Revolutie in Libi� #112: Waar Gadaffi zijn aanhangers weer toespreekt

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Op dinsdag 13 september 2011 01:25 schreef waht het volgende:

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42 jaar voor Kadaffi. Maar we zullen zien hoe het gaat lopen.

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Op dinsdag 13 september 2011 08:05 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Er is daar geen enkel land dat niet de Islam als juridisch en legaal fundament heeft.

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Nieuwe aanvallen NAVO op Libische steden Sirte en Sabha

De NAVO heeft vandaag een reeks van nieuwe luchtaanvallen uitgevoerd op Sirte en Sabha, twee Libische steden die nog altijd twee bolwerken van Gaddafi’s troepen en aanhangers zijn. Er werden verschillende soorten doelen bestookt.

Het militaire bondgenootschap gaf vanmiddag een verklaring uit waarin het zegt dat het rond Sirte, de geboorteplaats van Gaddafi, een radarsysteem, acht raketsystemen, vijf raketvervoerders en drie militaire voertuigen heeft weten te raken. Daarnaast stelt de NATO zes tanks en twee andere militaire voertuigen bij Sabha, in het zuiden van Libi�, te hebben bestookt.

Sirte en Sabha zijn samen met de stad Bani Walid drie weken na de val van Tripoli nog altijd in handen van Gaddafi’s leger. Strijders van de Libische interim-regering openden vrijdag de aanval op Bani Walid, maar zijn er niet in geslaagd de stad, die zo’n 150 kilometer ten zuiden van Tripoli ligt, te veroveren. Enkele honderden troepen van Gaddafi zouden zich hevig verzetten.

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Tawarga: fires blaze and bad blood lingers in Libyan ghost town


Misratans have long accused population of poor dormitory town of murders, rapes and looting in alliance with pro-Gaddafi forces

Columns of dark oily smoke wound up through the still afternoon air on Tuesday from abandoned homes set ablaze in the Libyan rebel-occupied town of Tawarga.

A local police chief, who refused to give his name and ordered journalists out of the town, said the fires were the work of arsonists in the pay of Muammar Gaddafi who were hoping to tarnish the reputation of the new authorities.

Tawarga is a poor dormitory town 20 minutes from Misrata, whose mostly black population fled in August when rebel forces captured it.

Today it is a ghost town, its modest grey breeze block houses empty, the doors broken open, with green flags indicating support for the Gaddafi regime still fluttering from rooftops.

Misratans have long blamed the people of Tawarga for murders, rapes and looting in alliance with pro-Gaddafi forces during fighting in March and April.

It is common to hear Misratans making derogatory remarks about Tawarga's black population, coupled with the hope that the population, who fled to southern Libya, will never return.

On Tuesday homes and shops were set ablaze around the town, some fires starting even as journalists arrived to investigate.

The fires came the day that Amnesty International issued a report accusing rebel forces of crimes against pro-Gaddafi civilians, and urged Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, to do more to prevent these crimes.

While the report blamed the Gaddafi regime for most of the abuses catalogued, it said reprisal attacks against dark skinned Libyans and foreigners were continuing in rebel-held areas.

The police chief in Tawarga said his forces where hunting for those responsible for the blazes, which raged unchecked.

"They are starting these fires to make the rebels look bad," he said, refusing to give a formal interview or show his credentials. "You must leave. It is dangerous for you. They might shoot you."

He insisted rebel units were combing the town looking for the miscreants. The only rebel units in sight were relaxing outside a shopping precinct that is their base in the town centre, unconcerned by the fires raging around them.

Some may question how arsonists in the pay of the Gaddafi regime could operate in a town nearly 100 miles from the nearest frontline, deserted of all but rebel units, and surrounded by army bases and checkpoints.

Bad blood between Tawarga and Misrata has lingered from before the war, when many Tawarga residents, their families originally from southern Libya, performed service jobs in Misrata. Misratans accuse them of being badly behaved and unruly and frequently make derogatory remarks about the skin colour of Tawargans.

Misrata has a similar gripe at another neighbouring town, Zlitan, which, like Tawarga, failed to rise against the Gaddafi regime while Misrata's streets were pummelled by government artillery. Yet Zlitan's Arab population are being encouraged to return home while Tawarga's remain absent.

Earlier this week, Jalil declared that the new, free, Libya, would be governed by the rule of law. He may need to do more to demonstrate this is the case before Tawarga's population return – that is, if they still have homes to return to.

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Op woensdag 14 september 2011 12:09 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
Erdogan zal naast Egypte en Tunesi� ook Libi� bezoeken. In Egypte is hij onthaald als een soort held, maar ik vraag me af of hij in Libi� zo'n goeie beurt zal maken. Zijn land behoorde tot de club van landen die er niet echt vroeg bij waren om de interventie te steunen...

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Hele stad vermist na rebellenoffensief in Libi�
14/09/11, 17u34

Voor de Libische burgeroorlog was Tawarga een landelijke stad met zowat tienduizend inwoners, vooral zwarten. Vandaag de dag ligt de stad er verlaten bij en is ze door de rebellen uitgeroepen tot "gesloten militaire zone". Van de inwoners is geen spoor, zo schrijven verschillende media.
De vraag is waar die duizenden mensen naartoe zijn. Een antwoord blijkt moeilijk te vinden. Volgens sommige bronnen werden de bewoners door de rebellen naar vluchtelingenkampen in Tripoli gebracht, maar reporters die op zoek gingen naar de vermisten, troffen de kampen leeg aan.

Een smokkelaar die hen te woord stond, verklaarde dat de mensen "naar Niger zijn gegaan". Enkele omwonenden zeiden dan weer dat de inwoners van Tawarga inderdaad een tijdje in het kamp hebben gewoond, maar dat het kamp op een bepaald moment werd aangevallen door troepen uit Misrata. Die zouden de vluchtelingen vervolgens naar een ander kamp hebben gebracht, eveneens in de buurt van Tripoli, maar ook dat kamp bleek bij aankomst van de reporters leeg.

Loyaal aan Kadhafi
De inwoners van Tawarga waren loyaal aan de gewezen Libische leider Mouammar Kadhafi en stonden daarmee lijnrecht ten opzichte van hun landgenoten in het nabijgelegen rebellenbastion Misrata. Maar er lijken ook racistische motieven mee te spelen. Zo worden al langer in heel Libi� met de regelmaat van de klok zwarten als vermist opgegeven en de rebellen lijken mensen te arresteren op basis van hun huidkleur. Maar een hele stad die vermist wordt, roept wel erg veel vragen op.

Het is in ieder geval erg verontrustend dat de rebellen in het verleden al openlijk praatten over het (etnisch) "zuiveren" van de regio, en in juni nog zeiden dat de zwarte Libi�rs beter hun boeltje zouden pakken, want: "Tawarga bestaat niet meer, enkel Misrata" bestaat. Drie maanden later blijkt Tawarga plots van de kaart te zijn verdwenen, en op de plaats waar vroeger de stad lag staat nu een bord met het opschrift 'New Misrata'.

