tagged w/ libya protest
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Footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows the body of the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi following his death in Sirte.Footage obtained by Al Jazeera shows the body of the former Libyan leader Muammar... more
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With the war unfolding in Libya, it came as no surprise that the West gravitated towards supporting the Libyan rebels. But discerning readers will note that Gaddafi has in the past, enjoyed the secret gratitude of the Powers That May Be, who are based in the West.
http://www.cabaltimes.com/2011/03/20/gaddafi-is-a-secret-darling-of-the-west/With the war unfolding in Libya, it came as no surprise that the West gravitated... more
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Libya begs the question of how something as benign sounding as humanitarian intervention got such a bad rap.Libya begs the question of how something as benign sounding as humanitarian... more
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Allied strikes on Libya will continue until its leader, Muammar Gaddafi, meets UN terms, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has told world leaders.
Some 40 delegations met in London to discuss the next steps for Libya amid UN-backed military action.
Forces opposed to Col Gaddafi, helped by foreign air strikes, have made rapid progress in recent days but pro-Gaddafi forces are now pushing them back.
Opening the conference, Prime Minister David Cameron said the Libyans needed three things from the international community in order to secure a future "free from oppression".
"First we must reaffirm our commitment to the UN Security Council Resolutions 1970 and 1973 and reaffirm the broad alliance that has been put in place to implement them," he said.
"Second we must ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid where it is needed, including to the newly liberated towns in Libya. And third, we must help the Libyan people plan for their future after the conflict is over."
Col Gaddafi has sent an open letter to the conference, describing the western-led air strikes as "barbaric".
Tuesday's conference brought together all members of the coalition in the military operation, as well as the UN, Nato, the African Union and Arab League.
Source: BBCAllied strikes on Libya will continue until its leader, Muammar Gaddafi, meets UN... more
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A Libyan woman who ran into a Tripoli hotel in an attempt to tell foreign journalists her story of rape is now facing possible criminal charges herself, a government spokesman says. "I heard that the attorney-general brought her in for questioning because she is now not just the accuser, she is the accused. There is a case against her," Moussa Ibrahim, a government spokesman told journalist in Tripoli.An extremely distressed Ms al Obeidi had gone to the Tripoli hotel, where the media is based, screaming and crying that she had been raped and tortured over two days after being picked up at a checkpoint in the capital.A gun was pulled on the British Sky News team and CNN had their camera smashed as she was dragged away by security forces loyal to Gaddafi.Mr Ibrahim said that Ms al Obeidi had subsequently been asked about the alleged incident and "not come up with anything substantial"."She says four people kidnapped and raped her, one of them is the son of someone in the state. That is hardly political, the son of someone in the state is a human being," he said."Now the four guys are having a case filed against her because instead of going to a police station and filing a case against them she went to the media and exposed their names.""Now their honour is tainted, their families black-named and this in the Islamic law is a very grave offence."Earlier, Ms al Obeidi's mother told journalists she had been offered bribes to get her daughter to withdraw her allegations."Last night at three they called from Gaddafi's compound and asked me to convince my daughter Eman to change what she said," Aisha Ahmad said.Mrs Ahmad said she was told Eman al Obeidi would be freed if she changed her story and was offered "anything you and your family would ask for - money, a new home"."I told my daughter: 'Keep silent'," she said.The authorities have said that Ms al Obeidi was allowed to return home after over the weekend, but her family said she has not yet been seen.Pushed on her current whereabouts, Mr Ibrahim said: "If you ask me about this hour, I don't know if she is with her family or if she is being questioned again."
Source: Sky News
A Libyan woman who ran into a Tripoli hotel in an attempt to tell foreign journalists... more
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Members of the international community are meeting in London today to discuss what the next steps should be in the UN-backed military campaign in Libya.UK Prime Minister David Cameron said he hoped the meeting of about 40 delegations would ensure "maximum political and diplomatic unity".In a statement, the UK and France urged supporters of Muammar Gaddafi to "leave him before it is too late".The countries' leaders said his regime had completely lost its legitimacy.Tuesday's conference will bring together all members of the coalition in the military operation, as well as the UN, Nato, the African Union and Arab League.It is hoped the presence of Arab countries Qatar, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates will help to strengthen the alliance behind military action.But Russia, which says the action has gone beyond the terms of the UN resolution that authorised it, said it would not attend.The conference will also examine the provision of humanitarian aid.In a letter to the representatives of more than the 40 countries, including all those who have contributed to the military operation in Libya, Gaddafi likened the airstrikes on his forces to military campaigns launched by Adolf Hitler during the Second World War.
