Thread: The Libyan Crisis

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

He warned that Gaddafi has biological and chemical weapons, and will not hesitate to use them.

nice,

Originally Posted by Butterfly

a shame it didn't happen in Iraq yet, that would kick out the Americans

Iraq nothing, I would love to see it happen in Washington.

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/20...25/139145.html

NATO chief calls emergency meeting on Libya

Gaddafi’s hold weakens with loss of top insider

Friday, 25 February 2011


Ahmed Gadhaf al-Dam

TRIPOLI (Agencies)

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s world was shrinking yesterday as a close adviser abandoned him, opponents consolidated their control of the country’s oil-rich east, and Switzerland froze some of his assets.

The leader responded by reinforcing his defenses in and around the capital, Tripoli, with tanks and mercenaries. “It’s a massacre in there,” Egyptian Mohamed Yehia said, describing recent violence after fleeing his home in the eastern coastal city of al-Bayda. Forces still loyal to the Libyan leader moved against cities near Tripoli, and dozens were reportedly killed in Az-Zawiyah, a town west of the capital.

Gaddafi, speaking by telephone on state television yesterday, blamed the uprising against his 41-year rule on drugged kids and al-Qaeda. The evidence that he was losing ground included the defection to Egypt of a confidante, his cousin Ahmed Gaddaf al-Dam, which follows resignations in recent days by government ministers and diplomats. Army units, particularly in the eastern part of the country, have defected to the opposition, which may presage a civil war, a prospect raised by Gaddafi when last seen on state television Feb. 22.

“The possibility of civil war only exists if Gaddafi stays,” Mohammed Ali Abdallah, deputy head of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, the main exiled opposition group, said yesterday.

Meanwhile, NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen called Friday for an emergency alliance meeting on Libya and said it was ready to act as "an enabler and coordinator" if member states take action.

"I have called for an emergency meeting in the North Atlantic Council today to discuss Libya," Rasmussen wrote on his Twitter account, referring to the alliance's political decision-making body.

"The situation in Libya is of great concern. NATO can act as an enabler and coordinator if and when member states will take action," he wrote ahead of a meeting with EU defense ministers in Godollo, Hungary.

The Security Council meeting follows U.S. efforts to drum up international backing for ways to stem the bloodshed in Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi's forces have fought back against a rebellion in which French estimates say some 2,000 people may have died.

The U.N. Security Council plans to meet on Friday to receive a French-British draft proposal for sanctions against Libyan leaders over the deadly attacks on demonstrators there, council envoys said.

No vote is expected on the draft elements of a sanctions resolution when the 15-nation council convenes at 3 p.m. (2000 GMT), Western diplomats said on Thursday. Speaking on condition of anonymity, they expressed hope for speedy negotiations on the text and a vote sometime next week.

At the meeting, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will brief the council on the latest developments in Libya, the French and German U.N. missions said in separate statements.

So far, Russia and China, permanent veto-wielding council members that are usually reluctant to support U.N. sanctions against any country, have not objected to considering sanctions against Libya. But the diplomats said they expected Moscow and Beijing would attempt to dilute any proposed punitive steps.

Police defections

First the police attacked the protesters, but after they saw many of their people being killed, they sympathized and joined them. The army too, said Yehia.

Mercenaries were brought in the following day but were repelled by the protesters, he said.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told parliament Feb. 23 there are credible reports that 1,000 people have been killed. The violence in Libya quickly surpassed unrest in other Arab countries engulfed by demonstrations.

Anti-government protesters appeared to be in control of the entire eastern coastline, according to media reports, as clashes between pro- and anti-government forces broke out in other cities, including Sabha in the southwest, and Sabhatha and Az-Zawiyah, both west of Tripoli.

Civil war

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Libya is bracing for civil war, his first comments on the unrest that follow speculation he may offer Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi asylum.

“Long live Libya and its independence,” Chavez said today in a post on his Twitter account, which came after comments from his Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro on Libya before the National Assembly. Gaddafi is facing a civil war.