Vandalen
Volgens de rebellen zelf hebben ze, na hun overwinning, de mensen van Tawarga dertig dagen de tijd gegeven om te vertrekken. Wie bleef, zou gevangen genomen worden, aldus de rebellen die nu de lege stad bezetten. Volgens The Telegraph zijn de bewoners halsoverkop vertrokken en hebben velen niet eens de tijd gehad om persoonlijke spullen mee te nemen. De lege stad is intussen ten prooi gevallen aan vandalen. (belga/adb)

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'Aanval op Kadaffibolwerk Sirte begonnen'

TRIPOLI - Troepen van de nieuwe machthebbers in Libi� hebben de aanval geopend op Sirte, een van de laatste bolwerken van de verdreven dictator Muammar Kaddafi.
Foto: AFP

Zij trekken de stad vanuit het westen en vanuit het zuiden binnen. Dit heeft een correspondent van de Arabische nieuwszender al-Jazeera ter plaatse donderdag gemeld.

Later bevestigden een andere Arabische zender en een verklaring van de nieuwe machthebbers het nieuws. Volgens de strijdkrachten van de Nationale Overgangsraad is een ''massief konvooi'' van militairen de thuisstad van Kaddafi binnengedrongen.

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Former U.S. Congressman Walter Fauntroy, who recently returned from a self-sanctioned peace mission to Libya, said he went into hiding for about a month in Libya after witnessing horrifying events in Libya's bloody civil war -- a war that Fauntroy claims is backed by European forces.

Fauntroy's sudden disappearance prompted rumors and news reports that he had been killed.

In an interview inside his Northwest D.C. home last week, the noted civil rights leader, told the Afro that he watched French and Danish troops storm small villages late at night beheading, maiming and killing rebels and loyalists to show them who was in control.

"'What the hell' I'm thinking to myself. I'm getting out of here. So I went in hiding," Fauntroy said.

The rebels told Fauntroy they had been told by the European forces to stay inside. According to Fauntroy, the European forces would tell the rebels, "'Look at what you did.' In other words, the French and Danish were ordering the bombings and killings, and giving credit to the rebels.

"The truth about all this will come out later," Fauntroy said.

While in Libya, the former congressman also said he sat down with Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi for a one-on-one conversation. Gaddafi has ruled Libya since 1969, when he seized power in a military coup.

Fauntroy said he spoke with Gaddafi in person and that Gaddafi assured him that if he survived these attacks, the mission to unite African countries would continue.

"Contrary to what is being reported in the press, from what I heard and observed, more than 90 percent of the Libyan people love Gaddafi," Fauntroy said. "We believe the true mission of the attacks on Gaddafi is to prevent all efforts by African leaders to stop the recolonization of Africa."

Several months ago, Gaddafi's leadership faced its biggest challenge. In February, a radical protest movement called the Arab Spring spread across Libya. When Gaddafi responded by dispatching military and plainclothes paramilitary to the streets to attack demonstrators, it turned into a civil war with the assistance of NATO and the United Nations.

Fauntroy's account could not be immediately verified by the Afro and the U.S. State Department has not substantiated Fauntroy's version of events. Fauntroy was not acting as an official representative of the U.S. in Libya. He returned to Washington, D.C. on Aug. 31.

When rumors spread about Fauntroy being killed he went underground, he told the Afro in an interview. Fauntroy said for more than a month he decided not to contact his family but to continue the mission to speak with African spiritual leaders about a movement to unify Africa despite the Arab uprisings.

"I'm still here," Fauntroy said, pointing to several parts of his body. "I've got all my fingers and toes. I'm extremely lucky to be here."

After blogs and rumors reported Fauntroy had been killed, the congressional office of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) announced on Aug. 24, that she had been in touch with authorities who confirmed Fauntroy was safely in the care of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Inside his home, Fauntroy pulled out several memoirs and notebooks to explain why he traveled to Libya at a time when it was going through civil unrest.

"This recent trip to Libya was part of a continuous mission that started under Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. when he gave me orders to join four African countries on the continent with four in the African Diaspora to restore the continent to its pre-colonial status," Fauntroy said.

"We want Africa to be the breadbasket of the world," he said. "Currently, all the major roads in every country throughout Africa lead to ports that take its natural resources and wealth outside the continent to be sold to the European markets."

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Op donderdag 15 september 2011 14:26 schreef rakotto het volgende:
Propoganda materiaal denk ik.

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Op vrijdag 16 september 2011 08:59 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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Waarschijnlijker is dat die journalisten opschrijven wat ze gezien hebben en dat deze stad inderdaad bedreigd is en gezuiverd door racistische rebellen en jihadisten. Maar ja, Benghazi is tenminste beschermd.

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Op donderdag 15 september 2011 20:03 schreef Chooselife het volgende:
Walter Fauntroy, Feared Dead in Libya, Returns Home—Guess Who He Saw Doing the Killing

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http://afro.com/sections/news/national/story.htm?storyid=72369

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Moammar Gaddafi's fighters have beaten back an attempt by Libya's new government to crush remnants of the old regime, forcing revolutionary troops into retreat in the mountains and turning Gaddafi's seaside hometown into an urban battlefield of snipers firing from mosques and heavy weapons rattling main boulevards.
The tough defense on Friday of the holdout towns of Sirte and Bani Walid displayed the firepower and resolve of the Gaddafi followers and suggested Libya's new rulers may not easily break the back of regime holdouts. It also raised fears the country could face a protracted insurgency of the sort that has played out in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The Gaddafi loyalists have so many weapons," cried Maab Fatel, a 28-year-old revolutionary fighter on the front lines in the mountain enclave of Bani Walid, 90 miles (140 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli.

"This battle is really crazy," Fatel said, his uniform splattered with blood from carrying a wounded comrade.

Revolutionary forces began the day by streaming into Bani Walid but pulled back after intense fighting failed to dislodge pro-Gaddafi snipers and gunners from strategic positions. The two sides traded relentless mortar and rocket fire across a 500-yard-wide desert valley called Wadi Zeitoun that divides the town between north and south.

Mohaned Bendalla, a doctor at a field hospital in nearby Wishtata, said at least six rebels were killed and more than 50 were wounded.

Inside the town, a radio station believed linked to one of Gaddafi's main propagandist kept up a steady stream of appeals to fight and rants that demonized the revolutionaries as traitors who did not honor Islamic values.

"These revolutionaries are fighting to drink and do drugs all the time and be like the West, dance all night," the announcer claimed. "We are a traditional tribal society that refuses such things and must fight it." Ahmed Omar Bani, a military spokesman for Libya's transitional government, dismissed such allegations, saying the revolutionary forces' only goal was "to liberate our people." In Sirte, Gaddafi's birthplace on the Mediterranean coast, his backers rained gunfire down from mosque minarets and high-rise buildings on fighters pushing into the city from the west. In the streets the two sides battered each other with high-caliber machine guns, rockets and rocket-propelled grenades.

At one point, a pickup truck filled with revolutionary forces rushed back to the rear lines, its bed bloodied and strewn with the body parts and mangled face of a fighter who had been manning a machine gun. Other fighters shouting "God is great" pulled out his lifeless remains and comforted his partner, the pickup driver.

NATO warplanes swept overhead, but it was unclear whether there were fresh airstrikes to help the anti-Gaddafi advance. The alliance said it struck multiple rocket launchers, air missile systems, armored vehicles and a military storage facility in Sirte on Thursday when revolutionary units launched the offensive.

Gaddafi's spokesman, Moussa Ibrahim, said loyalist forces inflicted a heavy blow Friday on their enemies, killing many and taking many others hostage.

"We have the ability to continue this resistance for months," he said in a phone call to Syrian-based Al-Rai TV, which has become the mouthpiece for the former regime.

Ibrahim said some Gaddafi supporters have infiltrated the revolutionary forces and were working to sabotage them from the inside.

Despite the latest setback, Bani, the military spokesman, said Libya's new rulers hoped to liberate the whole country by the end of this month.