Source: BBC and Sky NewsMembers of the international community are meeting in London today to discuss what the... more
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Minister Farrakhan blasted Pres. Obama and Secy. Clinton for their arrogance in meddling in another sovereign nation's affairs and publicly recommending regime change in Libya.
He then instructed Americans to look beneath the surface to see who stands to benefit from the unrest in Libya and warned Pres. Obama to be careful of the words coming from advisors lobbying him to move in with military forces to depose Libya leader.
http://www.ufo-blogger.com/2011/03/libya-war-us-invading-libya-for-oil.htmlMinister Farrakhan blasted Pres. Obama and Secy. Clinton for their arrogance in... more
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Libya has closed its air space to all traffic in a move seen to thwart the United Nation’s imposition of a no-fly zone over the countryLibya has closed its air space to all traffic in a move seen to thwart the United... more
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The Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi will fall to government forces within 48 hours, Saif Gaddafi has said in a television interview. Saif, the son of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, told France-based Euronews that any decision taken by the United Nations would come "too late".Pro-government forces have been attacking rebel towns, including Ajdabiyah as they sweep east.Asked about Benghazi, Saif said: "Everything will be over in 48 hours.World leaders are meeting later, at the UN in New York, to discuss imposing a no-fly zone over Libya.Saif said: "The military operations are finished. In 48 hours, everything will be over."Our forces are close to Benghazi. Whatever decision is taken, it will be too late."
Watch the Euro News interview here.The Libyan rebel stronghold of Benghazi will fall to government forces within 48... more
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Squatters occupied the £11 million London home of Colonel Gaddafi's son today in protest against the dictator's regime.A group calling themselves Topple The Tyrants said they took over the house because they "didn't trust the British government to properly seize Gaddafi's corrupt assets".The squatters unfurled a banner bearing a picture of Colonel Gaddafi and the slogan "Out Of Libya Out Of London" from the top of the house.Four of them were spotted walking around on the roof as police took photographs from below.Residents reported the burglar alarm going off at the property in Hampstead Garden Suburb. A man arrived in a black Porsche and had to be calmed down by police before driving away.Gaddafi's son Saif tried to sell the property after his family's multi-billion pound fortune was frozen around the world. The house has a swimming pool, sauna, Jacuzzi and suede-lined cinema room.Speaking from the roof, the group's leader, using the pseudonym Montgomery Jones, said: "We want to make sure the property goes back into the hand of the Libyan people who deserve it. We're here for a serious reason, we're not here to luxuriate: I don't think what we are doing is legal but I don't think it's relevant if you are talking about something this important."Mr Jones, who said he got the day off work to attend the occupation, refused to say how many people were at the house or how they got in.He said: "One of the first things we did was put on Al-Jazeera on the huge flat screen television. It's incredibly plush inside." The house is said to be part of a £300 million London portfolio ofGaddafi assets that has been frozen.A Met spokesman said: "At this time it is being treated as a civil matter."
Source: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23930497-squatters-take-over-colonel-gaddafi-sons-pound-11m-mansion.do
Squatters occupied the £11 million London home of Colonel... more
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Trends forecaster Gerald Celente says it is not support for the Libyan people, but interest in the country's vast oil fields that is driving US rhetoric.
“The only reason they are interested in Libya is for their oil. Do you hear anybody screaming and yelling here about all those people that were killed last week on the Ivory Coast or in Sudan?” Celente questions. “We already heard Hillary Clinton say that they are willing to do anything for anybody in Libya that needs aid.”
Gerald Celente says the hypocrisy is “just beyond belief” and the western world is calling for the head of Gaddafi but not for the head of any other leader from rioting countries like Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia or Yemen.
“Why? Because it is oil. You think we’d be in Iraq if the major export there was broccoli?” exclaimed Celente.
Libya has the largest proven oil reserves in Africa, at more than 3 per cent of the global total – and there could be a lot more undiscovered.
Libya is not the only African nation in turmoil. Somalia’s drawn-out conflict has been called ‘a slow genocide’. But there’s little sign of US or European military input. And it is a similar story on the other side of the continent.