Chavez has historically had warm relations with Gaddafi, comparing him to liberator Simon Bolivar and hosting him in Venezuela in 2009 for a summit of African and South American leaders. British Foreign Minister William Hague said on Feb. 21 that Gaddafi may seek asylum in the South American country.

While Chavez issued brief comments on Twitter, Maduro questioned reports of bombings in the Libyan capital of Tripoli. He said imperial powers are interested in dividing Libya into 20 pieces to steal its oil as they have done in Iraq.

http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/20...25/139161.html

Mutilated, charred bodies lie in the morgue

Counting the dead in Libya's Benghazi hospital

Benghazi, LIBYA (Reuters)

A Libyan girl ran screaming in hysterics from the Benghazi hospital morgue on Thursday, her face streaming with tears. Staff tried to calm her.

She had just identified the mutilated body of her brother.

"Most families have still not found their lost relatives," said doctor Jamil Howedi, head of the radiology department.

"From time to time we find them (buried) in the street," Howedi told Reuters in the morgue where there were many charred bodies. "They burned those men, when people got to the (army base) they found they had been tied up and burned alive because they had refused to fight," he said.

Benghazi, like towns and cities stretching across the eastern half of Libya, are no longer in the control of leader Muammar Gaddafi. Many Libyans are celebrating the end of his 41-year rule in their region. Many are also counting the dead.

"I am a witness to this criminal act, from the first time, the first day, I saw 13 bodies, one with a bullet in his neck. The other case a bullet in the spine. Even the injured are handicapped now, all 13 to 20 years," the doctor said.

"I ... have medical records and I know from hospital records that 220 to 250 people died," he said.

Charred bodies

There are no definitive figures for the dead in what was often a violent uprising against Gaddafi's rule in this area.

France's top human rights official said up to 2,000 people might have died so far in the revolt. It is probably still rising. Fighting continues in areas closer to Tripoli.

Families face gruesome sights identifying their loved ones.

A pungent smell of disinfectant, mixed with the odor of charred bodies, hung in the air of Howedi's Benghazi hospital. It has been renamed "Hospital of the Martyrs".

In one area of the hospital morgue lay a collection of body bags, half opened. Eight charred bodies were exposed.

A crowd, some of them relatives of the missing, looked down at them. A doctor pulled open a big, old, metal body drawer to reveal the corpse of a young man. The torso was mutilated. Some relatives fumed with anger. Others just sobbed.

"You must see this. You must show this cruelty to the world," one bystander, watching the morbid scene, said.

Fighting was fierce in parts of the city, particularly around a military base to the south. Gaddafi loyalists retreated to the base. Witnesses said troops fired on protesters from the inside. Now, most of the base's buildings are burned out shells.

This is not the first time Benghazi's residents have lost family members to Gaddafi's forces.

Near a tent set up on a seafront street, hundreds of photos have been placed picturing the "Martyrs of Abu Selim", a reference to a massacre in a Tripoli prison in 1996. Many of those killed came from Benghazi.

looks like Gaddafi is done,

This is the 911 of the ME,

another fine mission accomplished by Bin Laden,

Originally Posted by BobR

Originally Posted by Butterfly

a shame it didn't happen in Iraq yet, that would kick out the Americans

Iraq nothing, I would love to see it happen in Washington.

...as it would come back full circle. Chances are, that's where they originated.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

looks like Gaddafi is done,

This is the 911 of the ME,

another fine mission accomplished by Bin Laden,

Yes, in cahoots with his good friends from Washington and London.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

looks like Gaddafi is done,

This is the 911 of the ME

another fine mission accomplished by Bin Laden,

No, I say they had it coming. We TK'ees where putting the finger in the wound for a long time. Maybe sometimes too vulgar and not as diplomatic as ....

What is going on in these arab/muslim countries ?
-I guess there are tired of eating cous cous,
- having too much sperma in the cephalo
-its a little bit like the falling of the iron curtain, except....


Is or was there ever such a thing as a good/sane muslim leader ?
- I can't think of any! Can You?