The loyalists still hold a swath of Libya along the central coast and into the southern deserts more than three weeks after revolutionary fighters swept into Tripoli and drove out Gaddafi. The whereabouts of the ousted leader and several of his sons remain unknown.

Hundreds of former rebels have massed deep in the southern desert and were trying to negotiate with villagers in a pro-Gaddafi area to surrender peacefully and avoid bloodshed.

The fighters captured an air base about 45 miles (70 kilometers) north of the loyalist stronghold of Sabha on Thursday. Col. Bashir Awidat, who is from the Wadi Shati region, said they need to secure the area before moving against Sabha.

Awidat said two former rebels and four loyalists were killed in the fighting, and that they had taken 14 prisoners.

He added that the villagers had been isolated and believed Gaddafi's propaganda.

"They think that we'll raid their houses and rob them.

The media coverage here has been bad for 42 years and it has trained people to think a certain way, and that will take time to change," he told The Associated Press at the air base.

The new leadership has been gaining international support in its campaign to root out the rest of Gaddafi's regime and establish authority. French President Nicholas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan all visited Tripoli this week.

Erdogan joined Friday prayers in Tripoli's Martyrs' Square, the heart of the city once known as Green Square where Gaddafi's regime threw rallies of supporters before his fall.

"You have shown the whole world that no one can stand before the power and the will of the people," Erdogan told a cheering crowd of thousands. He predicted the Syrian regime would be next to fall, saying "the era of autocracy is ending." The U.N. General Assembly also voted Friday to give Libya's seat in the world body to the National Transitional Council, which is the closest thing the oil-rich North African nation has to a government.

The vote means that a senior council official will be able to join world leaders and speak for Libya at next week's ministerial session of the General Assembly, and participate in meetings.

twitter:

HaraldDoornbos twitterde op zaterdag 17-09-2011 om 23:43:09 uiteindelijk mislukte de rebellenaanval op Sirt vandaag. De khadaffi loyalisten waren simpelweg te sterk. totaal 100 gewonden, min 20 doden reageer retweet

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uiteindelijk mislukte de rebellenaanval op Sirt vandaag

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Op zondag 18 september 2011 16:51 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Maakt allemaal niet uit, Benghazi is een ultra-Rwanda bespaard gebleven.

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The Sunday Telegraph said it had found letters and emails which showed Blair, who left office in 2007, met with Gaddafi in June 2008 and April 2009, once using the then Libyan leader's jets and bringing along an American billionaire.

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Op woensdag 21 september 2011 03:18 schreef Schenkstroop het volgende:
Zo.. is Al Qaeda nu geinstalelerd als kop van Libie?
Dan kunnen we nu weer beginnen met aftellen tot de volgende invallen!

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The Surreal Ruins of Qaddafi’s Never-Never Land

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Unlike Benghazi, the old opposition stronghold in eastern Libya where the rebellion began in February, Tripoli had been a relative bastion of support for Qaddafi. Even the bravest dissidents, who risked their lives for years, often posed as smiling backers of Qaddafi and his men. Now the masks were off, but another game of deception was under way. At all the military bases I visited, I found soldiers’ uniforms and boots, torn off in the moments before they had, presumably, slipped on sandals and djellabas and run back home. Even the prisoners I spoke with in makeshift rebel jails had shed their old identities or modified them. “I never fired my gun,” they would say. “I only did it for the money.” “I joined because they lied to me.”

Everyone in Tripoli, it seemed, had been with Qaddafi, at least for show; and now everyone was against him. But where did their loyalty end and their rebellion begin? Sometimes I wondered if the speakers themselves knew. Collectively, they offered an appealing narrative: the city had been liberated from within, not just by NATO’s relentless bombing campaign. For months, Qaddafi’s own officers and henchmen had quietly undermined his war, and ordinary citizens had slowly mustered recruits and weapons for the final battle. In some cases, with a few witnesses and a document or two, their version seemed solid enough. Others, like Mustafa Atiri, had gruesome proof of what they lived through. But many of the people I spoke with lacked those things. They were left with a story; and they were telling it in a giddy new world in which the old rules — the necessary lies, the enforced shell of deference to Qaddafi’s Mad Hatter philosophy — were suddenly gone. It was enough to make anyone feel a little drunk, a little uncertain about who they were and how they got there.

In a sense, the battle for Tripoli began long ago in Qaddafi’s mind and was foreshadowed in the elaborate layers of defense he built up between himself and ordinary Libyans. These were not just physical — the city within a city that was Bab al Aziziya and the underground tunnels that may have allowed him to escape — but virtual. He built an extraordinary network of surveillance and control, hiring French, Chinese and South African companies to help monitor the phones and Internet and employing a vast network of informants and contract killers who could track his domestic opponents and critics to the ends of the earth. After the rebellion broke out in February, that network flared up in a last, furious effort to monitor and neutralize the discontent.

I met one of the men who worked in this apparatus, a 27-year-old former computer hacker named Omar. He was a big man with a plump babyish face and a constant, faint smile that gave him the look of a mischievous, overweight child. We met through an acquaintance and talked several times at my hotel for a number of hours. He had worked for four years monitoring telephone and e-mail traffic in the Revolutionary Committees’ Communications Office, one of several branches of the sprawling intelligence bureaucracy. Omar (who asked me not to use his full name) told me that he never wanted to work there; the government drafted him as he was applying for a tech job at a bank and then blocked his efforts to apply for other jobs. But he conceded that it was a sought-after and cushy post. He earned 5,000 Libyan dinars a month (about $4,000) plus a car, a laptop and an AK-47.

“The serious work began on Feb. 6,” Omar said.       verder ...

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A guide to Libya’s surveillance network

After repeated interrogations lead by Reflets.info, OWNI, the Wall Street Journal and the Figaro, Amesys, the French company that sold Internet surveillance systems to Gaddafi’s Libya tried to calm things down with a statement posted on its website (mirror):

"The contract only concerned the sale of materials capable of analysing a fraction of existing internet connections, only a few thousand."

However, the documents in OWNI’s possession tell a different story, in fact, the exact opposite story. In contrast to traditional surveillance systems that target specific connections, the “massive” (sic) Amesys surveillance system is used to intercept and analyze the entirety of the telecommunications network, to the scale of an entire country.

In its presentations for the high-end surveillance service, Amesys flaunts EAGLE as having been conceived to monitor the whole spectrum of telecommunications: IP traffic (internet), mobile and landline telephone networks, WiFi, satellite, radio and micro waves thanks to its “passive waves, invisible and inaccessible to any intruder.”

"The massive system (EAGLE GLINT, GLobal INTelligence, which was the system sold to Libya), was conceived to respond to interception and surveillance needs at a national level and to be capable of aggregating all kinds of information and analyzing, in real time, a national data flow, from a few terabytes to a few dozens petabytes [1 peta-octet = 1024 tera-octets, 1 tera-octet = 1024 giga octets and that the total amount of everything ever written by the human race in all languages is estimated at 50 peta-octets...]"



Hele artikel op OWNI.eu

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Op woensdag 21 september 2011 18:50 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Al Qaida heeft NATO en de UN ge�nfiltreerd, heeft Ghaddafi verdreven en is binnenkort alleenheerser in het MO.

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Op donderdag 22 september 2011 15:01 schreef HAKIM_1988 het volgende:

Aldus RussiaToday!

