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Libya
Feb 20, 2011 1:38:05 GMT 4
Post by MMM on Feb 20, 2011 1:38:05 GMT 4
Through three days of major protests, Libya stands in stark contrast to neighboring North African countries Egypt and Tunisia. While the regimes in those countries countenanced anti-government protests to varying degrees, Libyan autocrat Moammar Gadhafi has struck down demonstrators with round upon round of violent and bloody repression. We've collected a number of links to help you get up-to-date on the conflict. * Libya has seen 42 years of authoritarian rule under Gadhafi. While the dictator once played the role of nemesis to the United States -- even heading up the list of "State Sponsors of Terrorism" -- the country is now an oil-rich American ally. (Salon) * Inspired by recent pro-democracy revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt, Libyan anti-government protests have spread to five major cities so far, and are particularly fierce in the eastern cities of Benghazi and Al-Bayda. (BBC) * On Thursday, Libyan protesters instigated their own "Day of Rage" against the regime. Prisons have been attacked by the families of inmates, and there have been multiple reports of mass breakouts, and of guards shooting prisoners. (The Telegraph) * Last night, Reuters reported that anti-government protesters have seized control of the city of Al-Bayda, after they were joined by members of the local police. (Reuters) * Governmental forces have shot into crowds of peaceful protesters in an effort to disperse them, and even denied medical supplies to hospitals. (BBC) * Security forces shot into a crowd of mourning protesters leaving a funeral today in the eastern city of Benghazi. At least 15 people were killed and several more injured. (AP) * Human Rights Watch reports that at least 84 people have been killed by government security forces over the past three days. (HRW) * The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan is collecting updates of the violence in Libya and firsthand accounts of its aftermath on his Daily Dish blog. (The Atlantic) * While social media sites have played a role in the protests, they are still more controlled in Libya than in neighboring countries. (NPR) * Despite widespread unrest throughout the nation, the capital city of Tripoli has remained relatively quiet. Gadhafi himself made an appearance in Tripoli's Green Square yesterday, to help lead a pro-government demonstration in support of himself. (BBC) * In contrast to Egypt and Tunisia, Libya's army is divided along tribal lines, and some experts believe that it is unlikely that it will rise in support of the protesters. (BBC) * These protests are reportedly the most serious challenge Gadhafi has faced during his 42 years in power. A pro-government newspaper warned that the dictator would continue to respond "violently and thunderously" to the uprising. (The Guardian) * President Obama condemned the recent violent repression of peaceful protests by Middle Eastern regimes, and urged "the governments of Bahrain, Libya and Yemen to show restraint in responding to peaceful protests." (The Atlantic) www.youtube.co/watch?v=npLRun8Cdm4
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Libya
Feb 21, 2011 2:42:04 GMT 4
Post by Sapphire Capital on Feb 21, 2011 2:42:04 GMT 4
Heard Bengazi fell to Protesters and that Gaddafi is on his way out of the country?
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Libya
Feb 21, 2011 9:29:12 GMT 4
Post by MMM on Feb 21, 2011 9:29:12 GMT 4
not yet, wants to fight to the last bullet
My vote: Let him have it!
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Libya
Feb 21, 2011 22:27:12 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Feb 21, 2011 22:27:12 GMT 4
Italian aviation bases of Trapani and Gioia del Colle on red alert! African mercenary groups shooting on the population. Some stole a missile launch pad, too. Lybia minute by minute...check the link down below: www.libyafeb17.com/
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Libya
Feb 23, 2011 23:13:09 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Feb 23, 2011 23:13:09 GMT 4
Mass burials on the Lybian beaches. Local sources and Al Arabya news report more than 10,000 dead people and 50,000 injured.
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Libya
Feb 24, 2011 0:37:24 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Feb 24, 2011 0:37:24 GMT 4
Al-Qaeda sets up an emirate in Lybia!Libya alleges that Al-Qaeda set up emirate in country February 23, 2011 share Al-Qaeda has set up an Islamic emirate in Derna, in eastern Libya, headed by a former US prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Libya’s deputy foreign minister told a meeting with EU ambassadors in Tripoli. "Al-Qaeda has established an emirate in Derna led by Abdelkarim al-Hasadi, a former Guantanamo detainee," Khaled Khaim said. "They have an FM radio station and have begun to impose the burqa" (head-to-toe covering for women) and have "executed people who refuse to cooperate with them." Khaim said Hasadi has a lieutenant who is "also a member of Al-Qaeda and named Kheirallah Baraassi" in Al-Baida. Derna is the capital of a province by the same name in the region of Cyrenaica, some 1,250 kilometers east of Libya's capital Tripoli. Al-Baida lies about 100 kilometers west of Derna. -AFP/NOW Lebanon Also please click on the following link:www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/al-qaeda-sets-up-islamic-emirate/story-fn6s850w-1226011076258
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Libya
Feb 24, 2011 12:17:49 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Feb 24, 2011 12:17:49 GMT 4
An Afghanistan in the Mediterranean
Two scenarios of the revolt in the Arab countries. That of Egypt, with an unprecedented alliance between Christians and Muslims. And that of Libya, where the collapse of the regime paves the way for radical Islamism. The analysis of Khaled Fouad Allam
by Sandro Magister
ROME, February 23, 2011 – The three photos shown above were taken in Cairo in the square al-Tahrir, Liberation Square. They were published on the online agency "Asia News" of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, with commentary by the Egyptian Jesuit Samir Khalil Samir, one of the Islamologists most respected by pope Joseph Ratzinger.
In al-Tahrir square, at the moments of Qur'anic prayer, the Coptic Christians formed a line of defense around the kneeling Muslims. Posters also appeared in Cairo with the cross and the Qur'an side by side, and the caption: "Egyptians, one hand." In Fr. Samir's view, the unity between Muslims and Christians that was seen at work in the days of the rebellion is the sign that fundamentalist Islam is not controlling the transition underway, neither in Egypt nor in the other countries of northern Africa and the Gulf.
Without a doubt, the revolution that is shaking the Arab countries did not start from the mosques. The most famous and influential of the Sunni mosques, that of al-Azhar in Cairo, was immediately wrongfooted. Its leaders, all appointed by the president, are also paying the price of Mubarak's downfall.
In Egypt, the only serious chance that the Islamists have of taking power depends on the fate of the Muslim Brotherhood. It has substantial organizational power. It has control of the main professional associations: engineers, doctors, dentists, pharmacists, merchants, lawyers. It has made inroads into rural areas. One of its leaders, Sobhi Saleh, is a member of the committee set up by the military to reform the Egyptian constitution. And it has an ally in the president of that same committee, Tariq al-Bishri, son of a grand imam of al-Azhar.
But more than being an effect of its power, this assimilation of the Muslim Brotherhood within the committee for the new constitution seems to be a calculated move by the military rulers, to control it.
Not even the exploit of sheikh Yussuf al-Qaradawi, the charismatic leader of the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide – who returned to Cairo after decades of exile to lead the prayer on Friday, February 18 in al-Tahrir square and stir up the crowd – seems to have bent the revolt in the direction of religious extremism.
Al-Qaradawi rejoiced in the overthrow of the "Pharaoh," but Mubarak's downfall certainly did not take place at the hand of the Muslim Brotherhood.
He recalled the dream of the liberation of Jerusalem from the infidels, but neither before nor after his sermon was any Israeli flag burned.
