to Right Wing pressure in both France and Italy. Sarkozy, with upcoming Presidential elections, is seeking to neuter Marine Le Pen's National Front. Berlusconi may be seeking to placate the Lega Nord, a Right Wing ally in his coalition government.

Lookit these thugs

/

[Nordic]

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/did-li ... de-tunisia

Did Libya Just Invade Tunisia?

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/29/2011 09:42 -0400

Reuters

Sounds crazy but, "Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi crossed into neighbouring Tunisia and fought a gun battle with Tunisian troops in a frontier town as Libya's conflict spilt beyond its borders...Pro-Gaddafi forces fired shells into the town of Dehiba, damaging buildings and injuring at least one resident, and a group of them drove into the town in a truck, local people and a Reuters photographer in the town said. The Libyan government troops were pursuing anti-Gaddafi rebels from the restive Western Mountains region of Libya who fled into Tunisia in the past few days after Gaddafi forces overran the border post the rebels had earlier seized." So is this the carte blanche that Pro Oil liberation forces need in order to justify a land invasion of Libya? And what happens to oil in that case when Gaddafi's back is truly against the wall?

From the Telegraph:

"There were lots of clashes in the town this morning. Lots of gunshots. The Tunisian military clashed with Gaddafi's forces ... Some of Gaddafi's people were killed," said Reuters photographer Zoubeir Souissi from the town.

"There are a lot of Gaddafi's people who were injured. They are in the hospital in Dehiba," he said.

Two residents also told Reuters that shells had fallen on the town from pro-Gaddafi positions across the border in Libya.

"Rounds from the bombardment are falling on houses.... A Tunisian woman was injured," one of the residents, called Ali, told Reuters by telephone.

He said later the fighting and shelling had stopped. "The Tunisian army is combing the town. We have no idea about the fate of Gaddafi's forces there because the Tunisian army closed the gates to the town and nobody is allowed to enter."

A Libyan rebel said anti-Gaddafi fighters had retaken control of the border crossing near Dehiba. The main crossing into Libya, two hours' drive to the north, remains firmly under Libyan government control.

"Right here at this point I'm looking at the new (rebel) flag flying up there at the border. The rebels have got control of it, the freedom fighters. We're just in the process of opening it up," rebel Akram el Muradi said by telephone.
Tunisia, which recently lost its own dictator, has decided to issue a statement, sternly warning against further incursions or else:

Tunisia's government late on Thursday issued a statement condemning incursions by Libyan forces after shells fired by Gaddafi loyalists fell into the desert near the border.

"Given the gravity of what has happened ... the Tunisian authorities have informed the Libyans of their extreme indignation and demand measures to put an immediate stop to these violations," a statement from the foreign ministry said.

Friday's clashes marked the first time that Libyan government ground forces had crossed the border and entered a Tunisian town.

[Bruce Dazzling]

[seemslikeadream]

Gadhafi's son killed in airstrike. Gadhafi was in the home at the time

CNN

[DrVolin]

apparently some of the grandkids as well. And so the billion dollar bloodfeud continues. What a triumph for NATO.

[8bitagent]

UN and Susan Rice lied about Ghadafy "roving rape gangs"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42824884/ns ... tn_africa/

Why does the US and NATO always do this? Its not like Saddam or Slobo was innocent in the 90's, but they go and make up all sorts of extra details that just make the west look bad.

[Nordic]

UN and Susan Rice lied about Ghadafy "roving rape gangs"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42824884/ns ... tn_africa/

Why does the US and NATO always do this?

Because it works? It's propaganda 101. Most of your people on "the street" remember the first story, don't ever hear the retraction. So it's in their head. "You know, I heard somewhere that ______________"

[JackRiddler]

.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4829475

Putin says 'dumbfounded' over NATO operation in Libya

Source: RIA NOVOSTI


Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin continued on Wednesday to criticize NATO military operations in Libya, saying that he was "dumb-founded" over how easy decisions are made to use force against countries.

When asked by a Swedish journalist, Putin, who is currently on a visit in Stockholm, said "this happens despite human rights and humanity concerns which the civilized world is believed to advocate," apparently referring to reports about NATO planes bombing civilian objects in Libya.

"Don't you think that there is a serious controversy between words and practice of international relations?" he said, adding that this "misbalance" should be eliminated.

...

Comparing the situation in Libya to what happened in Afghanistan in the 1980s, Putin told the journalist a story about his friend, a KGB officer serving there at that time. When Putin asked him about his success, the officer told him that he was measuring it by the number of airstrikes that he did not approve, explaining that Soviet airstrikes were killing civilians along with rebels.