“There are events unfolding in the Ivory Coast where there is also an armed conflict between rebels and the government, but nobody seems to be thinking of that,” said John Laughland from the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation. “It’s only because fashionable attention is focused on Libya – oil but also for the political implications of the Middle East as a whole. We all know that the West including Britain has got its hands very dirty with the Libyan leadership over the recent years.”
John Laughland told RT that the current situation in Libya does not merit military intervention.
“The level of violence in Libya is relatively low,” he said. “I mean, we believe that there have been several hundred people killed, but it is not a huge level of violence. It certainly is not the global level of violence that would normally merit intervention.”
“I think that parallels do, though, lie with these other interventions made because clearly, Libya is an important state and the West does want try to establish some sort of control over the situation. It is because it wants to recuperate the situation, it wants to muscle in and appropriate to itself developments it did not initiate,” Laughland added.
The lessons have not been learnt when it comes to Iraq, which remains unstable even now, with only feeble growth of the much-vaunted democracy that the US tried to plant there. Allied troops are equally bogged down in Afghanistan, with no convincing timeline for withdrawal, and an ever-rising death toll.
According to peace activist from Stop the War Coalition John Rees, a NATO invasion in Libya would have disastrous consequences.
“Colonel Gaddafi says that the revolution is a mask for foreign involvement,” he said. “If the imperial powers actually do intervene it will make it look as if he is right, and that will be a disastrous turn of events for revolutionaries who are trying to overthrow him.”
“I was recently in both Tahrir Square in Cairo and in Tunis and I think that the western powers have to be very clear that the last thing that the people who topple their dictators in the Middle East want is the intervention of the Western powers,” Rees added.
“The mess that has been made in Afghanistan, the terrible disaster that was caused in Iraq shouldn’t be visited on any more countries in the Middle East,” John Rees concluded.
Carol Turner, an anti-war activist, agreed that while the majority of Libyans may want a regime change, they do not want to see it achieved by foreign intervention.
“I’m extremely worried there could be a foreign intervention led by the US and Britain,” she said. “I think it’s very difficult for them. But on the other hand if they feel that this is the only opportunity of toppling Gaddafi and installing a pro-Western regime, or if they feel that their oil interests and other their strategic interests are in some way threatened – then I think they ultimately won’t hold back.”
According to British Labor MP Jeremy Corbyn, the scenario that unfolded in Iraq is now very likely to repeat itself in Libya.
“It is looking quite possible that [key NATO members] will launch an attack, with or without UN approval, so we are looking almost at a repeat of what happened in Iraq and indeed the results, I suspect, will be largely the same,” he said.
Corbyn added that the reason why the West has suddenly become deeply concerned about human rights in Libya is solely the country’s oil.
US radio host and peace activist Ralph Schoenman said that the US is currently implementing its long-standing plans to invade Libya.
“What they want to do is to put foreign forces in place to determine the outcome and to abort a popular uprising that seizes control of Libya’s natural resources for the benefit of the working population,” he said.
“What US imperialism is now doing is seizing the opportunity to put into place long-standing plans for invasion and intervention,” Schoenman added.
Eric Stoner, editor of the "Waging Nonviolence" website, believes that any military intervention by the West could be a huge disaster.
“It is likely to lead to a dramatic escalation in terms of loss of life,” he said. “Gaddafi has shown his willingness to kill far more of his own people than Mubarak in Egypt. Sending in US and Western troops or bombs is only going to increase the destruction.”
He also pointed out that there is no such thing as a quick military intervention.
“History has proven that it is just not the case – look particularly at Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. “Look at where we are now: many years of war, hundreds of thousands of people killed, and there is no end in sight for those interventions.”
And American and European governments should not look for backing at home either. Up to a million protestors marched in London over the invasion of Iraq in 2003. And times have changed. This is now austerity Britain, where starting another war was not factored into the budget.
British troops are already fighting an unpopular war in Afghanistan. It is highly unlikely that the public has the appetite for getting involved in someone else's struggle again, battling as they are at home in the face of deep cuts and rising unemployment.
The Ministry of Defence has to slash spending by more than US $7.5 billion in the next four years. So this is an intervention that Britain would find hard to afford, on many levels.
http://rt.com/news/us-invasion-libya-weapons/Trends forecaster Gerald Celente says it is not support for the Libyan people, but... more
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The reports of Libya mobilizing its air force against its own people spread quickly around the world. However, Russia's military chiefs say they have been monitoring from space – and the pictures tell a different story.