The Christian churches also remained remained intact during the revolt, having been the target of cruel attacks only a few weeks earlier, when the Mubarak regime still had full control of the country. The patriarch of the Copts, Shenouda III, wagered until the end on Mubarak's continuation in power, feeling more reassured by him than by a regime change. But the Copts took to the streets from the first days, to demand more freedom.
Fr. Samir says that the current uprising reminds him of the Egyptian revolution in 1919 against the United Kingdom, which was occupying Egypt and Sudan, a revolution not of a religious nature, but aimed at independence.
But the revolt that is inflaming the Arab countries today, from Egypt to Yemen, is not going up against foreign powers: Israel, the United States, the West. Much less against the Christians. The enemies are internal, they are tyrannical regimes. The demands are simple. The first of the revolts, in Tunisia, stemmed from inflation in the price of bread.
Khaled Fouad Allam, an Algerian with Italian citizenship, professor of Islamic studies at the universities of Trieste and Urbino, has explained to the newspaper of the Italian episcopal conference, "Avvenire," that the protagonists of the current revolt are the young generations:
"The young people between 18 and 30 have a religious practice of a devotional type. Islam is no longer seen as the solution, as would probably have been the case ten or fifteen years ago. The young no longer believe that the Qur'an will give them work, as their fathers might have believed. They are believers and practitioners, but they do not have any ideological baggage. From Yemen to Algeria, we aren't hearing any religious slogans."
And again:
"Then there is the aspect of globalization: a global awareness of democracy is developing. A young man from Algiers who corresponds over the internet with a friend in Rome asks himself why in the world there is freedom on the other side of the Mediterranean, but not in his country. This creates a very powerful sentiment. What counts is not computer technology in itself, but its effect, which is an acceleration of the maturation of awareness."
The revolt does not show any precise direction. It does not have leaders. It does not have great organizations. "It will take a long time," Allam warns. Without predictable results.
The picture that emerges from this is that of a Muslim world that is much more fragile and disorganized than is usually imagined. Much more varied. Much more exposed to secularization and to the languages of global communication, universal but still uncertain in meaning.
It is a picture that corresponds in a startling way to the one vividly described in an autobiographical book by the Moroccan-Italian Anna Mahjar-Barducci
What has been observed so far applies to almost all of the Arab countries in revolt today. But with one exception.
That exception is Libya.
It is again Professor Khaled Fouad Allam who explains it, in a commentary in "Il Sole 24 Ore," the most widely circulated financial daily in Italy and Europe, on February 23.
Libya has never been a homogeneous nation. It is a tangle of Arab, Berber, and African tribes, for each of which group loyalty matters more than anything else. At the outbreak of the revolt, entire cities and regions were quickly made autonomous.
In Libya there are no real and proper state institutions, no parliament, no army that could assume power, as happened in Egypt, and ensure a smooth transition.
For Gaddafi, the "revolution" was the state, and the state was him. His was an "Islamic Maoism" purified of the prophetic tradition, the Sunna, which made him foreign and distasteful to the bulk of the Sunni Muslim world itself.
Paradoxically, the tyranny of Gaddafi guaranteed the Catholic Church levels of freedom greater than in any other Muslim country of the region.
The downfall of Gadaffi may therefore coincide with the total collapse of Libya. Which could become – Allam warns – "an Afghanistan in the Mediterranean."
Because the chaos and the governmental vacuum could make room for the presence and action of precisely the most radical Islamic currents, coming from Africa and from other Arab countries. In spite of the "secular" demand for freedom expressed by the young people who have also flooded the streets in Libya, in many cases paying with their lives.
A new Afghanistan, with an incendiary Islamism, rich in oil and gas, on the edge of Italy and Europe.
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Libya
Feb 24, 2011 13:01:21 GMT 4
Post by MMM on Feb 24, 2011 13:01:21 GMT 4
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Libya
Feb 24, 2011 15:59:27 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Feb 24, 2011 15:59:27 GMT 4
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Libya
Feb 24, 2011 18:18:46 GMT 4
Post by privateinvestors on Feb 24, 2011 18:18:46 GMT 4
Qaddafi Is No Mubarak as Regime Overthrow May Trigger `Descent Into Chaos' Muammar Qaddafi may leave Libya without a way of avoiding further bloodshed. After protesters forced out the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt, both countries had constitutions that laid out the transfer of power to caretakers who are now negotiating a path to greater democracy. Libya, where Qaddafi has ruled since his coup overthrew the monarchy in 1969, has no constitution and political parties and unions have been banned for 35 years.
“If Qaddafi goes, there will be an enormous vacuum, not just politically, but also socially and economically,” Diederick Vandewalle, a professor at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, said by telephone. “There’s no organization that could interact between the government and the protesters.”
Libya, home of Africa’s largest oil reserves, may be set for a longer and bloodier period of unrest than its neighbors as Qaddafi, the world’s longest serving non-royal leader, clings to power and no alternative leader emerges.
Already 300 people have died in the latest wave of political protests to sweep the Arab world, according to a Libyan foreign ministry official on state-run television. The regime used machine guns and air power in an effort to quash the rebellion.
“A further descent into chaos is a real possibility,” said Ettore Greco, director of the International Affairs Institute in Rome. “Qaddafi’s repressive regime was of a totally different scale than that of Tunisia and Egypt.”
‘Artificial Creation’ While Qaddafi created a regime that he said gave power to the people through so-called Popular Committees of ordinary Libyans, the country lacks a political class or group of army officers who can take power like in Egypt.
Qaddafi holds no official title and is referred to as Brother Leader or Guide of the Revolution. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Feb. 11 ceded power to the military, which suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament, saying it will rule for six months or until elections are held.
The lack of a national identity also complicates matters. In 1934, Italy merged three Ottoman provinces it had seized in 1911. The country became independent in 1951 under King Idris, whose support was mostly in the east. Qaddafi overthrew Idris to take power almost 42 years ago.
“Libya was a very artificial creation,” Vandewalle said. “The lack of identity has never been solved.”
Tribal Question Leaders of Libya’s more than 100 tribes could be the only way out of the crisis, said Ronald Bruce St. John, an author of three books about Libya, including “Libya: Continuity and Change” published this month.
“Tribal affiliation has become important because Qaddafi destroyed civil society in Libya as we know it,” St. John said. “If this movement continues to gain speed and it overturns the regime, the tribes will try to create a new political system.”
Tribes, though, are no substitute for a political process, said Shashank Joshi, associate fellow at London-based Royal United Services Institute.
“It’s difficult to have a real democratic process when people vote along tribal grounds, as we have seen in some African countries,” Joshi said.
Prison or Death Freedom House, a Washington-based foundation that tracks rights around the world, annually divides 194 countries into 13 rankings based on political, media and economic liberties.
In the 2010 rankings, Libya was in the bottom group of nine countries, along with North Korea and Burma. Tunisia and Iran were ranked two grades above Libya; Egypt, Yemen and Algeria three grades above; and Morocco six.
“Power theoretically lies with a system of people’s committees and the indirectly elected General People’s Congress, but in practice those structures are manipulated to ensure the continued dominance of Muammar al-Qaddafi,” Freedom House said in its last annual report. “Organizing or joining anything akin to a political party is punishable by long prison terms and even the death sentence. There is no independent press. There are no independent labor unions.”
Libya’s stunted civic society is matched by an underdeveloped economy. While sanctions imposed in the aftermath of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing were lifted in 2003, the country is still overly dependent on energy, says the International Monetary Fund.