Read more: http://en.rian.ru/russia/20110427/163739739.html


Putin Says NATO Strikes Destroying Libya, Violate Mandate

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Western military efforts to overthrow Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi are destroying the nation’s infrastructure and violate a United Nations mandate to protect civilians.

“Who decided they had the right to execute a man, regardless of who he is?” Putin told reporters in Copenhagen today during a joint briefing with his Danish counterpart Lars Loekke Rasmussen.

After more than two months of fighting between Qaddafi’s forces and rebels seeking to end his 42-year rule, Libya has ground to a military impasse, with the government controlling much of the west and the insurgents holding the east. A NATO airstrike yesterday destroyed part of Qaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound in the capital Tripoli. NATO said in an e-mailed statement that it hit a “communications headquarters” in Tripoli, without giving details.

Putin on March 21 likened the UN resolution and resulting offensive to a “medieval call for a crusade.” He criticized the U.S. for regularly resorting to force in pursuit of its interests, in Libya and previously in Iraq and Serbia.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-2 ... te-1-.html

[seemslikeadream]

Annals of a Golden Age: Peace Laureate Surpasses Reagan in Killing Gadafy Kin

Written by Chris Floyd
Sunday, 01 May 2011 00:23

O how wonderful it is to live in such an enlightened age! Just think: not long ago, the U.S. government was seen as little more than a vast war machine -- brutal, murderous, inhumane, bent on global domination. Yet now, by some marvelous, miraculous twist of fate, that same government is being led by a Nobel Peace Prize laureate! It's as if Lyndon Johnson had been turfed out of office back in the day and replaced by Martin Luther King Jr.!

So what the modern-day MLK up to today? In what way was the Laureate in the White House advancing the vision and practice of peace? Why, he was murdering children in a "targeted assassination," of course! He was escalating an increasingly savage "regime change" operation in blatant contradiction to the UN mandate supposedly governing the latest of his escalations and surges around the world.

Yes, on Saturday -- just days after the Peace Laureate's administration announced it was sending unmanned drone bombers into the Libyan civil war, the residence of Libyan leader Moamar Gadafy was torn apart by a precision missile attack. The attack on a residential area of Tripoli missed Gadafy, but killed his youngest son, Saif al-Arab, and three of the leader's grandchildren.

With this great act of peace, Obama surpassed one of his favorite presidents, Ronald Reagan, who only managed to kill a single infant adopted daughter of Gadafy back when he was bombing Libya. The Laureate now has four Gadafy family members -- and blood members, too! -- notched on his gun belt.

This is surely an achievement in which all progressive lovers of peace can take enormous pride.

[justdrew]

ok... I was completely wrong to have 'supported' this.

also, don't know if it's been mentioned, but there are allegations that the Libyan rebels core is in large part composed of family fends and hangers on of the previous king G. had toppled. so this could pay out as a 'restoration' if G. looses.

[8bitagent]

Syria: Tanks now shelling cities, massacre at a mosque, 545 dead, no water/fuel/electricity for residents of Daara.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42846925/ns ... tn_africa/

but...

not a word from "humanitarian hawks", and their neocon buddies arent so eager to play ball

Sen. John McCain warned Sunday that the confrontation between government forces and protesters in Syria will only get more "bloody," but said he does not see a military role for the United States.

McCain, one of the first in Congress to call for military intervention in Libya, said the environment in Syria does not lend itself to a similar intervention there.

"Frankly, I don't see a military option," he said, citing the absence of an organized rebellion which the U.S. could support with air power. He instead called for stepped-up sanctions, something the Obama administration has started to pursue.

McCain, though, acknowledged the situation is "going very badly for the people of Syria" and said the clashes demonstrate that Syrian President Bashar Assad is no "reformer," as some in Washington used to claim.

"I think it's clear that Bashar Assad is willing to kill his own people," McCain said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "It's going to be a very bloody time, I'm afraid, in Syria."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05 ... z1L88yu3Rp

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/05 ... bloodshed/

the lulz

[seemslikeadream]

Regional armies on alert as Libya crisis deepens

Regional armies on alert as Libya crisis deepens AFP – Libyan rebels salute their comrades going to the frontline to fight forces loyal to Moamer Kadhafi near …
– Sat Apr 30, 11:36 am ET

BAMAKO (AFP) – Army chiefs from Mali, Mauritania, Niger and Algeria are on alert as the crisis in nearby Libya deteriorates, placing the entire region at risk, a military source said on Saturday.

