Libya 15

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Tue, 2011-08-23 06:53

Fidel

And apparently we can count DaveW's approval a rousing cheer for NATO terrorists and their best friends forever, al-Qa'eda. Terrorist dregs of the world united, once again.

[url=http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26118]NATO SLAUGHTER IN TRIPOLI: "Operation Mermaid Dawn" Signals Assault by Rebels' Al Qaeda Death Squads[/url]

Quote:
Tripoli, Libya, Aug. 22, 2011, 1 AM CET- On Saturday evening, at 8pm, when the hour of Iftar marked the breaking of the Ramadan fast, the NATO command launched its "Operation Mermaid Dawn" against Libya.

The Sirens were the loudspeakers of the mosques, which were used to launch Al Qaeda's call to revolt against the Qaddafi government. Immediately the sleeper cells of the Benghazi rebels went into action. These were small groups with great mobility, which carried out multiple attacks. The overnight fighting caused 350 deaths and 3,000 wounded.

The situation calmed somewhat on Sunday during the course of the day.

Then, a NATO warship sailed up and anchored just off the shore at Tripoli, delivering heavy weapons and debarking Al Qaeda jihadi forces, which were led by NATO officers.

Fighting stared again during the night. There were intense firefights. NATO drones and aircraft kept bombing in all directions. NATO helicopters strafed civilians in the streets with machine guns to open the way for the jihadis.

Tue, 2011-08-23 08:55

#103

Bec.De.Corbin Bec.De.Corbin's picture

Frmrsldr wrote:

Bec.De.Corbin wrote:

Positive, the North Vietnamese Army (whom really won the war) and the Taliban are both not weak and are both heavily armed...

Don't make me laugh.

Well that's your opinion, I'll stand by my mine; the North Vietnamese Army (not the Viet Cong) and to an extent the Taliban are both excellent light infantry forces, well armed and certainly not weak, with the NVA being a national standing army; the Taliban less so. To be honest I find your marginalizing of the NVA a bit insulting to this excellent army.

Tue, 2011-08-23 09:14

#104

Bec.De.Corbin Bec.De.Corbin's picture

Libya rebels close in on Gaddafi compound

Quote:

Libyan rebels battled on Tuesday around Muammar Gaddafi's headquarters, where a son of the veteran leader had emerged overnight to confound reports of his capture and to rally cheering loyalists for a rearguard fightback.
NATO jets flew in support of the rebels, who said they were trying to break into Gaddafi's fortified Bab al-Aziziya compound. His son and presumed heir Saif al-Islam had earlier told a crowd that his father was well and still in Tripoli.
Heavy smoke drifted across the city center and a Reuters correspondent at a government-controlled hotel near the sprawling compound heard heavy gunfire and explosions. NATO declined comment on whether it had struck Bab al-Aziziya.
"The revolutionaries are trying to get in through the Old Gate on the western side," rebel fighter Muftah Ahmad Othman told Al-Arabiya television from Tripoli. "If they're successful, the fighting will move inside the compound."
Al Jazeera said rebels had the area completely surrounded.

This could be the start of the fight for the "Reichstag" of Col Kaddafi...

Tue, 2011-08-23 10:19

#105

Boom Boom

Three questions on Libya

Al Jazeera's chief political analyst interprets what the fall of Tripoli means for Libya, the Arab Spring and the West.

excerpt:

First and foremost Western leaders need to wipe that smug look from their faces and make sure not to gloat about doing the Arabs any favours.

Certainly the NATO aerial bombardment did help, but this was a revolutionaries' victory par excellence. The battle was won first and foremost in the hearts of the Libyans, just as with the Egyptians and Tunisians before them.

Besides, after decades of complicity with Arab dictators, Western powers have much to make up for: They inserted themselves in the Libyan revolution after Gaddafi made genocidal threats against his people, but their interference was not necessarily motivated by humanitarian ends, rather more of the same geopolitics that led to befriending Gaddafi, Ben Ali and Mubarak in the first place.

Tue, 2011-08-23 11:24

#106

NDPP

Pepe Escobar: 'Libya Is Iraq 2.0' (and vid)

http://rt.com/usa/news/pepe-escobar-libya-iraq-132/

"People have such short memories,' says Escobar. 'This reminds me of the Coalition provisional authority in Iraq in 2003. This is the same thing. We're going to have western boots on the ground and we're going to open up Libya for hardcore, no holds barred, terrible capitalism,' adds Escobar. 'This is completely crazy.'

Escobar says that forces began 'killing everyone in sight and hitting everything in sight over the weekend, but that the journalists with the mainstream media are holed up in hotel rooms safe from harm. According to Escobar, all the mainstream media is doing is perpetuating the 'cover-story' that they've created for Americans to eat up. From there, he says, they'll eat whatever they're fed."

RT: British Brains, Brawn and Bombs Bolster Libyan Rebels (and vid)

http://rt.com/news/british-train-libyan-rebels-975-70939/

"The assault on the Libyan capital has been nurtured, orchestrated and coordinated by former and serving British intelligence officers. Questions now emerge as to how many of them have been KIA on the streets of Tripoli and if Gadhafi's troops will be capable of presenting living proof of the UK plotting a military coup in a sovereign state.."

