Libyan Revolution Week 27 part 5

[joshcryer]

Links to sites with updates: http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya">AJE Libya Live Blog http://blogs.aljazeera.net/twitter-dashboard">AJE Twitter Dashboard http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/libya">The Guardian http://uk.reuters.com/places/libya">Reuters http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/">Telegraph http://feb17.info/">feb17.info http://www.livestream.com/libya17feb?utm_source=lsplayer&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=footerlinks">Libya Alhurra (live video webcast from Benghazi) http://libya-alhurra.tumblr.com/">Libya Alhurra archives and updates http://www.ustream.tv/channel/benghaziradio">Benghazi Free Radio, in Arabic (may have translators present at times) http://www.tributefm.com/">Tribute FM (English broadcast from Benghazi) http://www.libyafeb17.com/">libyafeb17.com

Twitter links: http://twitter.com/#!/aymanm">Ayman Mohyeldin, with AJE http://twitter.com/#!/bencnn">Ben Wedeman, with CNN http://twitter.com/#!/tripolitanian">tripolitanian, a Libyan from Tripoli http://twitter.com/#!/BaghdadBrian">Brian Conley, reporter in Libya http://twitter.com/#!/freelibyanyouth">FreeLibyanYouth, Libyan advocate http://twitter.com/#!/LibyaFeb17_com">LibyaFeb17.com twitter account http://twitter.com/#!/ChangeInLibya">ChangeInLibya, Libyan advocate https://twitter.com/#!/TheyCallMeSof">Sofyan Amry (arrived in Benghazi recently) http://twitter.com/#!/KiloFoot">KiloFoot (general Arab Spring news aggregation)

Useful links: http://audioboo.fm/feb17voices">feb17voices http://www.google.com/search?q=time+in+libya">Current time in Libya http://www.islamicfinder.org/cityPrayerNew.php?country=libya">Prayer times in Libya

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1794365">Week 27 part 4 here.

http://www.pogar.org/countries/theme.aspx?cid=10&t=2">The Oppressive Laws of Gaddafi's Libya
The government grants the right of association to official institutions by virtue of Law 71 of 1972, which regulates associational activity in Libya. Law 20 of 1991 on the Promotion of Freedom sanctions the death penalty for anyone whose continued existence would lead to the disintegration of Libyan society. The Code of Honor of March 1997 institutes a system of collective punishment for wrongdoing, whereby families, towns and municipalities are held responsible for the actions of individuals in their midst and are subject to punishment such as the dissolution of the local People's Congress or the denial of government services, including utilities, water, infrastructure projects. Associations engaging in political activity are illegal in Libya. Further, political activity is defined by Articles 2 and 3 of Law 71 of 1972 as any activity based on a political ideology contrary to the principles of the Al-Fateh Revolution of September 1, 1969. The Law on Publications, No. 76 of 1972, as modified by Law 120 of 1972 and Law 75 of 1973, govern the operation of the press, reserving all rights to publish.

This is what the Libyan freedom fighters are fighting against. Each and every one, when they went into this, knew that it was all or nothing, they had no choice but to fight. For their very survival.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixwx_B38678">Marching On in Libya, for the revolutionaries!

Libyan rebels celebrate in Gaddafi's "Green Square" after capturing his compound.

Screencap of http://go.sky.com/vod/content/Home/content/videoId/eefdd9d2c3e5f110VgnVCM1000001f5012ac________/content/detachedLiveTv.do#url=http://go.sky.com/vod/content/Home/content/changeDetachedChannel.do?videoId=eefdd9d2c3e5f110VgnVCM1000001f5012ac____">Sky News, click the link to watch live footage.


Day 187 August 23

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-08-23/libya-rebels-seize-qaddafi-compound-in-fight-for-tripoli.html">Libya Rebels Seize Qaddafi Compound in Fight for Tripoli
Libyan rebels took control of Muammar Qaddafi�fs compound in Tripoli after battling loyalist forces for control of the capital for a third day.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8718978/Libya-the-fortress-that-nurtured-Gaddafis-delusions.htmls">Libya: the fortress that nurtured Gaddafi's delusions
Dictators inadvertently choose the symbols of their own defeat. Hitler, who directed his wars from his eyries and bunkers, was surrounded in one.
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-08-23-tripoli-falls-but-sa-still-reluctant-to-recognise-rebels">Tripoli falls, but SA still reluctant to recognise rebels
While more than 30 countries have recognised Libya's Transitional National Council, South Africa refuses to accept its legitimacy, and has even criticised Nigeria for doing so.

Click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Libyan_civil_war">here for updated map. The size of the circles show population, the color represents control, red for FFs, green for tyrants. Note, this week is an animated gif, to show gains made by the freedom fighters.


http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x594751">A topic on the women of the revolution, dispels myths about the treatment of women in Benghazi.

Videos to bring the Libyan Revolution into context
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0vChMDuNd0">The Battle of Benghazi. BBC Panorama on Libya http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyaPnMnpCAA">Part 1, and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMzwQvcx62s">Part 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwWwOeZqz6M">Video of the convoy sent to take Benghazi, taken from a dead soliders cell phone (shows how massive the operation was). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAclhhHv43s&feature=player_embedded">Arab Awakening: Libya: Through the Fire. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD5tu5bJWKc">Tea of Freedom Song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z41kQvx4uKw">Libya: Part 2 - The Uprising http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vNWCGDkdWY">Benghazi - Backbone of the Libyan revolution

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/live/africa/libya-live-blog-march-10-0">March 10 7:28pm Saif al Islam Gaddafi says "the time has come for full-scale military action" against Libyan rebels. He goes on to say that Libyan forces loyal to his family "will never surrender, even if western powers intervene".

As of this week the National Trasitional Council has been formally recognized by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_Libyan_Republic#Recognition">46 countries. France (March 10), Qatar (March 28), Maldives (April 3), Italy (April 4), Kuwait (April 13), The Gambia (April 22), Jordan (April 24), Sengal (April 28), The United Kingdom (June 4), Spain (June 8), Australia (June 9), UAE (June 12), Germany (June 13), Canada (June 14), Panama (June 14), Austria (June 18), Latvia (June 20), Denmark (June 22), Bulgaria (June 28), Croatia (June 28), Turkey (July 3), Poland (July 9), Netherlands (July 13), Belgium (July 13), Luxembourg (July 13), United States (July 15), Japan (July 15), Albania (July 18), Slovenia (July 20), Montenegro (July 21), Portugal (July 28), Botswana (August 11), Gabon, Tunisia, New Zealand (August 22), Egypt (August 22), Jordan (August 22), Morocco (August 22), Colombia (August 22), Oman (August 23), Bahrain (August 23), Nigeria, Malta (August 23), Iraq (August 23), Greece (August 23), Norway (August 23), Lebanon (August 23), Argentina (August 23).

"One month ago (Western countries) were sooo nice, so nice like pussycats," Saif says in a contemptuous sing-song tone."Now they want to be really aggressive like tigers. (But) soon they will come back, and cut oil deals, contracts. We know this game." - http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2058389,00.html">Saif Gaddafi

(Yeah, Saif, as if you weren't "cutting oil deals, contracts" with western states. Who are the 'tigers' now? Bombing your own people.)

http://english.libya.tv/2011/04/25/eastern-libyans-believe-in-national-unity-distrust-au-and-turkish-mediation-survey-reveals/">The first free public opinion poll ever conducted in Libya reveals clues to Eastern Libyan sentiments
* 98 percent of the respondents do not support the division of Libya as a part of the political solution for the current conflict with the Gaddafi regime. Around 95 percent also don’t see any role for Gaddafi or his sons in a transitional period, and think it is impossible to implement any political reform in Libya if Gaddafi or one of his sons stays in power

* Around 96 percent of those polled, believe that the 17th of February revolution can consolidate the national unity of Libya and support the model of a democratic Libya based on a constitution which respects human rights

* Al-Qaeda has not played any role in the 17th of February revolution, say 94 percent of the Eastern Libyans, and 91 percent thinks it’s impossible for Al-Qaeda to play any political role in the new Libya

* The National Transitional Council is seen by 92 percent of those surveyed as “expressing the views and wishes of Libyans for change”

This is equivalent to 17% the entire population of Libya, doing the numbers very conservatively.

http://jenkinsear.com/2011/03/19/a-legal-war-the-united-nations-participation-act-and-libya/">A Legal War: The United Nations Participation Act and Libya
The above link is to an overview of why Obama's implementation of the NFZ and R2P is perfectly legal under the law. I will not post it entirely here, however, all objections come down to the misinformed position that Obama, by using forces in Libya, was invoking Article 43 of the United Nations. This is wrong. Obama invoked Article 42, which does not require congressional approval to implement. Proof of this is that Article 43 has http://www.un.org/en/sc/repertoire/actions.shtml#rel5">never been used.

It goes like this: The US law (Title 22, Chap. 7, Subchap. XIV § 287d) grants the President the right to invoke UN Article 42 http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/uscode22/usc_sec_22_00000287---d000-.html">without authorization, the War Powers Act (Title 50, Chap. 33 § 1541) grants the President permission to act without authorization under http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/50/1541�E548.html">"specific statutory authorization" which, by definition, is what 287d does. § 1543 of the War Powers Act requires the President to report to Congress, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/obama_explains_libya_mission_to_congress/2011/03/03/ABU9377_blog.html">which he did. One can argue all day and night about the legality of the War Powers Act, doesn't change the fact that under the law as it is written, the President acted within the law.

Editorials and stories worth reading.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/2011/03/2011328194855872276.html">Libyan Karzai? Chalabi? Forget it, http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/04/04/110404taco_talk_anderson#ixzz1HvS7iW22">Who Are the Rebels?, http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/29/vision-democratic-libya-interim-national-council">A vision of a democratic Libya, http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/is-qaddafi-an-anti-racist/">Is Qaddafi an anti-racist?, http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2011/04/20/left-slipping-towards-qaddafi">The left: slipping towards Gaddafi?, http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2011/04/27/once-again-“stop-bombing”">Once again on "stop the bombing", http://www.juancole.com/2011/03/an-open-letter-to-the-left-on-libya.html">An Open Letter to the Left on Libya, http://www.juancole.com/2011/03/top-ten-ways-that-libya-2011-is-not-iraq-2003.html">Top Ten Ways that Libya 2011 is Not Iraq 2003, http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/09/110509fa_fact_anderson">Sons of the Revolution http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/voices/?ref=main-menu">Voices from the Field

Mohammed Nabbous, killed by Gaddafi's forces while trying to report on the massacre in Benghazi

"I'm not afraid to die, I'm afraid to lose the battle" -Mohammed Nabbous, a month ago when all this began

I'm struggling to come up with something to say about this man. I was not aware of the Libyan uprising until I saw Mo's first report, begging for help, posted here on DU. I was stricken. Here was a man giving everything he had to explain a situation that clearly terrified him, I would not call him a coward in that moment, but you could see the fear in his eyes, and desperation in his voice. For 30 days Nabbous would spend many hours covering the uprising in Benghazi. For many nights I would go to sleep with the webcast of Benghazi live on my computer screen, looking to it occasionally to be sure it was still 'there.' Mo treated the chat room as if we were his friends, and in some way, we were. I never signed up to LiveStream to thank him for all his work and it seems somewhat shallow to do so now, given that I was a lurker for so long. Ever since I took over posting these threads "Libya Alhurra" has been linked as a source of information. It wasn't until last night, when I posted, and twitter posted on Mo's adventures out into Benghazi to try to determine the truth of the situation, that Mo's webchannel became a hit, over 2000 people were watching him stream live. This was curious to him because he'd done many reports like this in the past but he appeared somewhat bemused that the view count exploded as it did. Last night Mo became a star. This is a man who first started out with a webcast replete with fear and desperation finally overcoming that aspect of himself and losing that fear, to become someone who was a fighter for the resistance just as much as those who held the guns. Reporting on the front lines of Benghazi became his final act, and for that he should never, ever be forgotten. I'm so sorry Mo that I never got to know you better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAclhhHv43s&feature=player_ded">Arab Awakening: Libya: Through the Fire is a documentary about Mo's last days, please watch it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38EXALI60hg">Mo's first report, which many of you may remember, begging for help.

