NATO Strikes at Libyan State TV

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

BENGHAZI, Libya — NATO said Saturday that it had disabled three Libyan state television transmission dishes in Tripoli with airstrikes overnight, as the alliance took steps to remove the main instrument of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s propaganda from the airwaves.

Although the broadcasts continued on Saturday, silencing state television would be a psychological blow to Colonel Qaddafi’s forces as well as a boon to his opponents. The rebels challenging his rule have urged NATO for months to take out the channel, and both NATO and the rebels now face a deadline in September, when the United Nations resolution authorizing the airstrikes expires.

The strikes are also the latest reminder of how far NATO has stretched its United Nations mandate to protect civilians, removing a purely political tool that only directly threatened civilians perhaps by boring them. A campaign initially billed as the imposition of a no-fly zone now consists mainly of providing air support for the rebels, who with NATO’s help have expanded from their base in the east to control the coastal city of Misurata and the western mountains while operating an underground resistance within Tripoli, the capital.

In a statement justifying the strikes, NATO said: “Our intervention was necessary as TV was being used as an integral component of the regime apparatus designed to systematically oppress and threaten civilians and to incite attacks against them. Qaddafi’s increasing practice of inflammatory broadcasts illustrates his regime’s policy to instill hatred amongst Libyans, to mobilize its supporters against civilians and to trigger bloodshed.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/world/africa/31tripoli.html

[daleo]

1. In the name of democracy and free speech. n/t

[Muskypundit]

2. Actually, yes.

Qaddafi's state run propoganda kind of hinders free speech. I wonder why they didnt take it out sooner. Now we just need NATO to take out fox so we can have democracy too.

[David__77]

3. They didn't take it out.

It is still broadcasting. However, three people have been slain. The blood debt grows each day.

[mazzarro]

4. So imposing "No Fly" has grown into imposing a system of governent?

I think the UN should be discarded in the dustbin of history for being a tool of the ruthless and powerful and manipulators!

[Muskypundit]

5. Anything thats not democracy is an imposing system of government.

Especially when the people want democracy, and instead get massacred in the streets by a dictator. I still, sorry, don't see how the u.s is the bad guy in all of this. We should have just asked him nicely to stop. Like we do with Sudan in regards to darfur.

[EFerrari]

6. Except he didn't massacre people in the streets.

And bombing the Libyan infrastructure definitely violates the mandate which was to protect civilians, not kill them at work.

[Muskypundit]

7. There is such a double standard here.

If an american drone accidentally kills 3 people, its a massacre, we are bloody evil imperialists hell bent on the worlds destruction... yadayadayadayada. If Gaddafi bombs his own people while they are peacefully demonstrating for democracy, killing hundreds... its not a massacre? Or are you one of the tin foil types that thinks everything the media says is a lie and a great conspiracy. I kind of hope you are, because then you at least have some sort of justification for supporting inaction against Gaddafi.