Libyans form human shield at Gaddafi's compound

[JanDutchy]

Source: Reuters


Sat Mar 19, 2011 8:02pm GMT

TRIPOLI, March 19 (Reuters) - Thousands of Libyans packed into Muammar Gaddafi's heavily fortified Tripoli compound on Saturday to form a human shield against possible air strikes by allied forces.

Fireworks erupted into the night sky and people fired defiant shots into the air at the compound after allied warplanes went into action in eastern Libya to stop the Libyan leader's forces attacking the rebel-held city of Benghazi.

Libyans from all walks of life streamed into the Bab Al-Aziziyah compound, shouting slogans and holding portraits of Gaddafi. Loudspeakers boomed songs praising the leader.


Read more: http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFLDE72I0IQ20110319

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On Dutch NOS it is reported live from Benghazi, that Gadaffi FORCED people to serve as human shield.

[old mark]

1. Right- I bet they were all volunteers, too...K&R...

[Taverner]

6. Right out of Sadaam's playbook

He did that during the first gulf war - he would "evacuate" people to underground bunkers, where US bombing would assuredly vaporize them.

[alphafemale]

35. Yeah I remember Saddam using some US hostages that way

And one little boy especially who looked like he was using every last ounce of will power to not spit on him.

[Davis_X_Machina]

2. I applaud their heroism..

...forced or not, in the teeth of US aggression.

Right?

[SkyDaddy7]

20. Wrong! UN & Arab League Aggression! Lets keep it real & not mislead! nt.

[tabatha]

3. Yes, and none of the Libyan ministers can leave his compound

- they are being restricted by force to stay there.

[joshcryer]

4. WHAT A COWARD

[joshcryer]

5. WHAT A COWARD

[BenzoDia]

7. Now how are we supposed to deal with that using missiles?

Well good thing we said no ground troops from us right?

[Aerows]

9. You know what is coming...

...we all do. Prepare to move into Libya and stay there.

[CJvR]

18. Kill the army.

Let the rebels dig him out of his bunker after his loyalist and mercenary army is smashed.

[isuphighyeah]

8. Sick old bastard. n/t

[Gregorian]

10. FORCE is the word. We're using FORCE, they're using FORCE. FORCE does not work.

Although I will admit it has it's place. So I'll admit that to a degree I am wrong.

There are ways of accomplishing a goal without force. Almost always. Except in auto body work. You don't create great works of art through force. You don't learn math through force. You don't learn how to be social through force. You don't make friends through force.


Whenever force is used I get suspicious.

[quakerboy]

11. Conflicted feelings

Instant reaction is, of course he forced them to do this.

Oh the other, what else would people reporting from Benghazi be saying? And how would live from Benghazi RE actions in Tripoli be any more relevant than someone live in San Francisco reporting on on the Wisconsin protests, which it would seem to me we would rightfully disdain or discount at some level.

I often think to myself, wouldn't it be nice to be able to just trust facts as reported?

[JanDutchy]

12. The report from Benghazi came from a Dutch reporter.

[quakerboy]

16. Its still coming from Benghazi

Which is how far from Tripoli, where this event has happened? Google says 404 miles, but I am guessing that in the context of a country at conflict, that is a very long way.

Let me be clear: I do not doubt for a second that many were forced in to act as a human shield. But I wish that my first thought, in dealing with any reporting from any source, didn't have to be "is this accurate? I better fact check it..."

[David__77]

13. It's one of the few tools Libyans have to resist foreign aggression.

I support them completely.

[SpartanDem]

15. You support him forcing people to be human shield?

[David__77]

17. Who said that? Weird...

You're wrong if you think none of those people want to be there. This happened in Yugoslavia and Iraq as well. Oftentimes it was ideologically convicted government supporters. Like in Yugoslavia, it was activists of the United Left, mainly professors, who were acting as "shields." In any event I would like the US not to target those or any other targets in Libya.