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Op donderdag 22 september 2011 13:37 schreef meth77 het volgende:
een zegen voor de mensheid als die man weg is en er weer een democratie bij is

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Reuters:
LIBYA'S FORMER PRIME MINISTER ARRESTED IN TUNISIA - ARABIYA TV

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Op donderdag 22 september 2011 15:32 schreef Weltschmerz het volgende:

Ik zie maar ��n vat met een stickertje, nog in het Engels ook.

twitter:

FromJoanne twitterde op donderdag 22-09-2011 om 21:29:48 #Gaddafis secret stash of chemical weapons were found in #Ruwagha in Al-Jufra area where G kept abt 9.5 tonnes of mustard gas #Libya reageer retweet

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Libyans Hope Revolution Leads to Better Quality of Life

The men who lined the potholed road were so overjoyed that they cheered, sang, danced and wept as Libyan fighters from the country's new leadership for the first time rolled into this impoverished hamlet deep in the southern deserts.

But while Libya's new rulers focus on replacing Muammar Qaddafi's regime with a democratic government, many here hope the revolution will first bring amenities that have long been rare in this sun-baked inland region: Paved roads, medical care and flush toilets.

"We've been waiting for them for a long time," said Mohammed Saleh, 43, who flashed a V-for-victory sign as the fighters passed his simple concrete house late last week. "Now we expect the electricity and the water to come back on."

The uprising that toppled Qaddafi's regime last month was fueled in part by widespread frustration with how little the country's oil wealth has translated into better lives for Libya's 6.5 million people.

Aware of the potency of economic grievances, the leaders of the National Transitional Council, the closest thing the country has to a government, have vowed to use Libya's resources for the general good. Council head Mustafa Abdul-Jalil said recently he seeks to create a "state of prosperity" where even the unemployed would receive salaries.

The council's ability to fulfill such promises will largely determine its success at extending its control over the country, especially in areas where support for Qaddafi remains.

Libya boasts Africa's largest proven oil reserves and produced 1.6 million barrels daily before the anti-Qaddafi revolt erupted in mid-February. Last year, Libya raked in $40 billion from oil and gas exports -- a fortune from which many Libyans say they've seen little benefit.

Libya expert Ronald Bruce St John said Qaddafi's regime wasted money over the years in countless ways: Spending lavishly on ill-designed building projects; stocking unsustainable arsenals; and bankrolling the lavish lifestyles of Qaddafi's family members and associates.

At the same time, the regime failed to invest in education, develop the economy and build strong communications and transportation infrastructure.

"This is the major development failure of the Qaddafi regime," he said.

Before the uprising, Libya ranked 53 out of 169 countries in the United Nations Human Development Index, just behind Uruguay, Palau and Cuba, countries with no significant oil wealth. Most Gulf Arab nations ranked higher, with per capita incomes more than twice as high -- though Libya slipped in ahead of oil giant Saudi Arabia because of a longer life expectancy and longer schooling, despite the kingdom's higher per capita income.

Even in the relatively affluent coastal cities where most Libyans live, residents bemoan their bumpy roads, bad schools and poor infrastructure.

But the complaints ring louder further south in Libya's desert stretches, in areas like the parched Wadi al-Shati region some 440 miles (700 kilometers) south of Tripoli.

Over the past week, hundreds of fighters have been driving through the region's 22 villages in a preliminary attempt to spread the NTC's control.

Most of the fighters are young men from Tripoli who say the region's poverty shocks them. Some of the villages -- with names like "Cat," "Sons of Yellow" and "Burnt" -- consist of no more than simple, cinderblock houses surrounded by date palms and connected by dirt roads. Some homes lack running water, and few have central sewage. Jobs are lacking, with those not employed by the government raising goats and camels in the desert.

The war made matters worse by cutting the area's supply lines. Most villages haven't had regular electricity or phone service for months, leaving them unclear about what has happened in the rest of the country. Meanwhile, gas prices have skyrocketed and banks have run out of cash, leaving many unable to cross the large distances that separate their towns.

Despite the poverty, support for Qaddafi remains strong, a phenomenon locals who have joined the revolution blame on ignorance and government propaganda.

"All the messages these people have received for the last 42 years have trained them to think a certain way, and that will be very hard to change," said Col. Bashir Awidat, head of the region's new military council.

That has complicated the "liberation" of the area.

In the town of Mahrouqa, Arabic for "Burnt," crowds of cheering locals watched on a recent afternoon as fighters fired rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at an abandoned security building, blasting chunks of plaster off the facade. Locals then commandeered a cement mixer to topple a large statue of The Green Book, Qaddafi's largely unintelligible vision of the perfect government.

Soon after, however, locals in another neighborhood fired on the convoy, killing one fighter. Another was shot dead in a nearby village that night.

Elsewhere, the rebels fought among themselves about how to handle a family they heard was armed and flew a green flag on their home.

In the end, they didn't search the home, though a commander told the angry men standing at the door they'd have to give up their guns and not fly Qaddafi's flag.

"That flag has been there 20 years, so why should we take it down now?" one replied. "In this house, we still love Moammar."

Awidat, the military council head, said the fighters planned to chip away at the remaining support for Qaddafi by bringing aid. Once the villages are secure, he said, the fighters will truck in gasoline, food and medicine.

The aid is badly needed -- as is longer term development.

Abdel-Qadir Hussein, a high school teacher in the 3,000-person town of Tarut, said plumbing was only installed in part of the town last year and that the local clinic hadn't had a doctor in years, forcing locals to drive long distances for medical care.

Still he said, only about half the town supported the revolution -- something the arrival of services could change.

"Most of the people here are very simple," he said. "If they see that the gas and electricity come back and that they are treated well by the revolutionaries, they'll slowly start to support the revolution."

http://www.foxnews.com/wo(...)-life/#ixzz1YipSwhYB

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Libyans with no leadership quit Bani Walid front

WADI DINAR, Libya (AP) — Many revolutionary fighters are abandoning one of the main fronts in the battle to rout Moammar Gadhafi's loyalists, saying they're not afraid of dying in the face of heavy resistance but are tired of the disorganization and lack of ammunition among their own ranks.

Bani Walid has proven impenetrable in part because of its daunting natural defenses — the town of 100,000 is strung along mountain ravines where loyalists hold the high ground. But the nearly month-old assault has only underscored the disarray in the forces of Libya's new rulers, which include both a relatively organized military and brigades of untrained volunteers.

The regular forces have already pulled back from the Bani Walid siege to focusing on Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, further east on the Mediterranean coast, and other strongholds further south.

Weeks after Tripoli fell and Gadhafi went into hiding, revolutionary forces have struggled with his loyalists' strongholds in Bani Walid and Sirte. Further south deep in the desert lies another bastion, Sabha, and several desert towns in between remain in the hands of the ousted regime — an obstacle as the country's new ruler, the National Transitional Council, tries to solidify its control.

In recent days, even the volunteer fighters who had remained at Bani Walid, determined to continue, have begun to filter away in frustration.

Mohammed Andar, a 35-year-old former police officer, said he decided to return to his home in Zawiya after he was wounded by shrapnel in the back of his leg in an ambush on his brigade. He was being rushed to the hospital Wednesday, the same day his twins celebrated their first birthday.

His wounds were not serious enough to keep him from battle, but he felt it was pointless.

"A martyred father would be an honor for my children, but not in this chaotic, ill-planned way," he said while resting near a revolutionary checkpoint about 25 miles (45 kilometers) north of Bani Walid.

To enter Bani Walid from the northwest, coming from Tripoli, the revolutionary fighters must cross a steep valley, some 400 yards (meters) wide, that divides the city. Gadhafi loyalists hold the high ground on the other side, enabling them to rain down with rockets, mortarts and cluster bombs on fighters trying to approach the valley.

