Libyan Revolution Week 22

[joshcryer]

Links to sites with updates: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya">AJE Libya Live Blog http://blogs.aljazeera.net/twitter-dashboard">AJE Twitter Dashboard http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/libya">The Guardian http://uk.reuters.com/places/libya">Reuters http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/">Telegraph http://feb17.info/">feb17.info http://www.livestream.com/libya17feb?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=footerlinks">Libya Alhurra (live video webcast from Benghazi) http://libya-alhurra.tumblr.com/">Libya Alhurra archives and updates http://www.ustream.tv/channel/benghaziradio">Benghazi Free Radio, in Arabic (may have translators present at times) http://www.tributefm.com/">Tribute FM (English broadcast from Benghazi) http://www.libyafeb17.com/">libyafeb17.com

Twitter links: http://twitter.com/#!/aymanm">Ayman Mohyeldin, with AJE http://twitter.com/#!/bencnn">Ben Wedeman, with CNN http://twitter.com/#!/tripolitanian">tripolitanian, a Libyan from Tripoli http://twitter.com/#!/BaghdadBrian">Brian Conley, reporter in Libya http://twitter.com/#!/freelibyanyouth">FreeLibyanYouth, Libyan advocate http://twitter.com/#!/LibyaFeb17_com">LibyaFeb17.com twitter account http://twitter.com/#!/ChangeInLibya">ChangeInLibya, Libyan advocate https://twitter.com/#!/TheyCallMeSof">Sofyan Amry (arrived in Benghazi recently) http://twitter.com/#!/KiloFoot">KiloFoot (general Arab Spring news aggregation)

Useful links: http://audioboo.fm/feb17voices">feb17voices http://www.google.com/search?q=time+in+libya">Current time in Libya http://www.islamicfinder.org/cityPrayerNew.php?country=libya">Prayer times in Libya

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1479418">Week 21 part 2 here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixwx_B38678">Marching On in Libya, for the revolutionaries!

A rebel lookout on top of a mountain in Bir Ayyad.

Bryan Denton for The New York Times



Day 142 July 9

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15213963,00.html">Defectors line up in Libya's Western mountains rebel stronghold
Formed by defectors from the Libyan army, the Western mountains' first National Army battalion is the most experienced group among opposition rebels fighting at the frontline close to Tripoli.
http://www.theafricareport.com/archives2/politics/5166440-libya-wade-calls-for-gaddafi-to-step-down.html">Senegal's President Wade calls for Gaddafi to step down
Speaking from the rebel-held city of Benghazi, Senegal’s president Abdoulaye Wade had a message for Libya’s leader
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-jul-9-2011-1656">Libyan rebels set sights on town of Asablah, on road to Gharyan
Libyan rebels said they were preparing on Saturday to push forward in their drive on Tripoli from the south and west in a bid to isolate Muammar Gaddafi in the ever-closer capital.
http://www.gq.com/news-politics/newsmakers/201106/libya-revolution-qaddafi-story-june-2011">This is How You Start a War: Libya's Frantic Fight for the Future
Ahmed Sanalla sent his first tweet at 12:38 a.m. on Saturday, February 13, from Benghazi. He'd never tweeted before, but he figured out the language.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/07/20117941019938272.html">Report from the front line, east of Zlitan
Abdul Maymen was an 18-year old student before he joined the rebels to fight alongside his uncle and his neighbours.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/magazine/2011/0709/1224300113146.html">Writing into history
HERE IS A STORY Libyan novelist Hisham Matar often tells of the regime that forced his family into exile and later spirited his father away. It dates back to the early years of Col Muammar Gadafy’s experiment in tyranny, a time of fear and purges, a time when dissidents were hanged in public as the mercurial young army officer sought to remake Libya in his own image.
http://feb17.info/news/a-more-complex-picture-of-gadhafis-african-fighters/">A More Complex Picture Of Gadhafi’s African Fighters
At a makeshift prison located in a school in Zintan in the western mountains of Libya, the prison warden lists the nationalities of the most recent batch of Africans captured in the fighting this week.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2011/07/how-libyan-rebels-came-be-called-rebels-against-their-will/39738">How the Libyan Rebels Came to Be Called 'Rebels,' Against Their Will
So how did this whole "rebel" thing get started?
http://shabablibya.org/news/dont-call-us-rebels-2">Don’t Call Us Rebels
It was getting late for a foray to the front. There was perhaps an hour’s light left in the sinking sun. Not much time to negotiate our way up there and back before dark.
http://vimeo.com/26181926">Daily life in Misrata during war - video
Video by Rachel Beth Anderson, who says, "Daily life in Misrata, Libya will never be the same after the uprising began and the entire city was under siege.

Day 143 July 10

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/09/uk-libya-idUKTRE7681G520110709">Rebels face heavy attack as Gaddafi strikes back
Rebel fighters in western Libya faced sustained artillery and rocket bombardment by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi for the fifth straight day on Saturday.
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/NewsDetails/tabid/96/smid/414/ArticleID/171277/reftab/36/t/Rebels-push-to-cut-off-Gaddafi/Default.aspx">Rebels push to cut off Gaddafi
Libyan rebels said they were preparing on Saturday to push forward in their drive on Tripoli from the south and west in a bid to isolate Muammar Gaddafi in the ever-closer capital.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/07/09/libya.rebels">Rebel fighters inexperienced, yet enthusiastic in southern Libya
Almost all civilians have fled the southern Libya area around Qawalish, hoping to avoid the worst of the violence wracking the nation.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-07/10/c_13976208.htm">Government troops destroy petro-chemical plant in Brega: spokesman for Libyan rebels
A petro-chemical plant in the Libyan oil city of Brega has been destroyed by the government troops, a spokesman for the rebel forces said here on Saturday.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/07/10/international/i120433D24.DTL">Libya shows tough face against rebel mountain push
Journalists based in Gadhafi's stronghold of Tripoli were taken Sunday to the mountain gateway town of al-Gharyan and the nearby town of al-Assabaa, where they were shown armed civilians and government troops who vowed to defend their land.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Mahj3z7d-E">Libyan girl from Yefren records events of conflict in her diary - video
AlJazeera’s Jonah Hull met one young woman who kept a diary of the days spent under siege.
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/83510bd0-aa27-11e0-94a6-00144feabdc0.html">Arab youth steps in where Islamist activism failed
There was never even a remote possibility that the transition from entrenched, often western-backed autocracies could be anything other than messy and prolonged, and often violent.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/horror-of-life-in-a-city-under-siege-20110710-1h8tp.html">Horror of life in a city under siege
Four months of fighting have left Misrata with a cashless economy reliant on charity and camaraderie, writes Tracey Shelton.

Day 144 July 11

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL6E7IA06W20110710?sp=true">NATO answers refugee boat's mayday off Libya
NATO aircraft and a warship went to the aid of an overcrowded vessel in danger of sinking off the coast of Libya on Sunday with dozens of refugees aboard.
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_689395.html">Gaddafi forces counter-attack as rebels cut his oil
FORCES loyal to Muammar Gaddafi launched a counter-attack on Sunday against rebel advance positions southwest of Tripoli, an AFP correspondent said, as rebels cut off an oil pipeline used to supply the Libyan strongman's forces.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2011/07/11/libyan-youths-from-gaddafi-towns-join-rebels">Libyan youths from Gaddafi towns join rebels
Scores of youths who fled towns and cities held by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces have joined rebels on the front line in the Nafusa mountains, armed with local knowledge and enthusiasm.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gzFfB-Rg6k8L1N4j6qyUs_ygq7Kw?docId=CNG.5daf9b1852bed4e2e24c039d0b187f02.9d1">Libyan rebels battle to keep grip on mountain hamlet
Libyan rebels said Monday they clashed with forces loyal to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi in the vicinity of Gualish, a desert hamlet southwest of Tripoli.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-war-20110711,0,7485060,full.story">In rebel-held Libya, men find new identities as warriors
The war against Moammar Kadafi has taken over a long-sleepy mountain region, turning shepherds into fierce fighters, pastures into battlegrounds. Many wonder whether they'll ever return to their old lives.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/11/uk-libya-berber-idUKTRE76A4QE20110711">Berber culture reborn in Libya revolt
In a packed classroom on a cool evening near the front line in Libya's civil war, 15-year-old Mira is teaching children to spell out the names of animals in the ancient Berber script, an act that once could have landed her in one of Muammar Gaddafi's jails.

Day 145 July 12

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43714950/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa">Revolt revives Berbers: 'They all hate Gadhafi'
In a packed classroom on a cool evening near the front line in Libya's civil war, 15-year-old Mira is teaching children to spell out the names of animals in the ancient Berber script, an act that once could have landed her in one of Moammar Gadhafi's jails.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-tells-medvedev-us-backs-russias-mediation-in-libya-as-long-as-gadhafi-goes/2011/07/11/gIQAcOla9H_story.html">Obama tells Medvedev US backs Russia’s mediation in Libya as long as Gadhafi goes
The White House says President Barack Obama told Russian President Dmitri Medvedev that the U.S. is prepared to support Russian-led negotiations in Libya.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/as-ramadan-approaches-libyan-rebels-worry-about-mounting-odds/2011/07/11/gIQA4dgV9H_story.html">As Ramadan approaches, Libyan rebels worry about mounting odds
Rebels battling Moammar Gaddafi’s forces in Libya’s western mountains fear that supply shortages and other hurdles could prevent them from making major headway before fighting is likely to slow for Ramadan next month.
http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE76A0DE20110711">Libya's wealthy use cash to take fight to Gaddafi
When the battle for Misrata began in late February, Mahmoud Mohammed Askutri started out with a Kalashnikov rifle and four bullets.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/12/france-libya-vote-idUSP6E7I103020110712">French lower house votes to extend Libya mission
The National Assembly voted overwhelmingly to grant further funding for the military operation nearly four months after French planes started bombing troops loyal to Gaddafi in eastern Libya
http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE76B1CF20110712?sp=true">Libya rebel minister opens Western Mountains air link
A senior minister in the Libyan rebel Transitional National Council opened an airfield on Tuesday linking the rebel capital Benghazi with a remote Western Mountain stronghold south of Tripoli
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/12/libya-rebels-fighting-near-tripoli">Libyan rebels make gains against Gaddafi forces in western mountains
Weeks of fierce fighting sees troops consolidate positions less than 100 miles from the capital, Tripoli
http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/laj_59204.html">Libya’s other crisis: 2 million children at physical and emotional risk as conflict drags on
After months of media coverage of the conflict in Libya, one could be forgiven for thinking that the country is devoid of children. The vast majority of images in the media feature soldiers on the front lines, a defiant Muammar Gaddafi, NATO fighter jets streaking across the skies, and queues of mostly male migrant workers crossing the borders into Tunisia and Egypt.

Day 146 July 13

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/libyas-rebel-fighters-form-united-command-20110713-1hcm5.html">Libya's rebel fighters form united command
Libya's ragtag rebels said they had moved a step closer to becoming a coherent military force, as they announced a unified command structure for the first time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/world/africa/13libya.html">Libyan Rebels Accused of Pillage and Beatings in Towns They Captured
Rebels in the mountains in Libya’s west have looted and damaged four towns seized since last month from the forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, part of a series of abuses and apparent reprisals against suspected loyalists that have chased residents of these towns away, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
http://www.wtvy.com/home/headlines/Rebels_Gaining_on_Gadhafi_Regime_125450448.html">Rebels Gaining on Gadhafi Regime
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi is facing dramatic shortages of fuel for his soldiers and citizens in Tripoli, and he is running out of cash to pay his forces and what is left of his government, according to the latest U.S. intelligence reports. In France, the foreign minister reported that Gadhafi is prepared to leave power.
http://www.expatica.com/be/news/belgian-news/three-more-eu-nations-recognise-libya-rebels_162839.html">Three more EU nations recognise Libya rebels
Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands recognise the opposition National Transitional Council as the Libyan people's legitimate representative
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43736861/ns/world_news-africa/">Rebels clash with Gaddafi troops south of Tripoli
Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi appeared to have launched an offensive on Wednesday to retake the frontline village of al-Qawalish seized by rebels last week.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/libya-rebels-on-the-march-20110714-1hefj.html">Rebel breakthrough: They repulse Gaddafi forces, pursue them back to Asabah
Libyan rebels have repulsed loyalists who had retaken the desert hamlet of Gualish and pursued their enemy to the outskirts of the strategic town of Asabah, where they were shelling it from surrounding hills, reports say.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/07/201171319645404106.html">Ball bearing-filled rockets hit Ajdabiya, four civilians wounded
... at least two rockets filled with ball bearings crashed down on the rebel-held eastern Libyan town of Ajdabiya on Wednesday, injuring four people and causing extensive damage to three homes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/13/muammar-gaddafi-oil-algeria">Will oil bring Muammar Gaddafi down?
Gaddafi's fuel stores are insufficient for the military and civilian challenges he faces. Algeria could pull the rug from under him

Day 147 July 14

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8464254/Libya-Col-Gaddafi-has-spent-2.1m-on-mercenaries.html">Libya: Col Gaddafi 'has spent £2.1m on mercenaries'
Details of a deal to recruit 450 fighters from the disputed Western Sahara region have been passed to Nato officials by a former Gaddafi loyalist who was involved in the negotiations before defecting to the rebels.
http://youtu.be/hKygmfyAXD8">Criminals Released in the Streets in Hopes they Support Gaddafi - video
As much as unbeleivable as this may seem, Prisons in libya have been emptied in exchange that the prisoners Support Gaddafi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l2MTGzPkiY">Here's a video of money found on these kind of people, it's old outdated money
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/13/uk-libya-idUKTRE76C1H420110713">Libya rebels retake village south of Tripoli
Rebel fighters said on Wednesday they had retaken a village south of the capital they lost to forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi earlier in the day, boosting rebel plans for a march on Tripoli.
http://www.nationalpost.com/opinion/fighting+better+Libya/5099227/story.html">Why we're fighting for a better Libya
Twenty thousand martyred, another 50,000 ' injured."
http://www.christianpost.com/news/france-agrees-funding-to-bring-end-to-gaddafis-libya-52275/">France Agrees Funding to Bring End to Gaddafi's Libya
On Tuesday, legislators voted to increase funding that would enable the French military in Libya to end upheaval in the country.
http://shabablibya.org/news/libya-rebels-find-landmines-after-gaddafi-troops-flee">Libya rebels find landmines after Gaddafi troops flee
Libyan rebels ran into a minefield when they recaptured a frontline village from Muammar Gaddafi’s forces, they said on Thursday, providing fresh evidence government troops are using mines in the uprising.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/14/libya-gaddafi-troops-demoralised-prisoners-of-war">Libyan rebels capture demoralised Gaddafi troops
The youngest was Issa Yousef, 17, a student and steelworker of Malian origin who joined a month ago. Speaking through an interpreter, he said: "They said we'll give you money when this attack has finished: 1,000 dinars (£500) a month and Libyan citizenship." He never saw either.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=47165">Exposing Gathafi’s Agenda for Libya
No matter how hard Gathafi tries to ignite a regional conflict Libyans and Europeans are way more civilized than he gives them credit for and therefore would never descend to his level of blind hate and deplorable machinations, says Nizar Awad.