Libya is “one of the least diversified oil-producing countries in the Middle East,” the Washington-based lender said in an October 2010 report. Oil accounts for 90 percent of government revenue and 95 percent of exports.
Starting in the late 1970s, private companies were taken over by popular committees, said Paul Sullivan, a professor at Washington-based National Defense University. In March 1980, citizens were given one month to turn in all their cash in a short-lived campaign to “de-monetize” the economy.
“This and other really whacky policies led to the destruction of the Libyan economy,” Sullivan said.
With army units defecting and eastern cities slipping out of Qaddafi’s control, Libya is casting Tunisia and Egypt in a better light as popular protests swept their leaders from control. “It’s a pervasive intrusive regime that left no room for the sort of civil society that took up the relay in those countries,” said Greco at the International Affairs Institute.
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Libya
Feb 24, 2011 22:51:21 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Feb 24, 2011 22:51:21 GMT 4
Graphic contents:
Soldiers disobient to Ghaddafi's orders to shoot on the population got burned alive!
Ghaddafi's militia controlled by Ghaddafi's sons killed patients in hospitals.
Most weapons which just reached Lybia are from Italy and they reached the country through a triangulation via Malta.
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Libya
Feb 25, 2011 16:17:35 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Feb 25, 2011 16:17:35 GMT 4
Graphic contents
Preparation of a child's dead body in Lybian hospital after being killed. Ghaddafi's militia is killing children, some have even their heads cut off!
The black mercenaries present in Lybia all speak French among themselves.
Comment: For people who in the past and even quite recently have seen Colonel Ghaddafi while visiting Italy and listened to his voice, their first reaction was that the person who spoke as Colonel Ghaddafi is a sosia.
There are increaasing public rumors now that this voice as compared to other registrations is not the same. There is another stark difference between Ghaddafi typical collapsing mouth and lips and the one of the person talking in his name, displaying a much more solid structure.
Somebody well-known is running away at high speed through the Lybian desert, guess who?
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Libya
Feb 25, 2011 21:30:42 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Feb 25, 2011 21:30:42 GMT 4
IMMIGRANTS ARE SENT TO DIE IN THE DESERT! (graphic contents)
Immigrants who were rejected by Italy in the past because of agreements between the Berlusconi's government and the Ghaddafi's goverment (this latter, promising he would take care of them and return them to their respective African countries), instead were and are simply sent through the desert on foot without food and water wheere they all perished/perish.
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Libya
Feb 26, 2011 11:34:35 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Feb 26, 2011 11:34:35 GMT 4
US military advisers in Cyrenaica. Qaddafi's loses his air force DEBKAfile Exclusive Report February 25, 2011, 1:46 PM (GMT+02:00)
Tags: Libya Qaddafi US military advisers Cyrenaica oil British HMS Cumberland puts into Benghazi port
Hundreds of US, British and French military advisers have arrived in Cyrenaica, Libya's eastern breakaway province, debkafile's military sources report exclusively. This is the first time America and Europe have intervened militarily in any of the popular upheavals rolling through the Middle East since Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution in early January. The advisers, including intelligence officers, were dropped from warships and missile boats at the coastal towns of Benghazi and Tobruk Thursday Feb. 24, for a threefold mission:
1. To help the revolutionary committees controlling eastern Libyan establish government frameworks for supplying two million inhabitants with basic services and commodities;
2. To organize them into paramilitary units, teach them how to use the weapons they captured from Libyan army facilities, help them restore law and order on the streets and train them to fight Muammar Qaddafi's combat units coming to retake Cyrenaica.
3. The prepare infrastructure for the intake of additional foreign troops. Egyptian units are among those under consideration.
Qaddafi was shaken up badly Friday, Feb. 25, when many of his air force commanders decided to no longer obey his orders or those of his commanders, debkafile's exclusive military sources report. This loss deprived him at one stroke of one of the key pillars sustaining his fight for survival against the opposition since Sunday, Feb. 20. It means he is short of an essential resource for recapturing the eastern half of the country where half of Libya's oil wealth and its main oil export terminals are situated.
Friday, NATO Council and the UN Security Council meet in separate emergency sessions to consider ways to halt the bloodletting in Libya and punish its ruler Qaddafi for his violent crackdown of protesters.
debkafile reported on Feb. 22: The 22,000-strong Libyan Air Force with its 13 bases is Muammar Qaddafi's mainstay for survival against massive popular and international dissent. The 44 air transports and a like number of helicopters swiftly lifted loyal tribal militiamen fully armed from the Sahara and dropped them in the streets of Tripoli Monday Feb. 21.
Thursday Qaddafi launched an offensive to wrest the coastal towns around Tripoli from rebel hands. Our military sources report that tanks pounded opposition positions in the towns of Misrata, 25 km to the east of Tripoli and Zawiya, 30 km west of the capital, under the command of Gen. Khweldi Hamidi, a Qaddafi kinsman.
In a bloody battle, the insurgents ousted Qaddafi's forces from Misrata, but his troops broke through to Zawiya and captured the town at great loss of life. There are no reliable casualty figures but hundreds are believed to have been killed Thursday on both sides.
Later that day, the insurgents of Cyrenaica announced they were firmly in control of the region including Libya's main export oil terminal in Benghazi, the country's second largest town. Whether or not they decide to block the fuel supplies coming from Qaddafi-ruled areas, their seizure of the facility alone was enough to send oil prices shooting up again on world markets.
Thursday night, Brent crude went for $117 the barrel in London and $103 in New York.
In a 30-minute telephone interview Thursday night, Qaddafi again charged that Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood had instigated the protest uprising in Libya. He warned that the fall of Cyrenaica would open Libya to the establishment of a Muslim jihadi and radical rear base for attacks on Europe and incursions into Egypt.
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Libya
Feb 28, 2011 5:42:57 GMT 4
Post by Daniela on Feb 28, 2011 5:42:57 GMT 4
'Dogs of War' Fighting for Gaddafi Published on 02-27-2011
Source: AllAfrica
Kenyan mercenaries are among foreign soldiers helping the besieged Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi fight off an uprising.
This was confirmed on Thursday by Col Gaddafi's former Chief of Protocol Nouri Al Misrahi in an interview with the Al Jazeera broadcasting network.
Mr Misrahi was detailing how Gaddafi had resorted to using mercenaries against his own people after losing control of the Libyan armed forces.
When asked where the mercenaries came from and how they were recruited, the first country he mentioned was Kenya. Other countries he listed are Chad, Niger and Mali.
He described the mercenaries as jobless ex-soldiers and officers who were enticed to Libya by money.
He clarified that they were not sent officially by their governments, but were privateers recruited directly by the regime and they were being used to hunt and kill Libyan dissidents after Gaddafi's armed police and soldiers abandoned him and "went with the people".
He said Gaddafi has no more trust in his own armed forces because they had largely defied orders to turn their guns on the demonstrators.
"Those mercenaries are being used against Libyans, because Gaddafi has no more trust in his police and soldiers, they let him down and went to the people".
allAfrica.com
Libyans inside and outside country are still calling for a no-fly zone to keep Gaddafi from flying in more mercenaries and prevent air strikes.
The mercenaries from African countries, he said, were poor and homeless former soldiers who were easily recruited over the years.
The former senior official in Libya spoke as the government in Nairobi denied that Kenyan mercenaries were being used to execute Gaddafi's brutal crackdown.
However, there was an admission that retired police and army officers could be in Libya working for private companies.