According to Al Jazeera and BBC, on February 22 Libyan government inflicted airstrikes on Benghazi – the country’s largest city – and on the capital Tripoli. However, the Russian military, monitoring the unrest via satellite from the very beginning, says nothing of the sort was going on on the ground.
At this point, the Russian military is saying that, as far as they are concerned, the attacks some media were reporting have never occurred.
The same sources in Russia’s military establishment say they are also monitoring the situation around Libya’s oil pumping facilities.
http://rt.com/news/airstrikes-libya-russian-military/The reports of Libya mobilizing its air force against its own people spread quickly... more
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In an attempt to support and protest with the Libyan people, A Jordanian artist Ahmad Sabbagh made this poster about Gaddafi as a criminal queen.
The words are taken from the first lines of Gaddafi's green book.
Translation: The instrument of government is the prime political problem confronting human communities.
Made by: Ahmad Sabbagh
Calligraphy by: Hussain AzzatIn an attempt to support and protest with the Libyan people, A Jordanian artist Ahmad... more
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In his telephone interview with Libyan state TV Colonel Gaddafi compared himself to none other than our Queen Elisabeth II, saying that she had reign longer than he had and had still not been overthrown. He also said that just like the Queen he has no power to rule. In his usually rambling and erratic ways his speech made little sense. Gaddafi offered his condolences to those who had died in the unrest, calling them "Libya's children".He added that those who had been protesting were on "hallucinogenic drugs".He also said that what's happening in Libya is "not people's power but international terrorism in action".He told families of protesters that their children are being "duped" by supporters of Bin Laden.Several people have also been killed by pro-Gaddafi forces near the town of Misratah, as violent protests continue to spread.A witness, who only wanted to be identified as Mohamed, said a unit of paramilitary forces controlled by one of Gaddafi's sons, Khamis, attacked near Misratah airport.Meanwhile, Moammur Gaddafi's son, Seif al-Islam Gaddafi, has denied the government launched airstrikes against Libyan cities.He also claimed reports of the number of protesters killed have been exaggerated.
Source: Sky etc
In his telephone interview with Libyan state TV Colonel Gaddafi compared himself to... more
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The ongoing situation in Libya and a re-cap as reported by the BBC Africa and World Service via the Africa Today and Newshour Programs. Ongoing and rapidly changing story and this might help you get up to speed if you missed anything.The ongoing situation in Libya and a re-cap as reported by the BBC Africa and World... more
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I didn’t know Ross from ‘Friends’ was a Libyan!
Qaddafi Holds On in Tripoli as Estimates of Death Toll Soar | The New York Times
Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya kept his grip on the capital on Wednesday, but large areas of the east of the country remained out of his control amid indications that the fighting had reached the northwest of the country around Tripoli.I didn’t know Ross from ‘Friends’ was a Libyan!
Qaddafi Holds On... more
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On Tuesday at 16:00 GMT Gaddafi held a speech which was televised by Libyan state TV (watch the full speech with English translation).
The speech itself seemed unscripted and Gaddafi was both furious and erratic in the way he spoke. In the speech he called for his supporters to take to the streets and said:- "From tomorrow police and the army will restore security and will hunt the cockroaches who are destroying this country."- "The west and the US arab nations have drugged our youth who are now not understanding what they are doing."- "I will cannot leave my country - I will die a martyr"- "Do you [Libyans] want to turn into Afghanistan, do you want the Americans to come here and take over?"
"I cannot resign I am not an elected leader I am the leader of the revolution and I am only armed with a gun.""We will not surrender to global superpowers.""Demonstrators are against their families, you [parents] you need to re-teach them and tell them to become engineers or join the police and serve their country.""Those who are protesting are young people they are ignorant of history.""This is a young generation they are taking hallucination drugs.""Peaceful demonstrate is one thing but armed rebellion is something else.""Nobody can allow our country to become a laughing stock."
*Editor's Note: these quotes were made by editor watching Gaddafi's speech live on BBC.
On Tuesday at 16:00 GMT Gaddafi held a speech which was televised by Libyan state TV... more
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Libyan forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi are waging a bloody operation to keep him in power, with residents reporting gunfire in parts of the capital Tripoli and other cities, while other citizens, including the country’s former ambassador to India, are saying that warplanes were used to “bomb” protesters.Libyan forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi are waging a bloody operation to keep him in... more
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