Osama al-Fasi, a field commander from Bani Walid, said his fighters were not prepared for such fierce resistance and blamed the NTC's military leadership for not providing the necessary ammunition, weapons and leadership to sustain a real attack on the city.

"We were shocked at the force of the resistance we faced," al-Fasi told The Associated Press, referring to Gadhafi loyalists as garbage. "Bani Walid is filled with the garbage of Libya and we don't even have heavy weapons to fight them with."

On Friday, leaders of al-Fasi's brigade, the Martyrs of 28 May, decided to officially abandon the northern front and move their base to the southern front because the terrain is easier to fight through.

Five Russian tanks made in the 1970's and seized by fighters when Tripoli fell last month arrived in Wadi Dinar at the revolutionaries' positions on the city's northern outskirts last week, but have sat idle in desert checkpoints requiring maintenance. Fighters spend their days lounging on them, posing for photos from cell phones and using them to dry laundry.

"Can you believe that I enter the front line here with only one magazine for my Kalashnikov?" Hassan Abdel-Qadir, another fighter from the city of Zawiya, east of Tripoli, said in disbelief. "We feel very deflated and frustrated — where is the military council with its leaders and ammunition and help? We've been left to fend for ourselves here."

Military rebel commander Daw Saleheen said it was impossible for the army to inform everyone of movements or information because the resources were not available.

"There are so many fighters and we can't communicate to all of them," he said. "This is a revolution — of course it's going to be chaotic."

Andar said the lack of communication was proving fatal.

On Wednesday, a number of leaderless fighters attempted to push the northernmost checkpoint deeper into the city and enter the center via off-road routes.

Abdel-Salam Genouna planned the attack, which backfired when Gadhafi loyalists armed with heavy machinery ambushed the 10 cars on the expedition from hidden valleys, killing eight fighters, according to Alaa Shafori, a doctor at a field hospital.

"We ran out of ammunition because we were just planning to make this a patrolling expedition," he said. "It was a shock and we are lucky many of us survived."

The remaining fighters have been left shell-shocked and uncertain if Bani Walid is worth the fight.

"I want to die for Libya and for freedom, not for this kind of mess," said Bassam Turki, a 33-year-old fighter from Tripoli who went home after last week's battle.

Fighters besieging Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, further east on the Mediterranean coast appear much more organized, though they too have faced stiff resistance. On Saturday, they pushed into the western side of the city under heavy fighting. They have also moved around the city to try to cut off supply lines through the desert to the loyalists.

Andar, the former police officer who quit the fight at Bani Walid, said tribal loyalty also was proving stronger in the city than other areas, making it harder to gain local support for the revolution.

"In all the cities we liberated, the people inside the city rose up and helped us — except in Bani Walid," Andar said.

Field commander Fathi Kirshadz said the Bani Walid forces had been diminished because local fighters were worried about their families and defected.

Al-Fasi said he was a wanted man inside Bani Walid. He said Gadhafi forces have his name as well as a number of other Bani Walid fighters on a "wanted for execution" list and were attacking their families.

The fighters are too week to hold positions inside the city, making families that raise the tri-color revolutionary flag vulnerable. Al-Fasi said sources inside Bani Walid have told him about 15 civilians have been killed in raids since last Friday.

"We are responsible for the souls of those dead civilians," al-Fasi said, putting his hand to his neck. "Those families greeted us with celebration, and we left them to die."

quote:

Libyan NTC forces thrust deep into Gaddafi home town

(Reuters) - Libyan interim government forces backed by NATO warplanes have mounted their deepest thrust into Muammar Gaddafi's home town of Sirte, getting as close as half a kilometre from the centre of the deposed leader's coastal stronghold.


Anti-Gaddafi fighters stand guard as they celebrate the taking over of El-Khamseen gate, the eastern gate of Sirte September 24, 2011.

Gunfire could be heard coming from the town centre and black smoke rose as National Transitional Council (NTC) forces massed in Zafran Square on Saturday and moved up tanks and mortars. Pick-up trucks mounted with machineguns and loaded with fighters raced in.

Field medics said two NTC soldiers had been killed and more than 20 wounded in the fighting against pro-Gaddafi forces.

"They have snipers above the mosques, above the buildings. They're using the houses and public buildings," NTC fighter El-Tohamy Abuzein told Reuters from his position in Zafran Square.

The NTC assault plan has divided Sirte into three zones. "They took area number one and they are fighting in area number two and they are holding there until morning," NTC commander Fathi Bafhaaga told Reuters.

Reuters journalists at the scene said it was the deepest NTC fighters had got into Sirte, but it was not possible to verify whether the NTC was holding onto its gains overnight.

Taking Sirte would be a huge boost for the NTC as it tries to establish credibility as a government, and a devastating blow for Gaddafi, widely believed to be on the run inside Libya.

NATO, whose warplanes played a vital role in the six-month war that toppled Gaddafi, said its planes had hit a number of targets in Sirte in the previous 24 hours, including an ammunition depot and an anti-aircraft gun.

It said in a statement the air attacks had been mounted to protect civilians from Gaddafi forces inside the town.

"Among the reports emerging from Sirte are executions, hostage-taking, and the calculated targeting of individuals, families, and communities within the city," NATO said.

Previously, NTC forces have retreated from Sirte and the other final Gaddafi stronghold, Bani Walid, after poorly organised assaults met fierce resistance from his loyalists.

Though NTC forces have tightened their grip in the past few days on southern oasis towns that sided with Gaddafi, that progress has been overshadowed by unsuccessful efforts to take the last strongholds.

NTC commanders say their advance on Sirte has been hampered by the presence of large numbers of civilians, many of whom have fled in the past week.

A Gaddafi spokesman has accused NATO of killing several hundred civilians in strikes on Sirte. Communications have been largely cut off since the fall of the capital Tripoli last month.

"FORBIDDEN" WEAPONS FOUND

NTC leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said on Saturday interim government forces had found suspected internationally banned weapons near the towns of Sabha and Wadan, but he gave no details about them.

"There are weapons believed to be internationally forbidden, and they are under our control," he told a news conference at the NTC's headquarters in its eastern Benghazi base.

"We will seek help from local experts and the international community to get rid of these weapons in a suitable way."

The NTC, the political leadership of the rebel movement that rose up against Gaddafi's 42-year-rule and drove him from power with support from the West and several Arab nations, faces a challenge in trying to impose its authority across Libya.

It said last week it would move to Tripoli only after its forces were in full control of Libyan territory, contradicting an earlier pledge to move the interim administration from Benghazi around mid-September.

Raising a new challenge, Abdelraouf al-Kurdi, a representative of fighters from a Tripoli district, said arms seized from sites in the capital had been taken to other parts of Libya by fighters who filled the city to overthrow Gaddafi.

Interim government forces operate in disparate units based on their home towns, with little overall command.

NTC officials have said Gaddafi used mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa to bolster his ranks during the war.

Tanks were seen moving beyond the gate towards Sirte and Reuters journalists said NTC forces got to within 40 km of the city and were planning to hold that position after nightfall.

"We are coming for you, wild-haired one," fighters chanted, referring to Gaddafi.

On Thursday, the NTC said it had taken full control of Sabha, which was the traditional base for Gaddafi's own tribe. About 800 km (500 miles) south of Tripoli, it had been occupied by fighters loyal to him.

The NTC says it also controls Jufra, to the northeast of Sabha, and the nearby oasis towns of Sokna, Waddan and Houn.