Mo leaves behind a wife and a newborn child she had http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/23/a_bright_voice_from_libyas_darkness">this to say about the No Fly Zone and R2P UN resolution:

We started this in a pure way, but he turned it bloody. Thousands of our men, women, and children have died. We just wanted our freedom, that's all we wanted, we didn't want power. Before, we could not do a single thing if it was not the way he wanted it. All we wanted was freedom. All we wanted was to be free. We have paid with our blood, with our families, with our men, and we're not going to give up. We are still going to do that no matter what it takes, but we need help. We want to do this ourselves, but we don't have the weapons, the technology, the things we need. I don't want anyone to say that Libya got liberated by anybody else. If NATO didn't start moving when they did, I assure you, I assure you, half of Benghazi if not more would have been killed. If they stop helping us, we are going to be all killed because he has no mercy anymore.

[joshcryer]

1. Libyan Revolution Day 188 updates below, current time in Libya, 1:20am Wednesday, August 24

Got lots and lots of updates to make, it's been a crazy day, holy cow. Epic.

[pinboy3niner]

3. Day#--check. Time--check. Day--check. Date--check.

Good work, Josh! :)

:toast:

[joshcryer]

13. And where were YOU today? Huh?

Slacking off, I see! :P

Just kidding! :hi:

[pinboy3niner]

35. A growing boy needs to get his sleep sometime :)

I'd been doing news so much lately that I finally had to crash. To be here, I'd even bagged an all-day event Saturday where some of the HS students I'd worked with were going to make a special appearance. I did get to see some of them the night before, though, when we did set-up for the event, and they sent me more than 40 photos from Saturday.

Now I have to leave shortly for a long meeting this evening. As I joked with Iterate, you can fill me in afterward on the capture of Gaddafi that I missed. :)

[joshcryer]

37. Hey I missed the capture of Zawiya, so I guess I get to have the big story!

You have a good long meeting, pinboy3niner! I'm sure I'll be posting a new thread by morning... ;)

(DU is going to hate me again.)

[CJvR]

2. Tactic!

Gaddafi tells Syrian Al-Orouba reporter (via AlJaz) that abandoning his complex was a "tactic" (Sure it was - it is called running away) and that he would adress the Libyan people soon (haven't the Libyan people suffered enough without having to listen to more incoherent rants from Mad Dog?))

[tabatha]

6. Jeez - his ego just keeps on going and going .....

I wonder when he is in the Hague if he will say the same.

[pinboy3niner]

14. Gaddafi says withdraws from Tripoli compound--Reuters

Gaddafi spoke on a local radio station, vowing martyrdom or victory.

Tue Aug 23, 2011 11:30pm GMT


TRIPOLI Aug 24 (Reuters) - Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi said on Wednesday that his withdrawal from his Bab al-Aziziya headquarters was a "tactical move" after the compound was levelled by 64 NATO air strikes.


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7JN29K20110823

[joshcryer]

17. I wonder why the TV reporters with the rebels during their seige didn't see any explosions?

Oh, right, because Gaddafi is a liar.

Probably been drinking his own mix:

[defendandprotect]

132. "local radio show"....? Surpised the rebels are even permiting him to be heard -- ??

[joshcryer]

4. Brazil says believes Libya will respect contracts

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/23/us-brazil-libya-idUSTRE77M5WW20110823">Brazil says believes Libya will respect contracts
Brazil has received information the contracts of Brazilian companies will be respected by a new government in Libya despite the South American country's failure to back the rebellion, the foreign minister told Reuters on Tuesday.

His comments came as rebels appeared close to ending the 42-year rule of Muammar Gaddafi and concern grew that a new government could punish companies from countries such as China and Brazil that did not throw their support behind the rebels.

"I don't think this will happen," Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota said.

"Because we have received information that contracts will be respected even if there is a change (in government)," he added, without specifying the source of the information.

[joshcryer]

5. How credible are Libya's rebel leaders?

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/23/libya.rebels.credibility/">How credible are Libya's rebel leaders?
Libya's rebel leaders claimed Monday they had captured three of Moammar Gadhafi's sons, including Saif al-Islam, who is wanted on war crimes charges by the International Criminal Court. But shortly afterwards, Saif appeared in public in Tripoli, where he spoke to reporters -- raising serious questions about the reliability of the rebels' account of events.
...

Gerges agrees that it would be wrong to judge the NTC too harshly for a handful of errors in its early days. Not only is the movement less than a year old, he pointed out, but it is made up of many disparate ideological, social, regional and tribal groups that have yet to fully consolidate into institutions.

Gerges believes a functioning and inclusive government will develop given time, provided peace can be restored in Libya and that the TNC can translate its rhetoric into concrete policies.

"If I were to gamble, I would gamble on the rebels really rising to the occasion," he said.

[joshcryer]

7. You've gotta be f'in kidding me, Mathaba, ROFL:

http://mathaba.net/news/?x=628231

[tabatha]

9. Well, there are some Mathaba people here, unreccing.

Talk about sour grapes. Who the hell would not be happy to see people free of a murderous dictator.

[CJvR]

15. That is...

...even dumber than what Bagdad Bob managed!

[Iterate]

25. Female Brigades Make Solid Ring Around Tripoli

I wonder if they did the math on that one.

[pinboy3niner]

31. Well, there ARE a half million of them

That ought to be enough, right? :rofl:

[al bupp]

40. My respose to this website needs a new smilie icon...

in which the yellow face pulls whatever it's saying right out its butt.

[joshcryer]

8. Libya: masses descend on Green Square to celebrate

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8719269/Libya-masses-descend-on-Green-Square-to-celebrate.html">Libya: masses descend on Green Square to celebrate
Posters and official portraits were ripped, kicked and burned amid huge cheers and a cacophony of celebratory gunfire that erupted in the square. Rebels and locals fired into the air long into the night.

Mosques around the huge public space, now renamed Martyrs' Square, broadcast religious chants extolling harmony and rebirth.

A beaten-up Toyota car drove slowly around the outside of the square with one man at the wheel shouting Libya, Hurra or Libya is free.

Huge red phosphorous rounds from anti-aircraft artillery pieces mounted on the back of pick-ups flared into the night sky.

Abdel al-Affi, a 34 year old teacher, said he wanted to see Col Gaddafi put on public display in a David Blaine-style box above the square that formerly represented the heart of the Fateh revolution.

Sky News is showing it http://go.sky.com/vod/content/Home/content/videoId/eefdd9d2c3e5f110VgnVCM1000001f5012ac________/content/detachedLiveTv.do#url=http://go.sky.com/vod/content/Home/content/changeDetachedChannel.do?videoId=eefdd9d2c3e5f110VgnVCM1000001f5012ac____">live from time to time. So is http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/">Al Jazeera.

[joshcryer]

10. Venezuela's Hugo Chavez won't recognize Libya rebels

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/africa/110823/libya-muammar-al-gaddafi-hugo-chavez-venezuela">Venezuela's Hugo Chavez won't recognize Libya rebels
Even after rebels breached Muammar al-Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli on Tuesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — a friend and ally of Gaddafi's — said that his country only recognizes "one government" in Libya, "the one led by Muammar Gaddafi."

Even after rebels breached Muammar al-Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli on Tuesday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez — a friend and ally of Gaddafi's — said that his country only recognizes "one government" in Libya, "the one led by Muammar Gaddafi."

In a televised cabinet meeting, Chavez accused Western powers of violating international law by aiding the rebels, Reuters reports.

"This is kicking, spitting... on the most basic elements of international law," Chavez said. "Where are the international rights? This is like the caveman era."

A coup attempter criticizing rebels. Irony.

[joshcryer]

11. The Game-Changer in Libya: Time

http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/08/23/the-game-changer-in-libya-time/">The Game-Changer in Libya: Time
The game-changer in terms of effective NATO air support for the Libyan rebels was time. That's because it took months for NATO to re-create a coalition-style precision air strike campaign similar to what the United States leads daily in places like Afghanistan.

Battleland has talked about the air war above Libya with U.S. officials who have coordinated the air wars over Iraq and Afghanistan as well as those who have participated in running the Libya campaign from Naples. Both said NATO had to basically reinvent the air-war wheel.

After ten years of air-strike-heavy combat, the United States has honed the precision air strike to a fine art. The United States can coordinate a ballet of legions of aircraft from the Combined Air Operations Center in the Middle East. Predator drones humming above the battlefield give ground commanders and their air support a consistent, birds-eye view of the battle space. Meanwhile, Joint Terminal Attack Controllers on the ground traveling with ground troops can guide pilots in the air to extremely precise strikes with the aid of lasers or GPS coordinates. That's why a Special Forces A-Team can take on a lot of Taliban and U.S. forces can often blast their way out of being overrun.

[joshcryer]

12. We have proved in Libya that intervention can still work

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8717986/We-have-proved-in-Libya-that-intervention-can-still-work.html">We have proved in Libya that intervention can still work
During the darkest moments of Nato's campaign in Libya, it was suggested that its sluggish progress represented the death knell for the doctrine of humanitarian intervention ? that a West chastened by its experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan and enfeebled by debt lacked the money, the morale and the military resources to take action against those who broke international law. Now that the rebels have swept into Tripoli, the opposite argument is being made ? that their success represents a vindication of the Nato strategy, and provides a template for the toppling of despots in Syria and elsewhere.

The truth, however, is that Libya is not a successor to Kosovo or Sierra Leone. Instead, it is the prototype for a new kind of intervention, one that reflects the very different world that we find ourselves in today.

From the start, the campaign faced a wall of scepticism from military and diplomatic experts. Yet it was sustained by a number of important features: first, it was entirely legal, authorised by the UN through the Security Council, and second, it resonated with those ashamed by our inertia over Rwanda and Srebrenica. There was also admirable unity between the political parties: while public opinion was divided, David Cameron and William Hague were supported at every stage by Ed Miliband and Douglas Alexander.

One thing that worried many advocates of intervention was the attitude of America. From the start, the US adopted the position that it would not run the military operation: it was ready to play a role, but others in Europe had to take the lead.

I seem to remember someone predicting this, but, yeah... :+

R2P is going to get a lot of people thinking about what it means to have a civil war in a country. Morally all civil wars should be intervened with.

[joshcryer]

16. Libya's Deadliest Weapons Not yet Corralled

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=14366613">Libya's Deadliest Weapons Not yet Corralled
No one can be sure who controls the Libyan government's weapons stockpiles, a stew of deadly chemicals, raw nuclear material and some 30,000 shoulder-fired rockets that officials fear could fall into terrorists' hands in the chaos of Moammar Gadhafi's downfall or afterward.

One immediate worry, U.S. intelligence and military officials say, is that Gadhafi might use the weapons to make a last stand. But officials also face the troubling prospect that the material, which was left under Gadhafi's control by a U.S.-backed disarmament pact, could be obtained by al-Qaida or other militants even after a rebel victory is secured.

The main stockpile of mustard gas and other chemicals, stored in corroding drums, is at a site southeast of Tripoli. Mustard gas can cause severe blistering and death. A cache of hundreds of tons of raw uranium yellowcake is stored at a small nuclear facility east of the capital.

Weapons demolition teams hired by the State Department have located and destroyed some of the anti-aircraft rocket systems in rebel-held parts of the country.

[joshcryer]

18. Tripoli's $400 hotel is prison to journalists

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18741013">Tripoli's $400 hotel is prison to journalists
TRIPOLI, Libya?We have been in the thick of the fighting, but also cut off from it.

Dozens of us journalists have been trapped for days in the luxury Rixos Hotel, kept there by government enforcers whose weaponry has convinced us of the wisdom of staying put. Once in awhile, though, the news comes to us.

Take the reports that Seif al-Islam, a favored son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and one-time heir-apparent to his desert regime, had been captured by rebel fighters as they stormed through the city.

But here he was, confident and smiling in his camouflage pants and army-green T-shirt, turning up out of the night early Tuesday at the Rixos.

[joshcryer]

19. Welcome to Libya's hotel from hell

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10747121">Welcome to Libya's hotel from hell
We have been in the thick of the fighting, but also cut off from it.

Dozens of us journalists have been trapped for days in the luxury Rixos Hotel, kept there by government enforcers whose weaponry has convinced us of the wisdom of staying put.

Once in awhile, though, the news comes to us.

Take the reports that Seif al-Islam, a favored son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and one-time heir-apparent to his desert regime, had been captured by rebel fighters as they stormed through the city.

It's kinda bittersweet that these non-field reporters, the ones who chose the easy job, are kinda suffering for it. But I do wish them all the peace and safety in the world, I just think their reporting was very slanted toward Gaddafi because of the minders and psychological warfare that they were made to endure. Some of them reported truthfully, however it seems that in some cases they only did it just to get the hell out of there.