Street Fighting Resumes in Tripoli

http://rt.com/news/street-fighting-rebels-gaddafi-951/

"Even fiercer street fighting between rebels and fighters loyal to Muammar Gaddafi has erupted on the streets of Tripoli. But NATO said on Tuesday it does not know where Gaddafi is. The bloc also played down the Libyan leader's importance in the conflict in the North African country, saying 'he is not a key player anymore.' Moreover, Gaddafi's leaving the country will not interrupt NATO's operations in the country, as the bloc's mission is to protect civilians, added Roland Lavoie, NATO's spokesman."

Tue, 2011-08-23 11:40

#107

NDPP

Gaddafi Son Makes Surprise Appearance in Tripoli (and vid)

http://rt.com/news/gaddafi-sons-rebels-detain-557/

"One of Gaddafi's sons, Seif al Islam, who was earlier reported to have been arrested, made a surprise appearance in Tripoli. He appeared in a convoy of armoured Land Cruisers. Fox News spoke with Seif Gaddafi who said that his father and several of his sisters are indeed alive as well, and that he is still in Tripoli.

'Yes, he is in Tripoli, he is alive and well and we are winning,' he said. 'The rebels have been lured into a trap and we will crush them.'

Journalist and anti-war activist Susan Lindauer claims that the people of Libya are 'furiously angry' at NATO and are blaming the rebels for destroying the country's infrastructure.."

'Western Countries Fighting for Libya's Oil Fields like Piranhas' (and vid)

http://rt.com/news/west-oil-fields-libya-657/

"William Engdahl says NATO's actions in Libya have created a very virulent precedent. Engdahl said it is simply an insugency being supported covertly by US-financed arms shipments to the rebels - in order, he claimed, 'to simply carve up the oil fields and get them into Western hands, rather than in Libya state hands, which Gaddafi held firmly on to.."

Tue, 2011-08-23 11:41

#108

DaveW

NDPP wrote:

Pepe Escobar: 'Libya Is Iraq 2.0' (and vid)

http://rt.com/usa/news/pepe-escobar-libya-iraq-132/

"People have such short memories,' says Escobar. 'This reminds me of the Coalition provisional authority in Iraq in 2003. This is the same thing. We're going to have western boots on the ground and we're going to open up Libya for hardcore, no holds barred, terrible capitalism,' adds Escobar. 'This is completely crazy.'

Umm, Escobar's memory seems even shorter:

1/ in 2003 there 100s of thousands of foreign troops in iraq; in Libya there are virtually zero

2/ in Libya indigenous forces took the initiative to overthrow their dicatator, but as recently as March 19th would have lost the whole show if tank columns heading to Benghazi had not been stopped from the air; they recognize the help, while running their own rebellion

3/ Libya under Ghaddaffi opened itself almost a decade ago to foreign oil companies' investments, and its technical infrastructure is basically undamaged, unlike Iraq; no big change there, and large new State revenues coming on line

4/ in short, Libya 2011 in way way better condition than Iraq 2003.

Tue, 2011-08-23 11:53

#109

contrarianna

To say that the thousands of NATO air strikes "helped" the anti-Gaddaffi groups is to make the word "understatement" an understatement.

Some winners are indisputable, whether the victors will includes the "The Libyan People" will only become clearer in the weeks and months to come:

Quote:
International Oil Companies Eager to Restart Libyan Operations
Oil corporations from various countries have business interests in Libya
by John Glaser, August 22, 2011

...

Years before the outbreak of conflict in Libya this year, a tug of war between American, Russian and Italian oil corporations was taking place, according to secret diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks. A deal between the Italian oil company, Eni, and the Russian oil company, Gazprom, was on the radar of the Americans who plotted to foil it, signaling the major interests various world players had in Libyan oil....

International companies for years had reportedly had trouble with doing business with Gadhafi. According to WikiLeaks diplomatic cables, the Libyan leader demanded tough contract terms, sought large bonus payments up front, and was upset that he was not getting more U.S. government respect and recognition for earlier concessions. According to some WikiLeaks cables, he pressured the oil companies to influence U.S. policies....

http://news.antiwar.com/2011/08/22/international-oil-companies-eager-to-...

Quote:

Libya's future far from guaranteed
Paul Mcgeough [Australia]: Sunday Daily Herald
August 23, 2011

....
In a part of the world in which power brokers have mastered the art of telling the West what it wants to hear while getting on with their local agendas, it remains to be seen if signs of what has been read as evidence of common sense, democratic instinct, idealism and decency are to be deployed on behalf of all Libyans - or competing tribal blocks relishing a first opportunity in decades to test their relative strength....

And what do the rebels inherit after 40-plus years of Gaddafi's iron fist? A shell of a country bereft of credible institutions and any sense of a civil society. And the transition plans devised by the council to quiet international anxiety? "Hogwash," says a foreign diplomat now in Libya.

NATO said last night it was ready to help build the new Libya - "a state based on freedom, not fear; democracy, not dictatorship; the will of the many, not the whims of the few."...

Hmmm. NATO, the democracy "builder"-- that should be interesting.
Ground military, and the world's finest oil industry profiteers to the rescue?

Tue, 2011-08-23 11:57

#110

Catchfire

Closing for length. Continue here.

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