[jwirr]

14. Libya is not the first country to force people to be human shields. Iran

did that around their nuke sites I think back in the Gulf War. I would not take this as a sign of concern for the dear leader.

[CJvR]

19. Not at all surprised.

Technically it is entirely OK to bomb the site anyway but the carnage would make for bad PR.

[TheLastMohican]

23. US doesn't care about killing brown people

look at the bodycounts in Iraq and Afganistan? and there is no remorse.

[octothorpe]

27. Gaddafi doesn't seem to care about killing "brown" people either.

[CJvR]

28. If your statement...

...was anywhere close to truth the carnage in I & A would be 10 times greater.

[aquart]

30. "Brown"? Some are. Some ain't. Like here.

Funny how you see them as all one cookie cutter image.

[TheLastMohican]

31. I am remembering the spirit of George Carlin

"What were the last white people that we bombed? Do you remember the last white people that we bombed? Oh yeah, the germans, they tried to cut in on our action. They wanted to rule the world, bullshit, that's our job"

[Celeborn Skywalker]

34. So everyone in Iraq, Libya, and Afganistan are brown??

Where are you getting your information?

[Ringo-san]

21. Why do people choose to believe that everyone or even the majority was forced? nt

[GliderGuider]

22. Just another page from the Barbary Pirate's playbook

Libyan women and children were having their skulls blown apart by multi-barreled 23mm anti-aircraft cannons being fired down streets into peaceful protesters. Gaddafi was executing generals who refused to do that by tying their hands behind their backs and burning them alive with flamethrowers. We should not be surprised by a simple forced human shield.

I've been a pacifist my whole life, but I'm wholeheartedly in favour of taking out this subhuman piece of filth and his mercenary army. It's about time the civilized world grew a conscience and a backbone simultaneously and stepped in on the side of the oppressed. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Not.This.Time.

[trud]

25. GliderGuider

I'm surprised you're still here. Shouldn't you have enlisted by now?

[GliderGuider]

26. The US military would never take me -

They don't take asthmatic 60 year old Canadian pacifist, socialist, anarchist philosophers. So I am reduced to simply having an opinion on the intertubes. Poor me.

[trud]

24. There are plenty of people

in Libya and other African countries that like Qaddafi and/or hate the U.S. He's spread Libya's oil money around a lot, hundreds of millions on hospitals, libraries, businesses providing jobs, etc. in various African countries. It pleases Americans to think their world view is reality, but that is not necessarily the case.

I don't expect the potential slaughter of civilians will deter the US and France, though. After all, they're just Arabs and Africans. :sarcasm:

[Igel]

29. Ah. So the enemies of Gaddafi are reporting, from

hundreds of miles away, bad things that Gaddafi just did.

This is par for the course in any war. One side says, "They bombed a hospital." The other side says, "They bombed a hospital." Who to believe.

But in this, we have a tried and true metric: Those we like are incapable of lying. Even if it means that we'll help them more and hurt their enemies more, their principles are far higher than any simple self-serving goal like deposing a dictator, gaining power, sparing the lives of their family or even saving their own skins.

Uh-huh.

I'd use the words "naifs" but since I can't figure out how to get the diaeresis in this post I'll refrain.

[SOS]

32. Sunday update: Gaddafi hides, "supporters" leave

Cellphones began to ring. A hush fell over the crowd. People began to whisper to one another: Cruise missiles were being fired at Tripoli. Those sitting in a grassy area quickly got up and began heading for the exit.

More followed, until the human chain thinned to a few dozen people standing in the chill before the balcony where Kadafi was supposed to address them.

But the Brother Leader was nowhere to be seen. He would address Libyans later by telephone, from an undisclosed location.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-kadafi-20110320,0,3713774.story

Julius Caesar this guy is not.

[Nossida]

33. Oh I see

So while the Saudi's gun down protesters in Bahrain,(with US blessings)
the Glorious Allies will Bomb the Libyan people into
the Stone age for doing the same to their protesters,
or over "Humanitarian" considerations.

Let the Spin begin.