[pinboy3niner]

23. They don't call it the 'Hotel California' for nothing

"...but you can never leave."

Those reporters were given that assignment, and some of them probably would have preferred field duty. There has been a lot of fine reporting from the journalists there, despite the regime's restrictions. Remember their coverage on Eman al-Obeidy? There also has been a flood of reports questioning regime claims, especially whenever the minders took them on the dog and pony shows to see the sites where NATO stikes supposedly killed hundreds of innocent civilians. (Many were deported for telling the truth.) They really deserve credit for the job they're doing.

[joshcryer]

24. You're right, I shouldn't say those things. Still bitter about Amanpour.

I hope we can both agree her reporting was really bad. :P

[tabatha]

20. John McCain's bitter Libya spin

If only Obama had acted like the GOP, like the metaphorical bull in a china shop (*), then Libya would've been a success as quickly as ... uh, Iraq and Afghanistan? John McCain:

Americans can be proud of the role our country has played in helping to defeat Qaddafi, but we regret that this success was so long in coming due to the failure of the United States to employ the full weight of our airpower.

It's kind of hard to employ the full weight of our armed forces when they're bogged down in Afghanistan and Iraq. Remember those wars, John? Engaging in elective wars sure makes fighting morally justifiable ones much more difficult.

Ultimately, the air power employed by NATO was enough to degrade Gaddafi's forces while the rebels got their shit together. And they did, performing acts of unbridled courage and heroism. I can't wait to read full accounts of how the rebels broke the siege of Misrata, or how they barely held on to Benghazi those first early days of the revolution before NATO got involved.

Suffice it to say, we all know where McCain originally stood in all this: bowing to Gaddafi.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/22/1009548/-John-McCains-bitter-Libya-spin?via=blog_1

[tabatha]

21. Alex Crawford tweets (about)

Oasis_of_Truth Oasis Caretaker
@fieldproducer @skynewsbreak can you get super Alex to go and break out the other journos from the Rixos?
21 Aug

philipp_aut Philipp
don't worry journalists at #rixos - alex crawford is coming to your rescue :-) #tripoli
21 Aug

[joshcryer]

22. Length of Libya's Standoff Hinges on Leader's Militia

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903327904576526642369893206.html?mod=googlenews_wsj">Length of Libya's Standoff Hinges on Leader's Militia
Looming over the celebrations of Libya's rebels as they overran Col. Moammar Gadhafi's personal compound and the inner sanctum of his power on Tuesday, was a potential spoiler—the militiamen who, among Libyans, have the most to lose from their patron's fall.

Residents say the pro-Gadhafi militias known as revolutionary committees have been part of the central fighting force, along with members of the leader's elite military units, who have battled rebels in the capital over recent days.

It remains unclear how many of these Gadhafi loyalists are left and what fate awaits their members, especially amid recriminations by Tripoli residents that the revolutionary committees have been responsible for mass arrests and killing of antigovernment protesters.

Their backgrounds stand in stark contrast with the loose alliance of largely untrained, and at-times ill-equipped, rebels who appear to be gaining control of Tripoli's streets.

WSJ, search title for article.

[tabatha]

26. Deranged Moussa Ibrahim

Mousa Ibrahim Translated by اسكندر بيك

Libya will be Volcano. I tell you now. Volunteers still coming to Tripoli. I tell you that 6000 Volunteers just come now at this hours and they are inside the city .

Rats entered Tripoli under the cover of NATO Helicopters. More than 80% is free. I Salute all Tribes whom come here to Protect Tripoli.

Big improve to you that they are failed to enter bab Azizia that NATO bombed Bab Azizia 64 times, and we went out of it because Bab azizia isn't present anything but it will be symbol.

I tell Libyan people that Libya government still control everything and we still can move to plan B or C or D , we still have many plans.

Rats can't represent anything real because they are under the cover of NATO and we are going to make it hell on them, they are not belonging to Libyans at all, they stole houses, they killed innocent people although their masters ordered them to be nice with people.

They tried to cut electricity, water on people, they want Destroy Libya to bring their companies.

I was with the tribes they made a command to lead the battle in Tripoli, lots of volunteers still coming here, some come by taxi, because the elder tribes declared the Jehaad, rats can't continuous in this war but they still asking NATO.

Today we captured 4 Qaters, one Emarati and lots of foreigners in the hands of our army, also we captured 20 rats in some streets , also Khamis Gaddafi and some volunteers attack rats in Ayen Zara and they killed them all.

We have some martyrdom , but from the rats i can't tell how many, but at the morning we killed 65 rats, and I can't tell how many others go killed because some of the leaders of the battle didn't tell me.

Rats attack the embassy of Algeria and they burnt it, we are asking all the organisations in the world to reject these gangs and don't accept them as represent of Libyan people.

Brega and all other cities is free, the battle only in Tripoli. After that we will free all the Libyan. The task for our army now is easier because we killed all their leaders.

NATO bombed Libya TV and all the communications in Libya, we are fighting the biggest evil enemy in the world, but we our moral coming from Islam, we are hard fighters.

Thanks to Millions Supporting Al Gaddafi for full translation!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=182159565188378&set=a.143311932406475.29932.143308589073476&type=1&ref=nf

Funny Tweet
Replying to Bart Heijltjes"Mr Ibrahim said forces loyal to Col Gaddafi had left Col Gadaffi's hat because it "no longer serves as a fashion statement in 2011"
LOL! Too funny!!!!

[al bupp]

42. His lies really know no limit do they?

Gaddafists bring denial to whole new level, IMHO.

[joshcryer]

27. LIBYA: Rebel leaders say transition 'begins immediately'

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/08/libya-rebels-say-transition-begins.html">LIBYA: Rebel leaders say transition 'begins immediately'
Mahmoud Jibril, one of the leaders of the Libyan rebel government, said that the country's transition "begins immediately" and that Qatar would host a meeting Wednesday to organize $2.4 billion in aid.

"The fall of the capital means the fall of the regime," Jibril told CNN. "I wouldn't be exaggerating to say that, within the next couple of days, many other liberations will happen."

...

"We will build a new Libya, with all Libyans as brothers for a united, civil and democratic nation," Jibril, No. 2 in the rebels' Transitional National Council, said at a Doha, Qatar, news conference Tuesday covered by Agence France-Presse.

"This is the new Libya where every Libyan works as a beloved brother, hand in hand, to serve the interests of the nation to ensure equality and justice for everyone," he said. "We have to be transparent in front of the whole world. Now we have to concentrate on building and healing our wounds."

[tabatha]

28. Where to go for trusted Web coverage of the Libyan uprising

Now that the Internet is slowly being restored in Libya, we can expect more reports coming directly from the people involved in what’s happening on the ground. Journalists in and around Tripoli have been able to get some sporadic news out to the public, the most amazing of which has to have been Alex Crawford’s historic ride into the capital city with the Libyan rebels.

We’ve already taken a look at the dangers of misinformation spreading like wildfire on Twitter, and the events in Libya have certainly been no exception, with rumours of Gadhafi’s death spreading across the social network, only to be proven wrong shortly after. Twitter is in desperate need of curators, so when it comes to events in Libya, where do you find them?

http://thenextweb.com/me/2011/08/23/where-to-go-for-trusted-web-coverage-of-the-libyan-uprising/

[joshcryer]

30. Thanks for reminding me, here's a screencap of Libyan internet over the revolution:

[tabatha]

34. Is the pickup of activity after Jul 11 because of

restoration in eastern Libya?

There seems to be a bigger spike right at the end.

[joshcryer]

36. I believe that's a decent assumption, and possibly Rixos bandwidth.

http://www.google.com/transparencyreport/traffic/?r=LY&l=EVERYTHING&csd=1297962000000&ced=1300381200000
">Here's a link to the thingy that you can play with to check. Apparently the big spike (edit: in August) was when ADSL was turned back on for a brief period of time, but then it got screwed by power outages (due to the conflict no doubt). I'm sure that ADSL will come back soon, it will be a few days yet. I can't wait for Libyans to start sharing their stories about the Siege of Tripoli.

[joshcryer]

29. Robert Fisk: How long before the dominoes fall?

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-how-long-before-the-dominoes-fall-2342202.html">Robert Fisk: How long before the dominoes fall?
The remaining Arab potentates and tyrants have spent a second sleepless night. How soon will the liberators of Tripoli metamorphose into the liberators of Damascus and Aleppo and Homs? Or of Amman? Or Jerusalem? Or of Bahrain or Riyadh? It's not the same, of course.

The Arab Spring-Summer-Autumn has proved not just that the old colonial frontiers remain inviolate – an awful tribute to imperialism, I suppose – but that every revolution has its own characteristics. If all Arab uprisings have their clutch of martyrs, some rebellions are more violent than others. As Saif al-Islam Gaddafi said at the start of his own eventual downfall, "Libya is not Tunisia, it's not Egypt...It will become civil war. There will be bloodshed on the streets." And there was.

...

And how soon, we must ask, before the people of Europe demand to know why, if Nato has been so successful in Libya – as Cameron and his mates now claim – it cannot be used against Assad's legions in Syria, using Cyprus as a territorial aircraft-carrier, devastating the regime's 8,000 tanks and armoured vehicles as they besiege the country's cities. Or must we heed the neighbours; Israel still secretly hopes (as it shamefully did in the case of Egypt) that the dictator will survive to be a friend and make an ultimate peace over Golan.

...

Every unelected Arab leader – or any Muslim leader "elected" through fraud – will have pondered that voice. Wisdom is certainly a quality much lacking in the Middle East, foresight a skill which the Arabs and the West have both neglected. East and West – if they can be divided so crudely – have both lost the ability to think of the future. The next 24 hours is all that matters. Will there be protests in Hama tomorrow? What is Obama to say on prime time? What is Cameron to say to the world? Domino theories are a fraud. The Arab Spring is going to last for years. We better think about that. There is no "end of history".

Still respect Fisk a lot even if I disagree. He's been all over the place in his analysis, but I wanted to post this because he's going to be wrong on part and right on part. I believe Libya will become a beacon in the Arab world.

[pinboy3niner]

32. Tripoli Airport fully under rebel control

CNN's Arwa Damon, reporting from the airport, just said that ffs discovered large amounts of weapons and ammo hidden underground around the runways.

Damon also reports that ffs are encountering heavy resistance from G forces in the area east of the airport, which is mostly farmland wih 2 large mil. bases. The unexpectedly-high level of resistance leads rebels to suspect that an important regime official may have taken refuge at one of the bases.

The road from the airport to G's compound will take more fighting to clear, she says. Around the airport, the ffs are giving the fight everything they've got, pushing regime forces back further.

[ellisonz]

41. These pockets can't hold out more than 2-3 days max.

The rebels will try to minimize casualties. NATO and the rebels should give an ultimatum that those who keep fighting will face punishment.

[joshcryer]

33. Libya's problems are far from over

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-boot-libya-20110824,0,4969337.story">Libya's problems are far from over
Moammar Kadafi's 42-year rule may be over, or nearly so, but Libya's problems have hardly ended. Even under the best of circumstances, Libya would have a difficult time making a transition to anything approaching democratic rule. Kadafi has so dominated Libyan life with his cult of personality, centered on his bizarre Green Book, that few if any independent institutions remain. Entire generations know nothing but his despotism.

And of course this isn't the best of circumstances. Libya has been ravaged by six months of civil war that killed tens of thousands; the exact figure is unknown and probably unknowable, but even in April estimated death tolls ranged from 10,000 to 30,000. The figure today is undoubtedly higher, as is the equally unknown toll of the wounded and maimed. Moreover, a million Libyans are estimated to have left the country as refugees. An additional 240,000 or so are internally displaced.

To take just one example of the kinds of problems that a post-Kadafi state will confront, imagine how hard it will be to resolve property disputes between returning refugees and those who occupied their homes after they left.

[tabatha]

38. The fight for Tripoli was no walk in the park

Worldloverpeace Aisha
“@SBSNews: #Libya #FF's say 400 people were killed and 2,000 wounded in three days of fighting in #Tripoli bit.ly/rjsbcg” #Libya
58 minutes ago

[tabatha]

39. Libya crisis: Profile of NTC Chair Mustafa Abdul Jalil

With the end in sight for Colonel Gaddafi's regime, the rebels' interim administration, the National Transitional Council (NTC), is poised to take power. Its chairman is Mustafa Mohammed Abdul Jalil who, until February, was Libya's justice minister. Now he looks set to lead post-Gaddafi Libya. So what is known about him?