The story of Kenyan mercenaries was lent further credence by a Libyan military defector quoted in the UK newspaper - The Guardian - listing Kenya as one of the recruitment grounds for thousands of African mercenaries propping up the regime.
Air Force Major Rajib Feytouni said he had personally witnessed 4,000 to 5,000 mercenaries flown into his air force base on Libyan military transport planes since 14 February - several days before the uprising started.
"They (the planes) had 300 men at a time, all of them coming out with weapons. They were all from Africa: Ghanaians, Kenyans," he is quoted in the Guardian.
The mercenaries are being used by Col Gaddafi to violently break down the wave of protests that is spreading across the North African country.
"That is why we turned against the government. That and the fact that there was an order to use planes to attack the people," said Major Feytouni in the second largest city of Benghazi which has fallen in the hands of rebels.
Acting Foreign Affairs minister George Saitoti also denied the allegations when he appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Defence yesterday.
"The only individuals in Libya are embassy staff and students who are not involved militarily," he said.
Government spokesman Alfred Mutua also denied knowledge of any Kenyan mercenaries fighting on the side of Col Gaddafi.
However, he conceded that there were dozens of retired soldiers and police officers who have taken up employment in private companies to provide security in war zones who could be mistaken for mercenaries.
"In the past, some of our retired military people as well as police officers have been contracted to provide security by private companies in war torn countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq," he said.
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Libya
Mar 4, 2011 16:22:27 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Mar 4, 2011 16:22:27 GMT 4
Warning: some graphic contents
In these two brief video extracts (by some Italian journalists and cameramen in Lybia) you will be able to watch: -High ranking Lybian military men who refused to shoot or bomb the population and that clearly state they would kill Ghaddafi if given the opportunity. -One of many bunkers Ghaddafi built for himself and his faithful ones. -Picture of a 6-month-old baby killed. -Regime cars burned down and images of burned jail. -Hangar full of Ghaddafi's missiles, munitions, etc... -Charred bodies killed by Ghaddafi's militia. -The population accuses Ghaddafi of being Jewish and not Muslim! -People displaying the new (former) flag in the seeminly liberated territory. -Check points along the way helping journalists to avoid both the Ghaddafi's militias and mercenaries. -People displaying their sastisfaction and happiness about one liberated refinery - they are all chanting "Death to Ghaddafi". -People are trying to block the main street to Bengasi to prevent. Ghaddafi's militia and mercenaries to take it over. Ghaddafi wants to occupy the airport. -Smoke in the background: fighting area. Comment: The main problem is a lack of coordination among the different groups fighting against Ghaddafi. Currently there are both UK and French military in the country. The EU has frozen Ghaddafi's assets, even though his sons keep denying having any assets abroad! Ghaddafi's family, however, has LOTS OF CASH available.
www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/programmi/media/ContentItem-57721a72-4b18-4a08-afe0-c2e69afc8a90-annozero.html#p=0www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/programmi/media/ContentItem-569c34c1-6cfa-434b-9c4e-7eacf3b16a62-annozero.html#p=0
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Libya
Mar 4, 2011 18:20:13 GMT 4
Post by privateinvestors on Mar 4, 2011 18:20:13 GMT 4
Ghaddafi insist his people love him. But as evidence will have it, they don't.
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Libya
Mar 5, 2011 16:42:55 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Mar 5, 2011 16:42:55 GMT 4
A Complex Situation:
Colonel Ghaddafi indeed still has supporters, but as you said, most of the people hate him! Those hanging to him, as to dictators in general, are those who have invested financial interests. Reality is, though, that even both the UK and Italy have lots of investments and shared financial interests with Lybia and not only in the oil field. The Ghaddafi's family has investments in a a few top Italian banks, firms and soccer teams. There are increasing rumors of freezing the National Lybian Bank and Lybian Royal Assets which will add to the financial crisis going on in some Mediterranean countries.
Ghaddafi will prove a hard cookie to deal with, because contrary to Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco, Lybia does not really have an organized government structure to fall back on, once Ghaddafi is gone. The all Lybian society is still based on a tribal system which doesn't allow for easy transplant of a new system. Hopefully, some sort of coordinated constructive and positive action will take place (both UK and French military units are there), or the risk for the country to fall into the hands of mercenaries and Alqaeda units is very high. Once this negative scenario occurs, Lybia may turn into a new Somalia straight on the Mediterranean with all the terrorist implications we all can pathom.
In the meantime, Italy is trying to intervene from a humanitarian point of view to contain the crisis as much as possible. But Ghaddafi was able to regain control of two cities, he killed the head of the insurgents in one and there are daily rumors of increasing deaths. Following is an article about the Italian humanitarian aid being provided:
'Ships ready to sail for Tunisia in 24-48 hours' Italy hoping to pave way for other EU countries 02 March, 17:33
'Ships ready to sail for Tunisia in 24-48 hours' (see related story on site).
(ANSA) - Rome, March 2 - Italian navy ships will be ready to sail "within 24-48 hours" to help set up an Italian refugee camp on the Tunisian-Libyan border, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Wednesday.
With its plan to provide food and medical aid to the thousands of people on the border, Italy is aiming to avert a mass exodus across the Mediterranean.
Italy is hoping to pave the way for other European Union countries with its mission, which was commended earlier Wednesday by the European Commission. Italian ships will also be used to repatriate thousands of Egyptians who have fled Libya, he said.
Frattini added that, "as soon as security conditions permit", Italy will also send an aid ship to Benghazi to avert a humanitarian crisis in Cirenaica, the eastern part of Libya rebels have wrested from Muammar Gaddafi's forces.
Earlier, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva said the EC "welcomes very favourably" the refugee-camp plan and believes the EU must "coordinate to provide massive aid" to people fleeing the Gaddafi regime.
Georgieva, who was set to fly to the area later Wednesday, added: "At this time the absolute priority is to address a very serious humanitarian emergency and help the people in difficulty on the ground".
"It would be wrong to give the impression that we only want to defend our homes".
The commissioner played down fears of a titanic migrant wave unleashed by the Libyan crisis, saying the numbers involved so far were not too high.
Italy has said more than 120,000 displaced people are milling around the border while some 1.5 million potential migrants may move from the Libyan interior to the coast.
It has accused the EU of a lack of solidarity for not envisaging adequate help for Italy, which is expected to take the brunt of the feared exodus.
But Georgieva stressed that the EC was "working alongside the Italian authorities".
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Libya
Mar 19, 2011 15:42:29 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Mar 19, 2011 15:42:29 GMT 4
Italy willing to take part in air raids www.ansa.it/web/notizie/rubriche/english/2011/03/18/visualizza_new.html_1534184120.htmlRead also: Five air forces set to attack Libya. Qaddafi threatens reprisals in Europe and MEDEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 18, 2011 The resolution UN Security Council passed Thursday night, March 17 approved not only a no-fly zone for Libya but also "all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas under threat of attack" – a mandate for military steps short of invasion. It was carried by 10 votes with five nations abstaining: Russia, China, Brazil, India and Germany. Qaddafi's response: "If the world has gone crazy, we'll be crazy too." As Qaddafi's forces advanced on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, the US, British, French, UAE and Qatar air forces were on standby. If attacked, Libya threatens retaliation against civilian and military targets in Europe and the Middle East, according to a statement from the Defense Ministry in Tripoli.