Now can you imagine what a total fu*k up this Muhammed must have been?
Well, we had plenty of discussions about this nice guy, but always negative.

Can democracy and islam go together?
N O !

Is this so called Arab/Islam revolution any good? AlJazzera and CNN are all hots about it!
N O ! Because these Arab/Islam countries have just catapult themselves back again. Back to the drawing board or stone age with them.


Has the west learned anything from this turmoil ?
I'am afraid not. Or else we would have pulled out our troops from Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and the rest of these fuc*ked up muslim countries.


Let it be !
Because it is done !

see how Gadaffi doesn't give a fuck when shaking Blair hand,

Blair was really a whore, so typically British

Stability in the middle east and the oil producing areas of North Africa has been bought by alliances with undemocratic and repressive regimes. We only have ourselves to blame since we are the ones dependent on automobiles, jet planes, plastics and chemicals made possible by petroleum. If we go back to horses and buggys we can rid ourselves of the tremendous guilt and angst we direct against the US and its friends.

Originally Posted by Humbert

If we go back to horses and buggys we can rid ourselves of the tremendous guilt and angst we direct against the US and its friends.

I've maintained for some time now that oil is far too cheap . Should the retail price be allowed to reflect the true cost then the search for alternatives would become realistic .

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...fi-sas-embassy

Libya: UK officials tell Gaddafi loyalists to defect or face war crimes trial

• SAS on standby to rescue trapped Britons
• Leader says Libya will be 'red with fire'



In a televised address, Colonel Gaddafi vowed to ‘open up the arsenals’ to arm his supporters. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

British officials are contacting senior Libyan regime figures directly to persuade them to desert Muammar Gaddafi or face trial alongside him for crimes against humanity, the Guardian has learned.

With SAS troops and paratroopers on standby to rescue an estimated 150 Britons at workplaces in the Libyan desert, contingency measures were being drawn up to close the British embassy in Tripoli to pre-empt possible reprisals.

But the Foreign Office denied reports that the embassy would be closed as soon as this weekend. "We will react to the situation as it unfolds on the ground. If it gets too dangerous for our people to be there, of course we will pull them out of there. But are we planning to close the embassy down? No," a spokesman said. The US said it was closing its embassy in Tripoli as well as imposing limited unilateral sanctions on Libya.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, urged Britons still in Tripoli to board the last UK-sponsored chartered flight out of the capital at first light. He said HMS Cumberland would return to Benghazi on Sunday to pick up any remaining Britons there, but added that those in the desert remained Britain's biggest worry. All options were being considered, he said.

There were reports that two RAF helicopters had arrived in Malta in what may be the next stage of preparations to airlift some UK oil workers.

Britain's direct warnings to Libyan officials coincided with a joint British and French draft UN security council resolution the Libyan leadership to face war crimes prosecutions at the international criminal court for attacks on protesters. The resolution also called for travel bans and asset freezes for Libya's leaders.

Gaddafi showed no sign of heeding the warnings. Reports said that gunmen in cars in the capital, Tripoli, opened fire on protesters as they emerged from Friday prayers.

Nearby, in Green Square, the Libyan leader made another defiant televised appearance, promising to arm his supporters. "Retaliate against them, retaliate against them," he told a crowd of loyalists from the ramparts of a crusader fort overlooking the square. "Dance, sing and prepare. Prepare to defend Libya, to defend the oil, dignity and independence."

Wearing a fur-lined cap and sunglasses, and flanked by bodyguards, Gaddafi declared: "At the suitable time we will open the arms depot so all Libyans and tribes become armed, so that Libya becomes red with fire."

A vote on the UN resolution is not expected before next week. EU officials also discussed the possible imposition of punitive measures against the Gaddafi government, but stressed that any action would be led by decisions taken by the security council.

The steps under discussion fall a long way short of steps called for by some human rights groups, which wanted the UN to declare a no-fly zone over Libya if the regime continued to use warplanes to bomb or strafe demonstrators.

Mention of a no-fly zone was removed from the Franco-British draft , and an emergency Nato meeting in Brussels did not even discuss it as a contingency measure.

