Posted on 02/21/2011 7:44:33 AM PST by SE Mom
Ongoing live thread for developments in North Africa and the Middle East.
Twitter:
Libyan justice minister resigns in protest at 'excessive use of violence against protesters,' Quryna newspaper says - Reuters 6 minutes ago via breakingnews.com
Group of Libyan Muslim leaders says rebelling against Libyan regime is everyone's divine duty - Reuters 33 minutes ago via breakingnews.com
Anti-government protests break out in Libyan oil town of Ras Lanuf, Libya's Quryna newspaper says - Reuters about 1 hour ago via breakingnews.com
Police station in suburb of Libyan capital of Tripoli is on fire, according to a Reuters reporter on the scene about 2 hours ago via breakingnews.com
Europe plans for Libya evacuation: EU foreign ministers discuss plans to transport citizens out of Libya, as vio... http://aje.me/dMmkVb 4 minutes ago via twitterfeed
(((Uncle Ike))) missed you!
It’s is a stunner, isn’t it?
Meanwhile:
1737: Libyan-born Nusrati (not his real name), who has recently moved from the UK back to the Middle East, has been receiving information about the escalating situation in the country: “There has been live fire outside my uncle’s apartment in Tripoli. Everyone was out marching in Green Square. There were trucks handing out meat and fish and other luxury goods to anyone who is a pro-Gadaffi supporter. People were even being promised university places.”
1728: An eyewitness in Tripoli has told the BBC the suburbs of Fashloom and Zawia al-Dahmani have been cordoned off by security. These suburbs are about a 10-minute drive from the city centre. He saw protesters on the streets - and flames and smoke rising from the area. Aircraft can be heard flying overhead in the city.
1725: Zubin Gulati in Tripoli, Libya, tweets: “Cars honking Police sirens Small weapons fire in Omar Mukhtar Street in #Tripoli #Libya”1721: The US Department of State has issued a new travel warning for Libya. It advises citizens to defer all travel to Libya, while those in Libya should “minimise overall travel in-country, exercise extreme caution when travelling, and limit all travel after dark”. It says US citizens not leaving Libya should make preparations to seek shelter where they are.
Depends on how this particular push poll was conducted. Do I think that it's a "possibility"? Sure, just like it's a possibility that I'll hit the lottery this week.
I'm not betting the farm on it, however.
People want confirmation, not information. If they want to BELIEEEEEEEEEEEeeeve that Egypt is better off under (likely) a theocratic dictatorship than a military dictatorship.....then that's what they'll think. And the media, not wanting people to tune out, will keep feeding them that message.
'Tisn't about truth. It's about keeping the story continuous.
:)
Not a word on this yet on FOX. But these events have to eventually get press.
The Wisconsin mess is MSM vogue and probably will remain so.
tarksiala Mobile phone still working, but without internet or SMS, internet working on wimax, until now but maybe off any time #tripoli #LIBYA
2 minutes ago via Dabr
Retweeted by AliTweel
Abukhit Kids throwing rocks on jeep cars ... Gun fires in replay .
4 minutes ago via Echofon
Retweeted by AliTweel and 1 other
@little_bytes im using my iphone to tweet via vpn.
less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to little_bytes
I just saw 2 big cars going tward west tripoli Hay Demashq with heavey machine guns, they are not libyans, looks like africans.
less than a minute ago via Twitter for iPhone
@little_bytes don’t bother the gov. R blocking all calls from outside, i guess all those dial up numbers are blocked too! I have modem.
2 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone in reply to little_bytes
mercenaries are heading twards gargaresh, friend living there confirmed that
6 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone
I guess the American news outlets are afraid to send their reporters to Libya after what happened in Egypt.
Libya doesn’t let journalists in country- without an invite to cover specific stories- very controlled- like Iran.
...
1742: All Italian air bases have been placed on maximum alert, the Italian news agency Ansa reports.
1740: Nusrati adds: “ My uncle is a doctor in a hospital in Tripoli and he says many bodies were carried in to the hospital last night and today. People are taking it in turns to defend their streets. Half go out protesting, and the other half stay behind to protect their properties.”