Mr Abdul Jalil was the first member of Libya's General People's Committee, the cabinet, to quit in protest at "the excessive use of violence against unarmed protesters" by the state.

He had been sent by the government to the eastern city of Benghazi in February to deal with the beginnings of the uprising.

After witnessing the shooting and detention of peaceful demonstrators, he resigned as minister and, within days, had become the chairman of NTC.

"We are the same as people in other countries, and are looking for the same things," Mr Jalil said at the time.

"We want a democratic government, a fair constitution, and we don't want to be isolated from the world anymore."

Such a move was perhaps not unexpected from him. He has long had a reputation as someone who was prepared to defy the regime.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14613679

[joshcryer]

43. Libyan opposition leaders prepare for transition

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/libyan-opposition-leaders-prepare-for-transition/2011/08/23/gIQAveS2ZJ_story.html">Libyan opposition leaders prepare for transition
BENGHAZI, Libya — With rebel fighters celebrating in the streets of Tripoli on Tuesday, opposition leaders in this eastern Libyan city now face tough questions about how they will guide the country through what is expected to be a tumultuous transition.

Some observers have begun to question whether the rebels — ostensibly led by the Benghazi-based Transitional National Council — are up to the task of restarting a failed economy after six months of war, restoring peace, and assuring Libyans and foreign benefactors that they are capable of leading the country.

...

The council has gained international recognition from many countries, including the United States. Its members were instrumental in helping to persuade the U.N. Security Council to implement a no-fly zone and to authorize the NATO bombing campaign that has devastated Gaddafi’s defenses. The rebel council also has been drumming up financial support. On Tuesday, the Turkish foreign minister announced that his government will provide the rebels with $300 million, including a $100 million loan, to help build a political system.

The 45 council members are a mix of defected ministers from the Gaddafi government, academics, dissidents and returning exiles. They plan to expand the council to up to 100 members to include defected experts from the Gaddafi government who can help run the country during the transition, according to a Western diplomat in Benghazi.

[joshcryer]

44. 'Gaddafi-friendly' BBC blown out of the Sky with coverage of Libya conflict

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2029109/Libya-Gaddafi-friendly-BBC-blown-Sky-News-live-coverage-Alex-Crawford.html#ixzz1VuNUPI7h">'Gaddafi-friendly' BBC blown out of the Sky with coverage of Libya conflict
So much for August being the 'silly season' when there isn't much in the way of news. This week has seen history in the making with the liberation of Tripoli. That is what 2011 will be remembered for above all else.

It is at such times that the rolling news channels come into their own. I channel hopped between BBC News and Sky News. At least I did initially. But it soon became apparent that the BBC coverage was worthless. It was hours behind.

The BBC footage would show it as still daylight and talked of the rebel forces approaching Tripoli where stiff resistance was 'expected.'

But switching to Sky News I could see live pictures showing that night had fallen, the rebels had very much arrived in Tripoli and - far from encountering resistance - were met with jubilation.

Daily Mail, I don't care. I love Alex Crawford! Pulitzer! Pulitzer!

[al bupp]

45. NYT: Libyans Rejoice in a Castle Filled With Guns and the Trappings of Power

TRIPOLI, Libya — Its impenetrable walls breached at last, the people stripped the colonel’s home of its treasures. They sauntered on the grassy grounds as if it were a public park, and swung on his statute of a fist crushing a plane, a symbol of defiance, as if it were a jungle gym.

...

“This was his castle,” said Walid Shanta, a dentist who joined the rebels to take over the compound, Bab al-Aziziya, on Tuesday morning.

...

The fall of the compound — and the symbolism of the victory — shocked the rebels. They said it was ringed by crack Qaddafi troops protecting their Brother Leader, who was rumored to be hiding inside. As rebel attempts to exert control over the city faltered Tuesday, the rebels worried that Bab al-Aziziya, with its network of tunnels throughout the city, would become a base for the loyalists to wage a last stand against the rebels.

In the morning, rebel fighters from brigades throughout the country were sent on an urgent mission to capture the base. A mile away, their reinforcements were pinned down by snipers hiding in a water tower. NATO warplanes bombed the compound. Fighters from the coastal city of Misurata, armed with heavy weapons and deep experience in urban combat, turned the battle, several people said.

From: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/world/africa/24compound.html?_r=2&ref=middleeast

[joshcryer]

47. Related: Sky Sees Tripoli Celebrate After Historic Day

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16055755">Sky Sees Tripoli Celebrate After Historic Day
The skies are full of anti-aircraft fire booming over Tripoli but they are not aimed at the Nato jets still roaring overhead - this is the sound of celebration in Libya's capital after a quite remarkable and historic day.

Through the evening and into the early hours, as I write, the crackle of gunfire has mixed with cheering and children's singing.

Col Gaddafi's infamous Bab al Aziziya compound, once thought of as impregnable as the Titanic was unsinkable, has fallen after a day of heavy fighting, horrendous casualties and death, but ultimately celebration.

The revolution is not yet complete but surely after months of fighting and government spin it is all but over.

[pinboy3niner]

53. Rebels overrun Gadhafi regime's symbolic heart

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The Bab al-Aziziya compound includes Gadhafi's home and government offices

• Also inside are a building hit in a 1986 U.S. airstrike and Gadhafi's Bedouin tent

• Rebel fighters overran the site on Tuesday after six months of fighting

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 23, 2011 6:16 p.m. EDT



(CNN) -- Moammar Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound is the heart of his nearly 42-year rule, a symbol of his defiance of the West.

...


And Tuesday evening, after rebel fighters who have battled Gadhafi's forces for six months punched into the compound, it was wreathed in smoke. Rebels posed around the statue and fired hundreds if not thousands of rounds of ammunition into the air in celebration, spurring the occasional rebuke from senior fighters.


The rebels picked through the compound in search of Libya's longtime strongman, but one fighter told CNN that neither Gadhafi nor any members of his family had been found. Bab al-Aziziya appeared to have been abandoned so quickly that a teakettle remained heating on a stove in one building, he said.


"They ran away, all of them," he said. "They have gone underground."

...


"You have to remember that he is a military man," (Abubaker Saad, a former Gadhafi aide) said. "He knows they have weapons that could penetrate those bunkers." In addition, he said, the poor quality of the audio messages Gadhafi delivered on state television Sunday suggests Gadhafi "is speaking from a distance."

...


http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/23/libya.bab.al.aziziya/index.html?hpt=wo_t2

[MedleyMisty]

88. Misrata Lions!

Was it Jalil? I don't remember. One of the NTC dudes gave a speech the other day and especially called out the Misrata fighters and thanked them. And I saw video of the welcome they got when they rolled into Tripoli. The Misrata FF are legends, and deservedly so.

[tabatha]

46. A farewell post on AJE

My work here is done. Adios for a while.
Before this I never blogged anywhere and may not again.

But this blog and its many predecessors has not just reported events, it has shaped them too. If it hadn't then neither the Gadaffi, NTC or Nato sides would have bothered posting here so much.

- All those trolls particularly TAL who must have been paid by the word.
- The brave fighters who posted on here, and then came back wounded, or even in at least one tragic case dead.
- The German Nato planning staff member who took the pen name "Gerhard Heinz" to show us the formidable expertise but also the hilariously dry wit of those who work in Nato.
- The Libyans both inside and outside the country - Bivi, Azizor and Hisham come to mind as reminding us daily of the just nature of this war.

I have seen thousands of great posts. But here is one from memory, Hisham told us how his relatives sat on garden chairs to watch Nato planes each night. I couldn't resist a joke about this but the reply brought tears to my eyes.

Daniel - "But do the Nato pilots get a round of applause afterwards ?"
Hisham - "In the hearts of millions my friend."

[joshcryer]

48. A new era in U.S. foreign policy

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/23/a-new-era-in-u-s-foreign-policy/">A new era in U.S. foreign policy
Back in March, many neoconservatives in Washington were extremely dismissive of the way President Obama was handling the intervention in Libya. They argued that he was doing too little and acting too late – that his approach was too multilateral and lacked cohesiveness. They continuously criticized President Obama for, in the words of an anonymous White House advisor, "leading from behind."

...

The United States decided that it was only going to intervene in Libya if it could establish several conditions:

1) A local group that was willing to fight and die for change; in other words, "indigenous capacity".

2) Locally recognized legitimacy in the form of the Arab League's request for intervention.

...

Good read.

It unfortunately leaves out the unfounded criticisms from the left, too.

This is the foreign policy the United States should've adopted ... decades ago.

[MedleyMisty]

90. Back when Bush invaded Iraq

I could never understand how people could actually believe that it was to "spread democracy" or whatever. Because it seemed clear to me - if you want to get rid of a dictator, best way to do it is wait until the people of the country rise up on their own and give them weapons and aid and training if they need it. Bombing and killing civilians and occupying a country is...well, insane and stupid and incredibly morally wrong and not at all about democracy. Helping freedom fighters win their own freedom (IF they ask for such help - and then just giving them the help they ask for and following their lead, not imposing yourself on them) and then getting out of the way so they can create the government and country that they want - sane and smart and morally right.

[joshcryer]

49. China says U.N. should lead efforts in post-war Libya

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/24/us-libya-china-un-idUSTRE77N0JC20110824">China says U.N. should lead efforts in post-war Libya
The United Nations should lead post-war efforts in Libya, China's Foreign Minister told the U.N. chief, adding that Beijing was willing to help rebuild the north African country.

In a phone call with U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi suggested Beijing wants bodies such as the U.N., rather than Western governments alone, to coordinate international involvement in post-war Libya.

This would give China a say in decisions, despite the leading role Western powers played in defeating the forces of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi.

[joshcryer]

50. Libya rebels destroy symbols of Kadafi's power

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fg-libya-tripoli-20110824-20110824,0,7345515.story">Libya rebels destroy symbols of Kadafi's power
Reporting from Tripoli, Libya— When they finally had overrun Moammar Kadafi's vast fortress and crushed the illusion that he still ruled them, euphoric rebels hunted down symbols of the power Libya's leader had held over nearly every aspect of their lives.

They torched the Bedouin tent where Kadafi famously met with dignitaries and journalists. They drove around in one of the golf carts in which he navigated the compound. They mocked him by trying on a cheap plastic military hat that he might have worn in photos and on television.

Rebel fighters converging on Tripoli from several directions burst Tuesday into the Bab Azizia compound, where Kadafi had once lived and ruled. Neither he nor his most high-profile son was there, but the triumph at Bab Azizia all but marked the end of the aging leader's nearly 42 years in power.

The fast-moving rebel takeover plunged Tripoli into chaos, with celebratory fire from automatic weapons and even antiaircraft weaponry lighting up the sky late into the night. At midnight, crowds still were gathered in the capital's Martyrs' Square, renamed since the rebels captured it Sunday.

[joshcryer]

51. S. Korea recognizes Libya's rebel council

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/national/2011/08/24/25/0301000000AEN20110824002500315F.HTML">S. Korea recognizes Libya's rebel council
SEOUL, Aug. 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea said Wednesday it has officially recognized Libya's rebel-led council as the North African nation's legitimate government, joining much of the world in giving credibility to the rebel leadership.

International efforts to support the rebel Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) are intensifying as the 42-year-old regime of Moammar Gadhafi is on the verge of collapse with rebel forces storming Gadhafi's compound in Tripoli.

"The Republic of Korea acknowledges the National Transitional Council as the legitimate governing authority representing the Libyan people," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae, referring to South Korea by its official name.

[joshcryer]

52. Libya Alhurra / Mo (awesome folksy Mo tribute):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPkvzJ2ro-c

[pinboy3niner]

54. Libyan rebels' Gulf allies poised for payday

Associated Press

By BRIAN MURPHY and ADAM SCHRECK, 08.24.11, 02:08 AM EDT


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- When Libyan rebels first called out for international aid, the wealthy Gulf was quick to answer: Warplanes from Qatar and United Arab Emirates joined the NATO-led military coalition against Moammar Gadhafi and critical aid and diplomatic support were funneled to opposition fighters.

...


The extensive Gulf help to Libya's rebels, however, has little to do with shared visions of wide-open democracy. Gulf rulers have shown zero tolerance for Arab Spring-inspired protests in their corner of the Middle East.


Instead, Libya represents another frontier for the Gulf's two most politically ambitious nations - Qatar and the UAE - that are increasingly adept at turning their energy riches into an international currency of influence and commercial opportunities in places such as Somalia and Pakistan.