The manhunt for Gaddafi, who has been in hiding for weeks occasionally issuing audio messages through Syrian-based Arrai TV, is drawing closer to its target, NTC officials say.

quote:

Op donderdag 22 september 2011 15:32 schreef Weltschmerz het volgende:
Ik zie maar ��n vat met een stickertje, nog in het Engels ook.

quote:

Op zondag 25 september 2011 16:11 schreef HiZ het volgende:

[..]

Duits

quote:

Earth yields bones, grief at Libyan (1996) massacre site

* Grave found about two weeks ago, after Gaddafi ousted

TRIPOLI, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Libya's new rulers on Sunday revealed a grave site they said contained the bodies of more than 1,270 people killed by Muammar Gaddafi's security forces in a 1996 massacre at Tripoli's Abu Salim prison.

The bloodletting at the prison -- which looms over a district of the capital known for its loyalty to Gaddafi -- has taken on iconic significance for Libya's new rulers, whose uprising against him first erupted when families of inmates killed at Abu Salim demonstrated in the eastern city of Benghazi to demand the release of their lawyer.

_{--- meer in de spoiler ---}

SPOILER: Het uitgebreide artikel

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quote:

Reuters - WRAPUP Libya - Sept 25

TRIPOLI, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Libya's interim rulers said on Sunday they had found a mass grave containing the bodies of 1,270 inmates killed by Muammar Gaddafi's security forces in a 1996 massacre at a prison in southern Tripoli.

To the east of Tripoli, NATO bombers hit the city of Sirte to clear the way for fighters with the National Transitional Council (NTC) who are trying to capture Gaddafi's hometown.
Gaddafi forces stopping residents from leaving city -reports.

But Gaddafi loyalists showed they were still a threat by attacking the desert oasis town of Ghadames, on the border with Algeria, NTC officials said.
_{--- verder in spoiler ---}

SPOILER: Vervolg artikel

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quote:

Libya's Gaddafi is poor and honest -spokesman

TRIPOLI, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's chief spokesman said on Sunday the deposed Libyan leader and his family had not helped themselves to Libya's oil wealth and that they were "among the poorest citizens".

Speaking to Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location, Moussa Ibrahim said no one had been able to show that Gaddafi or his family had assets or accounts.

"That is more proof of the honesty and transparency of this family and that they are an ordinary Libyan family," said Ibrahim, who usually acts as Gaddafi's contact with the international media.

Gaddafi has been in hiding since fighters trying to end his 42-year rule seized control of the capital last month.

The Gaddafi family are widely known to have led lavish lives.

Singer Nelly Furtado disclosed she was paid $1 million to perform a 45-minute private concert for Gaddafi family members in Italy while Mariah Carey and Beyonce Knowles were booked to play at other family functions.

Switzerland said in May that it had found 360 million Swiss francs ($415.8 million) of potentially illegal assets linked to Gaddafi and his circle stashed in the Alpine country.

British newspapers reported that Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam owns a house in London worth $19 million with nine bedrooms, a swimming pool and a cinema.

"The leader of the revolution and his family are among the poorest citizens," Ibrahim said. "All the wealth of Libya is traceable to functioning companies and institutions".

Ibrahim has often, in the past, been instructed by Gaddafi to issue statements to the international media.

twitter:

FromJoanne twitterde op zondag 25-09-2011 om 21:46:00 #Gaddafi enlists new 12000Strong Army #Tuareg fighters #Niger #Algeria DO READ THIS http://t.co/fiqZTuvd Ties in with http://t.co/tozQMXC8 reageer retweet

SPOILER: Qaddafi enlists new 12,000-strong army of Touareg tribal fighters

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quote:

Op donderdag 15 september 2011 09:43 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:
Wat is dit nou?
Bron
[..]

quote:

Op zondag 25 september 2011 23:49 schreef svann het volgende:
Moussa Ibrahim (al Gaddafi) doet een goed woordje voor zijn broeder leider die geen offici�le functie bekleedt.

[..]

quote:

do 29 sep 2011, 19:54
Woordvoerder Kaddafi in Sirte opgepakt
SIRTE - Mussa Ibrahim, de woordvoerder van de verdreven Libische dictator Muammar Kaddafi, is in de stad Sirte opgepakt. Dat hebben commandanten van de Nationale Overgangsraad van Libi� (NTC) donderdag gezegd.

quote:

De inwoners van Tawarga waren loyaal aan de gewezen Libische leider Mouammar Kadhafi en stonden daarmee lijnrecht ten opzichte van hun landgenoten in het nabijgelegen rebellenbastion Misrata. Maar er lijken ook racistische motieven mee te spelen. Zo worden al langer in heel Libi� met de regelmaat van de klok zwarten als vermist opgegeven en de rebellen lijken mensen te arresteren op basis van hun huidkleur. Maar een hele stad die vermist wordt, roept wel erg veel vragen op.

Het is in ieder geval erg verontrustend dat de rebellen in het verleden al openlijk praatten over het (etnisch) "zuiveren" van de regio, en in juni nog zeiden dat de zwarte Libi�rs beter hun boeltje zouden pakken, want: "Tawarga bestaat niet meer, enkel Misrata" bestaat. Drie maanden later blijkt Tawarga plots van de kaart te zijn verdwenen, en op de plaats waar vroeger de stad lag staat nu een bord met het opschrift 'New Misrata'.

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Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 10:23 schreef Die_Hofstadtgruppe het volgende:

[..]

En in Egypte gaat het ook al zo fantastisch waar Christenen verplicht worden hoofddoeken op scholen op te doen.

Vrijheid in moslimie

quote:

93,000 Copts left Egypt since March

Nearly 93,000 Coptic Christians have left Egypt since 19 March, a report by an Egypt-based Coptic NGO has said.

The number may increase to 250,000 by the end of 2011, according to Naguib Gabriel, the head of the Egyptian Federation of Human Rights, which released the report.

The current trend of Coptic immigration endangers the structure of Egypt's population, Gabriel told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Sunday. He urged the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) and the Egyptian cabinet to work on curbing the phenomenon.

Gabriel based the data stated in the report on information from Coptic churches and communities abroad.

"Nearly 16,000 migrated to California, while 10,000 moved to New Jersey, 8000 to New York, and 8000 to other American states," according to Gabriel. "Around 14,000 left to Australia, 17,000 to Canada, and 20,000 settled in the Netherlands, Italy, England, Austria, Germany and France."

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 10:34 schreef LXIV het volgende:
Net zoals Turkije, Syri�, etc. ooit bijna volledig Christelijke naties waren.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 10:34 schreef LXIV het volgende:

[..]

Egypte wordt gewoon ethnisch gezuiverd:

[..]

Net zoals Turkije, Syri�, etc. ooit bijna volledig Christelijke naties waren.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 10:42 schreef Hans_van_Baalen het volgende:

[..]

En de plaats waar het Vaticaan nu staat een heilige plaats voor heidenen was.

Uiteindelijk bouwt de overwinnaar gewoon over de verliezer heen. En gelukkig maar, anders waren conflicten oneindig.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 10:43 schreef Die_Hofstadtgruppe het volgende:

[..]

Maar dat is prima. Want het zijn toch moslimlanden joh, die hoeven zich niet aan onze regels te houden.