Good post, good questions. Raw truths and questions about same.
Because I sure can understand getting to a point where I’d rather go onto the street and die then continue living under the thumb of a king-sized boobaloob like Quadaffi, come on...this guy is a nothing burger of the highest order! What Lord God almighty gave this turd the right to govern people for over forty years now? Same question about Mubarak, same about those sons of camels, the House of Saud.
I know America has a hand in this in that...well hell, we needed SOMEBODY to deal with in terms of oil, peace, war...that sort of thing. But before beating up on my own country, I daresay, America would have been quite content to deal with a rightfully and Democratically elected leader, given all things being equal. Sometimes people got to help themselves and we’ve had that crew infested with camel fleas, the Sauds, in charge and while we wonder that the hell is THEIR right to be head poohbahs, well it is what it is.
You get a Saddam, that Venzuelan guy....all nothing burgers, but they got the money, the arms, the power. America needs somebody to be in charge and de facto, without malice but more of necessity, this tends to increase the power of boobaloobs like Quadaffi.
Problem is, as we all know, that once those people get a bit sick of dolts like Mubarak and Quaddaffi in charge, getting all rich and happy while they suffer, as soon as they throw the nothing burgers out they almost always go and get some kind of Islamofacist cult to take charge.
Jumping, as it were, from the pot into the fire.
Again, America can’t do a thing about it save make statements and such. Unless we’re willing to go into all these countries and install our own forced democracies, like in Iraq. Which America ain’t going to do, I wouldn’t even want to attempt such a monumental, costly and dangerous task. The liberal mushballs in this country would NEVER embrace such a thing.
I guess this is how they are evolving in the Mideast. First, throw out the looser burger thinks he’s in charge, then put a bunch of looser burgers who will use an oppressive religion to control the population.
Then, like where Iran is now, the people eventually get tired of this nonsense.
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and sometimes you gotta do nothing when you can’t do anything.
bookmarking place ...
mercenaries are heading towards Gargaresh, friend living there confirmed that #Tripoli #Libya
All Libyan callers talking to AJArabic are hysteric as they describe situation on ground, scream for help from Arabs, int'l govts #Libya 4 minutes ago
Thanks for the updates. I’m stuck in a cubicle with this as my best news source (as always).
Very good rundown on events in Libya...
Colonel Gaddafi may be on his way to the Venezuela tonight, according to Foreign Secretary William Hague. He said he had seen ‘some information’ that suggests he is on his way to the South American country.
Even the so-called experts seem baffled at what is going on.
Are these rioters wanting to establish the more radical Islamist sharia law? or are they wanting a more democratic, less tyrannical government?
It seems to early to answer.
Some of the protests apparently are bloody and have several deaths; others are basically peaceful.
I guess we have to wait to see who/what comes to power in 6-12 months.
Civil unrest has been going on a while in Iran, but the Iranian theological government seems to be able to quell the unrest.
Let’s all join hands for a chorus of “It’s a Small World, After All”....
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2677400/posts
Hezbollah Working with Cartels
Fox News.com ^ | February 21, 2011 | Adam Housely
Posted on Monday, February 21, 2011 11:05:01 AM by Kaslin
As if the threat of deadly drug cartels in Mexico wasn’t enough, some of them are joining forces with Middle East terror groups.
“Hezbollah are absolute masters at identifying existing smuggling infrastructures,” says former DEA Chief of Operations Mike Braun, adding that the group “is developing relations with those responsible for operating those smuggling operations and then forming close relations with them, so that they can move anything they have an interest into virtually anywhere in the world.” That comment comes from former DEA Chief of Operations Mike Braun. He goes on to tell me that the Middle East terror group is “rubbing shoulders” with drug cartels around the globe.
My military and Department of Homeland Security contacts are insistent...it’s not if Hezbollah operatives have been smuggled into the U.S....but how many? They note that drug tunnels are becoming much more sophisticated and striking similar as tunnels being used by terror organizations to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip. My contacts also say they have real concern that bombing techniques used in the Middle East to promote terror are now also being used inside Mexico, as the cartels war with each other and anyone in their way.