In Tunis, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton explained that a UN no-fly zone over Libya "would require the bombing of targets to take out the threat posed by Muammar Qaddafi's regime." She spoke after Cairo rejected Washington's request for the use of Egyptian air bases to enforce the no fly zone against Libya and from which to launch US air attacks on Qaddafi's army. This too is disclosed by debkafile's exclusive sources. Earlier Thursday, March 17, debkafile reported: Shortly before she left Egypt for Tunis Wednesday, March 16, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urgently asked the head of Egypt's military junta Field Marshal Mohammed Tantawi for permission to use Egyptian air bases for American military jets to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya. This is reported exclusively by debkafile's military and Washington sources. Clinton told Tantawi she hoped for UN Security Council approval of the no-fly zone at its special session Thursday March 17. But this might not be enough to stop Muammar Qaddafi's advance and the US might have to resort to military action against his army. She did not elaborate on this. In Tunis, she said later that a UN no-fly zone over Libya would require the bombing of targets to take out the threat posed by Muammar Qaddafi's regime. Debkafile's sources say the White House is weighing the option of US aerial strikes for halting Qaddafi's march on Benghazi, Libya's second largest city and the primary rebel stronghold. The point of this action would be less to preserve rebel control of the city and more to keep Qaddafi from proclaiming his victory over the opposition to his rule and its foreign champions. Another part of the plan under consideration in Washington would entail strikes against Qaddafi's government and military centers in Tripoli, the capital. Tantawi promised Clinton to convene the Supreme Military Council Thursday before the Security Council session and inform her of its decision before she flies out of the Middle East. According to our Washington sources, the Pentagon proposes to use the big Egyptian air base at El Mansoura in the Nile Delta for enforcing the no-fly zone and launching air attacks on Libya. The Obama administration's U-turn on direct military intervention in Libya was discernable early Thursday morning (Wednesday night Washington time) in the remarks of America's UN Ambassador Susan Rice: She said: "The US view is that we need to be prepared to contemplate steps that include, but perhaps go beyond, a no-fly zone, at this point, as the situation on the ground has evolved and as a no-fly zone has inherent limitations in terms of protection of civilians at immediate risk." By "the situation on the ground," she was referring to Qaddafi's three army columns, reinforced with thousands of fighters from the Warefla tribal federation, which are rapidly advancing on Benghazi. Debkafile's military sources report that the Saadi and Khamis brigades, the latter being the 32nd Libyan Brigade most of whose troops move in APCs, are approaching the last rebel stronghold. They are backed by an artillery brigade and a tank brigade. From the west, Libyan missile ships have blockaded Benghazi. Our sources add that Libyan army units based in Benghazi went into action ahead of the main body's arrival. Those troops were caught by the onset of the Libyan uprising on Feb. 15 in rebel-held territory. They stood by and waited for Qaddafi's orders to go into battle. Another sign of President Obama's strong inclination to undertake military action beyond a no-fly zone came from the deployment Monday, March 14 of the nuclear attack submarine USS Providence off the Libyan coast. In the past decade, this submarine has often been called in to support US missile attacks, usually with Tomahawk, whether in 2003 in Iraq or in Afghanistan.The US fleet present off the Libyan coast includes also the marine assault ship USS Kearsarge, which is a helicopter carrier; the Marine Amphibious Transport Docks vessel and the missile destroyers USS Barry, USS Ponce and USS Mason. The American aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, now near the Red Sea, could also be called in for an American missile attack on Libya. Read also: Syria is sending arms to Colonel Ghaddafi.www.debka.com/article/20761/Support in Libya may bee too late www.financialpost.com/related/topics/Support+Libya+late/4461463/story.htmlRED ALERT LYBIAN FORCES APPROACH BENGHAZIwww.stratfor.com/analysis/20110319-red-alert-libyan-forces-benghazi?utm_source=redalert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=110319&utm_content=readmore&elq=b4e7de142a6d4048a23a903e87b76835
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Mar 21, 2011 4:05:22 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Mar 21, 2011 4:05:22 GMT 4
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Libya
Mar 23, 2011 1:34:36 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Mar 23, 2011 1:34:36 GMT 4
Police on watch for Gaddafi assets CYPRUS, Published on March 19, 2011
POLICE have received an “orange notice” from Interpol to beware of possible movement by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, his family and close associates – as well as their financial assets – outside of war-torn Libya.
Police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos yesterday confirmed that Cyprus was among a long list of countries to receive the notice on March 4.
The specific orange notice, according to Katsounotos, warns Interpol’s member states to keep watch for 16 persons in total – including Gaddafi.
“In the framework of effective implementation of the UN Security Council’s 1970/2011 resolution, Interpol has informed the member states that in the event that these 16 persons attempt to travel or move assets to other countries, they pose a threat to Libya as well as the other states, to which they plan to travel to,” said Katsounotos.
In the event that one of the suspects is caught in Cyprus, the force must immediately notify Interpol, he added.
According to Katsounotos, the “orange notice” is a mechanism adopted by Interpol in 2004 to inform and warn its states over possible national threats.
“In the present case, possible movement of Muammar Gaddafi and his associates – or their personal assets – to an Interpol member state, would be considered a threat to the member state in question,” he pointed out.
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Libya
Mar 26, 2011 8:28:43 GMT 4
Post by MMM on Mar 26, 2011 8:28:43 GMT 4
The N799WW Mystery: CIA Linked Plane Left Libya On Eve Of Action March 25, 2011 Source: Political Scrapbook What exactly was a CIA-linked jet doing landing in Tripoli as the UN Security Council met to approve military action? Exchanges with air traffic control recorded by amateur radio hams show a plane with registration N799WW was cleared for landing at Mitiga International Airport 11km east of Tripoli on the evening of 17 March. The Bombardier BD-700 plane is registered to Wells Fargo Bank Northwest NA, a subsidiary of US superbank Wells Fargo & Company. What has set tongues wagging is that the same subsidiary is the trustee for a Raytheon Hawker aircraft with a tail number N168BF which was allegedly used for extraordinary rendition flights by the CIA. The N799WW Mystery: CIA Linked Plane Left Libya On Eve Of Action cia plane registration
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Libya
Mar 28, 2011 20:14:21 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Mar 28, 2011 20:14:21 GMT 4
US is sliding into long-term military involvement in Libya DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis March 28, 2011, 12:38 AM (GMT+02:00)
Rebel victory depends on US air strikes against Qaddafi's forces
Despite protestations to the contrary, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources find the American role in the operation against Muammar Qaddafi heading only one way: Instead of a transition “in a few days” to NATO i.e. Europe - which US President Barack Obama will no doubt reiterate when he addresses the nation Tuesday, March 29 - the United States is sliding deeper day by day into a third war in a Muslim country.
In the last three days, US air strikes have beaten Qaddafi’s forces into tactical retreat from all its conquests in the rebel-held eastern province of Cyrenaica. This operation rescued the rebels from the certain defeat they faced in the middle of last week, allowed them to retake the strategic oil towns of Ajdabiya, Brega and Ras Lanuf and opened the way for them to drive forward to Qaddafi’s home town of Sirte, the key to Tripoli.
In the view of debkafile’s military experts, the Libyan opposition’s gains are no more than a victory on paper, not the battlefield. Qaddafi and his commanders executed tactical retreats from those towns - not because they were beaten in battle but to avoid being ground down by superior US sea-based and air power. That power opened the door for the opposition rebels to recover the towns they lost in the last three weeks and pose as victors.