Day 148 July 15

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/14/libya-meeting-clinton-idUSN1E76D25420110714">U.S. sees Libya pivot point in anti-Gaddafi struggle
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in Turkey on Friday for a Libya conference marked by growing hopes the international campaign to topple Muammar Gaddafi is nearing its goal and rebel forces can mature into a legitimate government.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/US-Wary-of-Gaddafi-Peace-Feelers-125608693.html">US Wary of Gaddafi Peace Feelers
Senior U.S. officials say they’re skeptical of hints from Libyan emissaries to Europe that besieged Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi may be considering giving up power. The officials traveled with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to a meeting of the international “contact group” on Libya in Turkey.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/world/africa/15libya.html">Antiaircraft Missiles On the Loose in Libya
Five months after the armed uprising erupted in Libya, a new round of portable antiaircraft missiles have been slipping from storage bunkers captured by rebels.
http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-07-15-Libya-Diplomacy/id-86f1990cd2b24cd990b968a8f240721c?utm_source=dlvr.it&">Libyan opposition seeks more support
Delegates from nearly 40 countries seeking an end to the Libyan conflict met in Istanbul on Friday to discuss more financial aid and diplomatic support to Libya's main opposition group as the rebels struggled to defeat Gadhafi-loyal forces.
http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2011/07/15/chavez-urges-gaddafi-to-resist">Chavez urges Gaddafi to resist
"There is Gaddafi resisting. Until when will this outrage last?" Chavez said at a meeting of his ministers. Part of the event was broadcast on the state television network VTV.
http://www.economist.com/node/18958461?story_id=18958461&">Closing in on Tripoli
IN PUBLIC parks in rebel-held eastern Libya the removal of the “Brother Leader” has become a game played by children. They roll a giant rubber die, then skip after it across a printed plastic sheet on a prescribed route from Benghazi via Misrata and the Nafusa mountains to Tripoli, the capital, where a grinning Muammar Qaddafi sits on bags of money on top of a crowded prison. A player explains, “If you fall on Qaddafi’s forces you have to go to his jail. Get the rebels to free you.”

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x594751">A topic on the women of the revolution, dispels myths about the treatment of women in Benghazi.

Videos to bring the Libyan Revolution into context
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0vChMDuNd0">The Battle of Benghazi. BBC Panorama on Libya http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyaPnMnpCAA">Part 1, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMzwQvcx62s">Part 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwWwOeZqz6M">Video of the convoy sent to take Benghazi, taken from a dead soliders cell phone (shows how massive the operation was). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAclhhHv43s&feature=player_embedded">Arab Awakening: Libya: Through the Fire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD5tu5bJWKc">Tea of Freedom Song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z41kQvx4uKw">Libya: Part 2 - The Uprising http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vNWCGDkdWY">Benghazi - Backbone of the Libyan revolution

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/africa/libya-live-blog-march-10-0">March 10 7:28pm Saif al Islam Gaddafi says "the time has come for full-scale military action" against Libyan rebels. He goes on to say that Libyan forces loyal to his family "will never surrender, even if western powers intervene".

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x677397">Text of UN resolution 1973. How will a no fly zone work? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWEwehTtK2k">AJE reports.

Belgium: http://www.lesoir.be/actualite/monde/2011-03-21/les-f-16-belges-dans-le-feu-de-l-action-829588.php">Six F-16 Falcon fighter jets of the Belgian Air Component. Bulgaria: The Bulgarian Navy Wielingen class frigate Drazki http://paper.standartnews.com/en/article.php?d=2011-03-23&article=35828">will participate in the naval blockade. Canada: Canadian Forces Air Command has deployed http://www.cefcom-comfec.forces.gc.ca/pa-ap/ops/mobile/index-eng.asp">a total 440 military personnel as well as the Halifax-class frigate HMCS Charlottetown are participating in operations. Denmark: The Royal Danish Air Force http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/ECE1227910/denmark-to-send-squadron-on-libya-op/">is participating with six F-16AM fighters. France: French Air Force which realizes 25% of NATO's strikes http://www.defense.gouv.fr/operations/autres-operations/harmattan/libye-debut-des-operations-aeriennes-francaises">is participating in the mission with 51 Mirage and Rafale Aircraft. Greece: The Elli-class frigate Limnos of the Hellenic Navy http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2011/03/20/greek-defence-ministry-no-participation-in-operations-outside-the-nato/">is currently in the waters off Libya as part of the naval blockade. Italy: Four Tornado ECRs of the Italian Air Force http://www.corriere.it/esteri/11_marzo_20/tripoli-bombardamento-chiesta-riunione-onu_2e95d102-52c0-11e0-a725-dbe20f0ba2b5.shtml">participated in SEAD operations. Jordan: Six Royal Jordanian Air Force fighter jets http://www.allheadlinenews.com/briefs/articles/90043651?After%20hesitation%2C%20Jordan%20joins%20in%20Libya%20no-fly%20campaign">landed at a coalition airbase in Europe on 4 April to provide "logistical support." NATO: E-3 airborne early warning and control (AWACS) http://www.adressa.no/nyheter/nordtrondelag/article1606878.ece">aircraft operated by NATO. Netherlands: The Royal Netherlands Air Force http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/dutch-f-16s-operational-over-libya">provides six F-16AM fighters and a KDC-10 refuelling plane. Norway: The Royal Norwegian Air Force has http://www.vg.no/nyheter/utenriks/libya/artikkel.php?artid=10091294">deployed six F-16AM fighters to Souda Bay Air Base. Qatar: The Qatar Armed Forces are http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123248695">contributing six Mirage 2000-5EDA fighter jets and two C-17 strategic transport aircraft. Romania: The Romanian Naval Forces http://www.hotnews.ro/stiri-politic-8423876-traian-basescu-sustine-declaratie-presa-ora-21-00-dupa-sedinta-csat.htm">will participate in the naval blockade with the frigate Regele Ferdinand. Spain: The Spanish Armed Forces are http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Espana/intervendra/cazas/F-18/fragata/F-100/submarino/avion/vigilancia/maritima/elpepuint/20110319elpepuint_14/Tes">participating with four F-18 fighters. Sweden: The Royal Swedish Air Force will http://www.swedishwire.com/politics/9050-sweden-offers-eight-fighter-jets-for-libya-mission">commit eight JAS 39 Gripen jets for the international air campaign. Turkey: The Turkish Navy http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/03/24/general-libya-diplomacy_8373237.html">will participate with five ships and one submarine in the NATO-led naval blockade to enforce the arms embargo. United Arab Emirates: The United Arab Emirates Air Force http://www.wam.org.ae/servlet/Satellite?c=WamLocEnews&cid=1300255413630&p=1135099400124&pagename=WAM%2FWamLocEnews%2FW-T-LEN-FullNews">sent six F-16 Falcon and six Mirage 2000 fighter jets to join the mission. United Kingdom: The Royal Air Force has http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/TyphoonJoinsTornadoInLibyaGroundAttackOperations.htm">deployed 12 Tornado and 10 Typhoon fighters, surveillance aircraft, and air refuelling tankers. United States: The United States has http://www.webcitation.org/5xJ8qNGGe">deployed a naval force of 11 ships and are using MQ-1 Predator UAVs to strike targets in Libya on 23 April.

As of this week the National Trasitional Council has been formally recognized by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_Libyan_Republic#Recognition">23 countries. France (March 10), Qatar (March 28), Maldives (April 3), Italy (April 4), Kuwait (April 13), The Gambia (April 22), Jordan (April 24), Sengal (April 28), The United Kingdom (June 4), Spain (June 8), Australia (June 9), UAE (June 12), Germany (June 13), Canada (June 14), Panama (June 14), Austria (June 18), Latvia (June 20), Denmark (June 22), Bulgaria (June 28), Croatia (June 28), Czech Republic (June 29), Turkey (July 3), Poland (July 9), Netherlands (July 13), Belgium (July 13), Luxembourg (July 13), United States (July 15), Japan (July 15).

"One month ago (Western countries) were sooo nice, so nice like pussycats," Saif says in a contemptuous sing-song tone."Now they want to be really aggressive like tigers. (But) soon they will come back, and cut oil deals, contracts. We know this game." - http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2058389,00.html">Saif Gaddafi

(Yeah, Saif, as if you weren't "cutting oil deals, contracts" with western states. Who are the 'tigers' now? Bombing your own people.)

http://english.libya.tv/2011/04/25/eastern-libyans-believe-in-national-unity-distrust-au-and-turkish-mediation-survey-reveals/">The first free public opinion poll ever conducted in Libya reveals clues to Eastern Libyan sentiments
* 98 percent of the respondents do not support the division of Libya as a part of the political solution for the current conflict with the Gaddafi regime. Around 95 percent also don’t see any role for Gaddafi or his sons in a transitional period, and think it is impossible to implement any political reform in Libya if Gaddafi or one of his sons stays in power

* Around 96 percent of those polled, believe that the 17th of February revolution can consolidate the national unity of Libya and support the model of a democratic Libya based on a constitution which respects human rights

* Al-Qaeda has not played any role in the 17th of February revolution, say 94 percent of the Eastern Libyans, and 91 percent thinks it’s impossible for Al-Qaeda to play any political role in the new Libya

* The National Transitional Council is seen by 92 percent of those surveyed as “expressing the views and wishes of Libyans for change”

This is equivalent to 17% the entire population of Libya, doing the numbers very conservatively.

http://jenkinsear.com/2011/03/19/a-legal-war-the-united-nations-participation-act-and-libya/">A Legal War: The United Nations Participation Act and Libya
The above link is to an overview of why Obama's implementation of the NFZ and R2P is perfectly legal under the law. I will not post it entirely here, however, all objections come down to the misinformed position that Obama, by using forces in Libya, was invoking Article 43 of the United Nations. This is wrong. Obama invoked Article 42, which does not require congressional approval to implement. Proof of this is that Article 43 has http://www.un.org/en/sc/repertoire/actions.shtml#rel5">never been used.

It goes like this: The US law (Title 22, Chap. 7, Subchap. XIV § 287d) grants the President the right to invoke UN Article 42 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscode22/usc_sec_22_00000287---d000-.html">without authorization, the War Powers Act (Title 50, Chap. 33 § 1541) grants the President permission to act without authorization under http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/50/1541–1548.html">"specific statutory authorization" which, by definition, is what 287d does. § 1543 of the War Powers Act requires the President to report to Congress, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/obama_explains_libya_mission_to_congress/2011/03/03/ABU9377_blog.html">which he did. One can argue all day and night about the legality of the War Powers Act, doesn't change the fact that under the law as it is written, the President acted within the law.

Editorials and stories worth reading.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2011/03/2011328194855872276.html">Libyan Karzai? Chalabi? Forget it, http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/04/04/110404taco_talk_anderson#ixzz1HvS7iW22">Who Are the Rebels?, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/29/vision-democratic-libya-interim-national-council">A vision of a democratic Libya, http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/is-qaddafi-an-anti-racist/">Is Qaddafi an anti-racist?, http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2011/04/20/left-slipping-towards-qaddafi">The left: slipping towards Gaddafi?, http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2011/04/27/once-again-“stop-bombing”">Once again on "stop the bombing", http://www.juancole.com/2011/03/an-open-letter-to-the-left-on-libya.html">An Open Letter to the Left on Libya, http://www.juancole.com/2011/03/top-ten-ways-that-libya-2011-is-not-iraq-2003.html">Top Ten Ways that Libya 2011 is Not Iraq 2003, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/09/110509fa_fact_anderson">Sons of the Revolution http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/voices/?ref=main-menu">Voices from the Field

Mohammed Nabbous, killed by Gaddafi's forces while trying to report on the massacre in Benghazi

"I'm not afraid to die, I'm afraid to lose the battle" -Mohammed Nabbous, a month ago when all this began

I'm struggling to come up with something to say about this man. I was not aware of the Libyan uprising until I saw Mo's first report, begging for help, posted here on DU. I was stricken. Here was a man giving everything he had to explain a situation that clearly terrified him, I would not call him a coward in that moment, but you could see the fear in his eyes, and desperation in his voice. For 30 days Nabbous would spend many hours covering the uprising in Benghazi. For many nights I would go to sleep with the webcast of Benghazi live on my computer screen, looking to it occasionally to be sure it was still 'there.' Mo treated the chat room as if we were his friends, and in some way, we were. I never signed up to LiveStream to thank him for all his work and it seems somewhat shallow to do so now, given that I was a lurker for so long. Ever since I took over posting these threads "Libya Alhurra" has been linked as a source of information. It wasn't until last night, when I posted, and twitter posted on Mo's adventures out into Benghazi to try to determine the truth of the situation, that Mo's webchannel became a hit, over 2000 people were watching him stream live. This was curious to him because he'd done many reports like this in the past but he appeared somewhat bemused that the view count exploded as it did. Last night Mo became a star. This is a man who first started out with a webcast replete with fear and desperation finally overcoming that aspect of himself and losing that fear, to become someone who was a fighter for the resistance just as much as those who held the guns. Reporting on the front lines of Benghazi became his final act, and for that he should never, ever be forgotten. I'm so sorry Mo that I never got to know you better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAclhhHv43s&feature=player_ded">Arab Awakening: Libya: Through the Fire is a documentary about Mo's last days, please watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38EXALI60hg">Mo's first report, which many of you may remember, begging for help.

Mo leaves behind a wife and a newborn child she had http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/23/a_bright_voice_from_libyas_darkness">this to say about the No Fly Zone and R2P UN resolution:

We started this in a pure way, but he turned it bloody. Thousands of our men, women, and children have died. We just wanted our freedom, that's all we wanted, we didn't want power. Before, we could not do a single thing if it was not the way he wanted it. All we wanted was freedom. All we wanted was to be free. We have paid with our blood, with our families, with our men, and we're not going to give up. We are still going to do that no matter what it takes, but we need help. We want to do this ourselves, but we don't have the weapons, the technology, the things we need. I don't want anyone to say that Libya got liberated by anybody else. If NATO didn't start moving when they did, I assure you, I assure you, half of Benghazi if not more would have been killed. If they stop helping us, we are going to be all killed because he has no mercy anymore.

[joshcryer]

1. Libyan Revolution Day 149 updates below, current time in Libya, 8:00pm Saturday, July 16

[joshcryer]

2. US recognizes Libyan rebels as Libyan government

http://news.yahoo.com/us-recognizes-libyan-rebels-libyan-government-124658625.html?">US recognizes Libyan rebels as Libyan government
ISTANBUL (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the Obama administration has decided to formally recognize Libya's main opposition group as the country's legitimate government. The move gives foes of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi a major financial and credibility boost.