"The UAE and Qatar are well poised to play a big role in Libya," said Shadi Hamid, director of research at The Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. "Part of their strategic calculation in having a role in the military operations was that they stood to benefit in post-Gadhafi Libya."


Already, the Gulf has become a back office for the rebels. The leadership of a reconstruction planning team has set up shop at least temporarily at Libya's Dubai consulate, which is flying the rebel flag. Qatar is the base for the rebels' main satellite TV channel and a key liaison for oil sales.

...


http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/08/24/general-ml-libya-rebels-in-the-gulf_8639372.html

[joshcryer]

55. Libya: 'Desperate situation' in Rixos hotel (audio, very dire)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9571000/9571591.stm">Libya: 'Desperate situation' in Rixos hotel
A siege situation is developing at Tripoli's Rixos hotel, according to a BBC journalist trapped there along with some 35 other journalists and foreign nationals.

Conditions "deteriorated massively" overnight, reported BBC correspondent Matthew Price, with pro-Gaddafi guards patrolling the corridors.

"It became clear that we were unable to leave the hotel by our own free will," he told the Today programme.

He reported that an ITN cameraman had an AK47 pulled on him by a guard, and that it is suspected that there are snipers on the roof.

I think it's clear where Gaddafi is holding out.

1) Rixos was set up to send out propaganda messages (the TV station even had a spot there). Gaddafi likely is sending communiques from there.

2) Gaddafi showed up in Rixos before behind a "suspiciously dark door" once before without vehicles, he likely drove his cart down a tunnel to Rixos.

3) Rixos is close to Bab Azaizah, walking distance, even.

4) The guards are sticking around for no particular reason, they could get rid of anything that identified them as guards, appropriate a Free Libya flag, and just disappear into the mix.

I am now afraid for these journalists, I hope the untrained freedom fighters stay out of this situation, it is effectively a hostage situation.

[joshcryer]

56. Al Jazeera seeking to speak to someone trapped inside #Rixos Hotel in #Tripoli. Are you there?

http://twitter.com/#!/AJELive/status/106263730588889088">@AJELive
AJELive
Al Jazeera seeking to speak to someone trapped inside #Rixos Hotel in #Tripoli. Are you there?
16 minutes ago via web

[joshcryer]

57. Journalists trapped in Libya's Rixos hotel wait ... and hope

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/24/libya.trapped.journalists/">Journalists trapped in Libya's Rixos hotel wait ... and hope
Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- In its halcyon days, the Rixos hotel in Tripoli boasted of going the extra mile to make guests "feel privileged." It sent flowers and cooled towels to their rooms and made Porsches and Jaguars -- even helicopters -- available to them at a moment's notice.

But by late Tuesday, the remaining guests at the luxury hotel in the Libyan capital were reduced to raiding cabinets for cheese and fruit.

About 35 journalists who were allowed into the North African country to cover the conflict with the blessing of the regime are now trapped at the hotel for a fifth day. Armed Gadhafi loyalists ring the hotel's perimeter and patrol its corridors, barring them from leaving. It's for their own protection, the guards say.

So, as battle rages outside for control of Tripoli between pro-regime and rebel forces, these reporters -- including CNN's Matthew Chance -- can do little but sit and wait.

[joshcryer]

58. Over night store smashed open by gunmen. Journalists told to help themselves. #rixos #Libya

https://twitter.com/#!/mchancecnn/status/106279544557813760">@mchancecnn
Matthew Chance
Over night store smashed open by gunmen. Journalists told to help themselves. #rixos #Libya
1 minute ago via web

https://twitter.com/#!/mchancecnn/status/106279812317978625">@mchancecnn
Matthew Chance
I had a Mars bar for breakfast. #Rixos #rixos4 #Libya #Tripoli
2 minutes ago via web

[pinboy3niner]

59. Tripoli's $400 hotel is prison to journalists

By DARIO LOPEZ-MILLS, Associated Press – 12 hours ago


TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) —

...


Fighting intensified Tuesday and the smell of gunpowder hangs in the thick heat, along with sweat and a little fear. When the shooting is most intense, we take refuge in the hotel's basement conference rooms.


Two satellite telephones set up on a balcony were destroyed by gunfire, so we've stopped transmitting our material. We wait and worry the gunmen could turn hostile at any moment.


There is no power and no running water. On Monday we ate bread and butter. On Tuesday, the cook made french fries. Bottled water is running low.


We don't know when it's going to end, and we see little of what happens. We weren't there when Bab al-Aziziya was captured less than 24 hours after Seif took us there. He hasn't been seen publicly since then.


So I can tell a story about trapped journalists, but the real story about what is happening to Libya is just out there.


Unfortunately, we can't cover it.

...


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iDdd_Coi-rTYmFzGOvpZvSINcDKQ?docId=ba9776e70d9a45629e5cd6aa52c1b064

[joshcryer]

60. Psst, post #18.

Go back to sleep. :hug:

[pinboy3niner]

62. That didn't post the END of the story

I thought it was worth re-posting to highlight the final grafs. :)

btw, I just made some more coffee. I was getting tired of the...





:evilgrin:

[joshcryer]

63. Clashes outside the hotel. #Rixos4 hunkered down. #Libya

https://twitter.com/#!/mchancecnn/status/106307948233498624">@mchancecnn
Matthew Chance
Clashes outside the hotel. #Rixos4 hunkered down. #Libya
5 minutes ago via web

[joshcryer]

61. A Libyan rebel government would honour all the oil contracts granted during the Muammar Gaddafi era

A Libyan rebel government would honour all the oil contracts granted during the Muammar Gaddafi era, including those of Chinese companies, Ahmed Jehani, a senior rebel representative for reconstruction told Reuters in an interview.

"The contracts in the oil fields are absolutely sacrosanct," Jehani told Reuters Insider TV on Tuesday night. "All lawful contracts will be honoured whether they are in the oil and gas complex or in the contracting... We have contracts that were negotiated ... they were auctioned openly ... There's no question of revoking any contract."

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-aug-24-2011-1226

But it's about the OIL! THE OIIIIIIIIIIIIIL!!!!!!!

[pinboy3niner]

64. CNN’s Sara Sidner Gets Grazed By Bullet Casings During Live Report In Tripoli

Source: Mediaite

by Colby Hall | 1:28 pm, August 23rd, 2011


While reporting live from Tripoli and the fall of the Gaddafi regime, CNN’s Sara Sidner was so close to the gunfire (celebratory or other) that she actually was grazed by a shell while reporting live on television. While the story is still incredibly fluid, with some reports suggesting that pro-Gaddafi forces are still repelling rebel forces, there appears to be enough gunfire that a U.S. reporter covering the story is still very much in harms way.

...


Today’s coverage on CNN stands out from its competitors, as you can see by the incredibly compelling clip (at link, 2:48):


http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnns-sara-snider-gets-grazed-by-bullet-casings-during-live-report-in-tripoli/

MORE on this CNN reporter:

Who Is Sara Sidner? Meet The BRAVE CNN Reporter Who Is Reporting Live From Qaddafi's Compound

http://www.businessinsider.com/sara-sidner-cnn-qaddafi-tripoli-2011-8?op=1

[pinboy3niner]

65. Juan Cole: So how can Libyans and the world avoid the Iraqization of Libya?

Posted in GD by pampango:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1804036

[pinboy3niner]

66. CNN reports Gaddafi compound being mortared, rockets landing at Tripoli airport

Sara Sidner, with the ffs at Bab al-Aziziya compound, gave a live report on the compound taking mortar fire from loyalist forces in a local neighborhood--until she abruptly ended her report when the shelling began to come too close and, once again, she and her crew had to move to a safer location.

Earlier in her report, a long line of vehicles could be seen entering the compound, bringing reinforcements to aid in defending the compound.

CNN anchors reported "several" rockets landing at the airport and said a live report from Arwa Damon with the ffs there will be coming up shortly.

[ellisonz]

68. Bab al-Aziziya is about 2.3 square miles in total area.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bab_al-Azizya

[pinboy3niner]

67. FF commander at airport believes loyalist forces trying to clear escape route for Gaddafi

Arwa Damon reported live from Tripoli International Airport that the ff commander there believes an armored convoy that was seen may have been transporting Gaddafi himself.

Damon had reported yesterday that the unusually intense resistance by loyalist fighters indicated they might be trying to protect an important regime official in the area.

Two large regime military bases near the airport are still held by loyalist forces.

[ellisonz]

69. But where too?

Given NATO surveillance capabilities his ability to move in an armored convoy would be very risky. He's underground - like a rat.

[ellisonz]

70. They've made it to Bin Jawaad from the Brega front.

12:59 Rob Crilly tweets: “Lots of rebel troops and artillery moving up road to Ras Lanuf in direction of Sirte. Battle now looks like it’s at Bin Jawad. Anyway point is that there’s still a way to go in the east and the fall of Sirte.”

http://www.libyafeb17.com/

[pinboy3niner]

71. France, partners working on new Libya UN resolution

Wed Aug 24, 2011 11:03am GMT


PARIS Aug 24 (Reuters) - France and its partners at the United Nations are working on a draft resolution that would enable Libyan assets to be unfrozen and sanctions to be unlocked, a French diplomatic source said on Wednesday.


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFP6E7JM00C20110824

[pinboy3niner]

72. CNN International Highlights Wrong Tripoli in Graphic

By Alex Weprin on August 23, 2011 11:24 AM


Yesterday, CNN International made a rather significant error while talking to Sara Sidner from Tripoli. The on-screen graphic showed a map highlighting the city of Tripoli in Lebanon, instead of the city of Tripoli in Libya, where the actual fighting continues to rage on:




...


http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/cnn-international-highlights-wrong-tripoli-in-graphic_b81679

OOPS! :rofl:

[pinboy3niner]

73. Reporters without Borders: 35 foreign journalists held in Tripoli hotel by Qaddafi forces

Posted in GD by cali:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1804200

[pinboy3niner]

74. Gaddafi to be tried in Libya, opposition

Source: Sky News (AU)

Updated: 20:31, Wednesday August 24, 2011


Libya will hold elections in eight months and Muammar Gaddafi will be tried in the country, opposition leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said on Wednesday.

...


The rebel leader said that the mass of opinion within the NTC was that Gaddafi and his cohorts should eventually be judged 'in a fair trial, but it must take place in Libya.'


For that to happen 'we need to take them alive and treat them differently from the way the colonel treated his adversaries. He will stay in the memory only for the crimes, the arrests and the political assassinations he carried out,' he added.


http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=653830&vId=2655555&cId=Top%20Stories

[pinboy3niner]

75. Covering Libya's conflict by way of 'Planet Rixos'

COLUMN ONE

In the waning days of Moammar Kadafi's rule, Tripoli's Rixos Hotel, home to the foreign press, was the surreal stage for a daily drama pitting edgy journalists against regime information managers.

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

August 24, 2011


Reporting from Tripoli, Libya— Behind his aviator shades, the driver of the silver sedan had that hired-killer stare as he pulled up alongside our minibus. He kept pace as the bus, ferrying 13 journalists away from Libya's crazed capital in June, lurched toward the sanity of post-revolutionary Tunisia. He pointed his rifle directly at us.


We dived for the floor or crouched down in a pathetic bid for cover, but there was no escape: The Kalashnikov rounds would penetrate the bus' skin like hot arrows tearing through papier-mache.


The moment was both sinister and ridiculous, like so much in Moammar Kadafi's Libya.

...


The minders' singular sales job involved depicting Kadafi's Libya as a kind of egalitarian haven and Brother Leader himself as nothing more than a beloved figurehead, somewhat like the queen of England, eager to preside over Libya's transformation into a European-style social democracy. In this narrative, anti-Kadafi rebels were traitorous, bloodthirsty fanatics, the foreign press corps a pack of liars and spies, and the NATO bombing campaign an imperialist, Strangelovian assault on Libya's people.

...


From May to mid-June, McDonnell stayed at the Rixos reporting on the Libyan civil war. On Tuesday, a group of international journalists remained trapped at the Rixos as fighting raged on the streets of Tripoli.


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/middleeast/la-fg-tripoli-time-20110824,0,4892221,full.story

[al bupp]

76. Excellent piece

Well worth the read, thanks.

[pinboy3niner]

77. Number of journalists trapped at Rixos Hotel increases from 35 to 40

CNN's Matthew Chance just reported from there that five additional international journalists have entered the hotel, "most of them American citizens as far as we can make out."