Speaking after a meeting Friday between the four army heads, a Malian officer who attended said: "The situation in Libya is of great concern. There is a risk of destabilising the entire region."

The meeting was to reinforce the fight against insecurity in a region threatened by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

"Moreover, because of the Libyan crisis, the security situation in the Sahel has deteriorated, so it is necessary to be careful. We are all on alert and we keep each other informed," he added.

According to a document from one of the participating countries, seen by AFP, "there is now no doubt, several Al-Qaeda fighters are involved in the Libya fighting."

These included "Libyan Islamists who were released by the government a few weeks before the outbreak of the conflict" in mid-February.

The document adds that among the insurgents fighting Moamer Kadhafi's regime are Libyan combatants from Afghanistan and those who had fought for AQIM in the Sahel.

It urged Sahel countries not to allow weapons from Libya to fall into the hands of "terrorists in the Sahel" and strengthen the Al-Qaeda army.

In late March, Mali and Niger security sources said AQIM had taken advantage of the Libyan conflict to accumulate heavy weapons, such as anti-aircraft missiles, described as "a real danger for the whole area."

Algeria's army chief of staff Ahmed Gaïd Salah, told Algerian press agency APS, that no Sahel country could work alone, as stability in the sub-region was closely linked to regional co-operation.

"More than ever it is time for co-operation, mutual aid and linked efforts to fight terrorism, curb risk, subversion and instability to save our countries from the adverse consequences they cause," he said.

The vast Sahel desert zone is a base and hunting ground for AQIM which has stepped up activities in recent years, carrying out kidnappings of mostly foreign citizens, executions and drug trafficking.

[AlicetheKurious]

Libya disabled children school hit in NATO strike
Sat Apr 30, 2011 8:08pm GMT

By Lin Noueihed

TRIPOLI, April 30 (Reuters) - Shattered glass litters the carpet at the Libyan Down's Syndrome Society, and dust covers pictures of grinning children that adorn the hallway, thrown into darkness by a NATO strike early on Saturday.

It was unclear what the target of the strike was, though Libyan officials said it was Muammar Gaddafi himself, who was giving a live television address at the time.

"They maybe wanted to hit the television. This is a non-military, non-governmental building," said Mohammed al-Mehdi, head of the civil societies council, which licenses and oversees civil groups in Libya.

The missile completely destroyed an adjoining office in the compound that houses the government's commission for children.

The force of the blast blew in windows and doors in the parent-funded school for children with Down's Syndrome and officials said it damaged an orphanage on the floor above.

"I felt sad really. I kept thinking, what are we going to do with these children?" said Ismail Seddigh, who set up the school 17 years ago after his own daughter was born with Down's.

"This is not the place we left on Thursday afternoon."

There were no children at the school when the missiles hit early on Saturday morning, since Friday begins the weekend in Libya. Children had been due to come in on Saturday morning.

A mound of rubble was all that remained of one wing of the main building that adjoined the school, though an antenna of some kind protruded from the ruins.

Both Mehdi and Seddigh said they had assumed that the antenna on the building was there to strengthen mobile phone signals and were not aware of any other use.

In the rubble of the main building, a shredding machine packed with sliced up documents lay on its side. A fax and phone were nearby and shelves of files could be seen.

The Libyan government has repeatedly said that NATO airstrikes have hurt and killed civilians but has not responded to requests by journalists to visit the hospitals, making it tough to verify casualty figures.

NATO has hit inside or near Gaddafi's compound before, or struck military or logisitical sites. Saturday's government-organised visit was the first to bring journalists -- whom government minders watch closely -- to a civilian site.

Inside the school, the power had been knocked out by the strikes, the floor was wet because of a leaking pipe and desks were covered in glass and debris.

Seddigh's school prepared children with Down's Syndrome up to the age of 6 to go to normal schools, giving them speech therapy, handicrafts and sports sessions and teaching them to read and write. It handles 50 to 60 children a day. (Reporting by Lin Noueihed)

© Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved Link

[AlicetheKurious]

I'm not very familiar with British newspapers in general, but this Op-Ed piece in the Daily Mirror surprised me. It's too flattering to Qadhafi (one needn't be an angel to be targeted by devils), but definitely thought-provoking:

Libya’s Robin Hood and the Robbers
Friday, 29 April 2011 00:00

With every passing day, the Libyan picture becomes clearer. The emerging picture confirms what most people, including imperialists, know — that the reason for the military action against Libya is anything but humanitarian.

Protecting Libya's civilians from Muammar Gaddafi's forces is only a cover for a campaign aimed at regime change and the plunder of the resources not only of Libya but also of the whole of Africa.