Clinton announced Friday that Washington accepts the Transitional National Council as the legitimate governing authority of the Libyan people. Diplomatic recognition of the council means that the U.S. will be able to fund the opposition with some of the more than $30 billion in Gahdafi-regime assets that are frozen in American banks.

[joshcryer]

3. Libya after Gadhafi

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/16/libya-after-gadhafi/">Libya after Gadhafi
BENGHAZI – Middle Eastern autocrats routinely warn their people of rivers of blood, Western occupation, poverty, chaos, and Al Qaeda if their regimes are toppled. Those threats were heard in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, and – rendered in black-comedy style – in Libya. But there is a strong belief across the region that the costs of removing autocracies, as high as they might be, are low compared to the damage inflicted by the current rulers. In short, freedom is worth the price.

In Libya, four scenarios may negatively affect prospects for democratization: civil/tribal war, military rule, becoming “stuck in transition,” and partition. Given the high price Libyans have paid, those scenarios should be prevented rather than cured.

[joshcryer]

4. Libya: Confusion in the mountains, mixed messages from the west

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8642424/Libya-Confusion-in-the-mountains-mixed-messages-from-the-west.html">Libya: Confusion in the mountains, mixed messages from the west
If they are truly the Libyan rebels' most promising vanguard, the fighters poised on the front line in the Nafusa mountains hardly inspired confidence.

Sheltering from the beating sun in the shadow of a Second World War Italian guardhouse, a gaggle of dishevelled men sipped sweet tea to shake off the exhaustion of a 24-hour shift.

A solitary rebel trained a telescope on a ridge, a mile distant, on which soldiers of Col Muammar Gaddafi's elite 32nd Brigade peered back, watching and waiting. Behind him, a bearded insurgent revved the engine of a pickup truck, mounted with an anti-aircraft gun, that kicked and spluttered but refused to start.

With no more than two dozen lightly armed men, their position defended by a toppled lamppost laid across the road, the front line seemed dangerously exposed.

[joshcryer]

5. How Gadhafi retains support

http://www.intelligencer.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3216550">How Gadhafi retains support
In last week's column, I promised to examine the reasons why some African leaders are reluctant to abandon their embattled colleague Moammar Gadhafieven when it is very evident that he cannot hold unto power any much longer.

...

If there is one thing that African leaders abhor, that thing is dissent or opposition.

There are therefore many reasons why these African dictators are reluctant to abandon one of their own. The fear of setting precedence is among the biggest of these reasons.

At the wake of the Arab Spring in North Africa, many of these dictators were caught in fear as they imagined themselves in a similar situation and have since intensified their crackdown on the opposition.

[joshcryer]

6. Libyan bankers offer support to rebel council

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/16/us-libya-turkey-idUSTRE76F1G520110716">Libyan bankers offer support to rebel council
Libya's former central bank governor Farhat Bengdara said on Saturday a newly formed association of Libyan bankers was preparing recommendations to support the country's rebel leaders in raising finance.

The unofficial International Association of Libyan Bankers met in Istanbul on Saturday, a day after the United States and other world powers recognized the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) as Libya's government.

[joshcryer]

7. Heavy casualties reported in Libya fighting

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/07/16/idINIndia-58290920110716">Heavy casualties reported in Libya fighting
Ten Libyan rebels were reported killed and 172 wounded in an attack on the eastern oil port of Brega on Saturday, while insurgents drove back forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi in the west.

...

Brega's oil resources make it a prize for the rebels, who have been trying to dislodge Gaddafi's troops in the face of rocket bombardments, according to Al Jazeera television.

Most opposition fighters are about 20 km (12 miles) outside Brega, kept back by Grad rockets fired by government forces, the network reported. The rebels had however captured four government soldiers.

[joshcryer]

8. Libyan Revolution Day 150 updates below, current time in Libya, 7:00am Sunday, July 17

[joshcryer]

9. Late night explosions rock Libyan capital

http://www.metronews.ca/calgary/world/article/918760--late-night-explosions-rock-libyan-capital">Late night explosions rock Libyan capital
A series of NATO airstrikes rocked the Libyan capital before dawn Sunday, sending up huge plumes of smoke over the city after hitting what Libyan state television said were civilian and military targets.

As the explosions struck just after midnight, a string of dull rumbles could be heard and flashes seen to the city's east, as sporadic tracers of anti-aircraft fire arced into the night sky. State television said the strikes targeted the suburb of Tajoura.

The distant rumbling of blasts continued for at least an hour, suggesting some kind of facility with explosive materials had been hit.

NATO fighters have been carrying out airstrikes against Libyan military targets as part of a U.N.-mandated operation to protect civilians.

[joshcryer]

10. Libyan opposition rejects involvement of foreign ground forces

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-07/17/c_13990370.htm">Libyan opposition rejects involvement of foreign ground forces
BENGHAZI, Libya, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan opposition on Saturday ruled out involvement of any foreign ground forces.

The National Transitional Council would not accept any interference of ground troops from other countries, the opposition's military spokesman Mohammad Bani told reporters.

He also said the opposition forces had assembled 60 km from the oil refinery town of Brega and were poised to assault the city in coordination with NATO air strikes with the aim to "head toward the periphery of Tripoli", the capital.

[joshcryer]

11. NATO Chief Cautions On Libya Ceasefire

http://www.rttnews.com/Content/GeneralNews.aspx?Node=B1&Id=1666904">NATO Chief Cautions On Libya Ceasefire
NATO Secretary General General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has warned that any ceasefire between Libya's Qadhafi regime and the rebels would have to be "credible, verifiable and with clear conditions," failing which, "we would risk a rebound of the violence."

He made the statement while speaking at the International Contact Group for Libya meeting in Istanbul.

During the meeting, the NATO chief said that the alliance is supportive of all efforts to find a political solution to the Libya crisis and commended the initiative to develop a road-map.

[joshcryer]

12. Malta in talks with Libyan council

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110717/local/Malta-in-talks-with-Libyan-council.375839">Malta in talks with Libyan council
Foreign Affairs’ minister Tonio Borg will this morning set off for Benghazi for a day of meetings with the Libyan Transitional National Council, a ministry spokesman said.

Last month, the government officially acknowledged the Benghazi-based council as the “sole legitimate interlocutor of the Libyan people”, severing contact with Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.

During his stay in Benghazi, Dr Borg is expected to hold meetings with council chairman, Mahmoud Jibril as well as the members of the council.

[joshcryer]

13. Col Gaddafi vows he will never leave Libya

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14176051">Col Gaddafi vows he will never leave Libya
His speech was broadcast to supporters in the city of Zawiya, which was taken back from rebels after fierce fighting in the early stages of the revolt.

The remarks came after the US decided to recognise the opposition as Libya's "legitimate governing authority".

Overnight, blasts rocked Tripoli, as fighting continued elsewhere, including around the eastern port of Brega.

Col Gaddafi stressed his intention to remain in power.

[joshcryer]

14. Libyan rebel held area will not pump oil

http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?storyid=1093429148">Libyan rebel held area will not pump oil
Libya's Arabian Gulf Oil Company's (Agoco) information manager, Abdeljalil Mayouf, said that due to reparations in the oil fields units in the rebel held area, Libya was not ready to produce oil, reported Arab News.

Mayouf added that it might take the country longer time than expected to return to its pre-war oil production levels.

He also said that the country produced around 1.6 million barrels per day before the war; nevertheless, since the infrastructure was damaged and foreign countries imposed sanctions on Libya, production dropped to almost zero.

It is worth noting that if Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi steps down, Libya will be forecasted to pump 1 million barrels per day of oil in a few months.

[joshcryer]

15. Misrata youth goes from Playstation to front line

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43783897/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/">Misrata youth goes from Playstation to front line
When the war in Libya started, many young men now on the rebel front line at Misrata were so interested in computer games and mobile phones that older residents never thought they would turn into fighters. "Before the uprising, all those young men cared about was hair gel, clothes, music, mobile phones and hanging out in cafes," said Mahmoud Askutri, a businessman who has formed and funds the 1st battalion of the Al Marsa regiment, one of the rebel units fighting here to end Muammar Gaddafi's 41-year rule.

"But now they fight and are willing to die for a cause."

Amid the Arab Spring protests that swept the region early this year, the people of Misrata and elsewhere in Libya demanded greater freedom, so Gaddafi sent in the troops to silence their protests.

After those troops opened fire on demonstrators, the people of Misrata rose up, initially fighting back with petrol bombs and hunting rifles.

[joshcryer]

16. Niger fears takeover by militants in neighbour Libya

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL6E7IH03S20110717">Niger fears takeover by militants in neighbour Libya
Niger fears that Islamic militants could seize power in Libya as a result of the civil war in its northern neighbour, President Mahamadou Issoufou said late on Saturday.

Speaking on state television, Issoufou said Niger would not take sides in the conflict, unlike several other African nations which back the rebels, and insisted the only solution to the violence was through a negotiated political accord.

"Niger's interest is that this crisis does not result in fundamentalists taking power, that's our concern," said Issoufou, who won March elections which returned Niger to civilian rule after a year of military government.

"Niger's interest is that the crisis resolves itself, that it does not drag on and that the Libyan state does not go the same way as Somalia," he added. The Horn of Africa state is battling against al Shabaab rebels linked to al Qaeda.

[joshcryer]

17. Libya stalemate begins to show signs of breaking

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2011-07/17/c_13990751.htm">Libya stalemate begins to show signs of breaking
The stalemate in Libya has in the past week appeared to begin giving way to the advancing rebels, as the opposition was buoyed by the news their regime was recognized by a number of major powers.

On the battle front, after months of NATO-led bombings and seesaw battles, the rebels fighting Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's government forces reached towns only dozens of kilometers from the capital Tripoli.

And on the political front, the opposition National Transitional Council (NTC) was recognized as "the legitimate governing authority in Libya" by more than 30 countries in Istanbul on Friday.

[joshcryer]

18. Libya Needs to Manage $168 Billion in Assets, Banker Says

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-17/libya-has-168-billion-abroad-for-financing-ex-bank-chief-says.html">Libya Needs to Manage $168 Billion in Assets, Banker Says
Libya has about $168 billion in frozen assets and the Transitional National Council needs to access and start managing the funds as it works to oust Muammar Qaddafi and rebuild the country, former central bank chief Farhat Bengdara said.

The assets include $106 billion owned by the central bank, 55 percent to 60 percent of which is in government securities, and $62 billion held by the Libyan Investment Authority, Bengdara, who heads the International Libyan Bankers’ Association, said in an interview in Istanbul yesterday. The association is advising the TNC about raising finance and reviving the banking industry, he said.

“The council now has a legal status; they can raise money, fund contracts and give loans,” Bengdara said. “They can get finance and the collateral could be these deposits.”

The U.S. and allies recognized the TNC as the sole legitimate governing authority in Libya at a meeting in Istanbul two days ago, a step that allows for greater funding and access to the Qaddafi regime’s assets. The U.S. foresees a “short time-frame” for releasing some of the about $30 billion in assets frozen by the U.S. in February, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said on July 15.

That's twenty five thousand dollars for each and every man woman and child in Libya. Gaddafi, the anti-imperialist. :rofl:

[joshcryer]

19. Libya rebels report street-to-street fighting in Brega

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/middle-east/Libya-rebels-report-street-to-street-fighting-in-Brega/articleshow/9259773.cms">Libya rebels report street-to-street fighting in Brega
Libya: The battle for the Libyan oil town of Brega switched from the desert to intense street-to-street fighting on Sunday, as rebel forces said they punched into a residential area in the town's northeast.

Rebel forces said they had re-entered Brega but had not yet managed to wrest control of the town from Gaddafi's troops, who have held it since April.

"Some small groups have made it inside, but we do not control the whole (town) yet," said Mohammed Zawi, a spokesman for the rebel forces.

Zawi dismissed rumours that Gaddafi troops had abandoned the town altogether. "It is now close fighting," he said, indicating a new phase in the four-day rebel campaign.

[CJvR]

23. Perhaps the baloon is going up...

...in Brega, about time IMPO.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/07/201171610179115527.html

A push from the east seems a bit feeble though, the rebels should seek the total destruction of the Brega garisson or they will have to repeat the same operation in every town all the way to Sirte.

[tabatha]

28. Heinz comments

brega was the only intact and well trained unit from daffi

the effekts of the fall of brega
sirte is sorounded and the business-men from sirte will join the ff very quick
nato can conzentrate their helis on the points east and west tripoli.
also increase the jet attacks in the area south of tripoli

[joshcryer]

20. NATO hits military depot in eastern Tripoli

http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/477999">NATO hits military depot in eastern Tripoli
TRIPOLI, Libya - NATO jets destroyed a military storage facility and other targets in Tripoli's eastern outskirts early Sunday, days after key international players recognized Libya's rebel leadership as the country's legitimate representative.

From the city, bright flashes could be seen on the eastern horizon just after midnight, followed by a steady rumbling that went on for an hour. Planes could be heard crisscrossing the night sky lit up by a near full moon, and into Sunday afternoon as well.

In Brussels, NATO said its forces had hit a military storage along with three radar sites and anti-aircraft missile launcher east of the capital. The alliance reported it flew a total of 110 sorties and carried out 45 strikes Saturday, including several against armored vehicles and rocket launchers near Brega, a strategic oil town in eastern Libya the rebels are attempting to retake.

[joshcryer]

21. Libyan rebels strengthened by recognition

http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/20110717/OPINION01/707179991">Libyan rebels strengthened by recognition
The international intervention in Libya to protect civilians has gradually transformed into a campaign to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. On Friday it took another step in that direction when more than 30 countries recognized the main rebel group as the legitimate government of the country.

With U.S. backing, the decision by the 32-nation Contact Group gives the Transitional National Council a major financial boost by giving the council access to more than $30 billion in Gadhafi assets held in American banks. The council also includes members of NATO, the Arab League and the European Union.

The council controls the east and some regions in the west, but Gadhafi controls the rest of the country. Still, the Contact Group declared that the “Gadhafi regime no longer has any legitimate authority in Libya.”

[joshcryer]

22. SYRIA: Troops crackdown on Syria protests

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/troops-crackdown-on-syria-protests-2315251.html?">Troops crackdown on Syria protests
Syrian troops backed by tanks stormed a town near the border with Lebanon as security forces rounded up more than 500 people, including a leading opposition figure, across the country over the past two days, activists said.

Syria-based rights activist Mustafa Osso said government forces entered the town of Zabadani, some 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Damascus, early Sunday after surrounding it a day earlier. Zabadani has witnessed a string of protests calling for the downfall of President Bashar Assad's regime since the uprising began against the Assad family's more than 40-year rule in mid-March.

The Local Coordinating Committees, which help organize and track the protests, said some 2,000 members of the military and security agencies stormed Zabadani after cutting the town's telephone services, Internet connections and electricity.

Activists say the government crackdown has killed some 1,600 people since March, most of them unarmed protesters. But the regime disputes the toll and blames a foreign conspiracy for the unrest, saying religious extremists — not true reform-seekers — are behind it.