One negotiated his way in to take one of the reporters there on a shopping trip, Chance said. But gunfire outside caused the waiting driver to take off, leaving the reporter stranded at the hotel.

Four more foreign reporters entered the hotel seeking shelter from gunfire outside--and then were not permitted to leave by the Gaddafi loyalists in charge.

[al bupp]

78. Chance recently tweeted this about the 5 additional journos...

mchancecnn Matthew Chance
5 journos enter #rixos from outside, but kicked out by Gadhafi loyalists at gunpoint. We still not allowed to leave. #rixos4
35 minutes ago

[al bupp]

79. Then he tweeted this:

mchancecnn Matthew Chance
All puzzled as to why we are being kept in #rixos. Any ideas? #rixos4
35 minutes ago

Somebody should tell him that at this point they are clearly being held as hostages. Why that would be puzzling to them is itself a little puzzling.

[pinboy3niner]

80. Pro-Gadhafi forces try to halt rebels' momentum

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: NTC members want Gadhafi to be tried in Libya

• NEW: Elections are being planned eight months from now, Jalil says

• Clashes erupt outside Tripoli hotel, where journalists are trapped

• Russia will consider relations with Libyan rebels if they spur democracy

• A message purportedly from Gadhafi tells Libyans to enter houses and take rebels out

By the CNN Wire Staff

August 24, 2011 9:12 a.m. EDT


Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Despite dramatic rebel strides and momentum, embattled pro-Moammar Gadhafi forces toughed it out on Wednesday, striking back at Libyan rebels in several volatile pockets across Tripoli.


Loyalist forces shot at least seven mortars into Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound, a day after rebel fighters captured the symbolic heart of the Libyan ruler's regime in their months-long battle to topple the government.


Fresh clashes between rebels and loyalists broke out Wednesday outside the Rixos hotel, where about 35 international journalists were trapped.


Several rockets landed near the Tripoli International Airport -- one apparently on the tarmac -- and rebel commander Mukhtar Al-Akhbar said four rebel fighters were found bound and executed nearby.

...


The success punctuated the buoyant optimism of the rebels and their National Transitional Council political movement. The NTC claimed rebels now control 90% of the country and said it plans to move ministries from its base of Benghazi in the east to Tripoli.

...


http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/24/libya.war/

[Iterate]

81. #Ajeilat - revenge massacre in the making

Liberation came late on the 22nd after an internal uprising with some unknown number of FFs.

EmadDlala Emo Libya
BREAKING: CONFIRMED: #Ajeilat is liberated after very fierce fighting. #Libya 22 Aug.

EmadDlala Emo Libya
At least 3 martyrs and several injured in #Ajeilat. City is liberated, #Libya 23 Aug.

Then came this tweet from overnight and others that followed until mid-morning:

EmadDlala Emo Libya
Breaking: Urgent: #Ajeilat is being attacked by g thugs. City is still not secure. Families scared. Support needed. #Nafusa #Zintan #Jadu vor 14 Stunden

EmadDlala Emo Libya
Urgent: #Ajeilat suffering from mercenaries and G volunteers attacks. Families scared. Support needed. Please retweet #Nafusa #Zintan #Libya vor 14 Stunden

EmadDlala Emo Libya
Urgent: A lot of mercenaries repelled from #Tiji are now concentrated in #Ajeilat. They r shelling city indiscriminately. #Libya #Zintan vor 14 Stunden

EmadDlala Emo Libya
Breaking: #Ajeilat is re-occupied again by G mercenaries after FFs withdrawn due to heavy shelling. Needs immediate support! #Nafusa #Libya vor 14 Stunden

EmadDlala Emo Libya
Breaking: #Ajeilat: At least 6 FFs killed by G thugs tonight. City suffering from support. #Sabratha #Libya vor 14 Stunden

EmadDlala Emo Libya
Urgent: Ajeilat is shelled by tanks and grad launchers. #Ajeilat is 10 km west of #Sabratha @Nato vor 13 Stunden

EmadDlala Emo Libya
Many r falling into euphoria about victories while our people in other cities like #Sabha #Ajeilat #Zwara are still under fire! #Libya vor 13 Stunden

EmadDlala Emo Libya
#Ajeilat MASSACRE: 20 DEATHS AT LEAST. WOMEN AND CHILDREN TRAPPED UNDER HOUSES DESTROYED BY TANKS. SNIPERS ON THE ROOF STOPPING RESCUE vor 11 Stunden

RRowleyTucson Robert Rowley
#AjEilat: Children raising Freedom Flag were shot by #Gaddafi mercenaries. #Libya #Feb17 vor 10 Stunden

EmadDlala Emo Libya
Confirmed: Massacre in the making. #Ajeilat. G loyalists r revenging defeat. Killings in very lunatic ways. @Nato #libya vor 9 Stunden

[pinboy3niner]

82. Republican strategist on CNN: Rebels' success "validation of the Bush Doctrine"

:rofl:

[pinboy3niner]

83. CNN, BREAKING: All journalists released from Rixos Hotel

CNN's Matthew Chance is reporting that the journalists finally persuaded the loyalist guards who were holding them that the situation in Tripoli had changed, the rebels are now in control, and that they should be freed.

The International Committee of the Red Cross sent cars to pick up the journalists at the hotel. Reporting from one of the cars as they drive through Tripoli, Chance says that emotions are running high, people are crying...

[pinboy3niner]

84. CNN crew, other journalists, escape Tripoli hotel

From CNN Live Blog:

(Updated 10:47 a.m. ET, 4:47 p.m. Wednesday in Libya)

CNN's Matthew Chance and his production team, who have been trapped in the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli, have left the hotel to freedom, Chance reports.

The hotel was under the control of Gadhafi loyalists.

It has been “an emotional rollercoaster of the past five days,” Chance said.

“We’ve got all the journalists into these four cars plus a civilian car and we are now driving through the deserted streets of Tripoli to our freedom essentially," Chance said. The Red Cross helped the 36 journalists get through checkpoints, he said.

“We’ve been living in fear for the past five days because we’ve been being held against our will by these crazy gunmen,” he said.

“Its been an absolute nightmare,” he said. “The fact that we got out of the hotel, people are crying.”

Chance, who has been trapped in the hotel for five days, just hit publish on a slew of tweets that captured the past hour of how he and the others got out of the hotel:

...


Series of Chance's tweets at link:
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/24/live-blog-gadhafi-releases-taped-message/

[pinboy3niner]

92. “Gunmen kicked down doors, rifled through our things” during Rixos ordeal, CNN reporter says

(Updated 11:20 a.m. ET, 5:20 p.m. Wednesday in Libya)

CNN’s Matthew Chance reports that he and other hostage reporters at the Rixos Hotel Hotel faced extremely difficult conditions while they were trapped there for days.


“Gunmen kicked down doors, rifled through our things,” he said.


Chance described how he lied on his belly for 13 hours at one point to avoid being shot as gunfire erupted outside the hotel.


He described how Gadhafi loyalists with green bandanas holding Kalashnikov’s as they patrolled the lobby.


Chance said he “felt the lifting of a weight” when he was finally released because he and other journalists feared they would be used as human shields.


http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/24/live-blog-gadhafi-releases-taped-message/

[al bupp]

96. CNN: Captive journalists walk free from Tripoli hotel (Video & Article)

From: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/08/24/libya.trapped.journalists/

Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- The Moammar Gadhafi loyalists who had been holding journalists in Tripoli's Rixos Hotel for five days "essentially just capitulated" upon realizing that most of the rest of the city had fallen to rebels, CNN's Matthew Chance said after his release Wednesday.

Their release ended what some were beginning to fear was a hostage situation for the three dozen journalists who had been kept inside the blacked-out hotel as fighters loyal to the National Transitional Council fought their way into the Libyan capital. Chance, a senior international correspondent for CNN, said "the reality slowly dawned" on their guards that Gadhafi's government was collapsing.

"They really believed that Gadhafi was coming back, that he was beating the rebels," Chance said after his release. "That's what the government line has been on this all along." But as the rebels advanced through the city and overran Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound on Tuesday, "It became more and more obvious that there was nothing really outside of the hotel that was in Gadhafi's control."

In audio which accompanies the video, Chance describes an extremely emotional experience. Quite worth the listen.

[al bupp]

97. As Chance says, they realized it was essentially a hostage situation

His tweet wondering about why they were being held perhaps was wondering what the hostage takers wanted in return for the journalists' release.

[pinboy3niner]

98. He's been doing live standups in the past hour from Martyrs' Square

And his producer, who was trapped with him and other CNN crew at the Rixos, also has been interviewed by phone on-air. I'll post some of her comments here soon.

[pinboy3niner]

103. CNN producer freed from hotel describes breakthrough in negotiations with guards

(Updated 11:51 a.m. ET, 5:51 p.m. Wednesday in Libya)

CNN producer Jomana Karadsheh who was trapped with CNN's Matthew Chance described her feelings after being freed from the Rixos Hotel:


"It's good to be out, it's good to be free," she said. "I cannot explain to you what an emotional rollercoaster this has been. Especially today was really hard. Speaking Arabic, I was involved in most of the negotiations, trying to secure a safe passage for us to leave."


Karadsheh explained that over the course of the last few days she began talking with one of the Gadhafi loyalists to try and find common ground to help secure their release.


Karadsheh said she talked to the guard about his kids and his family and then she talked to him about how she wanted to see her family.


"He got tears in his eyes at that moment," she said. "Slowly myself and another colleague here, an Arab camera man, sat there with him and said things are changing out there ... just let us go. It was a slow process but it worked out at the end."


Their release, Karadsheh said, helps put in perspective how things have changed in Tripoli. Just one week ago, armed pro-Gadhafi forces controlled the entire area.


"Walking out of the hotel, I didn’t know what was going to be out there," she said. "I came out to a new Libya. I saw ... flags, the rebel flags, it felt like a happy Tripoli. It was a very different (Tripoli) from what I had seen before I was taken hostage."


http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/24/live-blog-gadhafi-releases-taped-message/

[al bupp]

107. Sounds like Jomana could become a hostage negotiator

The technique of establishing common ground w/ her captor is hostage negotiation 101, isn't it? Her story is also interesting in that it portrays just how uninformed Gaddafi's troops seem to be kept.

[pinboy3niner]

85. Gaddafi's son Saadi seeking contact with U.S., rebels to negotiate cease-fire

Source: CNN Live Blog

(Updated 10:33 a.m. ET, 4:33 p.m. Wednesday in Libya)

Moammar Gadhafi's son Saadi Gadhafi is trying to get in touch with U.S. and rebel authorities to negotiate a cease-fire in Tripoli, CNN's Nic Robertson reports.


Robertson said he has been in contact with Saadi Gadhafi, a businessman and one-time professional soccer player, by email.


"I have authority" to negotiate, Saadi Gadhafi wrote, according to Robertson.


"He'd like to negotiate a cease-fire to avoid further bloodshed," Robertson reports.


Saadi Gadhafi's emails seem authentic as they resemble previous correspondence with him, Robertson said.


http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/24/live-blog-gadhafi-releases-taped-message/

[Amonester]

108. + 1

Most of the world wants to hear "All we are saying is give peace a chance" in Libya from AS SOON AS POSSIBLE (i.e., like in "right effing now"), and a return of that familly to power is definitely not that chance. May this email also help bring, if need be, the long awaited first note.

[pinboy3niner]

86. Price on Gaddafi's head as fighting goes on

(Reuters WRAPUP 6)

Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:17pm GMT


• Rebels say Gaddafi forces fight on, think Gaddafi in Tripoli

• Gaddafi says withdrawal was tactical; whereabouts unknown

• Rebel leaders to meet Western envoys in Qatar


By Missy Ryan and Ulf Laessing


TRIPOLI, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Libya's new masters offered a million-dollar bounty for the fugitive Muammar Gaddafi on Wednesday, after he urged his men to carry on a battle that kept the capital in a state of fear.


A day after rebel forces overran his Tripoli headquarters and trashed the symbols of his 42-year dictatorship, rocket and machinegun fire from pockets of loyalists kept the irregular fighters at bay as they tried to hunt out Gaddafi and his sons.


Western leaders who backed the revolt with NATO air power remained wary of declaring outright victory while the 69-year-old Gaddafi is at large. He issued a rambling but defiant audio message overnight to remaining bastions of his supporters, some of whom may be tempted to mount an Iraq-style insurgency.