Net zoals links vindt dat (al 3 eeuwen daar wonende) blanken geen Afrikanen kunnen zijn 'want blanken horen daar niet'. Dat negers hier dan ook niet in Europa horen is dan opeens heel anders.

quote:

Op vrijdag 30 september 2011 22:31 schreef rakotto het volgende:
Dat wou ik net gaan posten. Het was vanochtend ook te zien op AJA.

quote:

za 01 okt 2011, 11:58
Woordvoerder Kaddafi toch niet opgepakt
TRIPOLI - Mussa Ibrahim, de woordvoerder van de verdreven Libische dictator Muammar Kaddafi, is nog steeds op vrije voeten. Dat heeft de Nationale Overgangsraad van Libi� (NTC) zaterdag laten weten.

Twee dagen eerder hadden de nieuwe machthebbers in Libi� nog gemeld dat Mussa Ibrahim was gearresteerd in de omgeving van Sirte. Dat is een van de laatste bolwerken van aanhangers van Kaddafi.

Naar nu blijkt werden slechts enkele familieleden van Ibrahim opgepakt.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 10:43 schreef Die_Hofstadtgruppe het volgende:

Net zoals links vindt dat (al 3 eeuwen daar wonende) blanken geen Afrikanen kunnen zijn 'want blanken horen daar niet'. Dat negers hier dan ook niet in Europa horen is dan opeens heel anders.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 10:44 schreef LXIV het volgende:

[..]

Sociaal-democratisch links is geen politieke stroming, maar een gesublimeerde vorm van absurde zelfhaat.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 10:43 schreef Die_Hofstadtgruppe het volgende:

[..]

Maar dat is prima. Want het zijn toch moslimlanden joh, die hoeven zich niet aan onze regels te houden.

Net zoals links vindt dat (al 3 eeuwen daar wonende) blanken geen Afrikanen kunnen zijn 'want blanken horen daar niet'. Dat negers hier dan ook niet in Europa horen is dan opeens heel anders.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 19:55 schreef De_Nuance het volgende:

[..]

Welk links vind dat er geen blanken horen in Afrika?

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Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 19:57 schreef Monidique het volgende:

[..]

Hallo!

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Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 19:59 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Wel erg obsessief om hier "links" bij te betrekken. Toch?

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Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 19:57 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Volgens mij is dat wat men nu noemt: stropopargument.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 19:50 schreef Monidique het volgende:

[..]

Welk "links" zegt dat blanke Afrikanen niet in zuidelijk Afrika mogen wonen?

quote:

Op zondag 2 oktober 2011 09:24 schreef Die_Hofstadtgruppe het volgende:

[..]

Sorry dat ik op een bloedmooie zaterdagavond aan het zuipen op het strand was.

quote:

Maar om je vraag te beantwoorden: jullie vinden dat! Jij! En De_Nuance! En gelly en zo Oud-premier Rhodesi� (88) overleden

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 oktober 2011 10:44 schreef LXIV het volgende:

[..]

Dat is waar. Maar moeten wij dan accepteren de verliezer te zijn? Dan is religie/overtuiging X met een zeer actieve en agressieve benadering uiteindelijk altijd de overwinnaar. Waarmee eindig je dan?

quote:

Reports suggest that Nato forces are continuing to target the area.

One man, Ali, said he and his family were leaving because "we are caught between Nato bombings and shelling by rebels".

"Nato, in particular, is bombing at random and is often hitting civilian buildings," he told the AFP news agency.

Een Khaddafi-aanhanger misschien of een oprechte mening?

(...)

Few wanted to talk. These are mostly Gaddafi supporters and they seemed very stressed. As residents of Muammar Gaddafi's home town they are treated with some suspicion and their cars are searched thoroughly at checkpoints.

The few who would talk spoke of the misery that forced them to leave Sirte, of frequent bombardments and increasingly unsanitary living conditions.

quote:

Op zondag 2 oktober 2011 10:56 schreef Chooselife het volgende:
Berichtgeving vanuit Sirte is doodgebloed h�.

Ik vermoed dat hier massaslachtingen gaande zijn. Etnische zuiveringen. Uiteraard onder aanvoering van onze NAVO.

quote:

Op zondag 2 oktober 2011 20:52 schreef waht het volgende:

[..]

whehe, lekker trollen.

quote:

Op zondag 2 oktober 2011 20:53 schreef Zienswijze het volgende:

[..]

Trollen of niet, we geven geen ene reet om de Libiers. Dit is simpelweg een nieuwe puppetregering installeren.

quote:

Op zondag 2 oktober 2011 20:54 schreef waht het volgende:

[..]

Dat is heel wat anders dan het organiseren van massamoord.

quote:

Op zondag 2 oktober 2011 20:55 schreef Zienswijze het volgende:

[..]

Er zullen wel niet gericht bommen op complete woonwijken worden gedropt, maar een bommetje waar zich vermoedelijk strijders van Khadaffi zullen bevinden, zal wel afgaan.

Ergo, er worden smerige spelletjes gespeeld.

quote:

Op zondag 2 oktober 2011 21:50 schreef Zienswijze het volgende:
De NAVO laat zich voor het karretje spannen voor de oliebedrijven.

Oil, oil, oil.

quote:

Op zondag 2 oktober 2011 21:51 schreef waht het volgende:

[..]

Tja, tanks & vliegtuigen werken niet op waterstof of iets dergelijks.

quote:

How David Cameron swept aside sceptics over Libya campaign

Guardian investigation reveals PM pressed for military action and Gaddafi secretly sought figurehead role

A Guardian investigation into David Cameron's six-month Libyan campaign has revealed how the prime minister overrode scepticism from his cabinet and MI6 to press for military action, and how Colonel Gaddafi secretly wanted to become a figurehead of the country "like the Queen of England".

In interviews with senior Whitehall figures and five ministers the Guardian has established that the National Transitional Council assured Britain that sleeper cells were ready to rise up in Tripoli once rebel troops entered the capital. Defence sources say Britain provided logistical support to the rebels in the capital, as well as in the Nafusa mountains, including a bombing campaign that cleared the way for the rebels to come down from mountains towards Tripoli.

Britain also took the lead in pressing, in the early summer, for the military campaign to be used to put pressure on Gaddafi from the west of Libya. The French, who had led the way in pressing for a no-fly zone in February after Gaddafi besieged the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, believed that Gaddafi could be overthrown from the east. Liam Fox, the defence secretary, describes the shift, supported by the chief of the defence staff, Sir David Richards, as "a tilt to the west".

quote:

Libyan dissident tortured by Gaddafi to sue Britain over rendition

Sami al-Saadi claims MI6 connived in his capture – and is also targeting MI5, Foreign Office and Home Office

A Libyan dissident is launching legal action against the British government after a cache of secret documents discovered in Tripoli exposed the pivotal role played by MI6 in his rendition to one of Muammar Gaddafi's jails.

In a case that threatens to cause acute discomfort to some former ministers in the last Labour government as well as senior intelligence officers, Sami al-Saadi is claiming damages from the UK for the years of torture he subsequently suffered.

Saadi has hired the same teams of lawyers who represented Binyam Mohamed, the former Guant�namo inmate. They have lodged a claim which names as defendants not only MI6 but also MI5, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the attorney general's office. They have also called on Scotland Yard to launch a criminal investigation.

Earlier this week the lawyers demanded the government disclose copies of all communications mentioning the joint UK-Libyan rendition operation. It is unclear whether any of these communications identify the ministers said by Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, to have authorised the operation.

A number of Whitehall officials have told the Guardian the renditions were the result of "ministerially authorised government policy".