[tabatha]

24. Dismantling mines by FF around Brega July 16 2011

http://youtu.be/H8-NmWuuOe0

AJA: About 40 000 mines are randomly planted in #Brega, #Libya....just because the people decided to go against #Gaddafi. #GaddafiCrimes


Brega Battles July 16 2011 A direct hit by FF.flv
http://youtu.be/9idqivhxCcs

Libyan rebels play volleyball on the front line
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14178263

[tabatha]

25. Libyan Jewish group recognizes rebels

In letter to head of Libyan National Transitional Council, the Israeli president of WOLJ, offers his organization’s support, assistance.
Talkbacks (7)

ROME – The World Organization of Libyan Jews, representing 200,000 former refugees, most of whom live in Israel, has officially recognized the Benghazi-based rebels – the Libyan National Transitional Council – as Libya’s legitimate government.

In a letter to Mustafa Abdul Jalil, head of the NTC, the Israeli president of WOLJ, Meir Kahlon, offered his organization’s support and assistance.

“We feel it is our obligation that Libya become a model state with freedom of thought and religion for all its citizens,” the letter stated, announcing the appointment of Dr. David Gerbi as WOLJ’s “legitimate representative.”

Gerbi, an Italian Jewish Jungian psychologist born in Tripoli in 1955, has made several trips to Libya in the past decade in attempts to negotiate reconstruction and reconciliation for the Libyan Jewish community that traces its origins to the third century BCE.

Last month, as the first Libyan Jew to publicly declare his backing for the NTC, he worked as a volunteer teaching methods for healing victims of post-traumatic stress syndrome in Bengazi’s Psychiatric Hospital.

http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?id=229668

[tabatha]

26. Katie Orlinsky writes about being with Hetherington and Hondros when they died in #Libya.

PART I: FREE LIBYA

The unrest in Libya began in mid-February and quickly escalated into a people’s revolt that left thousands dead. During the February fighting, protestors looted most of Gaddafi’s military bases in the east of the country. Although some of what was happening was obviously inspired by Egypt, the fact that so many young men carried Kalashnikov rifles and wore mismatched military garb made the scene uniquely Libyan.

I arrived in Libya on February 24th. As a member of the press, I had never received such a warm and kind welcome in my life. Whether it came from a sophisticated understanding of the importance of having media on their side, or genuine gratitude of our presence, it was the type of hospitality you might receive in a family’s home but on a citywide scale. One had to be careful not to allow every offer of kindness and hospitality come to fruition. People were willing to give everything they had, and to take it all would be greedy.

Over time this eager hospitality transformed, and by the end of my time in Libya I found it often times to be frustrating, dangerous and in the end, deadly. In the beginning however, the revolutionaries made Benghazi feel safe. In fact, they made it feel more than safe; it really did feel free.

http://www.visuramagazine.com/katie-orlinsky-libya

[tabatha]

27. 1st page of the new Amazigh children's alphabet book

- now even you can learn! :-) #libya #feb17

http://twitpic.com/5rovdr

[tabatha]

29. Libya: Gaddafi 'running out of commanders'

By Ruth Sherlock in Yefren

10:47PM BST 17 Jul 2011

The officer escaped from a government town in the plains below the country's Western Mountains. Lying only 60 miles from Tripoli, the rebels have launched repeated offensives in the effort to reach the capital.

Leaders of the elite fighting force belonging to Gaddafi's son Khamis had left their brigades to fight elsewhere and came to man this front line reported the Colonel. "The leaders are from the Khamis Brigades, but the rest are new recruits or volunteers. They were inexperienced; some barely could hold a gun".

After six months of fighting in a war that is raging across the country, and has three major front lines, the colonel's account depicts signs of strain in government ranks.

Hundreds of young men from low income families in Libya, many with roots in neighbouring Mali and Niger were recruited from their homes in the south of the country, captured government soldiers told the Daily Telegraph from inside a locked hospital ward in the rebel held western mountain town of Yefren.

"I was promised 500 dinar to fight. My father died long ago, and my family needed the money. When I got there I was frightened and I wanted to go home.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8643674/Libya-Gaddafi-running-out-of-commanders.html

[tabatha]

30. A father of one of the members of The Free Generation Movement put down his thoughts

A father of one of the members of The Free Generation Movement put down his thoughts about 42 years of Gaddafi rule. 42 years that this man has lived through. A victim of oppression, this father of Libyans waits for a day he once couldnt even dream about....

In the name of God the Merciful
My opinions on the rule of Gaddafi during the 42 years of his reign....

He banned pictures of rulers, and his pictures emerged everywhere.
He declared the demolition of prisons, and built more
He called for the freedom of citizens, and put opposition behind bars.
He called for the abolishment of passports, whilst his corrupt institutions demanded them from behind desks.
He called for an Islamic state but failed to build a single mosque
He banned the naming of celebrities, but his name appears everywhere
He destroyed musical instruments in public, and his sons were lavished by the worlds pop stars at private parties.
He raised the banner of justice and equality and created a society of classes and cronyism
He called for a rise in the standard of living through the sale of oil and yet the number of poor multiplied.

In 42 years, he was unable to build a decent international airport.
In 42 years, he was unable to establish a public transportation network
In 42 years, he was unable to deliver gas to our homes
In 42 years, he was unable to establish a railway network
In 42 years, he was unable to establish a postal service
In 42 years, he was unable to provide stable electricity to our homes.
In 42 years, he was unable to provide a complete sewage network

He destroyed Education. He destroyed Healthcare. He destroyed Management institutions. He destroyed Society.
He split the wealth of a nation between him, his sons, and his corrupt accomplices.
He spread the rule of corruption and bribery, to favour those loyal to him.
He called on everyone to protect him, to serve him and his sons and created an entourage corrupt and obedient to extend his rule.

He said “partners not wage workers” and made everyone in Libya a slave to his wage structure.
He said “The house belongs to its dwellers” and stole the properties, the wealth and the possessions of millions of Libyans.
He brought in mercenaries to protect him and to protect his reign.
He issued a document of human rights and killed more than 1,200 prisoners in the prison of Abu Slim within two hours.
He said “I’m not a leader” and yet his words become law overnight.
He spent billions and paraded his arms and his military forces during celebrations, only to use them against his own people. Even those who expressed themselves peacefully.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-free-generation-movement-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%83%D8%A9-%D8%AC%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B1/thoughts-of-a-father-%D8%A3%D9%81%D9%83%D8%A7%D8%B1/120009948093633

[tabatha]

31. Among Libyan rebels, reluctant warriors

Among Libyan rebels, reluctant warriors

(William Booth/ The Washington Post ) - Libyan fighters in the western mountains say they don't have enough weapons to fight Gaddafi. They improvise by cannibalizing junked cars and scrap metal to make rocket launchers.

JADU, Libya — As armed rebellions go, the enthusiastic revolutionaries here in Libya’s western mountains are amateurs, many schooled in battle from playing video games. They confess they sometimes fire their rifles over the heads of their enemies because they don’t like the sight of blood.

But being bad at war might turn out to be a good thing for Libya.

As a few thousand poorly armed, barely trained young rebels wearing flip-flops and soccer jerseys advance and retreat against the loyalist forces of Moammar Gaddafi, a quiet but perhaps equally important revolution is taking place here behind the front lines, where people are reassembling a society after four decades of dictatorship, trying to hammer concepts such as democracy onto ancient tribal ways.

At a checkpoint near the front lines in the town of al-Qualish, as the two sides lobbed rockets at each other, a young rebel fighter with a rifle dating from the Italian occupation in the first half of the 20th century shouted to a reporter, “Thomas Jefferson good!”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/among-libyan-rebels-reluctant-revolutionaries/2011/07/17/gIQASSQoKI_story.html?wprss=rss_world

"Rebels here were stung by a report last week from the group Human Rights Watch, which found that in four towns captured by rebels in the past month, rebel fighters burned homes; looted hospitals, homes and shops; and beat individuals alleged to have supported government forces."

Yes, I thought it was very one-sided and not typical of the Rebels - much more of Gaddafi's forces.

[catchnrelease]

32. K but

too late to R.

[tabatha]

33. Libyan activists push for more open, less homogeneous rebel administration

One of the few really steady jobs in liberated eastern Libya these days is that of caricaturist, and guys such as Adil Mansur are cleaning up. The 30-year-old history student has drawn posters of dictator Moammar Gadhafi as a dog, a snake and a hanging victim. Today he is producing a large image of rebel interim-government leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil as a mellow and saintly figure.

Another growth field is TV talk-show host. While the regime’s network still broadcasts hours of Col. Gadhafi and his deputies in empty rooms staring straight at the camera and shouting for hours about the crimes of Libya’s enemies, the rebel-controlled network instead offers local celebrity Mahmoud El Warfari, who stares straight at the camera in an empty room and shouts for hours about the crimes of Col. Gadhafi.

Subtlety is in short supply here these days. So is self-criticism: Of the 126 newspapers and more than 100 civil organizations that have sprung up in rebel-held east Libya since a Feb. 17 uprising began the fight against Col. Gadhafi’s control, only one or two offer much other than variations on “Down with Gadhafi” and “Up with the revolution.”

At first, this seemed didn’t seem to be a problem. This is, after all, a country at war, and as long as this region’s young men are dying every day in a prolonged and bloody battle for the country’s freedom, a certain amount of cheerleading and patriotic vitriol seemed appropriate.

http://shabablibya.org/news/libyan-activists-push-for-more-open-less-homogeneous-rebel-administration

(Good thinking in the rest)

[joshcryer]

34. Ex-foreign minister says Libya behind 1989 airline attack

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/07/18/158145.html">Ex-foreign minister says Libya behind 1989 airline attack
Libya is responsible for a deadly 1989 attack on a French airliner, Libyan former foreign minister Abdel Rahman Shalgam told al-Hayat newspaper in an interview published on Monday.

“The Libyan security services blew up the plane. They believed that opposition leader Mohammed al-Megrief was on board, but after the plane was blown up, it was found that he was not on the plane,” said Mr. Shalgam, who defected from Muammar Qaddafi’s embattled regime earlier this year.

On September 19, 1989, a UTA DC-10 travelling from Brazzaville to Paris via N’Djamena crashed in Niger after explosives on board detonated, killing 170 passengers and crew, including 54 French citizens.

A French court in 2009 sentenced six Libyan agents in absentia to life in prison for the attack, but Libya has never admitted it was responsible.

[joshcryer]

35. Rebels: Our forces have advanced closer to Libyan city of Brega

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/07/18/libya.war/">Rebels: Our forces have advanced closer to Libyan city of Brega
Libyan rebel forces have advanced about 18 miles (30 kilometers) closer to the eastern city of Brega after dismantling thousands of landmines, a rebel spokesman told CNN on Monday.

"Our forces are only 9 kilometers away from al-Brega now after a small group clashed with Gadhafi troops over the weekend," said Col. Ahmed Banni, Libya's Transitional National Transitional military said.

There was no immediate comment from the government.

Fighting broke out after the rebels pulled out thousands of landmines over the last few days and secure a path for movement toward the strategic oil town, he said.

[joshcryer]

36. Russia criticises West's backing of Libyan rebels

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE76H08T20110718?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews">Russia criticises West's backing of Libyan rebels
Russia on Monday criticised the United States and other countries that have recognised the Libyan rebels' National Transitional Council as a legitimate government, saying they were taking sides in the civil war.

"Those who declare recognition stand fully on the side of one political force in a civil war," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced the recognition of the rebels on Friday, when she was in Turkey for a meeting of an international contact group on Libya.

The major diplomatic step could unblock billions of dollars in frozen Libyan funds.

[al bupp]

37. Reuters UK: Libya rebels claim victory in Brega oil town

From: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/18/uk-libya-idUKTRE76C1H420110718

Rebel forces have routed most of Muammar Gaddafi's troops in the Libyan oil town of Brega in the biggest boost for the insurgents' military campaign in eastern Libya in weeks, a rebel spokesman said on Monday.

The rebel fighters have encircled Brega, an oil export terminal with a refinery and chemical plant which for months marked the eastern limit of Gaddafi's control, rebel spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah said.

But its streets are littered with landmines, making it hard to secure full control of the area.

"The main body (of Gaddafi's forces) retreated to Ras Lanuf" to the west, Abdulmolah said by telephone. "I am told they have some four-wheel-drive trucks with machineguns spread out between Ras Lanuf and Bishr."

Over the weekend there were a number of Twitter reports of the same from sources such as ChangeInLibya and RRowleyTucson, which this article seems to confirm. ChangeInLibya also reports via AJA that Mutassim Gaddafi has fled from Brega to Sirte.

[Yosarian71]

40. great news

Gadhafi's top units were in Brega, including a crack Beylorussian (sp?) mercenary unit. I am a little disappointed that the rebels have enabled any of them to escape. You hate to fight the same army twice.

[tabatha]

38. Heinz post

good morning free libya
you all wait for brega i think
first sat picture from first daylight sat shows
east brega
ff are inside most with technicals and infantery fights are ongoing but split on 3 points that mean that daffis goons have no comand now there .
most of the heavy from ff are now placed around industrial zone and west brega .
i dont think that daffi can hold his line at bishr after the visits they get this night and also ras lanuf will be critical for daffi ,
ff have now the overweight in art. tanks ,and bmp
daffi run out of amu for his art. most of the positions have not more then 5-10 shots left some are complete emty and unmanned

[tabatha]

39. Qaddafi was Linchpin of Corrupt Dictatorships in Tunisia, Egypt

Abd al-Rahman Shalqam, former foreign minister of Libya, has revealed in an interview with al-Hayat in Arabic that Muammar Qaddafi was central to propping up the corrupt and dictatorial regimes of Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia. Many analysts of authoritarianism in the Arab world have pointed to French, British and American support for dictatorial regimes, but the way in which Qaddafi deployed his oil billions in the Middle East and Africa to undermine democracy and reinforce dictatorship and corruption is a key part of the puzzle.

Shalqam said that the security cooperation (i.e. help with domestic surveillance of the STASI sort) was so complete between Libya and Tunisia that Qaddafi had actually given Ben Ali a monthly stipend.

Likewise, he said that Umar Suleiman, the former head of Egyptian military intelligence, was “Libya’s man in Egypt.” Under Suleiman, the secret police in Egypt developed extensive surveillance and used unsavory techniques of interrogation redolent of those deployed by Qaddafi himself.

Shalqam confirmed that in 1993 Egyptian secret police abducted Libyan dissident and former foreign minister Mansour al-Kikhia, then sent him to Libya where he was executed by Qaddafi.

http://www.juancole.com/2011/07/qaddafi-was-linchpin-of-corrupt-dictatorships-in-tunisia-egypt.html

[al bupp]

41. AJE (video): Mines threaten safety of Libyan rebels

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA2iqIbV3Yc&feature=player_embedded">Mines threaten safety of Libyan rebels

Recently, a man was killed when he was blown to pieces on the western frontline of Misurata, one of Libya's main rebel-held cities.