For Washington, the implication is clear: Continuing rebel momentum against Qaddafi’s forces depends on United States commitment to two steps:
1. Keeping up the aerial and sea-based bombardment of government forces. Nothing, otherwise, will stop Qaddafi’s troops turning around and heading back east to recapture the towns they left. Containing Qaddafi’s army cannot be left to the limited capabilities of France and Britain or any other members of NATO which has assumed token command of the Libya operation. 2. Organizing the rebels into regular combat units and furnishing them with arms, funds and military instructors. The other alternative would be for the Americans to invest increasing numbers of ground forces into Libya to defend the eastern provinces against Qaddafi reasserting control. Saturday, March 26, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates admitted, “Libya did not pose a threat to the United States before the US began its military campaign.” Asked whether ongoing developments indicated that US military involvement might continue at least until the end of the year, Gates replied: “I don’t think anybody knows the answer to that.”
In other words, no one in Washington, including no doubt the president, can say with any certainty exactly where the American campaign in Libya is heading or its duration. In just a few days, the gap has widened exponentially between America’s first commitment to supporting a European-Arab operation mandated by the UN for enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya and protecting civilians plus an imminent transition of the US lead role and President Obama’s pledge not to involve ground troops – all the way over to an expanding commitment to supporting an armed revolt against the Qaddafi regime.
Aware of the Obama administration’s quandary, Qaddafi offered Washington a way out. By pulling his troops out of the eastern towns, he gave the Americans a chance to chalk up a rebel victory – or at least a standoff - and leave it at that. At this stage, he would accept the loss of Cyrenaica so long as the Americans give up their assaults.
However, should the Obama administration decide to persist in its active military support for the rebellion, the Libyan ruler may consider three counter-steps:
One, to carry out the threat he made prior to the coalition campaign against his regime to strike back at American, British and French targets in the Middle East and Europe;
Two, to activate Libyan undercover terrorist networks in Europe against US targets as well as local ones;
Three, to retreat along with his family to a secret sanctuary among loyal Saharan tribes and from there to fight for his survival against both the Americans and Al Qaeda which he accuses of penetrating the opposition and turning his people against him.
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Libya
Mar 29, 2011 5:10:08 GMT 4
Post by Sapphire Capital on Mar 29, 2011 5:10:08 GMT 4
nothing new there, the Americans are loosing face anyway, instead of taking control and get Gaddafi nuts his pants and leave the now NATO involvement will take longer, since they will however treat other similar dictators in Saudi, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain different, they can not even show that they help democracy. half assed
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Libya
Mar 30, 2011 18:51:42 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Mar 30, 2011 18:51:42 GMT 4
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Libya
Apr 6, 2011 0:24:55 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Apr 6, 2011 0:24:55 GMT 4
CIA Secretly at Work Inside Libya
Gary Thomas April 05, 2011 Voice of America
Published reports say CIA officers are at work inside Libya. But just what they are doing is not clear and, in keeping with practice, the CIA would not comment on the reports. The Obama administration has said it has not yet decided whether to arm the Libyan rebels. But, there is much the CIA may be doing in Libya short of that.
Analysts say it should come of no surprise that the CIA is already at work in Libya. Reva Bhalla, Middle East analyst for the private intelligence firm, Stratfor, says gathering intelligence is the most basic function of the CIA.
"Obviously when you have a military campaign like this under way you’re going to need people on the ground, painting [identifying] targets for air strikes, [and] not only on the military aspect but just in trying to figure out just who is the opposition - who are they actually dealing with, are there any viable leaders who show the potential for unifying this very fractious country," said Bhalla.
Beyond gathering intelligence
According to published accounts, an unknown number of CIA officers, along with British intelligence and special forces counterparts, are working with the Libyan rebels. The CIA has its own paramilitary component, known as the Special Activities Division. But what the CIA might be doing in Libya beyond just gathering intelligence is unclear.
By all accounts, the Libyan rebels are poorly trained and equipped. They made some advances, but have been pushed back by Libyan army counterattacks. The Obama administration has said it has not yet decided to arm the Libyan rebels, but has said firmly it will not send in U.S. ground troops, preferring to stick with the enforcement of the no-fly zone.
Offering what he says are personal views, former senior CIA officer Emile Nakhleh says it is likely the CIA is providing some form of non-lethal assistance to the rebels, especially in terms of communications and organization.
"They probably would provide them with communications gear, from the most basic walkie-talkies to a bit more advanced cellular telephones," said Nakhleh. "Two, they might perhaps help train them in how to attack or how to anticipate Gadhafi’s attacks. I mean, the fact is, they’re just a bunch of ragtag enthusiastic opposition people to the regime but have no idea even of how to organize."
Nakhleh believes, however, that there is nothing stopping CIA officers from training the rebels on captured weapons.
"We would need to train them how to use the weapons they have already captured from the Gadhafi forces. Some of them have captured some of these rockets and they don’t know how to fire them. So we can, I think, do all kinds of things before, even way below, the level of arming them with U.S. arms," said the former CIA officer.
But many analysts believe that for the rebels to turn the tide back in their favor, they will need sophisticated weapons, such as those the U.S. provided to Afghan rebels fighting Soviet occupation in the 1980s - and specialized training on how to use them.
Secret authorization
According to published accounts quoting Obama administration sources, President Barack Obama signed a secret authorization, known as a presidential “finding,” authorizing possible future training and arming of the rebels.
But such a program carries great risks. In 1961, a CIA-trained force made an unsuccessful attempt to land at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba and topple Fidel Castro. It was a humiliation for the then-new president, John F. Kennedy.
In the 1980s, the CIA, in concert with Pakistan, armed and trained anti-Soviet Afghan rebels. The rebels, known as mujahedin, drove the Soviet army out, but many of their members went on to form the nucleus of the Taliban and al-Qaida. And many of the sophisticated weapons the mujahedin received, such as shoulder-held surface-to-air missiles, were unaccounted for at war’s end.
Reva Bhalla says the governments involved in the anti-Gadhafi coalition are worried about both a kind of Bay of Pigs in the desert, where the rebels are defeated, and possible infiltration of the rebels by radical Islamists.
"I think that’s the biggest question that’s on the minds of many of these governments because it just isn’t clear," said Bhalla. "This is not a very sophisticated or militarily capable opposition force. And then there’s the concern of whether some of the more Islamist militant types are mixed in within this opposition. And if they’re going to be moved to arm and supply these rebels, is that something that is going to have serious blowback down the line.
What the CIA actually ends up doing in Libya may never be publicly known. But, as former CIA officers have pointed out, the larger an operation, the more difficult it is to keep it secret.
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Libya
Apr 7, 2011 0:00:36 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Apr 7, 2011 0:00:36 GMT 4
THE HUMAN PRICE OF THE LIBYAN TRAGEDY
Children dead, 250 feared missing off Italian coast Boat carrying migrants from Libya sinks, 51 survivors 06 April, 18:25
ANSA- Rome, April 6 - Children were among ''dozens'' of victims spotted at sea amid searches for as many as 250 missing people after a boat carrying refugees from conflict-hit Libya sank near the southern Italian island of Lampedusa early Wednesday.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said they estimate around 300 were aboard the boat after its staff spoke to the 51 survivors picked up in the Channel of Sicily, although some survivors put the figure as high as 370.
Initial reports said the boat that left Libya two days ago was carrying around 200 refugees, mostly of Eritrean and Somali origin.
It sank in rough seas at about 4am Wednesday around 40 miles from Lampedusa, although the incident took place in Malta's waters.