The case currently relies upon a number of documents that Human Rights Watch, the New York-based NGO, found last month in the abandoned office of Gaddafi's former intelligence chief, Moussa Koussa. Among them is a fax the CIA sent to Koussa in March 2004, which shows that the agency was eager to join in the Saadi rendition operation after learning that MI6 and Gaddafi's government were about to embark upon it.

Two days after the fax was sent, Tony Blair flew to Tripoli to meet Gaddafi. The two men embraced and declared that they wished to make "common cause" in counter-terrorism operations. The Libyans then announced that they had signed a �550m gas exploration deal with Shell, the Anglo-Dutch oil giant. Three days later, Libyan intelligence agents bundled Saadi into a plane in Hong Kong with his wife, two sons aged 12 and nine, and two daughters aged 14 and six. On arrival in Tripoli, he and his wife were handcuffed and hooded, and their legs were bound together with lengths of wire. The entire family was then thrown in jail.

Saadi's wife and children were released after two months of being subjected to what he describes as "psychological torture". He was held for six years and says he was repeatedly beaten, subjected to electric shocks and threatened with death.

According to his claim against the British government, he was interrogated about Libyans living in the UK, shown photographs of a number of them, and on one occasion questioned by two British intelligence officers while one of his Libyan interrogators was present.

Saadi, 45, who is also known as Abu Munthir, was a leading member of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an organisation founded by Libyan veterans of the mujahideen's war against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, with the aim of toppling Gaddafi.

He lived in north London for several years in the 90s, having claimed asylum in the UK, and a number of his associates suspect he was handed over to Gaddafi as a "gift", rather than as an individual who threatened British national security. The secret CIA fax makes clear that the plan was to render not just Saadi but also his family. Asked whether it had known what had become of Saadi's wife and children after the operation was carried out, a British Foreign Office spokesman said: "It is the government's long-standing policy not to comment on intelligence matters."

However, the severe mistreatment of prisoners in Gaddafi's jails had been well-documented by human rights groups, and was even mention in the Foreign Office's own human rights report that year.

Solicitors at the law firm Leigh Day and the legal charity Reprieve have identified several other documents in the Tripoli cache that support Saadi's case, including one that appears to show MI6 preparing the ground for his rendition five months before it happened. In a fax sent in November 2003, an MI6 officer tells one of Koussa's aides that the agency is talking to the Chinese intelligence services about "the Islamic extremist target in China".

Cori Crider, legal director at Reprieve, said: "The British security services have let slip that Sami al-Saadi's illegal kidnap was 'ministerially authorised'. So who signed the torture warrant? Was it Jack Straw? The Metropolitan police must launch an immediate criminal investigation, focusing on the highest echelons of British government. The British public, to say nothing of Sami, his wife and his family, have a right to know."

A Foreign Office official, speaking on behalf of the government departments named in the action, said it would not be appropriate to comment at this point. Nor would he comment on the allegations behind the action other than to say the matter had been referred to Sir Peter Gibson, the retired judge who is due to head an inquiry into the UK's involvement in rendition and torture since 9/11.

Saadi is not the only Libyan dissident to have found himself in one of Gaddafi's jails as a result of MI6's actions.

Abdul Hakim Belhaj, another member of the LIFG, was seized by the CIA and handed over to the Libyans following a British tipoff on his whereabouts. Nine days later an MI6 officer called Mark – thought to be Sir Mark Allen, former head of counter-terrorism – wrote a message to Koussa, referring to Belhaj by his alias, Abu 'Abd Allah Sadiq.

"I congratulate you on the safe arrival of Abu 'Abd Allah Sadiq," it said. "This was the least we could do for you and Libya to demonstrate the remarkable relationship we have built over recent years.

"Amusingly, we got a request from the Americans to channel requests for information from Abu 'Abd Allah through them. I have no intention of doing any such thing. The intelligence about Abu 'Abd Allah was British. I know I did not pay for the air cargo. But I feel I have the right to deal with you direct on this."

Belhaj says the CIA tortured him for several days before he was flown to Tripoli. "I wasn't allowed a bath for three years and I didn't see the sun for one year," he told the Guardian. "They hung me from the wall and kept me in an isolation cell. I was regularly tortured."

Belhaj was freed from jail last year and led the rebel forces that took control of Tripoli in August.

Senior figures in the last government have attempted to distance themselves from the rendition operations. After the documents were discovered, Blair insisted he knew nothing about them.

Similarly, Jack Straw, who was foreign secretary at the time, said in a radio interview: "The position of successive foreign secretaries, including me, is that we were opposed to unlawful rendition, opposed to torture or similar methods and not only did we not agree with it, we were not complicit in it, nor did we turn a blind eye to it." He added: "No foreign secretary can know all the details of what its intelligence services are doing at any one time."

Shortly after Blair and Straw issued their denials, Dearlove said: "It was a political decision, having very significantly disarmed Libya, for the government to co-operate with Libya on Islamist terrorism. The whole relationship was one of serious calculation about where the overall balance of our national interests stood."

The year after the joint UK-Libyan operations were mounted, Straw told MPs they must disbelieve allegations of UK involvement in rendition "unless we all start to believe in conspiracy theories and that the officials are lying, that I am lying, that behind this there is some kind of secret state which is in league with some dark forces in the United States".

Asked this week whether he still maintained that he was unaware of the Libyan rendition operations, and whether he knew which ministers Dearlove could be referring to, Straw said he had no further comment to make.

Blair also declined to make any further comment.

quote:

Rebel battalions unite in Libya

SIRTE, Libya – Each night near the embattled city of Sirte, battalion leaders meet in an abandoned beach palace. Here, in this elaborate former retreat of a Gaddafi spokesman, they discuss the next day's battle tactics.

These commanders from the city of Misrata are not trained military strategists. Some are teachers, others businessmen, computer experts, and laborers, but for 7 months they have led their civilian fighters in a war against a well equipped national army.

Like their leaders, almost none of the men under their command had fired a weapon before entering the battlefield. They had not entertained the idea of becoming soldiers, but at the outset of the revolution in February, the sight of Gaddafi's tanks rolling into their home town moved them to action. In defense of their homes and families, this motley untrained crew formed a military force that defeated Gaddafi's army, forcing them to retreat from Misrata after a bloody two month battle.

Verder ....
GlobalPost.com

quote:

Op dinsdag 11 oktober 2011 15:15 schreef Isetmyfriendsonfire het volgende:
Wow. Moet een beschouwing schrijven over: "Hoe heeft de parlementaire besluitvorming in Nederland plaatsgevonden met betrekking tot de vredesmissie in Libi� waarbij de VN en de NAVO samenwerken en hoe is de besluitvorming binnen de VN en de NAVO met betrekking tot de vredesmissie tot stand gekomen?"

Dacht: er zal vast wel veel info over staan op FOK! met goede bronnen enzulks... maar 112 topics? Doei...

quote:

Op dinsdag 11 oktober 2011 15:41 schreef zuiderbuur het volgende:

[..]

Misschien kan je dan inderdaad beter beginnen met http://en.wikipedia.org/w(...)011_Libyan_civil_war, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uni(...)ncil_Resolution_1973 .

quote:

Op dinsdag 11 oktober 2011 15:15 schreef Isetmyfriendsonfire het volgende:
Wow. Moet een beschouwing schrijven over: "Hoe heeft de parlementaire besluitvorming in Nederland plaatsgevonden met betrekking tot de vredesmissie in Libi� waarbij de VN en de NAVO samenwerken en hoe is de besluitvorming binnen de VN en de NAVO met betrekking tot de vredesmissie tot stand gekomen?"