But the international powers and the rebel government-in-waiting in the eastern city of Benghazi lost no time in making arrangements for a handover of Libya's substantial foreign assets. Funds will be required to bring relief to war-battered towns and to develop oil reserves that can make Libya rich.


France was working with Britain and other allies to draft a new United Nations resolution intended to ease sanctions and asset freezes imposed on Libya when Gaddafi was in charge. Rebels also spoke of restarting oil export facilities soon.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7JO2EV20110824?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

87. Gaddafi thinks he can win back power - former ally

Wed Aug 24, 2011 3:30pm GMT


CAIRO Aug 24 (Reuters) - Libya's fugitive leader Muammar Gaddafi thinks he can return to power when NATO ends its air campaign, his former right-hand man told Al Jazeera television.


"Gaddafi is delusional because he thinks he can disappear in Libya and, when NATO leaves, he believes he can gather his supporters," said Abdel Salam Jalloud, who defected to Libya's rebels before they overran most of the capital on Tuesday.

...


"The rebels must open the roads. After they open the roads, he may dress in woman's clothes and leave Tripoli for the Algerian border or Chad. He is drunk with power," he said.


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7JO2CS20110824

[pinboy3niner]

89. Report: Libyan FM says Gadhafi's reign is over

AP – 1 hr 15 mins ago


LONDON (AP) — Moammar Gadhafi's foreign minister in Tripoli says the Libyan leader's grip on power is over, British broadcaster Channel 4 reported Wednesday.


Speaking from a home in the Libyan capital, Foreign Minister Abdul Ati al-Obeidi said it now appears that Gadhafi has exhausted all his options and his rule "was over."

...


It was not clear exactly when the audio report from al-Obeidi was recorded, but Channel 4 said it came after Gadhafi's speech on Tuesday night. The 72-year-old foreign minister he had no fears for his safety.


"I think (the rebels) have a good idea about me, they know me," he said. "I do not think they will harm me or my family."

...


http://news.yahoo.com/report-libyan-fm-says-gadhafis-reign-over-140847746.html

[pinboy3niner]

91. NTC leader: 'Free elections in eight months'

Posted in LBN by brooklynite:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4971860

[Iterate]

93. Libya: what about the south?

Libya: what about the south?
The situation on the ground in southern Libya is largely unknown but any new government will have to tame this wild expanse
Alex Warren guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 August 2011 17.00 BST

Some 400 miles south of Tripoli, the city of Sebha is a sprawling mess of low-lying houses, dusty roads and half-finished construction projects in the heart of Libya's Fezzan region. In the middle of a small roundabout, framed by a low green fence, is a one-room cabin called Dar Muammar that was briefly home to the future leader of Libya before he was expelled from the local school.

Faded billboards recreate scenes of Gaddafi in a desert tent, planning the restructuring of Libya into a jamahiriya and "the era of the masses" that he announced from Sebha in 1977. Looming menacingly above the city, whose population has soared in the past few years to more than 250,000, is an Italian-built fort that became a symbol of power in one of the regime's most important strongholds, and one which appears to remain in the control of Gaddafi loyalists.

Throughout this Libya conflict, attention has understandably been focused on populous coastal cities such as Tripoli, Misurata and Benghazi. The south, in contrast, has been a virtual black hole of information, with few verifiable reports about the situation on the ground. But taming this wild expanse of desert and rocky plains – which covers an area larger than France and Spain combined – will be increasingly vital for any new government claiming to control Libya.

This is not least because of the region's natural resources. Lying west of Sebha is a fertile zone called the Wadi al Hayat – the Valley of Life – which contains some of Libya's most important oil and water reserves. An oilfield operated here by Spain's Repsol accounted alone for more than 15% of Libya's pre-conflict crude production, while other energy firms are also active in the area. Deep underground aquifers in southern Libya supply water to the Great Man-Made River – perhaps one of the few achievements of the Gaddafi regime that will outlive it – that in turn provides about two-thirds of the country's water supply.

more... http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/24/libya-forgotten-south

[ellisonz]

117. Sabha has seen some uprising in the last few months.

I think that as soon as Gaddafi is dead/captured the madness will end.

[tabatha]

94. Leaked Cable: McCain Promised Qaddafi To Help Secure Military Equipment From U.S.

For all the braying by the Senate’s top three hawks about how the U.S. wasn’t doing enough to oust Libyan dictator Col. Muammar Qaddafi from power, one might be surprised to learn that exactly two years ago, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were in Tripoli meeting with the erratic leader and giving him assurances that relations between the nations were on the mend.

According to a leaked August 2009 U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks recounting the Senators’ junket, the neoconservative Connecticut Senator captured the dynamic of aligning with a brutal dictator:

Lieberman called Libya an important ally in the war on terrorism, noting that common enemies sometimes make better friends.

Qaddafi’s history as a top enemy of the U.S. stretched back decades, but his change of heart came quickly after the U.S. invaded Iraq under the pretense of Saddam Hussein’s development of weapons of mass destruction. Hawks seized on Libya’s détente with the West as a sign that Bush’s tough actions in Iraq were having a ripple effect, though patently not, as Iraq War boosters had predicted, with regard to democratic reforms. “We never would have guessed ten years ago that we would be sitting in Tripoli, being welcomed by a son of Muammar al-Qaddafi,” said Lieberman, according to the leaked cable.

The three Senate hawks discussed in detail the Qaddafi regime’s security needs with Libyas National Security Adviser, Qaddafi’s son Muatassim. According to the cable:

5.(C) Senator McCain assured Muatassim that the United States wanted to provide Libya with the equipment it needs for its . He stated that he understood Libya’s requests regarding the rehabilitation of its eight C130s and pledged to see what he could do to move things forward in Congress. He encouraged Muatassim to keep in mind the long-term perspective of bilateral security engagement and to remember that small obstacles will emerge from time to time that can be overcome.

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/08/24/302759/mccain-lieberman-graham-qaddafi/

[pinboy3niner]

95. Mystery of the truck elevators at Rixos Hotel loading docks

According to a report just aired on CNN, the loading docks at the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli have huge truck elevators that can take trucks down to the basement.

Where do the trucks go when they get there? No one knows.

But there also are reports that there are large steel doors in the hotel's basement.

Doors that have nothing on them--not even a method of opening them. At least from that side...

[al bupp]

99. AJE: (Video) Zeina Khodr reports from Tripoli

Zeina Khodr reports from a vantage point overlooking loyalist positions in Tripoli's Abu Salim neighborhood, and in the adjacent forest. A waving green flag and (presumed) loyalists can be seen in one zoomed-in shot.

From: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SpUpabAeMA&feature=player_embedded

[tabatha]

100. Gerhard Heinz 5 hours ago

special equippment for knocking on bunkerdoors just arive in tripoli.
spezial thermo -expoisives.
can handle 1m thick steel doors

[pinboy3niner]

102. Whew! I'm so relieved that they didn't call in MacGruber. :)

[tabatha]

101. Extract from a Tripoli call to a Radio station ......life in the streets ......

A resident of the Libyan capital, Tripoli, told the BBC World Service that the situation in her neighbourhood is much safer since rebel forces took over but it remains precarious.
She wished to remain anonymous.
"It's very safe. The rebels have gates all around, every neighbourhood has at least two gates.

They are watching out for their people, watching out for the streets.

They are very welcoming, they are very nice to us.

There are still some snipers from the Gaddafi forces up on the roofs.

So the rebels tell us which street to go from, they tell us to watch out for this street or that street.

But pretty much it's safer than it ever was, for me at least.

All of the stores, all of the shops are closed now.
They haven't opened for the past few three days, because they are scared.
We went out earlier to buy water - we couldn't find any store open.

We have food in the house, thank God, but some people don't which is really sad, so we are trying to donate and we are collecting food from whoever can give anything, and giving them to the rebels and to the poor people.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/africa/2011/07/08/dont-call-us-rebels-0#comment-289416312

[pinboy3niner]

104. Libyan intelligence No. 2 joins rebels -Arabiya TV

Wed Aug 24, 2011 6:00pm GMT

...


"I put myself in the service of the nation and call on generals and soldiers who are the sons of Libya to join the 17th February revolution," Gen. Khalifah Mohammed Ali said in an interview with Arabiya.


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7JO2TF20110824

[Fire Walk With Me]

105. Thank you to those here who have never given up on the rebels and their cause.

[defendandprotect]

135. Agree -- but now perhaps an even harder part begins? "Dash for Profit in Post-War Libya Carve-Up"?

Dash for Profit in Post-War Libya Carve-Up


After five months of fighting in the world's 12th-largest oil producer, industry figures are acutely aware that billions could be made in the coming years from rebuilding Libya. Immediate focus will fall on the country's oil fields that are currently producing a 10th of the 1.6 million barrels a day that were exported pre-revolution.

There is also intense lobbying for the multibillion-pound reconstruction contracts that are likely to be offered once fighting ends. The Independent conducted a straw poll of more than 20 Western companies with previous business commitments in Libya. None would talk publicly about its plans but many admitted privately that they were keen to return once security allowed.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/dash-for-profit-in-postwar-libya-carveup-2342798.html


And -- would also imagine that NATO is going to want more than a bouquet of flowers for its

work? Though when we consider who armed Daffy to begin with, perhaps they should be paying

NATO's bill -- three quarters of a trillion?

Pentagon?

[Fire Walk With Me]

136. Yep. Freedom isn't free.

[Iterate]

106. Gaddafi's Fleeing Mercenaries Describe the Collapse of the Regime

Gaddafi's Fleeing Mercenaries Describe the Collapse of the Regime
By Jovo Martinovic / Montenegro Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2011

Right from the start Mario, an ethnic Croatian artillery specialist from Bosnia, suspected it was a lost cause.

"My men were mainly from the south and Chad, and there were a few others from countries south of Libya," said Mario, who spoke on condition that his last name not be published. A veteran of the wars of the former Yugoslavia, he had been hired by the Gaddafi regime to help it fight the rebels and, later, NATO. "Discipline was bad and they were too stupid to learn anything. But things were okay until the air strikes commenced. The other side was equally bad, if not worse. Gaddafi would have smashed the rebels had the West not intervened." (See pictures of the lengthy battle for Libya.)

By early July, Mario said, more than 30% of the men under his command had deserted or defected to the rebel side. NATO missiles scored several direct hits on his forces, causing "significant casualties." At this point in the war, he said, "military hardware stopped having the role it had had to that point. We had to use camouflage and avoid open spaces."

Away from the front, in the heart of the regime, mistrust and excess further undermined Gaddafi's hold on power, Mario said. "Life in compound and shelters was so surreal, with partying, women, alcohol and drugs," said Mario, 41. "One of the relatives of Gaddafi took me to one of his villas where they offered me anything I wanted. I heard stories about people being shot for fun and forced to play Russian roulette while spectators were making bets, like in the movies."

more... http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2090205,00.html

[pinboy3niner]

109. Rebels target Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte

Wed Aug 24, 2011 5:37pm GMT


Aug 24 (Reuters) - Libyan rebels closed in on Muammar Gaddafi's home town of Sirte on Wednesday, the last remaining bastion of government loyalists and where Gaddafi himself could be hiding, rebels said.

...


RECENT EVENTS:


-- Libyan government forces fired three Scud-type missiles on Monday from the area of Sirte towards the coastal city of Misrata in central Libya, NATO said, but without effect.


-- Colonel Ahmed Bani, a senior rebel military spokesman, told Al Arabiya television on Tuesday that the rebels were currently negotiating with tribal leaders in Sirte for the surrender of the city without bloodshed.


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE7511IP20110824?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

110. Rebels share firepower as snipers menace Tripoli

Wed Aug 24, 2011 6:52pm GMT


By Ulf Laessing


TRIPOLI Aug 23 (Reuters) - A white van pulls up to a rebel checkpoint in Tripoli and a man emerges, handing out sniper rifles and ammunition looted from Muammar Gaddafi's compound across the street.


"Take these, take these," the fighter tells the men at the checkpoint. "All this is for you," he says before the van speeds away to the next checkpoint a few blocks away.


The men at the checkpoint, most of them sporting jeans and T-shirts, are from the neighbourhood and joined the battle to rid the capital of pro-Gaddafi forces when rebel fighters streamed into the city two days ago.


All of the men at the checkpoint, next to a two-story residential building, say they had hidden guns from Gaddafi authorities prior to the rebel advance in anticipation of joining it.