That's when opposition fighters made the discovery that hundreds of anti-tank mines are dispersed around the area.

In just 10 days, nearly 600 mines were disabled in only one third of this area. But the demining team has insufficient experience and equipment to handle the mines.

[tabatha]

42. Apt tweet

Worldloverpeace Aisha
V @baysontheroad #LIBYA Harriri it never happened in history tht the leader of a country launches a war against his own ppl, with landmines
36 minutes ago

[David__77]

50. Um, Korea and Vietnam.

There were plenty of landmines used in those internal wars.

[al bupp]

43. (Doug Saunders) Freed from Gadhafi, Some Libyans in East Now Begin Battle Against Zealotry

http://dougsaunders.net/2011/07/libya-gadaffi-zealotry-benghazi/">Freed from Gadhafi, Some Libyans in East Now Begin Battle Against Zealotry

Subtlety is in short supply here these days. So is self-criticism: Of the 126 newspapers and more than 100 civil organizations that have sprung up in rebel-held east Libya since a Feb. 17 uprising began the fight against Col. Gadhafi’s control, only one or two offer much other than variations on “Down with Gadhafi” and “Up with the revolution.”

...

“It’s been 42 years that we’ve all been hearing the same man yelling at us in the same voice, and now that he’s not here, it’s going to take some time to get used to the sort of world where you can speak with self-criticism or have a diversity of voices,” says Hana El-Gallal, an activist who is pushing for a more open and less homogeneous rebel administration.

...

“We’ve been living in an information blackout and a propaganda state for our entire lives, and now we’re finally allowed to have opposition politics and disagreements within the government without risking our lives – it’s important to do that,” said Enas Al-Drisey, a 23-year-old physics graduate who founded the organization Take Back the Revolution as a voice that criticizes the internal workings of the NTC while still supporting its goals.

...

To dispel that notion, Ms. Al-Drisey helped create the newspaper The Reality, which she describes as “the first opposition newspaper.” It began two months ago by criticizing the NTC for turning a blind eye to the theft of food and medical supplies by civil servants – a practice which, she claims, came to a halt as a result of the paper’s muckraking.

[al bupp]

44. Sorry, this is a dupe of a previous post to this thread

Tabatha already posted this here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1503419&mesg_id=1512779

Her link comes from ShababLibya, mine from the author, that and the 'graphs we chose to excerpt are the only differences.

[al bupp]

45. BBC: Libyan rebels claim victory in battle for Brega

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14180293">Libyan rebels claim victory in battle for Brega

Libyan rebels say they are largely in control of the key eastern town of Brega, after close fighting in residential areas.

Rebels say forces loyal to Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi are retreating west towards the town of Ras Lanuf.

They say Brega has been heavily mined and there are still pockets of resistance.

It has not been possible to independently verify the rebel claims.

[pinboy3niner]

46. FACTBOX-Latest developments in Libyan conflict

Mon Jul 18, 2011 4:33pm GMT (Reuters)

...


• Rebel forces have routed most of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's troops in the oil town of Brega in the biggest boost for the insurgents' military campaign in eastern Libya in weeks, a rebel spokesman said on Monday. He said they would have to clear landmines littering the streets before they can take full control of the town.


• The leaders of South Africa and Britain disagreed on Monday over how to proceed in Libya, South African President Jacob Zuma saying he wanted to see negotiations aimed at ending the five-month-old rebellion.


• Russia criticised on Monday the United States and other countries that have recognised the rebel National Transitional Council as Libya's legitimate government, saying they were taking sides in the civil war.

...


• NATO said key targets hit on Sunday included:

-- Nine armed vehicles, two armoured fighting vehicles and one command and control node near Brega;

-- One radar and one military storage facility near Tripoli;

-- One military storage facility near Waddan;

-- One road block near Zlitan.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFLDE76H10U20110718?sp=true

[tabatha]

47. The story of the bread queue…

by The Free Generation Movement - حركة جيل الاحرار on Monday, July 18, 2011 at 6:17am

Today, at a queue for bread in Janzour, I witnessed the following.

Production was slow and the queue was getting longer. The owner of the bread store came out, apologised and told those waiting that due to fuel shortage his machines were working at 50%. He urged people to just buy bread for ¼ dinar and then come back later for more. He said there was also a flour shortage so urged, again, for people to be economical.

One women shouted “it’s not your flour, its Moamers flour, who are you to ration it?”

The people in the queue were visibly angered by this comment and one man shouted “and do you think your moamer carry the flour here on his back?”

She fell silent but immediately made a phone call.

Minutes later people whispered in the man’s ear to leave as she is a well known revolutionary committee member and loud mouth. He disappeared into the side streets moments before uncountable security trucks turned up with armed men.

The men demanded that the shop owner tell them who the “traitor” was. The shop owner said that he was just a customer and can’t remember just a single person from hundreds of daily customers.

The security chief said to him “Either tell us who he is, or we close this place down”. The man bravely stood tall and said “Close it, but if you want me to give you details about a man I do not know then you are delusional”.

A symbol of defiance from a man standing in a queue. A symbol of nepotism by one woman who thinks she can say and do as she pleases because of who she knows. A symbol of intimidation by security forces enforcing jungle law.

You cant even speak your mind in a bread queue, and then Saif AlGaddafi says “we will have elections”. On what planet do these people live?

https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-free-generation-movement-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%83%D8%A9-%D8%AC%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B1/the-story-of-the-bread-queue/120242798070348

[tabatha]

48. "Why are you revolting? You have everything...."?

by The Free Generation Movement - حركة جيل الاحرار on Monday, July 18, 2011 at 9:53am

The story of our Health Care System.
I once heard a pro Gaddafi individual say… “why are you revolting? You have everything. You travel, you have a car, you have a house, you eat and drink, you have security, you have healthcare, you have freedom to do as you wish…”

Well, I don’t want this to be an argument about pro vs anti gaddafi. I just want to focus on one of his points above…. Our health care system. Here is a story about from one of our members. A member of the Free Generation Movement.

Some years ago in central Tripoli, there was a road traffic accident where my friend was driving. A young boy was accidentally hit and was injured. As so often happens in Libya, there was no attempt to call the nonexistent emergency service and the young boy was taken to hospital by our friend and passersby. This hospital (AbuSleem Hospital) was ill-equipped to deal with the spinal injuries involved and the parents of the boy (along with our friend who remained with him) were told that a spinal consultant was needed. The hospital offered no contact details or made no attempt to contact this consultant.

more ..

http://www.facebook.com/notes/the-free-generation-movement-%D8%AD%D8%B1%D9%83%D8%A9-%D8%AC%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A7%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B1/why-are-you-revolting-you-have-everything/120337634727531

[pinboy3niner]

49. Gaddafi's Libyan rule exposed in lost picture archive

Grim footage of Sadiq Hamed Shwehdi's infamous execution also emerges from Benghazi

Ian Black, Middle East editor
guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 July 2011 18.54 BST

...


It was blazing hot day. Thousands of schoolchildren and students were bused into Benghazi's basketball stadium, where they saw a frightened young man with curly hair and beard, kneeling with his hands bound behind his back, pleading for his life before people's prosecutors.


Sadiq Hamid Shwehdi, 30, was accused of plotting to assassinate the leader of the revolution. The court described him as "a terrorist from the Muslim Brotherhood, an agent of America".


In this grainy, recently re-discovered film, Shwehdi is seen alone in the centre of the stadium, sobbing as he confesses to his crime of joining the "stray dogs" – in the chilling terminology of the regime – before being sentenced to death.


In the crowd, a young woman in olive green fatigues shouts and waves her clenched fists. Later, in a nauseating display of zeal, she pulls at Shwehdi's legs as he writhes on the makeshift gallows, the basketball scoreboard clearly visible in the background, until he stops struggling. Huda "the hangman" Ben Amer went on to become a Gaddafi favourite and fled Benghazi after this year's uprising.

...


"Many Libyans saw the original live broadcast of the trial at the time and still remember it, but this is the full video and audio – and it has not been seen since then," said Peter Bouckaert, the Human Rights Watch researcher who unearthed the material. Until now only fragments of the original were available. Shwehdi's brother Ibrahim handed over four Beta video tapes to be digitised and preserved for posterity.


Bouckaert worked with Tim Hetherington, an American war photographer who was killed in April covering the siege of Misrata. Together they pored over hundreds of still photographs taken from a state security office that was burned and looted by protesters. ....

...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/18/gaddafi-brutal-regime-exposed-lost-archive

[pinboy3niner]

51. Wounded children show ferocity of Misrata's war

Mon Jul 18, 2011 9:04am GMT


By Nick Carey

MISRATA, Libya (Reuters) - When 12-year-old Mohammed Bielshak left the house with his brother Ali on March 20, it was to give water from their well to thirsty rebels nearby who were fighting forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi.


"All we wanted to do was help the revolutionaries," Mohammed said.


While they were out in the street, they were hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. Ali, 14, sustained shrapnel wounds in the leg and stomach and now walks with crutches. Mohammed lost his right arm just below the elbow and his left thumb and was blinded in his left eye. His right leg was fractured and has had reconstructive surgery on his left leg.

...


For this article, staff at the Al Hekma promised casualty numbers several times, in particular for children. But that data did not materialise.


Instead, a doctor at the International Medical Corps field hospital near the front line provided the latest official figures for the city since the uprising began in mid-February with the caveat that the data may be incomplete. As of July 16, 813 people in Misrata had been killed, 7,848 had been injured and 781 were missing.


How many of them are children like Mohammed is also hard to ascertain.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE76H19N20110718?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

52. Libya says Gadhafi government held talks with US

TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — A Libyan government spokesman says representatives of Moammar Gadhafi's government held face-to-face talks with U.S. officials on repairing ties between the nations.

There was no independent confirmation that such a meeting took place.

Spokesman Moussa Ibrahim says the purported talks were held Saturday but he refused to say where or which officials took part.

He gave few details on the discussions but called them a "first-step dialogue."

...


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j70ty532zw7uD7WdR9F7RoIr8ayQ?docId=231e807a40a4494082b9aec135405c32

CNN just reported this as breaking news, adding the detail that Gaddafi's spokesman claims that the meeting took place in Tunisia.

[pinboy3niner]

57. U.S. State Dept.: Saturday's meeting "was not a negotiation"

The AFP news agency reports:

US envoys recently held a rare meeting with representatives of Gaddafi's regime and urged the Libyan strongman to cede power, a US official said Monday.

The United States and other Western powers on Friday recognized the rebel Transitional National Council as Libya's legitimate authority. The official said that Washington had no plans to meet again with Gaddafi's envoys.

The US state department told CNN that Saturdya's meeting "was not a negotiation.It was the delivery of a message" that ... Gaddafi must leave power."


http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-jul-18-2011-2340

[pinboy3niner]

53. In Libya, rebel wounded tell the story behind fight for key city

As rebels battle Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi's troops for control of the strategic oil city of Port Brega, an injured fighter inspires patriotism in his father, and doctors deal with the effects of land mines laid by government forces.

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

July 18, 2011, 12:30 p.m.


Reporting from Ajdabiya, Libya—


...


Dr. Mohammed Abdulkarim, rushing from one wounded rebel to the next, keeps the casualties figures in his head. He rattled them off as he strode the darkened hallways.


"One dead Thursday, 10 Friday, nine Saturday, four Sunday,'' he said. And the daily wounded: 14, 86, 83, 63. The totals: 24 dead and 246 wounded in four days.


More than half of the casualties have been caused by land mines laid by government forces, said Dr. Ramadan Salem. Most of the rest are from rockets and mortars.

...


The dead man lay on a gurney at the main hospital entrance, his body wrapped tightly in a blue sheet. Only his pale feet showed, the toes wrapped in gauze.


Fighters who had dropped off their wounded friends walked past his still form, headed to their vehicles outside. Each one paused to bow and gently touch the dead man before racing back to the front.



http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-rebels-wounded-20110719,0,2143198,full.story

[tabatha]

54. An Amazing Story Of Resistance From Inside Libya's Soccer League

Eleven years ago an incident on the soccer pitch in Benghazi foreshadowed the Libyan revolution.

Spiegel's Juliane von Mittelstaedt describes what happened when Saadi Qaddafi's Al-Ahly Tripoli SC received too many favors from the ref in a match against Al-Ahly Benghazi SC:

"It was the typical story," says. "The opposing team was being awarded one penalty kick after another." In their everyday lives, the people of Benghazi were used to putting up with injustices. But now they had had enough.

"The entire stadium was against Saadi," Binsraiti says. "Everyone had a relative or a friend in prison, and everyone knew someone who had been killed or stripped of their property."

"Benghazi hated the Gadhafis," Binsraiti adds. "But, on that day, it hated Saadi in particular."

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/benghazi-soccer-resistance-2011-7#ixzz1SUSngCl5

[pinboy3niner]

55. Libya: Gaddafi Must Be Held Accountable for Crimes Against Humanity

Source: Human Rights Watch

by Richard Dicker

Published in:
Jurist
July 18, 2011


Amid preparations for the Libya contact group meeting in Istanbul on Friday, which sought a solution to the conflict in Libya, some states reportedly were-behind the scenes-exploring the possibility of offering Muammar Gaddafi the option of internal exile in exchange for relinquishing all power.


The Istanbul talks are a chance to end the nearly five-month-long conflict in Libya. However, to achieve this much-needed peace, governments involved in peace-brokering should bear in mind that the prosecution of people who are wanted for grave crimes should not be bargained away. Indeed, any political solution that avoids meaningful justice will undercut prospects for a long-lasting peace.

...


The record from other conflicts also shows that arrest warrants for senior leaders can actually strengthen peace efforts by stigmatizing those who stand in the way of conflict resolution. For example, the indictments of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia are credited with keeping them sidelined during the Dayton peace talks, which led to the end of the Bosnian war. In this way, accountability for the most serious international crimes can serve not only the interests of victims who want to see justice for their suffering, but also the longer-term interests of peace and stability.

...


Handing Gaddafi a "get out of jail free card" would not only be inconsistent with the international community's expressed commitment to justice for crimes in Libya, but would also have serious consequences for a durable peace. Sidestepping accountability in Libya would send a message to abusive leaders around the world that if they hang on long enough, all will be forgiven.


Richard Dicker has been the Director of International Justice at Human Rights Watch since its founding in 2001. He has previously been involved in the attempt by Human Rights Watch to charge the Iraqi government with genocide against the Kurds before the International Court of Justice. Dicker also led the Human Rights Watch campaign to establish the ICC.


http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2011/07/18/libya-gaddafi-must-be-held-accountable-crimes-against-humanity

[tabatha]

56. In Libya, rebel wounded tell the story behind fight for key city

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

July 18, 2011, 12:30 p.m.
Reporting from Ajdabiya, Libya—
Rajab Zawiyeh, a Libyan businessman, drove to this coast rebel stronghold two days after he heard about an outbreak of fighting in the nearby oil city of Port Brega.

Zawiyeh's 25-year-old son, Imad, was fighting at the front, and he feared for the young man's safety. Monday morning, he got a cellphone call: His son had been wounded.

