Gadhafi loyalists given one more week to surrender

CNN ^ | September 3, 2011

[MinorityRepublican]

Mustafa Abdel Jalil (right) and Mahmud Jibril of the Libyan National Transitional Council in Paris on September 1.

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Libya's interim leadership gave Moammar Gadhafi loyalists one more week to surrender before they face military force in the last bastions of the strongman's power.

But with the olive branch came a threat.

Anti-Gadhafi forces are positioning around the former leader's hometown, Sirte, and Bani Walid, where a powerful tribe is sympathetic to Gadhafi, Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council, said Saturday.

"This extension does not mean we are unaware of what Gadhafi's accomplices are up to," Jalil said at a news conference, countering earlier criticism that a grace period might give Gadhafi's forces to regroup.

Ali Tarhouni, the interim deputy prime minister and oil minister, said there had been no fighting in Bani Walid for the last two days and the city was close to falling.

"It's possible, although we are not sure, that the Bani Walid [tribe] has joined the revolution, and now it's under control of the revolutionaries," he said.

He said Libya's new leadership will move their headquarters from Bengazi to Tripoli next week to begin implementing political plans to shape a new future.

But for the time being, guns trump government on the streets of the capital.

Tripoli has become a city of checkpoints, weapons and no real authority as the threat of Gadhafi's loyalists lingers.

Jittery and suspicious anti-Gadhafi fighters blocked a road Saturday where a drive-by shooting occurred earlier. They collected weapons and registered them at police stations and those who called themselves rebels just a week ago were now working with Tripoli's law enforcement authorities.

With Gadhafi's armories emptied, guns, always in large supply in Libya, have proliferated on the streets.

[odds]

Actually, I think you are both right.
Add MB (moslem brotherhood) to that Islamic mix in Syria, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia & generally the ME & N. Africa. Also, MB is a different ballgame to AQ; it operates differently, though, obviously, still Islamic.
End of the day, no matter what the differences between AQ, MB or Shia Islamic regime, theirs is about shifting loyalties based on political expediency that are situation specific. More importantly, what will always *unite* these Islamic grps (and sects) is & will be the shared fundamental theology i.e. ISLAM. And, for them, Islam is a very powerful bonding factor. Particularly against a *complete outsider* i.e. the West.
S. Arabia, despite its “official elite & policy makers” being rather chummy with western gov’ts, is no exception.
I’d say that unless the West has a contingency plan of sorts, it has to be careful w/ both its strategies & tactics of intervention in the ME & N. Africa (generally moslem countries). All the wheeling & dealing. Because, imho, the West is walking on eggs shells & on thin ice.
Some may think that by playing sunnis against shi’ites, for example, we are weakening them. But, it is also weakening the West - we’ll see that longer term.

[odds]

eggs shells = eggshells

[odds]

I tend to agree w/ you. Especially “we had no business there in the first place.” There is much the US & the West can do to prevent Islam spreading in the West. As well as strengthening our own backyard.

As for Gaddafi, my guess when all this started was that he will be eventually executed or assassinated, and Libya will be partitioned. We’ll see...

[no-to-illegals]

The different sects (imho) are not all that different. Both sects aim to control, plan to control, and although they war against one another, if the sects do as the sects could, there sits one powerful enemy. Key being the Saudis. Seem to remember the shortages of gasoline during the hostage crisis in iran. Then add in the other players to the north and to the south. Looked like the sects shook hands at that point (the iran hostage crisis) and decided their enemy was common. Would the sects shake hands and do it again? (imho) they would.

And here at home what is our response? Little to no action to utilize our resources. Are our resources owned by someone other than ourselves?

[Bryanw92]

>>Tell me again. Why are we fighting for Al-Quaida?

Because, we...umm....they....umm....democracy is...ummm...vital national interests....umm...HEY LOOK, a squirrel!

(Translation: our government is stupid, but at least it’s easily distracted.)