But now they share better fire power.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFLDE77N0UT20110824?sp=true

[tabatha]

111. 72,000 prisoners freed from AbuSalim

Libya17Feb Tripoli Youth
Correction: #Tripoli 24/08/2011 at 19:22 #Libya Time.. #AllahuAkbar 72,000 prisoners freed from AbuSalim Prison -- audioboo.fm/boos/449370-tr…
7 minutes ago

Tripoli Youth
Libya17Feb Tripoli Youth
#Tripoli 28/08/2011 at 19:22 Libya Time.. #AllahuAkbar 72,000 prisoners just released from AbuSalim Prison -- audioboo.fm/boos/449370-tr…
19 minutes ago

Effing 72,000 ..... 72,000

http://audioboo.fm/boos/449370-tripoli-24-08-2011-19-22?utm_campaign=detailpage&utm_content=retweet&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

[Iterate]

114. LIBYA: Infamous Kadafi prison claimed by rebels

LIBYA: Infamous Kadafi prison claimed by rebels
August 24, 2011 | 1:03 pm

A spokesman for Libyan rebel forces said Wednesday that they had seized control of Moammar Kadafi's infamous Abu Slim prison south of Tripoli.

Fighting had been reported at the prison early Wednesday, with reports circulating online that rebel fighters had made their way inside the compound.

Late Wednesday, Al Arabiya television reported that Ahmed Bany, a spokesman for the rebels, said Abu Slim was under opposition control.

"Fighters are engaging the last pockets of resistance there," the report said.

more... http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/babylonbeyond/2011/08/libya-infamous-kadafi-prison-claimed-by-rebels.html?dlvrit=326817

No mention of the number in the article, but at least it is running in the press. If it doesn't get the coverage it deserves and set some people straight, I'm signing up with a different species.

ETA, of all things the outrageous number that people had estimated weeks ago looks like it was low.

[tabatha]

115. Kate Adie remembers her visits to Libya

2137: Veteran BBC foreign correspondent Kate Adie remembers her visits to Libya. "You heard whispers, you heard rumours. Years ago, the Italian ambassador told me he had complained of the screams they could hear overnight. He said that they found rubbish skips with limbs in them in the morning. That's the kind of place it was."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14610722

[Iterate]

118. American freelance journalist Matt VanDyke confirmed free after 6 mos

fredabrahams Fred Abrahams
American freelance journalist Matt VanDyke confirmed free after 6 mos in Tripoli's Abu Salim prison. Arrested mid-March near Brega. #Libya
58 minutes ago

[al bupp]

119. Balt. Sun: Baltimore man freed in Libya

Twitter confirmed by an old-line newspaper (online, of course)...

August 24, 2011

Matthew VanDyke, the Baltimore freelance journalist who went missing in Libya in March, has escaped from an infamous prison there one day after rebel forces stormed Moammar Gadhafi’s compound in Tripoli, his family said Wednesday.

The 32-year-old VanDyke, who traveled to the war-torn country to witness the revolution for a book he is working on about the region, called his mother, Sharon VanDyke, and told her that he escaped from the Abu Salim prison where he was held for six months in solitary confinement.

"He sounded fine and said, 'Hi, mom,' saying what I wanted to hear all along," said Sharon VanDyke, the South Baltimore resident who has been a tireless advocate for her son since she lost contact with him earlier this year. "He sounded fine other than he said he thought maybe he lost his voice because he didn't have anybody to talk to for six months."

VanDyke's family, who said he is wearing prisoner's clothing as he wanders a lawless Tripoli, said he borrowed someone's phone to call home at around 2 p.m. He then called again around 2:30 p.m.

VanDyke's girlfriend, Lauren Fischer, who was the first to hear from VanDyke, described the family as "exited and relieved."

From: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/local/politics/2011/08/baltimore_man_freed_in_libya.html

[tabatha]

112. AJE Salwinder posts

Dear Sky News and BBC

You may have noticed that Ghadafi and his regime have been heavily defeated by the Libyan people who now recognise the NTC as the legitimate interim government of Libya.

I would be most grateful therefore if you could stop referring to the few pockets of loyalist snipers, murderers and rapists as "government forces". Whilst you're at it you might want consider stopping referring to the 99% of FFs and the NTC as "rebels" since there is no longer a brutal, murderous regime for them to rebel against.

Finally - any chance you could invite guests onto your programmed who DON'T insist that Libya is going to instantly collapse into civil war and turn into another Iraq?

Yours irritatedly,
Salwinder

Good evening Free Libya

I've just watched AJE's James Bay's report from a hospital ward in Tripoli. He showed us the 11 year old girl unconscious and on a ventilator after a Ghadafi missile strike, a young man unconscious and critical after being shot by a Ghadafi sniper, and a doctor from that very hospital who was shot by a Ghadafi sniper as he was bringing wounded out of an ambulance. That doctor was described by James Bays as now brain dead.

I cannot begin to describe what I feel about Ghadafi now. Despite being resoundingly defeated, rather than give in and call his troops off, he goes on the radio to tell his few remaining forces to go into Tripoli and kill more people.

I just want the violence to end now. Ghadafi loyalists fighting on is totally pointless. I do believe that as time passes order will be restored and Ghadafi's remaining thugs will be neutralised - it just makes me so sad that there has to be this unnecessary killing and suffering in the meantime.

Sorry for posting this - I was not so naive as to think we wouldn't have this period of instability after Tripoli fell - it's just that this killing for killing's sake by loyalist thugs with Ghadafi's unceasing encouragement really gets to me.

I had to get all that off my chest - please forgive me......

[pinboy3niner]

113. Rebel propaganda helped takeover of Gadhafi site

By MAGGIE MICHAEL and RAMI AL-SHAHEIBI - Associated Press | AP – 1 hr 6 mins ago


BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Between Libyan rebels' false announcement about the arrest of Moammar Gadhafi's most powerful son and his surreal reappearance in front of a Tripoli hotel, some 30 officers guarding Gadhafi's compound laid down their arms, according to the rebels.


Although it cost the rebels credibility on the international stage, the misleading news was used by the opposition as a way to ease Gadhafi loyalists' grip on power. It appears to have been a success.


Mahmoud Jibril, acting head of the rebels' cabinet, told reporters that unconfirmed reports about Seif al-Islam's arrest Sunday came from a rebel source in Tripoli. Jibril said that he notified the prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, but asked him to wait for confirmation before passing it on.

...


After the announcement, some 30 officers assigned to guard Gadhafi's Bab al-Aziziya compound laid down their arms, which "helped us take over Bab al-Aziziya compound swiftly," Jibril said. In addition, 11 countries recognized the council, he said.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/rebel-propaganda-helped-takeover-gadhafi-184544665.html

[tabatha]

116. That was brilliant.

Taking over Bab al-Aziziya compound was symbolic beyond compare.

[al bupp]

120. BBC (Video): Life inside the Rixos hotel for trapped journalists

Here's the report from the other Mathew stuck at the Rixos, Mathew Price. (Gotta love that there was a Price & a Chance there.) It quite the 2 minutes of spliced video, w/ Price doing a narration. Gives due credit to the Syrian-born CNN producer who talks the poor Gaddafi guard down, so to speak.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14658505

[al bupp]

122. MChance Tweet about guard being literally disarmed

@mchancecnn Matthew Chance
Crisis ended when #rixos gunmen realised that #Libya outside of hotel doors was no longer Libya of old. Handed us their guns & said "sorry."
3 hours ago via web

Here's a selection of Twitter responses:

@Smiffysmate Smiffy's Wife
Sorry a very important word.

@ReavisRetort Reavis Daniel Moore
That must be first time in history soldiers turned their weapons over to journalists, and apologized too!

@Mo190311 Konny Weiss
This insight of the guards of having lost the battle in the micro environment of the #Rixos is remarkable, indeed. God is great

@Clever_Flower Amal Abou-Setta
Oh God! This is sad! Same story in Egypt. All those soldiers know nothing!

@LorraChaplin Lorraine Chaplin
With gentleman's ending like that, are you going to write book, then give us a movie? Who would you want to play YOU?

[pinboy3niner]

121. LIBYAN REVOLUTION DAY 189: CURRENT TIME IN LIBYA = 1:55 AM THURSDAY, AUGUST 25

Libya time = EDT +6 hours, PDT +9 hours, UTC +1 hour, GMT +2 hours

[al bupp]

123. DU Thread on Libya worth checking-out

If you haven't seen it yet, I highly suggest reading this series of posts in a thread in the OpEd forum, entitled: "Kucinich: Libyan foray represents ‘new international gangsterism’". Discussion is between The Magistrate and some others w/ regards to the legality of the US/NATO involvement in Libya:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=103&topic_id=623052&mesg_id=623056

The links picks up at his 1st reply to the OP.

The Magistrate proceeds to run logical circles around the sparing anti-imperialists in typically inimitable fashion. In a word it's a hoot.

[pinboy3niner]

124. "(W)arm compresses on the nape of the neck"

The Magistrate is, indeed, in fine fettle here. :rofl:

Thanks for the heads-up--you're right, it is a hoot! Here is the thread link, for those who want to check it out:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x623052#623224

[MedleyMisty]

125. I have nowhere else to vent

Can I vent here?

This isn't aimed at anyone on DU - it's an argument I've seen in plenty of other places as well.

I think Obama is a bit more sane and intelligent than Bush, right? I just don't see him thinking "Hey, I know, there's this country with a new government that's recognized by plenty of countries, including us. The people showed extreme bravery and skill in overcoming the military forces of the previous dictator. The whole world watched them do this. A lot of the fighters are now well-trained in urban combat. Quite a few of the countries nearby are undergoing their own revolutions and resistance movements, and the regional population as a whole has shown solidarity and a willingness to work together and support each other. I know! Let's overthrow the transitional government that we recognized and occupy them! Because we totally have the money and resources and political will for a third occupation where we'll go in knowing that the Libyans are armed, some of them are trained, and they are all extremely intrinsically motivated - and also knowing that people from neighboring countries would be willing to help them resist us! And also, starting a third occupation while people are finally waking up at home just might finally tip the balance domestically!"

Just...how does that work? I can totally see Bush and his ilk going for it, but anyone with the least drop of sanity....just no.

[Amonester]

134. Thanks for venting, Medley. I've had many similar thoughts but I could not

write them as good as this. Never could find the way to express it as you did here. ^^^^

The road will not be easy (in fact, no roads there are :scared: ), but these North African people are amazing. (except the brute)

[Amonester]

133. Agreed. indeed!

I saw it this morning after nap ;)

And I forgot to bookmark it. Done!

Rec'd also. Thanks al! :thumbsup:

[MedleyMisty]

126. Here's a video of Gaddafi's car being driven through the streets of Misrata

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHuaodtzoS8

Check out the independence flags draped all over it and the music and all the cars honking. :)

[pinboy3niner]

127. Did anyone bother checking to see if he's hiding in the trunk? :)

Somebody really needs to do a graphic of him in a red-and-white-striped 'Waldo' shirt...

[pinboy3niner]

128. No pressure, Josh, but...

:evilgrin:

[pinboy3niner]

129. Four Italian journalists reported abducted in Libya Wednesday--update

From CNN's LIVE Blog:

(Updated 4:52 p.m. ET, 10:52 p.m. in Libya)

More information about four Italian journalists who reportedly were abducted in Libya on Wednesday morning: They were kidnapped on a road between the coastal city of Zawiya and Tripoli, about a half hour away, Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maurizio Massari told CNN.

Massari said it was unclear who was responsible, but that the ministry assumed it was pro-Gadhafi forces. Two of the journalists are from Corriere della Sera and one each from La Stampa and Avvenire.

Avvenire's foreign editor, Paolo Alfieri, said his kidnapped journalist, Claudio Monici, called the newsroom and spoke for about five minutes. During the conversation, Monici identified the others as Elisabetta Rosaspina and Giuseppe Sarcina from Corriere della Sera and Sono Domenico Quirico from La Stampa.

Alfieri, who described Monici's voice as calm, said the journalist reported that the four had been en route from Zawiya toward the capital when they were stopped by a road block. There, the four journalists were beaten and one of the drivers was killed, Monici said. Still, he described the four journalists as "well."


http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/08/24/live-blog-gadhafi-releases-taped-message/

[MedleyMisty]

130. Video of prisoners being freed from Abu Salim

https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=269528513058867&oid=179449562095105&comments

[joshcryer]

131. Week 27 part 6 here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1809502

[pinboy3niner]

137. Wrong place