Zawiyeh, 57, sped to the main Ajdabiya hospital, where he found his son's bloodied face swathed in gauze. A stained bandage was wrapped around his leg.

A rocket fired by government forces had exploded yards from Imad just outside Port Brega, where rebel forces were in the fifth day of an assault designed to retake the strategic city.

"It got my face and my leg," Imad told his father, who was struggling to hold back tears.

These were not tears of sadness, the father said, but of pride. For 41 years under the rule of Moammar Kadafi, he had never felt patriotism.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-rebels-wounded-20110719,0,5777545.story

[pinboy3niner]

58. Libyan rebels push towards Brega backed by Nato air strikes

Use of alliance warplanes in what amounts to a combat support role likely to sharpen criticism of Nato operation

Chris Stephen in Misrata
guardian.co.uk, Monday 18 July 2011 20.06 BST


...


Nato reported 32 military vehicles, including tanks, rocket launchers and armoured personnel carriers, destroyed in three days of intensive air strikes.


The use of alliance warplanes in what amounts to a combat support role, rather than protection of civilians, is likely to sharpen criticism from some quarters that Nato is overstepping its mandate.


The bombing is clearly having an effect. Rebel infantry units have made steady advances in five days of fighting, picking their way through minefields and trenches filled with corrosive chemicals in the face of only patchy resistance by regime forces.

...


The southern rebel attack has reportedly swung around behind the town, preventing government forces from sending reinforcements along the coast road.


Brega's capture would deprive the Gaddafi regime of one of Libya's most important oil installations.

"When you control this (Brega oil terminal) it means Gaddafi has nothing," said rebel spokesman Mohammed Durat in Misrata. "When he loses Brega it will be very important."

...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/18/libya-rebels-brega-nato

[pinboy3niner]

59. LIBYAN REVOLUTION DAY 152: CURRENT TIME IN LIBYA = 12:01 AM TUESDAY, JULY 19

Libya time = EDT +6 hours, PDT +9 hours, UTC +1 hour, GMT +2 hours

[pinboy3niner]

60. Arab Revolutions and the Exit Strategy for the Regimes (Failure of "Regime first, people second")

Posted in GD by pampango:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1517013

[pinboy3niner]

61. PR firm took $1.2M from Gadhafi’s Libya

Source: The Hill

By Kevin Bogardus - 07/18/11 04:51 PM ET


An international public relations firm worked to boost the regime of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi while employed by an oil executive with business interests in the country, new documents show.


Brown Lloyd James (BLJ) filed a dozen and half contracts and semi-annual reports with the Justice Department last week to document their work for a slew of foreign clients — such as the governments of Qatar and Morocco — that were previously unreported.

...


“At the direction of our client, Hassan Tatanki, we assisted the Libyan government in its efforts to reach out to the international political community through the United Nations and to the U.S. political and university community,” the firm says in records filed with Justice. “The scope of our work included assisting Mr. Tatanaki help the Libyan government deepen its ties to the U.S. and international political communities by assisting President Gadhafi with certain public events, and by promoting student exchange programs and university research programs with Libya.”

...


Brown Lloyd James set up interviews between reporters and Gadhafi and helped distribute and edit op-eds written by the Libyan dictator. Executives at the firm also provided strategic advice to senior Libyan government officials and organized meetings with civic and non-governmental groups, according to Justice records.

...


http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/172077-pr-firm-took-12m-from-gadhafis-libya

[pinboy3niner]

62. BHL: Keep the faith: Gaddafi will fall very soon

July 18, 2011 10:42 pm

By Bernard-Henri Lévy


I have just returned from Jebel Nafusa, a mountainous plateau in north-western Libya that constitutes, after Misrata in the east and Brega even further east, the third front of the war in Libya. What I saw leads me to challenge more strongly than ever the oddly defeatist declarations that have emanated from Washington, London and Paris in recent weeks.


They tell us, for example, of a rebel army that is disorganised, ill-prepared for combat, undisciplined. On the Gualich front, which is its first line of attack against Muammer Gaddafi’s forces, I have witnessed just the opposite: about 50 well-trained men, supervised by former servicemen who have defected and are proud to have retaken the 60km, separating them from the regional command base, in 10 days. In short it is the opposite of a quagmire.


The defeatists also tell us that these fighters cannot see beyond the boundaries of their villages, and are incapable of the physical and political unity that could lead to the conquest of Tripoli. Yet whether in Arab country or Berber, one sees and hears something very different: a rebellion whose objective is Tripoli; tribal chiefs for whom Libyan unity has become an imperative; officers perfectly aware of the fact that this goal is attainable only in close co-ordination with Nato’s operational commanders. Once again, this is nothing like the disorder, the improvisation, and the “tribal mindset” we keep hearing about.

...


In short, I decidedly do not understand the disillusioned tone of commentators who never found 42 years of dictatorship too long but who suddenly find the 100 days or so of the liberation interminable. I understand even less the repeated calls for “political negotiations” that, alone, will permit us to escape from the “quagmire” that David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy have supposedly thrown us in to. There is only one “political solution” to the crisis that began with the offensive launched by this regime against its people: that is the departure of Col Gaddafi, and I have the feeling we’re close to it.

...


The writer is a philosopher whose support for the insurgents helped to prompt the intervention


http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e7091b92-b173-11e0-9444-00144feab49a.html

[pinboy3niner]

63. UPDATE 1-Libya says ready for talks but rejects preconditions

Mon Jul 18, 2011 10:11pm GMT


TRIPOLI, July 18 (Reuters) - Libya's government said on Monday it had held talks with U.S. officials and welcomed discussions but only without preconditions.


A U.S. State Department official said that at the meeting American officials gave representatives of Muammar Gaddafi a "clear and firm" message that the Libyan leader had to go.


"We support any dialogue, any peace initiative as long as they don't decide Libya's future from without, they decide it from within," Libyan government spokesman Ibrahim Moussa told journalist in Tripoli.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE76H1IN20110718?sp=true

[tabatha]

64. A Wilsonian move by the White House in Libya

Posted By Joshua Keating Friday, July 15, 2011 - 11:39 AM Share

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced today that the United States is will recognize Libya's Transitional National Council as the country's "legitimate governing authority". This comes as something of a surprise, as the normal U.S. policy is to recognize whichever government is in de facto power of a country. Despite recent rebel gains, that's probably still Muammar al-Qaddafi, entrenched behind his forces in Tripoli. This stance goes back as far as the French Revolution, when the U.S. recognized the country's new Republican government while Europe's monarchies still regarded it as illegitimate.

(This is not the same thing as having diplomatic relations with a country. The U.S. may not have an embassy in Iran but doesn't question that the Islamic Republic does, in fact, rule the country.)

But there have certainly been exceptions to the rule. An instructive case is the Woodrow Wilson administration's refusal to extend recognition to Mexican dictator Vicotriano Huerta, who took power in a 1913 coup. (Historian Peter Henderson provides some good background on this case in this, unfortunately gated, article.)

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/07/15/a_wilsonian_move_by_the_white_house_in_libya

[David__77]

66. The US recognized "Republic of China" until 1979.

The Kuomintang had no authority in all of mainland China, but that didn't stop the US. There is ample precedent for US recognizing marginal entities diplomatically. Also it supported the Khmer Rouge when it only controlled some pockets in the north of Cambodia.

[ellisonz]

65. Libyan faithfully tends graves of foreign World War II dead

Libyan faithfully tends graves of foreign World War II dead
Salah Fatour performs sacred duties once carried out by his father at the Benghazi War Cemetery. He has maintained the Allied resting place for 25 years, and now amid Libya's own war.
Benghazi War Cemetery

Salah Fatour has cared for the grounds at the Benghazi War Cemetery for 25 years, following in the footsteps of his father, who tended the graves for three decades. (David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times / July 16, 2011)

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

July 16, 2011
Reporting from Benghazi, Libya—
Every morning, Salah Fatour is at his post with his worn rake and wheelbarrow, tending the garden of the dead.

In a city besieged by war, he finds peace among the graves of a long-ago conflict. He steps gently around the whitewashed tombstones, pulling a weed, caressing a flower, careful not to disturb the souls of soldiers who died on foreign soil seven decades ago.

Fatour, his rough hands calloused from raking, performs the sacred duties once carried out by his father, who tended the Benghazi War Cemetery for three decades after World War II. Fatour, who was born at the cemetery, has maintained it for 25 years, preserving the memories of the dead.

"I didn't know them, but I feel that I know them very well now because I'm with them every day," he says.http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-military-cemetery-20110716,0,674939.story

[al bupp]

67. AP: ICRC Report from Libya's Western Mountains

Via: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya">AJE Libya Live Blog

AP - The International Committee of the Red Cross says medical services in Libya's rebel controlled western mountains are struggling with a flood of casualties from fighting.

Tuesday's statement from the Red Cross said facilities lack medicines to treat patients and vaccines to deal with outbreaks of disease.

[al bupp]

68. AJE Video: US Sends 'time to quit' message to Gaddafi

Via: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya">AJE Libya Live Blog

The US now says it's time to recognise the Transitional National Council as the official voice of the Libyan people.

The US also emphasised that other countries are recognising the TNC, and that it is not negotiating with the Gaddafi regime.

Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan has more.

http://www.youtube.com/v/M-OAT_eRtnE&rel=0&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&version=3">Video Report

[al bupp]

69. Reuters Video: The Widows of Misrata

This is a 1-2 minute report on widows putting together care packages for fighters on the front lines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW-UurGPBGg">The Widows of Misrata

[meow mix]

70. K&r

go rebels

[al bupp]

71. FB: Change In Libya's Photos

Libyan women keep the morale high and take care of the city while their men fight at the front-lines.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=278028&id=137199749688243

By http://www.facebook.com/changeinlibya17">Change In Libya

[Blue_Tires]

72. thanks for the updates...

[al bupp]

73. Al Aribiya: Is Qaddafi preparing to step down in Libya?

http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/07/19/158288.html">Is Qaddafi preparing to step down in Libya? Analysis by Nathaniel Sheppard Jr.

A secret meeting in Tunis Saturday between high level US officials and Libyan government representatives renewed speculation that embattled leader Col. Muammar Qaddafi is ready to step down.

Reports that the colonel was willing to relinquish his despotic, four-decade long rule with conditions first surfaced in March, and then less than a week ago when French Foreign Minister Alain Juppé said Libyan emissaries had told him Mr. Qaddafi “ is prepared to leave.”

...

It is believed that Col. Qaddafi is trying to work out a favorable arrangement for his departure such as details of whether he could remain in the country or would be forced into exile. He also wants assurances that he would not be prosecuted as a war criminal for hundreds civilian deaths that have occurred at the hands of his troops during four months of protests against his rule.

Mr. Qaddafi reportedly made an offer in March, shortly after rebellion against his rule started, to quit provided that that his safety and that of his family would be guaranteed and no criminal charges brought against him. The rebels opposing him rejected that offer as offering him too honorable an exit.

If true, this is a sure sign that Gaddafi recognizes that it's just a matter of time before the jig's up. I'm not sure what course I would take were in the TNC. On the one hand, ending the fighting sooner rather than later would be good. However, given the nature of his crimes, it would be hard to see him & his family just ride off into the sunset to a life of luxury. There would also be the lingering chance of him trying to extract revenge from afar. Tough choice, I'd say.

[Yosarian71]

80. The Gadhafis do not have many choices

No one can guarantee their safety once they lose control of the remaining Libyan military. Even if the War Crimes Tribunal and NATO AND the TNC all waive prosecution, there are millions of Libyans that have a grievance against him, and some significant portion of them will want Gadhafi dead. All it takes is one to kill him or one of his children. Gadhafi "burned the ships" a long time ago. Compromise is no longer an option.

There is no reason for Gadhafi to surrender. It will take an adviser taking him out or a total military defeat for the Gadhafi family to surrender control.

[al bupp]

81. You're probably right

It's likely that these talks are nothing more than stalling tactics aimed at undermining NATO's resolve by appearing to be open to negotiation. No doubt the Gaddafi's know better than anyone the extent of the sentiment for retribution among Libyans themselves. I just have to wonder at what point the walls closing around them might encourage them grasp at the straw of exile, assuming it coincided w/ sufficient funds to live somewhat as they've grown accustomed.

In either case, the question remains is time on the side of Gaddafi or the rebellion? I have to say that militarily the tide seems to have turned. We see no advances worthy of the name by Gaddafi's forces, only attempts to hold what they've got, even those seem rather feeble. Clearly the air campaign has largely reduced them to static positions.

The rebels, on the other hand, have consolidated gains in the western mtns, and made some halting advances to cut-off Tripoli. As you predicted, these have been difficult for the mountain militias to sustain as they move away from their bases. The fighters from Misrata, attempting to take Zliten have also gotten bogged-down for similar reasons. The recent capture of Brega on the eastern front may represent a tipping point. Reports that it was done using a coordinated three-prong assault show an increasing sophistication of the rebel army.

What think you, sir?

[al bupp]

74. AJE's James Bays Tweet: All quiet on Bin Ghanem front

#Libya Doing a drive around the frontlines. All quiet on Bin Ghanem front.

Via: http://twitter.com/#!/baysontheroad

[al bupp]

75. The Daily Star (Beirut): Claims and counter claims in the battle for Brega

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Jul-19/Claims-and-counter-claims-in-the-battle-for-Brega.ashx#axzz1SYTpMAni">Claims and counter claims in the battle for Brega

The Libyan government Monday night denied claims rebel forces had seized control of the key oil refinery town of Brega, saying the city remained under the “full control” of loyalist forces.“

Brega is under the full control of our Libyans, helped by the tribes and volunteers, and everything that has been announced by the self-proclaimed National Transitional Council is lies and disinformation,” Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli.

...

“The bulk of Gadhafi’s forces have fallen back to Ras Lanuf,” rebel spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah told AFP, referring to another oil hub some 50 kilometers to the west.

...

The rebels appeared to have learned the lessons from a series of hard-fought military gains that were washed away by hasty and badly coordinated advances. This time rebel columns approached slowly from the northeast, east and southeast, surrounding Gadhafi’s forces and reaching the outskirts of the city’s eastern-most tip late Friday.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Jul-19/Claims-and-counter-claims-in-the-battle-for-Brega.ashx#ixzz1SYUhdap9">The Daily Star :: Lebanon News

[pinboy3niner]

76. Reuters reported "Most rebel forces were now past Brega and heading west"

Although it wasn't made clear in the story, that may have been a claim from a rebel source and not an independent report.

The best thing in the story was the laughable statement by the regime's spokesperson, Moussa 'Tripoli Bob' Ibrahim:

"Our brave soldiers are in Brega in their thousands and control it completely," spokesman Ibrahim said.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/19/uk-libya-idUKTRE76C1H420110719

:rofl:

[al bupp]

79. Moussa brings laughable propaganda to new lows...

Apparently, his capacity for utterly transparent and jaw-dropping mendaciousness knows no bounds. Of course, this is nothing new for him or the regime he serves.