This comes as Mexican authorities busted a senior Hezbollah operative who employed Mexicans nationals with family ties to Lebanon to set up the network, designed to target Israel and the West, according to multiple reports. The man’s name is Jameel Nasr and he was arrested after a Mexican surveillance operation revealed that he traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive information and instructions from Hezbollah commanders and he also spent several months in Venezuela working with the terror group and Hugo Chavez’s people.
(Excerpt) Read more at liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com ...
Those left behind doing the killing are going to pay the price.
You bet :)
From the BBC - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698
1754: Al-Jazeera is quoting Tripoli residents as saying Libyan warplanes are bombing locations in the capital. It’s important to note that while we have reliable reports of fires in Tripoli, as well as aircraft overhead, it is not possible to confirm such reports at this stage.
1746: Arab-American Nasr Anaizi tweets: “Civilians marching from #Mesrata toward #Tripoli are being fired upon from Apache helicopters. Real massacres are taking place in #Libya.”
I just got through looking at a Twitter photo set. Last night there were reports of protesters in Tripoli being killed with head shots by mercenaries in the Green Square or at the hospital. The photos are of the murder victims in a hospital morgue with their brains spilling out of their heads.
I just can’t seem to come up with a suitably sarcastic comment —
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2677401/posts
White House studying Gadhafi son’s speech to look for ‘meaningful reform’
The Hill ^
Posted on Monday, February 21, 2011 11:05:06 AM by Sub-Driver
White House studying Gadhafi son’s speech to look for ‘meaningful reform’ By Bridget Johnson - 02/21/11 11:51 AM ET
The White House is weighing an “appropriate” response to the violence directed at pro-democracy demonstrations in Libya, according to a senior administration official quoted by wire services.
“We are analyzing the speech of Saif al-Islam Kadhafi to see what possibilities it contains for meaningful reform,” the official said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s son took to state TV on Sunday night to warn that civil war could break out if protests continue.
“Libya is not Tunisia or Egypt,” the younger Gadhafi said of the country’s neighbors while warning “the Americans and Europeans are on their way and will occupy your country.”
He vowed that his family “will fight to the last minute, until the last bullet.” If protests continue, he warned, “forget about democracy, forget about reform ... it will be a fierce civil war.”
On Monday, Libyan state TV warned of “rivers of blood” and lawlessness like Somalia.
Over the past several days, hundreds of protesters are feared to have been killed by sniper fire, miltary vehicles, missiles and artillery, and machine-gun fire. Still, protesters have hung in and on Monday claimed control of the city of Benghazi as unrest spread to the capital Tripoli.
President Obama was reportedly briefed on the situation Sunday night by National Security Adviser Tom Donilon.
“We will seek clarification from senior Libyan officials, as we continue to raise with them the need to avoid violence against peaceful protesters and respect universal rights,” the administration official said.
About 200 people demonstrated outside the White House on Saturday, urging Obama to help end the violence in Libya.
So far, the strongest on-the-record condemnation from the administration has been in a statement from State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley on Sunday.
“The United States is gravely concerned with disturbing reports and images coming out of Libya,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said in a statement. “We are working to ascertain the facts, but we have received multiple credible reports that hundreds of people have been killed and injured in several days of unrest — and the full extent of the death toll is unknown due to the lack of access of international media and human-rights organizations.”
The statement came hours after U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice did not directly answer a question on Sunday morning’s “Meet the Press” about whether dictator Moammar Gadhafi is killing protesters.
The State Department also issued a travel warning for Libya on Sunday.
“U.S. citizens outside of Libya are urged to defer non-essential travel to Libya at this time,” it states. “The U.S. Department of State strongly urges U.S. citizens to avoid all demonstrations, as even peaceful ones can quickly become unruly and a foreigner could become a target of harassment, or worse.”
In recent years, the U.S. and Libya have re-established diplomatic relations in the wake of Libya giving up its nuclear weapons and compensating the victims of Pan Am Flight 103. Tripoli has also been laboring to draw international business to the country. Still, Libya has a dismal human-rights record and no free press.
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