Posted on 10/11/2004 11:44:07 AM PDT by Destro
Last Updated: Monday, 11 October, 2004, 11:08 GMT 12:08 UK
Libya arrests 'al-Qaeda' suspects
Libya has arrested 17 members of a group linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, officials say. Interior Minister Nasser al-Mabruk said the nature of the links was not yet clear, but the inquiry was continuing.
The men had entered Libya illegally and were arrested as soon as they arrived, the minister added.
Correspondents say Libya is emerging from decades of international isolation after abandoning its pursuit of weapons of mass destruction last year.
Last month Washington lifted its trade embargo against Tripoli as a reward for Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's decision.
The EU and the US imposed trade sanctions in 1986 in retaliation for what they saw as Libyan support for terrorist groups.
"The preliminary investigations proved that this group of 17 people had relations to Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda organisation, but the form and nature of this relationship is not yet clear," Egypt's official Middle East News Agency (MENA) quoted the minister as saying.
Libya remains on a US list of state sponsors of "terrorism".
All he had to do was fly the Iraq flag at half staff and send gushing words of sympathy our way and he would be in like Flynn.
Saddam and Gaddafi are sad to say - just the type of Arabs that the West wanted to deal with al-Qaeda types - quasi secularist nationalists.
Not a popular opinion to express but it is how I see it (after all did we not support secularist Iraq to hold back fundamentalist Iran? - see also current leader of Pakistan).
I really hope Bush brings up Libya and Saudi Arabia as allies in the War on Terror
Just observing. Democracies are none to trustworthy eitehr to tell the truth - see many in Europe.
If Clinton had gotten Libya to turn around like this, he would be nominated for a Nobel Peace, or should I say 'Piece', Prize.
On a separate note............. I always thought it was "In like Flint" is yours the Irish version?
Lybia continues to wow me. Good for them.
In Like Flynn: Dates back to 1945, refering to how easily movie star Errol Flynn could get women into bed with him.
"In Like Flynn: Dates back to 1945, refering to how easily movie star Errol Flynn could get women into bed with him."
Really? Not from the sixties "My Man Flint" movie series starring James Coburn?
Nope.
The origins for "In like Flynn" are as follows:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-inl1.htm
[Q] From Gustavo Bruckner: “What is the derivation of in like Flynn?”
[A] Reference books almost universally assert that this set phrase, an American expression meaning to be successful emphatically or quickly, especially in regard to sexual seduction, refers to the Australian-born actor Errol Flynn. His drinking, drug-taking and sexual exploits were renowned, even for Hollywood, but the phrase is said to have been coined following his acquittal in February 1943 for the statutory rape of a teenage girl. This seems to be supported by the date of the first example recorded, in American Speech in December 1946, which cited a 1945 use in the sense of something being done easily. The trouble with this explanation is that examples of obviously related expressions have now turned up from dates before Flynn’s trial. Barry Popik of the American Dialect Society found an example from 1940, as well as this from the sports section of the San Francisco Examiner of 8 February 1942: “Answer these questions correctly and your name is Flynn, meaning you’re in, provided you have two left feet and the written consent of your parents”. To judge from a newspaper reference he turned up from early 1943, the phrase could by then also be shortened to I’m Flynn, meaning “I’m in”.
It’s suggested by some writers that the phrase really originated with another Flynn, Edward J Flynn—“Boss” Flynn—a campaign manager for the Democratic party during FDR’s presidency. Flynn’s machine in the South Bronx in New York was so successful at winning elections that his candidates seemed to get into office automatically.
The existence of the examples found by Mr Popik certainly suggest the expression was at first unconnected with Errol Flynn, but that it shifted its association when he became such a notorious figure. Since then, it has altered again, because in 1967 a film, In Like Flint, a spy spoof starring James Coburn, took its title by wordplay from the older expression, and in turn caused many people to think that the phrase was really in like Flint.
Bush-"You can run, but you can't hide."
This is a direct result of "you're either with us or agin' us" doctrine, and pre-emtion, IMHO.
See 8 and 11.
'Trip the Light fantastic' vs 'Trip a light Fandango'
I have lost countless miliseconds of sleep over that one. ;)
Boy, some things never change.
Were the arrested really terrorists or mere nuisances?
I am still puzzled about Libya's sudden change of heart....
What was the REAL deal ?
Money, not WMD/military might is the influencer of the new globalized world order.
He is doing what Arafat did to fool the international community into thinking he has changed.
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