Difficult conditions have hampered rescue operations, but an Italian Coast Guard official said that ''it's too soon to consider all hope lost''.
Tax police helicopter pilots assisting the operations coordinated from Palermo said they saw ''little bodies of children'' among the dozens of victims floating in waves as high as three metres whipped up by winds of 30 knots.
''We hoped to see someone raise their arms, but we didn't,'' one of the pilots said. United Nations refugee agency UNHCR expressed ''grief and pain for the victims of this umpteenth human tragedy.
''The survivors spoke to the UNHCR's officials in Lampedusa with a look of terror,'' said UNHCR spokeswoman Laura Boldrini, who said that there were also people from conflict-hit Ivory Coast and other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa on the boat.
''Among them is a father who lost his one-and-a-half-year-old daughter in the tragedy.
''This incident shows the need for greater coordination between the naval vessels present in the Mediterranean and NATO forces to save human lives''. The IOM said all the survivors were suffering shock and many were in a state of hypothermia. Five of them have been taken into hospital, including a woman who is eight-months pregnant. Her condition and that of her unborn child are not worrying, health officials said.
Up to 750 people have gone missing in the Channel of Sicily so far this year as migrants keep attempting the hazardous crossing on rickety boats following turmoil in North Africa.
Over 20,000 migrants have landed in Italy, many arriving at Lampedusa, which is nearer to Tunisia than Sicily.
Most of them have come from Tunisia and the Italian government reached an agreement with the Tunisian authorities on Tuesday for them to stiffen controls to stop the flow of migrants and repatriate new arrivals in exchange for aid and assistance.
Italy has been relocating migrants who had been packed on the tiny island of Lampedusa in miserable conditions to camps on Sicily and the mainland over the last week. On Wednesday Italy is set to approve plans to grant six-month visas to Tunisian migrants already on its shores, which would enable them to travel to other parts of Europe with many wanting to be reunited with family members living in other parts of the continent.
This move comes after France blocked Tunisian migrants at the French-Italian border, saying it had the right to stop undocumented migrants without breaking the Schengen Agreement that abolished border controls in much of mainland Europe.
But this probably would no longer be the case if Italy issued the migrants with temporary papers, although the French government is reportedly looking at whether the measure would comply with Schengen regulations.
Foreign Minister Franco Frattini has repeatedly complained about a lack of solidarity from Italy's European neighbours in dealing with the migrant crisis, which it has taken the brunt of because of its vicinity to North Africa, singling out France for criticism. Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet in Rome on April 26 to discuss the migrant situation, government sources said.
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Libya
Apr 14, 2011 22:51:02 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Apr 14, 2011 22:51:02 GMT 4
At Doha summit, Ban underscores importance of united global action on Libya
UN News 13 April 2011 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today stressed the vital need for united global action to tackle the ongoing crisis in Libya, where fighting between pro- and anti-Government forces rages on and the humanitarian situation is worsening, as well as to assist with the recovery once the conflict has ended.
“It is critical that the international community act in concert, that we speak with one voice, and that we continue to work in common cause on behalf of the Libyan people,” Mr. Ban told the meeting of the International Contact Group on Libya, which met today in Doha, Qatar.
“Throughout the Libyan crisis, our paramount objective has been clear: to protect civilians from violence perpetrated by their own government.”
The Secretary-General briefed delegates on the efforts carried out by the United Nations in recent days, including the visit by his Special Envoy Abdel Elah al-Khatib to Libya, as well as his telephone conversation with Libyan Prime Minister Al-Mahmoudi yesterday.
Despite these efforts, the fighting continues between forces loyal to Colonel Muammar Al-Qadhafi and rebels seeking his ouster, he said, noting that even the most optimistic observers foresee a protracted period of instability before sustainable peace is restored.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation continues to worsen. The UN estimates that some 490,000 people have fled the country since what started out as protests against Mr. Qadhafi’s rule turned into bloody conflict in the North African nation earlier this year. Roughly 330,000 people have also been internally displaced.
“Under our worst-case scenario, as many as 3.6 million people could eventually require humanitarian assistance,” he warned. “Clearly, we must mobilize all means at our disposal, including military, to get aid to those who need it.”
Mr. Ban urged generous support for the $310 million flash appeal for Libya, which is so far only 39 per cent funded.
“Libya will require our united efforts in peacemaking, peacebuilding and reconstruction once a ceasefire has been agreed,” he added, noting that early planning and preparation are necessary.
In that regard, he has initiated consultations with the heads of UN agencies, funds and programmes to examine possible contingencies as well as options for helping Libya along the path of political, economic and social recovery.
Central to this planning will be issues of political dialogue, institution-building, electoral assistance, constitution drafting, security sector reform, economic development and job creation, he pointed out. “Your support will be invaluable, both financial and in terms of expertise.”
Tomorrow Mr. Ban will be in Cairo, Egypt, where he will co-chair – along with Amr Moussa, Secretary-General of the League of Arab States – a meeting of regional organizations focused on ensuring continued coordination of the international response to the crisis in Libya.
In a related development, a UN expert committee on the rights of migrant workers voiced deep concern today about the victimization of this vulnerable group of people and their families in Libya, particularly those from sub-Saharan Africa.
A large number of the almost half a million people that have fled Libya in the wake of the conflict have been third country nationals.
The Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families also cited the “dangerous interception of migrants at sea and at inland borders” as worrying.
“We are deeply concerned about the recurrence of violations of the right to life, acts of violence, including sexual violence as well as acts of discrimination and arbitrary detentions victimizing migrant workers, particularly sub-Saharan Africans, and their families in Libya,” the experts stated in a news release.
They called on the international community to provide assistance, especially economic and technical, to migrant workers and their families and to take all necessary measures to ensure that those who have fled Libya are treated with respect and in conformity with international human rights standards and international humanitarian law.
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Libya
Apr 15, 2011 21:30:22 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Apr 15, 2011 21:30:22 GMT 4
Gaddafi army pounds Misurata again Al Jazeera - Friday, 15 April 2011, 16:10 GMT
Rebels have warned of a "massacre" in Misurata if NATO does not intensify its attacks on Gaddafi forces [Reuters] Libyan government forces fired a hail of rockets into the besieged city of Misurata for the second day in a row, killing at least eight people, a local doctor told Al Jazeera. He said seven other civilians, including children and older people, were wounded in the attacks on Friday. Residents told Al Jazeera around 120 rockets pounded the city.
Gaddafi's forces on Friday also opened fire on rebels on the western edge of Ajdabiyah, killing one, rebel fighters said. A rebel manning an anti-aircraft gun was shot dead and two others were wounded in the attack one kilometre from the western gate of Ajdabiyah, the last major town before the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
"They are in vehicles and they are spread out on foot in the desert. It is very hard to track them," Mansour Rachid, a rebel fighter, told Reuters.
"They opened fire on us. We have two wounded and one guy was killed." The latest attacks come a day after rebels warned of an impending "massacre" in Misurata by troops loyal to Gaddafi if NATO doesn't neutralise Libyan leader's forces.
Gaddafi's forces launched a heavy attack on the coastal city on Thursday, with dozens of Grad-type rockets hitting the city and killing more than 20 people, a rebel spokesman said.
Refugee crisis
A ship with nearly 1,200 Asian and African migrants, many in bad shape after weeks with little food or water, left the besieged Libyan city of Misrata on Friday for rebel-held Benghazi, an international aid agency said.