According to a shocking article posted on OpEdNews.com, the Libyan war has its roots in oil and Lockerbie. The author, Susan Lindauer, a CIA 'asset' turned anti-war activist, says Libya was made a fall guy in the Lockerbie bombing that was carried out by the CIA's drug mafia. {For a compilation of the CIA's drug operations, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_drug_trafficking.}

Lindauer claims that Gaddafi was the fall guy and he was forced to cough up about 2.7 billion dollars in compensation for the 270 victims who died when a bomb planted on Pan Am flight 103 exploded on December 21, 1988 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie. Gaddafi paid the money in 2008 after admitting to a crime which he had not committed to save his country from the pangs of gruelling UN sanctions.

When Gaddafi improved relations with the West in the wake of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, US oil companies wasted no time in striking deals. But they withdrew last year, complaining about the huge kickbacks Gaddafi was demanding.

Justifying the Libyan leader's demand, Lindauer says, "Gaddafi took on the role of a modern-day Robin Hood, who insisted on replenishing his people for the costs they'd suffered under UN sanctions… You've got to admit that Gaddafi's attempt to balance the scales of justice demonstrated a flair of righteous nationalism."

She adds: "Don't kid yourself. This is an oil war, and it smacks of imperialist double standards". {Visit http://www.opednews.com/articles/2/Liby ... 27-21.html for Lindauer's article.}

If oil is the reward that the US is seeking from the Libyan war, the enslavement of Africa is perhaps what France and Britain are after.

Though Gaddafi courted the West by dismantling Libya's weapons of mass destruction programmes soon after the US invasion of Iraq, the Libyan leader had other ideas. He conceived a vision to free Africa from the West's neocolonialist clutches.

In 1992, 45 African nations formed RASCOM (Regional African Satellite Communication Organisation) aimed at bringing down the cost of communications in the continent. Africa was paying some US$ 500 million a year as satellite fees to French and other European companies, and the call charges in the continent were the highest in the world. RASCOM had a plan to launch its own African satellite. The project would cost US$ 400 million. For 14 years, they went behind the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other donors. These imperialist-run institutions made borrowing difficult by placing tough conditions.

Gaddafi put an end to these futile pleas and offered US$ 300 million. The African Development Bank with US$50 million and the West African Development Bank with US$27 million contributed to the project which was brought to fruition in December 2007. Africa's gain was Europe's loss. No wonder Gaddafi has become a villain for France, Britain and other imperialists though he is a hero for Africa.

Gaddafi had also pledged to fund three ambitious African projects — the creation of an African investment bank, an African monetary fund and an African central bank. Africa felt that these Africa-centred institutions were necessary to end its dependence on the IMF and the World Bank — institutions that prescribe unrealistic and unpopular measures to qualify for loans. These conditions which include measures to privatize natural resources and allowing unlimited access to foreign companies are designed to keep Africa eternally poor or dependent on the West. Libya had pledged funds for these projects from its investments in the United States. The US$ 30 billion which the Barack Obama administration froze (or robbed) at the first signs of the orchestrated troubles in the Libyan town of Benghazi was meant to finance these three African projects which would have given Africa some economic freedom.

Besides oil and Africa's economic freedom, Libya' refusal to join Africom, the United State's African Command, is also a casus belli for the war on Libya. Though Africom's stated objective is to assist African nations, critics say its military objective is to prevent China from gaining a strategic foothold in Africa. At present Africom operates from an old French base in Djibouti. Is the Libyan war aimed at bringing Africom to Libya? The one who controls Libya controls the Mediterranean, the Middle East and half of Africa. Since the end of World War II, the United States had a huge military base in Libya until Gaddafi in 1969 told the US to get out. Amidst uncertainty over the direction a civilian government in Egypt will take, a base in neighbouring Libya assumes added significance. Gaddafi opposed these moves and played a dangerous game with the West — offering them oil deals while taking steps to check the West's influence on Africa and the Middle East.

In one such anti-West tirade in 2003, Gaddafi at an Arab summit slammed Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah who was seated opposite him. "You are a product of Britain and protected by the US." Six year later, he repeated the accusations at another summit, saying "After six years, it has been proven that with ... the grave before you, it is Britain that made you and the Americans that protected you."

No wonder that Saudi Arabia and other pro-US Gulf states have joined the military campaign against Libya — something they would not even dream of doing to protect the Palestinian people from Israel. Link

On Edit: Ha ha! I should have known: this Daily Mirror is a Sri Lankan newspaper.