[pinboy3niner]

77. Libyan Rebels Won’t Sign Oil Deals Until Elected Government

Source: Bloomberg

By Robert Tuttle - Jul 19, 2011 6:00 AM PT


Libya’s Transitional National Council, fighting to overthrow the government of Muammar Qaddafi, won’t sign new contracts with oil companies because the movement wasn’t elected, a spokesman for the group said.


“We are not elected,” Mahmoud Shammam said in a telephone interview from Qatar’s capital, Doha. “How can we sign a contract which will affect the life of the Libyan people and we are not an elected government?” The council will honor existing contracts, he said.


The Libyan rebel movement is talking with companies including Royal Dutch Shell Plc on supplying fuel to the country after Qaddafi’s government falls, Energy intelligence Group’s International Oil Daily said today, citing Guma El-Gamaty, the rebels’ representative to the U.K. Shammam said he couldn’t comment on the report.

...


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-19/libyan-rebels-won-t-sign-oil-deals-until-elected-government-1-.html

[pinboy3niner]

78. Syria: Eyewitnesses in #Homs now say at least 13 people were killed today

An eyewitness in Homs has confirmed that 13 people were killed today after the security forces opened fire on a funeral, according to al-Jazeera's Rula Amin.

She tweets:

Eyewitnesses in #Homs now say at least 13 people were killed today , situation remains very tense #syria


just spoke to an eyewitness from #Homs, he says shabiha and security sprayed at the funeral with a machine gun #Syria

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2011/jul/19/libya-syria-middle-east-unrest-live#block-12

[pinboy3niner]

82. Colourful welcome for Libyan girl injured in Misurata

Source: Times of Malta

Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 11:03, by Claudia Calleja


A five-year-old Libyan girl who lost a leg in the fighting in Libya, has arrived in Malta on her way to the United States, where she will have a prosthetic leg fitted.

Malak (meaning Angel) smiled broadly from her wheelchair as she was welcomed with brightly coloured balloons at Grand Harbour this morning.

But her story is far from being a happy one. A month ago, she was asleep in her home in Misurata when a shell fired by Gaddafi's forces exploded in the room.

Her brother and sister were killed, and she were severely injured.

She has spent the past weeks in a Misurata hospital, where doctors amputated her right leg and struggled to give her what help they could despite limited facilities.

...


http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110719/local/severely-injured-libyan-girl-arrives-from-misurata.376322

[pinboy3niner]

83. Libyan rebels say they have encircled Brega (new Reuters report)

Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:52am EDT

By Lutfi Abu-Aun


TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Libyan rebels have encircled the eastern oil hub of Brega and are in control of parts of the town, whose capture would mark a major boost for the insurgents' campaign to oust Muammar Gaddafi, a rebel spokesman said.


Insurgents were dug in to the south and east of Brega and in control of its eastern residential sector, the spokesman said.

...


"Members of the revolutionary council saw some Gaddafi forces inside Brega but numbers are very, very low compared to the few last weeks," the rebel spokesman said.


He said he had listened to intercepted radio communications between Gaddafi loyalists in Brega which suggested they were low on food and weapons and complaining about their commanders.

...


"There are unconfirmed stories of mines being left under dead bodies -- when our people advance they bury the dead -- and also under wads of money scattered around," said the spokesman.


NATO helicopters attacked military convoys as they tried to supply Gaddafi's forces fighting over the town, rebels said.

...


http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCATRE76H06X20110719?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

84. Libyan troops kill 8 rebels near eastern oil town (attackers "in trucks disguised with rebel flags")

By RAMI AL-SHAHEIBI, Associated Press


AJDABIYA, Libya (AP) — Government forces in trucks disguised with rebel flags shelled opposition positions Tuesday near the strategic eastern oil town of Brega, killing eight rebel fighters and wounding dozens more, officials said.


Rebel forces have been pushing to seize the front-line town on Libya's coast for nearly a week, but they say fields of land mines planted by Moammar Gadhafi's forces have slowed the advance.


The rebels are fighting in a residential area on the town's eastern side and control about one-third of the town, spokesman Mohammed al-Rajali said.


Field commander Ahmed Maysawi said rebel forces were working to clear the mines so they can move forward while government troops are occasionally approaching in trucks disguised with rebel flags to shell rebel positions with mounted rocket launchers.

...


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iST3P-HvBBIxRCVh1brNzlaof6mg?docId=eee303e63c8641deb1ed7e06efcd4e90

[pinboy3niner]

85. Reuters FACTBOX-Latest developments in Libyan conflict

Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:00pm GMT


July 19, (Reuters) -

...


• Libya's foreign minister is to meet his Russian counterpart in Moscow on Wednesday, Itar-Tass news agency said. The meeting, requested by the Libyans, would be first known visit by a Libyan government official to Moscow since the war began.


• Libya denied rebels had routed its forces in Brega as Libyan TV, in a bid to counter the rebel claims, showed what it said was footage taken on Monday of ordinary life in Brega, with students taking an exam and workers at a natural gas plant.

...


• NATO said it conducted 129 air sorties on Monday, 44 of them strike sorties that aim to identify and hit targets, but do not always deploy munitions.


• NATO said key targets hit on Monday included:

-- Eight armed vehicles and two armoured fighting vehicles near Brega;

-- One artillery piece, one radar, one surface-to-missile launcher, one command-and-control vehicle and one command-and-control node near Tripoli;

-- Six artillery pieces near Misrata;

-- One military storage facility near Waddan.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE76I16320110719?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

86. Libyan officials sought guarantees Gaddafi would not be pursued for war crimes

Source: The Telegraph

Libyan representatives sought guarantees Col Muammar Gaddafi would not be pursued for war crimes if he stepped down during talks with US officials.

By Damien McElroy, Richard Spencer

6:27PM BST 19 Jul 2011



Diplomats involved in contacts with Libyan officials said that Tripoli sought talks with Washington as part of a series of informal negotiations on Col Gaddafi's future.


But while French mediators last week insisted that Col Gaddafi must leave Libya, a move that would make him vulnerable to arrest and war crimes charges, American diplomats only insisted that the dictator give up power.


European diplomats said on Tuesday that America, which is not a member of the World Court, could formally put its weight behind a deal to scrap UN sanctions that authorised war crime charges. "There is open question here of an American role but the Americans have also been very clear that they delivered a message and not launch negotiations," a European diplomat said.


Libyan emissaries have held a series of meetings with Turkish, French and South African officials in previous weeks. Unnamed regime officials met senior American diplomats in Tunis on Saturday.

...


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8648173/Libyan-officials-sought-guarantees-Gaddafi-would-not-be-pursued-for-war-crimes.html

[pinboy3niner]

87. Italian government blocks investigation into missing arms cache

Speculation that consignment of weapons removed from military depot in Mediterranean was secretly supplied to Libya


The Italian government has blocked an investigation into the whereabouts of a massive consignment of weapons removed from a military depot in the Mediterranean, amid speculation that the cargo was secretly supplied to Libya.


The weapons were from a consignment that included 30,000 Kalashnikov AK-47 automatic rifles, 32m rounds of ammunition, 5,000 Katyusha rockets, 400 Fagot wire-guided anti-tank missiles and some 11,000 other anti-tank weapons.


They were transferred from a store on the island of Santo Stefano, off the north coast of Sardinia, and transported to the mainland where they were loaded onto army trucks , a source familiar with the operation told the Guardian. But what happened to them after that is a mystery – and now a secret.


The arms were said to have been moved about a month after Silvio Berlusconi radically shifted his stance on Libya. Firmly allied to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi until the outbreak of hostilities, he was initially reluctant to do more than provide base facilities for France and Britain.

...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/19/italy-blocks-investigation-arms-cache

[al bupp]

88. AJE Video: Bid to unite Libya’s disparate rebel forces

Al Jazeera’s Hoda Abdel-Hamid reports on the efforts to unify the revolutionary fighters under one command so they all operate with the same tactics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVvlhqX9SeU&feature=player_embedded">Bid to unite Libya’s disparate rebel forces

[pinboy3niner]

89. NPR: For Libyan Rebels, Gadhafi's Mines A Potent Obstacle

Source: NPR (Morning Edition)

by Lourdes Garcia-Navarro

July 19, 2011


Land mines increasingly are being used by Moammar Gadhafi's forces on battlegrounds across Libya. Rebels fighting for the eastern town of Brega are being stymied by minefields around the area.


In Libya's western mountains, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines are causing many casualties, but there are few mine experts to help.


On the barren front line in the village of Gualish, rebels take cover from Gadhafi's forces — and the relentless sun — behind a sand berm.


Rajed, a rebel fighter at the front, points to the south of Gualish and says they have just discovered a new minefield. Rajed says all of this area is now mined; it's terrible, he says, and that is what is stopping their advance.

...


Listen to the Story (4:03):
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/19/138487601/for-libyan-rebels-gadhafis-mines-a-potent-obstacle

[David__77]

90. Lol I thought Brega was already "retaken."

Then it was "partly retaken." Now it is surrounded, but these pesky mines are in the way. Casualties are mounting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzWdwgGrjmo&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

[tabatha]

92. A flippant attitude to the harm caused by mines

is sickening.

Also, I guess that things are so good in Brega that Muttassim had to hot foot it back to Sirte.

[David__77]

97. al Jazeera: "Libyan rebels pushed back from Brega "

"Maybe within three or four days we will solve this problem of mines and we will be in Brega," said rebel spokesman Ahmed Bani.

...

A doctor at the hospital in the nearby city of Ajdabiya said a lot of severely injured fighters were taken there on Tuesday, most of them with head and chest injuries caused by gunshots and explosions.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2011/07/201171922526752203.html

I guess Muttassim (if he really was ever there or ever left) wasn't needed. No one is denying that there is a war in Libya. There's been one since February, and I imagine it will continue until NATO ceases its operations. Once it does, I think the war will end rather quickly, and relative peace will return.

[tabatha]

101. Actually, all of Gaddfi's forces except

one battalion have left Brega.

"Once it does, I think the war will end rather quickly, and relative peace will return." You must be kidding or you do not understand:

a) Gaddafi's revenge. The Rebels are fighting and dying because they know if they do not win, they will die anyway. If that is the peace you envisage where people who wish to express contrary opinion --- as you do on this board --- will be massacred --- which you will not be --- then I guess that will be peace. Libya will be like a country of Stepford men and women who cannot say anything against the "King Gaddafi".

b) Libyans fed up with 42 years of tyranny.

NATO will not stop until the Libyans are as free as you are.

[pinboy3niner]

91. Libyan forces, insurgents locked in battle for Port Brega

Source: Los Angeles Times

'It's a gang fight in there,' a rebel fighter says of the latest assaults near the strategic coastal city, which is being held by forces loyal to Moammar Kadafi.

By David Zucchino, Los Angeles Times

July 19, 2011, 11:51 a.m.


Reporting from Ajdabiya, Libya— Fighting intensified Tuesday around Port Brega in eastern Libya as rebel fighters struggled to dislodge government forces from the strategic coastal city and its petrochemical complex.

...


Other fighters described a rocket barrage by forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi that ripped through a rebel unit trying to advance into the city. The advance halted as rebels treated and evacuated casualties, they said.

...


The latest rebel assault on Port Brega, which began Thursday, has left at least 32 anti-government fighters dead and 291 wounded, according to the hospital's running tally.

...


Rebels said land mines planted by government forces continued to delay their advance through Port Brega, 140 miles from the rebels' de facto capital of Benghazi, and 450 miles from Tripoli, the nation's capital. Several played cellphone videos showing plastic anti-personnel mines they said were cleared around the city.


Several rebel tanks have been disabled by mines, fighters said, and several dozen gun trucks had been badly damaged.

...


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-fighting-20110720,0,2078871.story

[pinboy3niner]

93. LIBYAN REVOLUTION DAY 153: CURRENT TIME IN LIBYA = 12:01 AM WEDNESDAY, JULY 20

Libya time = EDT +6 hours, PDT +9 hours, UTC +1 hour, GMT +2 hours

[tabatha]

94. Arab states committed to help Libyan people: UAE

Istanbul, July 16 (IANS/WAM) United Arab Emirates has expressed the Arab states' committment to the welfare and help of Libyans facing an ongoing political crisis in their country.

UAE's Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan underlined his country's support for Libyan people Friday.

Speaking during a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu at the conclusion of the fourth meeting of the Libya Contact Group in Istanbul, the UAE's foreign minister said: "Today another significant step has been made to clarify the importance of international support to Libya's Interim National Transitional Council (NTC),"

"Clearly the Arab states stand with the Libyan people", he added further underlining joint action "to help Libyan have a dignified life".

An unrest spreading through the Arab world erupted in Libya in February, with protests against the 40-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi. After UN Security Council authorised military action against Gaddafi's forces, US and NATO have launched many air strikes in the country since March.

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=108614#.TiXVdGlv0eQ.tweet

[tabatha]

95. What on Earth is happening in Brega?

A short explanation 20/07/2011 #libya by Change In Libya on Tuesday, July 19, 2011 at 3:48pm

Brega has been a source of confusion ever since freedom fighters declared Ajdabiya a stronghold and fortified the town back in March. We used to hear stories about NATO apaches targeting Gaddafi brigades in the town, stories about the town being a huge prison for these brigades, and, since friday, stories about the town being completely liberated.

According to different sources, the bulk of freedom fighter equipment is more or less at the 60km point from Ajdabiya (that means, 60kms from Ajdabiya, on the highway to Brega - see the diagram below). Freedom fighters advanced 4 or 5 kilometres from the 60km line since Friday, so keep that in mind.

(Seems like you can't enlarge the pictures... here's a google maps link... try to follow what I'm saying on the map itself - http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=30.286346,19.515152&spn=0.576917,1.056747&t=h&z=11 )



See that red line? That's where the bulk of the FF tanks, artillery and forces are. They are just outside Brega and as the red arrow tells us, they are also surrounding the town from the southern end (it's also worth noting that everywhere south of Brega is under freedom fighter control, including the all important oil facilities and oil fields in the desert south of the town). The town is currently occupied by ONE brigade belonging to the Gaddafi army - the rest of the force that used to be in Brega has withdrawn to Bishr (see diagram below) according to radio calls that were intercepted by FF teams.


Bottom line is: Brega isn't fully liberated. The important refinery is still under Gaddafi control. So is the airport. The city is also heavily mined - Freedom fighters say that they removed over a thousand mines so far, and that 3 Gaddafi engineers they captured tell them that there are over 40,000 mines in Brega alone...
It's a daunting task, but Brega's liberation is only a matter of time.
I hope the language is clear enough. If not, ask me and I'll try to explain :) I'm suffering from lack of sleep and it's almost 1 am here...
CIL

Update: Can you see the "New brega" area just before the 60km point in the map above? That's another source of confusion. That is known as the industrial town, or the 3rd district of Brega (from what I've been told). This has been under FF control since Saturday or so it seems and it must have added to the confusion, because technically it is part of Brega and FF now control it. Some stations might have reported that as "FF control Brega" but as you can tell, it's not entirely true. Still though, it's a significant thing.

