Posted on 02/20/2011 12:48:31 PM PST by Ooh-Ah
Note: The important link in this article is to this “Urgent Appeal to World Leaders to Prevent Atrocities in Libya.“
As uprisings sweep the Middle East and North Africa, the bloodiest crackdown is happening, right now, in Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi has ruled for more than 41 years. There are reports of hundreds killed, of massacres in Libya’s second-largest city of Benghazi, of snipers shooting peaceful protesters, of tanks crushing bystanders, of regime gunmen firing on mourners in funeral processions for protesters previously murdered; of rocket-propelled grenades and helicopter gunships used against crowds of demonstrators.
That’s Gaddafi. Since Gaddafi came to power in a 1969 coup, he has ruled by terror, crushing dissent with jailings, torture and murder. His career of sowing terror abroad — of the Lockerbie Pan Am bombing, the UTA flight, the Berlin disco; of aiding Palestinian, Irish, Spanish and Italian terrorists — was an extension of his terror-based rule at home. Libyans know Gaddafi’s bloody ways better than anyone, having suffered under his tyranny for more than four decades. During that time, Gaddafi has plundered the national oil wealth to fund his brutal secret police, his “revolutionary committees” and the rest of his despotic state apparatus, and as blood money to help buy his way out from under U.S. and UN sanctions. He has also been readying the way for inheritance of his grotesque state machinery by one of his sons. For Libyans to rise up against Gaddafi takes staggering courage and determination. This, Libyans are now doing, and for this they are right now being massacred.
Gaddafi does not allow the kind of international media presence that recently flooded Egypt. Libyans are smuggling out reports by phone and internet — as they can, at great risk, when the lines aren’t being cut, as some have been. From the U.S., a leading human rights activist, Mohamed Eljahmi, has been sending out bulletins and appealing for support for the people of Libya. Eljahmi knows what he’s talking about. His late brother, once Libya’s leading democratic dissident, Fathi Eljahmi, died in 2009 in the custody of Gaddafi’s secret police, after years of imprisonment, isolation, medical neglect and Soviet-style application of abusive “psychiatry.”
What help is on the way for the people of Libya? Not nearly enough. On Friday, President Obama issued an off-the-shelf five-sentence statement, lumping Libyans with protesters elsewhere, professing himself “deeply concerned” about “reports of violence in Bahrain, Libya and Yemen,” and politely urging these several governments to “show restraint.” At the UN, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay have issued similar across-the-board comments on several countries, including Libya — Ban describing himself as “disturbed,” and Pillay giving a wholesale description of the crackdowns as “alarming.” All this amounts to nothing more than platitudes, for which Gaddafi has never shown the least respect. A great deal more is needed. As one place to begin, Geneva-based UN Watch, with the help of Mohamed Eljahmi, has put together “An Urgent Appeal to World Leaders to Prevent Atrocities in Libya.” It goes beyond expressions of dismay, to urge that the UN actually enlist its Human Rights Council to defend human rights for a change, starting by suspending Libya’s membership in the 47-seat Council, proceeding to a clear and specific condemnation of Libya’s massacre of its own citizens, and including the immediate dispatch of a mission of experts to investigate and document the Libyan government’s “crimes against humanity.” It may take a lot more than that to bring an end to more than 40 years of Gaddafi’s murderous rule, but Libyans are right now sacrificing themselves in exactly that cause. Who will help?
Why, tell Britain to release more Libyan terrorists of course!!!
Not our problem. Besides, anything Obozo does will end up worse than it is now.
Claudia Rossette always rocks!
What are we going to do? Why, send in the trusty UN forces, naturally. /s/s/s/s!
What is tying our hands from assisting these poor people, who can not even make a phone call for help once they jam the cellulars??
We become complicit if we stand by as observers if there is something that can be done.
Here is the latest from AOL News. Two hundred seen at the morgue in Bengazi (pop. 1 million). Now they are using machine guns. Attacks have been on people marching in funerals for the previously killed. Tripoli (pop 2 million) has been pretty quiet as it is Kadaffi’s stronghold. Hospitals in Bengazi running out of supplies. Donations being sent via Egypt. Tribesman along Egypt/Libya border will try to transport from Egypt into Libya. Action also in 5 other cities. Article also has over 500 comments, although they don’t seem to supply new information.
Also read somewhere else that Benghazi is now in the hands of the protestors. Don’t know if this is true, but apparently the Army got pixxed off at the African mercenaries killing the Libyan people.
Yup.
Here is the latest from AOL News. Two hundred seen at the morgue in Bengazi (pop. 1 million). Now they are using machine guns. Attacks have been on people marching in funerals for the previously killed. Tripoli (pop 2 million) has been pretty quiet as it is Kadaffi’s stronghold. Hospitals in Bengazi running out of supplies. Donations being sent via Egypt. Tribesman along Egypt/Libya border will try to transport from Egypt into Libya. Action also in 5 other cities. Article also has over 500 comments, although they don’t seem to supply new information.
Also read somewhere else that Benghazi is now in the hands of the protestors. Don’t know if this is true, but apparently the Army got pixxed off at the African mercenaries killing the Libyan people.
Exactly! Not our problem. I am so sick and tired of supporting these sand bunnies every time they want to start trouble on the other side of the world. If the muslims want to take over that part of the world, let them. If they attack us, level them once and for all. If there are other countries that want to get involved, let them. I really don’t care any more.
It is entirely possible, if not likely, that many of the protestors want to overthrow Gaddafi because he isn’t extremist enough. The Muslim Brotherhood has a long reach and it would have found a way to sink its tentacles next door.
Hope they kill each other off neatly and quickly
The Nobel Committee will rue the day they gave Obama a Peace Prize in advance of what he would do. His weakness has given a green light to despots around the world as he has proven himself to be an empty suit who falsely portrayed himself as some messianic savior of the world.
We should be sending in another Love Missile F1-11 to Tripoli.
A few years ago we could have quietly told him to back down and since he feared us he would have likely complied.
Today he would simply giggle. And if that mental image doesn't make you shudder then you are a strong person then I am.
We may not need to do anything. On Twitter, #Tripoli, they’re very excited. Check it out. Khaddaffy’s place surrounded, some cities now in opposition hands.
Neither do I- not a bit...except there’s the Suez Canal to consider and the little matter of one of our allies, Israel. I don’t know what the answer is given the situation we’ve managed to create- but leaving Israel to fend for herself is not an option- and the Suez is vital to commerce.
We’re doing the same thing in Libya that we are doing in Iran...
He is only following orders from Barak Obama — http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2676865/posts
If we tell them we will defend Israel and the Suez Canal at all costs, that’s all we have to do. If they attack either, we level their country. The more we compromise, the more they win. It’s somewhat like football. You don’t compromise, you either win or lose and you don’t enter the game unless your intention is to win. Although I don’t believe the muslims care about the canal. They don’t have the brains to see how important it is.
Funny,
Our “magic negro” seems mute when it comes to Lybia.
What Are We Doing About Gaddafi’s Bloody Hands in Libya?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Sharia Law?
Chop of his left hand.
Or amputate his head.Take yer pick.
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