The chartered Greek vessel, Ionian Spirit, managed to unload 400 tonnes of aid supplies in Misrata overnight despite shelling on Thursday, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said.
"It left in the early hours of this morning with nearly 1,200 people on board," IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya told Reuters. "Men, women, children and elderly were on board, all dehydrated and weak. Many need medical attention." Misurata, Libya's third-biggest city, has been the scene of major fighting between rebels and Gaddafi's forces for several weeks."
They fired Grads at a residential area called Kasr Ahmad near the port this morning. They fired at least 80 rockets on that area," Abdelbasset Abu Mzereiq told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. He later clarified that those killed had been civilians and not rebel fighters as earlier understood. The death toll from the 90 minute artillery barrage was likely to rise, the spokesman added.
"They keep killing civilians. Yesterday we lost five civilians in the shelling and 37 were wounded." Gaddafi loyalists were firing shells on Tripoli Street, a thoroughfare which cuts to the city centre from the western outskirts, witnesses told Al Jazeera.
Qaddafi Forces Fire Cluster Bombs Into Civilian Areas Bryan Denton for The New York Times April 15, 2011
Residents of Misurata survey the damage to a mosque in the Qasr Ahmed neighborhood of the city Published By C. J. CHIVERS
MISURATA, Libya — Military forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, who have surrounded this city and vowed to crush its anti-Qaddafi rebellion, have been firing into residential neighborhoods with heavy weapons, including cluster bombs that have been banned by much of the world and ground-to-ground rockets, according to the accounts of witnesses and survivors and physical evidence on the ground.
Such “indiscriminate” weapons, which strike large areas with a dense succession of high-explosive munitions, by their nature cannot be fired precisely, and when fired into populated areas place civilians at grave risk.
The use of such weapons could also add urgency to the NATO campaign, which has as its mandate protecting civilians from the Qaddafi regime’s harm. And it could place pressure on the United States, which pulled back air power from the war when it ceded control of the campaign to NATO earlier this month.
When asked about the munitions at a news conference in Berlin, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said she was “not aware” of the specific use of cluster munitions in Misurata, but said, “I’m not surprised by anything that Colonel Qadaffi and his forces do.”
She added: “That is worrying information. And it is one of the reasons the fight in Misurata is so difficult, because it’s at close quarters, it’s in amongst urban areas and it poses a lot of challenges to both NATO and to the opposition.”
The cluster munitions were visible in use late Thursday night, in the form of what appeared to be 120-millimeter mortar rounds that burst in the air over the city, scattering high-explosive bomblets below.
Remnants of expended shells, examined and photographed by The New York Times, show the rounds to be MAT-120 cargo mortar projectiles, each of which carries and distributes 21 smaller submunitions designed both to kill people and penetrate light armor.
Components from the 120-millimeter rounds, according to their markings, were manufactured in Spain in 2007 — one year before Spain signed the international Convention on Cluster Munitions and pledged to destroy its stocks. Libya is not a signatory to the convention, while the Spanish Defense Ministry had no immediate comment.
Human Rights Watch, the New York based advocacy group, verified the use of the cluster munitions as well, and swiftly called on the Qaddafi government to stop using them.
“It’s unconscionable that Libya is using these indiscriminate weapons, especially in civilian populated areas,” said Steve Goose, director of the organization’s arms division. “Cluster munitions are inaccurate and unreliable weapons that by their very nature pose unacceptable dangers to civilians.”
The cluster munitions are not the only indiscriminate heavy weapon system to imperil the city’s neighborhoods. An examination of the area of an intensive rocket barrage on Thursday near the city’s port showed that the Qasr Ahmed residential district was struck by multiple rockets, known as GRADs, which landed in a dense pattern on houses and streets. One rocket shattered the wall beside a mosque.
The GRAD rockets, an area weapons system designed in the Soviet Union to blanket a battlefield with multiple explosions, were readily indentified by their twisted fragments and remains, some of which bore markings indicating they had been manufactured during the cold war. They are fired from truck-mounted launchers that hold 40 rocket tubes, so that each truck is, essentially, a mobile system that can launch its own barrage 12 miles or more.
One of the GRAD rockets alone killed eight civilians, according to survivors and witnesses, who then showed two journalists eight hastily dug graves in a public park nearby, where relatives prayed over the dead. The bodies had been interred beside two children’s swing sets. Each grave was dated: April 14, 2011.
Taken together, the attacks of Thursday and the evidence they left behind, point to a campaign by Colonel Qaddafi’s forces against Misurata that relies in part on weapons designed to endanger the lives of the civilians trapped within. They also support the rebels’ frequent contentions that in the lopsided fight for Libya, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces have targeted civilians or at a minimum, taken few measures to avoid endangering them.
“This is a human tragedy,” said Ali Salem, 40, a resident of Qasr Ahmed, who described his four children now struggling to sleep. “What else do you call it when they bomb with artillery, rockets and mortars people who are safely sleeping in their homes?”
The toll of the GRAD rocket strikes also framed the ways in which civilians in this war are forced into vulnerability. Misurata has few open markets, almost no electricity and limited supplies of food. To eat, many residents must stand in bread lines.
One of the rockets that landed in Qasr Ahmed exploded beside one of those lines, killing several people waiting for food. “I jumped onto the ground when the explosions started,” said Ali Hmouda, 36, an employee of the port. “My friend did not. His head came off.”
Reporting contributed by Steven Lee Myers in Berlin and Raphael Minder in Madrid.
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Libya
Apr 20, 2011 21:53:42 GMT 4
Post by lightphoenix on Apr 20, 2011 21:53:42 GMT 4
Libya: A journalist killed AFP AFP 20/04/2010 Updated: 18:34
One journalist was killed today in Misrata in Western Libya, and three wounded, one seriously, victims of a mortar.
The identity of the journalist killed was not disclosed pending telling his family. The journalist who was seriously wounded is an American Chris Hondros, 41, of the Getty photo agency. The identity of the two journalists were also injured slightly longer be announced later.
The four journalists were in a group on Tripoli Street, the main artery of Misrata, besieged for nearly two months by the troops of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. The height of the fighting between loyalist troops and rebels takes place on Tripoli Street.
Tim Hetherington, Oscar-Nominated Journalist, Killed In Libya Tim Hetherington, photographer reportedly killed in Libya
First Posted: 04/20/11 12:13 PM ET Updated: 04/20/11 01:59 PM ET
NOTE: This post has been updated and corrected with new information about Chris Hondros.
A highly acclaimed journalist and filmmaker has been killed in Libya, it was reported Wednesday.
Tim Hetherington, an Oscar-nominated filmmaker and photographer, was killed in the city of Misurata while covering fighting between Muammar Gaddafi's forces and Libyan rebels. Agence France Press reported that Hetherington and three colleagues were hit by mortar fire. Andre Liohn, a fellow photographer, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that Hetherington died "when covering the front line."
One of the three photographers, Chris Hondros, was initially reported to have died. Liohn wrote on his wall soon after initially reporting Hetherington's death, "Chris Hondros died now." Later reports said that he was in gravely critical condition, having suffered a serious brain injury.
Hetherington was a contributing photographer for Vanity Fair, and co-directed the Afghan war film "Restrepo" with author Sebastian Junger. The last tweet on Hetherington's Twitter account reads, "In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO."
The war in Libya has been intensely dangerous for journalists. Hetherington's death brings the number of journalists killed to at least two.
Last Twitter's Feed by Tim Hetherington
In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO. 19 Apr
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