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=149767021764849

[tabatha]

96. For Libyan Rebels, Gadhafi’s Mines A Potent Obstacle

by LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO
Land mines increasingly are being used by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces on battlegrounds across Libya. Rebels fighting for the eastern town of Brega are being stymied by minefields around the area.
In Libya’s western mountains, anti-tank and anti-personnel mines are causing many casualties, but there are few mine experts to help.

On the barren front line in the village of Gualish, rebels take cover from Gadhafi’s forces — and the relentless sun — behind a sand berm.

Rajed, a rebel fighter at the front, points to the south of Gualish and says they have just discovered a new minefield. Rajed says all of this area is now mined; it’s terrible, he says, and that is what is stopping their advance.

Milad Saadi and his team pray just before beginning their work clearing mines. Their mine probe is stuck in the ground in front of them.

Rebel commanders say the use of mines are a sign that Gadhafi’s forces are becoming more desperate and weak.

The mines are effective, though. The fields have to be avoided or cleared before rebel forces can move through.

http://feb17.info/news/for-libyan-rebels-gadhafis-mines-a-potent-obstacle-2/

[David__77]

98. LJBC video of inside Brega 7-19-11

Interesting video of Brega.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFsdWpkreyM&feature=BFa&list=UL1lQnpEk6iGc&index=23

[al bupp]

99. What on Earth is happening in Brega?

What evidence is there that the video was made when the text super-imposed upon says it was? Both this and the video link you posted earlier in the thread could have been made at any time in the last month. That having been said, it could very well be a true representation of the current situation in the town. If so, I'd say the place looks pretty empty. Most buildings in the town appear to be shuttered, there's nobody on the streets and only a few other vehicles besides the one holding the camera. I suppose that may be due to the time of day, too.

There is certainly propaganda coming from both sides, though early reports of Brega falling may have due to misunderstandings, as the following link tries to explain:

https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=149767021764849">What on Earth is happening in Brega?

[David__77]

100. All true.

It could be from some other time, but I have no reason to think so. It looks like a town that is braced for war. It is quiet and certainly not teeming with people. I'm not sure the town itself is of much strategic value. It will likely not be a source of energy for whichever side my hold it, for some time anyway.

I think that it's of value to view video and other documentation provided by various sources. It is always true that there is disinformation in the mix. How to interpret the documentation is quite another matter entirely.

[tabatha]

102. Brega has been devoid of civilians for months.

Comment from AJE blog:

"The only one looking foolish now is Gadaffi, Moussa Ibrahim, and Serbian Drjek-oil who claim the regime still hold Brega, have inflicted 350 dead, and thousands injured on the FF's...if they did such a thing they'd have retaken Ajdabiya and be well on their way to Benghazi. There'd be a wave of FF vehicles fleeing back East... "

[tabatha]

103. From Jerry Drawhorn on AJE.

One of the smartest commentators on the AJE blogs about Libya (although there are many with sharp humor at times)

"I think that may explain the situation" - he was referring to the same "What on Earth is happening in Brega?" link.

I think that may explain the situation as it was a few days ago...but my understanding is the remaining G forces are constrained to a few industrial buildings in Area 1...which is adjacent to the port...and perhaps a few of the oil facilities. 150-200 fighters is not nearly enough to hold the vast area that is demarcated in the diagram.

My guess is that the FF's came in from the South by the unpaved road that runs parallel to the main highway...about 4km south of that. They then continued to the west to be south of Bishr. They took the Area 3...which is a residential area, and the Bright Star University (about 4 km from the center) about 3 days ago. The ditch with oil was to the West of those areas.

There was report that scout groups came in from the "north" along the coast. Others probed from the south and found the town nearly empty. But the surrounding areas have been mined, as have the areas around and perhaps in the airport. As FF groups pushed in they entered other residential areas (Old Brega; Area 2) where some families were found (about 20 still in the area).

Thus the G-forces are essentially corned in an area that constitutes about 1/20th of the area suggested on the diagram in the link above...they are in Area 1 warehouses, residences and the refinery area near some oil storage tanks. Without food, water, and taking heavy fire. They have no way to escape.

Here's a better map http://wikimapia.org/#lat=30.4055631&lon=19.5820999&z=15&l=0&m=b&v=8 Click on "Type" Menu: then "Satellite and Old Features" to get a composite map showing areas and key buildings. One can see where the LNG tanks are located that the G-forces are sheltering in...also the large warehouse area, and Area 1. I suspect they will eventually be cleared out. Some of the sites are vulnerable to NATO attack, others simply require sniping with night vision equipment...and lastly they can always use smoke simply starve 'em out.

[ellisonz]

110. They're done for.

But it's looking like another slog to Ras Lanuf.

They should focus on sending forces to break out of Misrata. Taking Brega and Ras Lanuf would be huge. But Sirte? What does it matter. The war ends in Tripoli.

The use of these mines is atrocious and will indiscriminately kill Libyan civilians for years to come. NATO should step it up and directly target Gaddafi units, and especially those who may be engaged in mine-laying.

[pinboy3niner]

111. That's a good point

NATO has so far avoided targeting Gaddafi's troops. But targeting troops engaged in mine-laying would make sense--and would help to deter mine-laying ooperations.

[tabatha]

112. Yes, I believe that is the plan.

They intend to bypass Sirte and join up with other FFs from Misrata and Nafusa.

[pinboy3niner]

113. Thanks, Tab

Thanks for being here, and for bringing in the best of the tweets and blogs--the stuff that I don't normally cover.

But the neatest thing is that if I have to take off for four days, as I recently did, You and Iterate and al bupp and others have it covered. I know that's harder for you and the others than it is for me when I'm here, but far from feeling 'dispensible,' it's a real delight to see the team in action.

I normally just cut and paste the news, good or bad, without comment. Without even expressing what a pleasure it is to work with Josh, and you, and the rest of the team.

And without even expressing appreciation to so many followers of these threads whose support, even if mostly silent, keeps us going.

So here's a salute to you and to the team:

:patriot:

[tabatha]

124. I appreciate the thanks ---

but I only do this to share what I have found, which I actually now do on the AJE blog as well.

[tabatha]

104. Another couple AJE posts by Jerry Drawhorn

"Freedom4libya Dr. Khalifa Leebee Shakeir of #gadhafi tv just announced $2million bounty for the arrest or killing of Bernard Henri Levy"
Amazing, for a philosopher!

Sirte exists because of imperialism. In 1842 the Ottoman Turks built a fortress Qasr Zaafran ~ later known as Qasr Sert. This fort, taken over and repaired by the Italian invaders in 1912, was where the settlement of Sirte grew up. During WW2 it was described as "a shabby little Arab village of mud huts, clustered on the banks of a foul-smelling stream" of no strategic importance. Only when oil was discovered did it attain any significance. Gadaffi, born about 30 miles to the South (near the "International Airport"and African Union complex) lavished the town with personal prestige projects that made little sense in any practical sense. Even the placement of the Great Manmade River was re-routed to have Sirte serve as a terminus, rather than more potentially arable areas.

[tabatha]

105. THE AMAZIGH – THE BERBERS from AJE

I have just entered this blog – I have been on other pages for months;
We may disagree on many issues but there is an undeniable fact:
Gaddafi and his regime oppressed the oldest people in the world – the Amazigh, their language was forbidden, they are all against Gaddafi and that is enough for me.
They were in Nafusa Mountains with Ancient Egypt; their alphabet (also forbidden by Gaddafi) is as old as Phoenician, older than Ancient Greek and the first recorded scripts are 1000 years older than the oldest Chinese scripts. Anthropologic studies support the theory that all Caucasians in the world come from branching Berber tribes. They were there with Ancient Romans; one of them was a governor of Judea.
And there was an idiot to oppress them – Gaddafi.
This is why he is bound to lose – the Berbers are there for 4000 years when we Europeans and the Arabs were wild tribes in the middle of nowhere.
For your information, the Amazigh ff communicate openly with mobile phones because there is not a single traitor to translate it to Gaddafi forces.
Attached Berber flag – soon to be displayed in Tripoli.
Nafusa Mountains are liberated from Gaddafi mercenaries.
Long live free Tamazgha!

[pinboy3niner]

106. The road to recovery inside Libya's mountain hospital By Bill Law

19 July 2011 Last updated at 20:25 ET

By Bill Law
BBC Radio 4, Crossing Continents

...


All have suffered severe bullet wounds. One has lost a foot, another was wounded badly in an arm and a leg.


The third is a boy, no more than 16 years old. He lies in a freshly made bed with crisp, clean linen. His eyes catch you first. They are brown, very big, and full of sorrow.


He tells Dr Ahsan he had gone to a pro-Gaddafi rally in February from his home in the south of Libya. It probably seemed a bit of a lark at the time.


After the rally he was press ganged, he says, given a gun - but no training - and forced to join Gaddafi's soldiers at a checkpoint. In early June the rebels attacked the checkpoint. He was shot in the back and the leg and brought here.


When asked if his family knows where he is, the boy shakes his head and says "no".


He says, "When I get out of the hospital, I want to go home to my family."

...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14186310

[pinboy3niner]

107. "I want to become another little link in that massive chain that has sprung out of the revolution"

...


I'm travelling with Saleyha Ahsan, a British doctor I first met in 1998, when she was a captain in the British Army and the first Muslim woman to graduate from Sandhurst.


When she left the army she went into medicine. Now in Libya she is volunteering with other doctors, most of them Libyans, helping refugees and the wounded from both sides of the conflict.


"I read online about doctors organising themselves and getting involved," she says.


"I want to be part of this Arab Spring, even though I was born in Britain and my roots are in Pakistan and Afghanistan."

...


Dr Saleyha Ahsan is only working with the refugees and fighters there for a week but she is determined to return.


"I want to become another little link in that massive chain that has sprung out of the revolution."


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14186310

[tabatha]

108. James Wheeler's tweets

http://twitter.com/#!/wheelertweets

I follow his tweets every day. I hope he writes a book about it after the war.

It is not only tragic for the war, but what Gaddafi's "leading" has done.

[tabatha]

109. Today Malak Alshami amputated foot, 5 years old arrives to the US coming from Misratah.

Malak Alshami’s did not know that her live will change after this Friday , while she was playing in her room with her two brothers who did not spoke the alphabet yet , the Grad rockets that have fallen in the room took the two boys lives but Malak survived, her body had got severely injured, her foot was amputated and her hand had was broken , what is the guilt of this little child, she did not stand up aginst Gaddafi she did not even reach the age of which she could recognize what is going on .

But Gaddafi did not distinguish between a child a woman, or elderly, al he wanted is burned grounds, as he orders his mercenaries : “Kill .. burn .. rape … and take his live who ever says ” I want to break free”

we have met little Malak after she was given a permission to leave the hospital, we found her with a high morals , She waved her injured hand with victory sign as if she was saying to Gaddafi ” we are a generation flowed by another and you will never step on Misratah ground as long as we are a live”

I have been thinking since that time the 10th of June , how Malak and her family going to survive this hard times, but I was given the good news today as I came back home.

Today 19.07.2011, Malak will arrive to the US , and do her rehabilitation program in America, this is part of the US government program to assist Libyan victims.

I would like to thank the American people for all what they have done for us and say ” We will not forget your human stand”.

http://www.freemisurata.com/EngArt/archives/448

[inna]

114. Will you guys for fuck sake please stop calling this pure imperialist US-NATO aggression

a goddamn "revolution"?? :wtf:


No one, anywhere, calls what's happening in Libya now a "revolution", except the most fringe sources. It's insulting to intelligence to see these constant and never-stopping threads here on DU.


:nuke:

[pinboy3niner]

115. No, your 'drive-by's are insulting, and embarassing

Whether you like it or not, what is occurring in Libya is a revolution. I don't know how else you would characterize an uprising of the population against a dictator.

Edited to add: For Fucks Sake. Why? I don't know.

[inna]

116. absolutely laughable. there is no popular uprising; this subversion/regime change is straight out

of the CIA playbook - except that it is being conducted in a completely blatant/overt way, Kosovo meets Iraq version 2, complete with the "international coalition of the willing" (or not so willing, if you've been following the latest reports).


Newsflash: the US government is NOT into popular revolutionary movements. It has a lengthy and exhaustive record of suppressing and subverting such movements all around the globe.

[pinboy3niner]

117. That's a lot of gobbledygook

Interesting that you shift everythig to make it all about the U.S. government, as if those fighting and dying on the ground in Libya don't count.

This started before the U.S. ever became involved. If you followed these threads and the news from the beginning, you might have a clue.

[joshcryer]

122. Eh, best to ignore the regular "2 minutes hate." US imperialism = Emmanual Goldstein

While no doubt there are threads of imperialism, it is most certainly, 100% a revolution against a tyrant, led by and for the Libyan people. In the very beginning (search back the threads to when the previous poster was doing the tweets) my biggest fear was that the United Nations would have to get involved because "leftists" would immediately denounce the rebels. It happened as I predicted which is why we continued this thread to this day. (Welcome back btw!)

No critique is worth considering that is so simplified and black and white and uncritical as "US imperialism = bad = anyone who even has a remote allegiance with the US = bad."

[joshcryer]

120. 15 million hits for "libyan revolution" 5 million hits for "libya imperialism"

Please stop trying to propagandize people and change the narrative. Google doesn't think it's working.

[pinboy3niner]

121. ...

:rofl:


Nice post, Josh. :toast:


And good to see you... :hi:

[pinboy3niner]

118. AFP: France says Gaddafi can stay in Libya if he steps down

AFP reports: France accepts Muammar Gaddafi could stay in Libya if he quits politics, under a ceasefire deal to end a conflict with rebels backed by Paris, the French foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"One of the possibilities being considered is that he stay in Libya but on the clear condition that he steps aside from Libyan political life," the minister, Alain Juppe, told LCI television.

"That is what we are waiting for before we start the political process for a ceasefire."


http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-jul-20-2011-1032

[pinboy3niner]

119. Malak's family determined to return to Libya as soon as possible

Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 12:14


The family of five-year-old Malak, the Libyan girl who lost a limb when a missile landed in her home, have spoken of their determination to return to Libya as soon as possible.


Malak was brought to Malta from Misurata yesterday, and is to be taken to the US to be given a prosthetic leg.


She wore a badge bearing the logo of the Libyan National Transitional Council and carried the council’s flag as she was carried down from a trawler yesterday.


The rocket ripping off her right leg and killing her younger brother and baby sister.


“It was a long voyage and we are tired but feel very good to be here... Malak was given a lot of toys during the trip and she is doing very well,” her father Mostafa Mohammed Al Shami said, soon after stepping off the Al Entisar.

...


http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20110720/local/malak-s-family-determined-to-return-to-libya-as-soon-as-possible.376505

[joshcryer]

123. Week 22 part 2 here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1528894