European officials said Russia and China would veto any such suggestions in the security council. They were also anxious about the timing of any punitive action, hoping to avoid a backlash against the many thousands of foreign workers still in the country, while seeking to maximise incentives for Gaddafi's supporters to defect.

Such defections seemed to be accelerating . Envoys to Portugal and Sweden renounced Gaddafi, with the ambassador to Lisbon, Ali Ibrahim Emdored, telling AP he was leaving "due to the killing of my people by this fascist regime".

In Geneva, the Libyan delegation to the UN human rights council called for a moment of silence in the chamber to "honour this revolution".

"We in the Libyan mission have categorically decided to serve as representatives of the Libyan people and their free will. We only represent the Libyan people," one envoy, Adel Shaltut, declared, drawing thunderous applause.

The 47-nation council unanimously declared that it "strongly condemns the recent gross and systematic human rights violations committed in Libya", calling for the launch of a UN human rights investigation into the bloodshed of the past few days. It took the unprecedented step of calling for Libya's membership to be revoked.

Hague, the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and the EU foreign affairs chief, Lady Ashton, are due to fly to Geneva on Monday to promote the case for prosecutions of Libyan leaders by the international criminal court. The foreign secretary said: "The message is clear: that there will be a day of reckoning for those guilty of the appalling atrocities. The world will act together to hold them to account."

Such measures were decried as paltry by some organisations calling for immediate action to stop the bloodshed.

A coalition of more than 200 Arab organisations and 30 leading Arab intellectuals appealed for the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya .

One of the signatories, the Egyptian writer and commentator Hani Shukrallah, said: "Stopping Gaddafi and his family shopping in Harrods or on the Champs Elysées is not going to prevent him unleashing further bloodshed.

"It's time to stop fiddling about and get serious."

Originally Posted by Humbert

Stability in the middle east and the oil producing areas of North Africa has been bought by alliances with undemocratic and repressive regimes. We only have ourselves to blame since we are the ones dependent on automobiles, jet planes, plastics and chemicals made possible by petroleum. If we go back to horses and buggys we can rid ourselves of the tremendous guilt and angst we direct against the US and its friends.

There's lots of oil in various places around the world. Just its too expensive to extract at the moment. In fact you can make oil out of just about any kind of organic waste product. The only problem is that the set up costs are very high and the price of production is very high too. To be competitive the price of oil would have to be around $180 a barrel to make synthetic oil viable.

No need to go back to horse and buggies at all. Simple fact is that the cheap and good quality oil is running out. But there will be an almost endless supply of much more expensive stuff to fill the void. Canada has the second biggest known reserves in the world, but its in tar-sands and expensive to extract. Saudi Arabia has the biggest known reserves of good quality and cheap to produce oil at the moment, but its due to run out in the next decade or two. Iraq has huge reserves of the good easy to get at stuff as yet untapped and after Iraq is Iran. Go figure why the US government is so interested in these two countries.

Originally Posted by Panda

Originally Posted by Humbert

Stability in the middle east and the oil producing areas of North Africa has been bought by alliances with undemocratic and repressive regimes. We only have ourselves to blame since we are the ones dependent on automobiles, jet planes, plastics and chemicals made possible by petroleum. If we go back to horses and buggys we can rid ourselves of the tremendous guilt and angst we direct against the US and its friends.

There's lots of oil in various places around the world. Just its too expensive to extract at the moment. In fact you can make oil out of just about any kind of organic waste product. The only problem is that the set up costs are very high and the price of production is very high too. To be competitive the price of oil would have to be around $180 a barrel to make synthetic oil viable.

No need to go back to horse and buggies at all. Simple fact is that the cheap and good quality oil is running out. But there will be an almost endless supply of much more expensive stuff to fill the void. Canada has the second biggest known reserves in the world, but its in tar-sands and expensive to extract. Saudi Arabia has the biggest known reserves of good quality and cheap to produce oil at the moment, but its due to run out in the next decade or two. Iraq has huge reserves of the good easy to get at stuff as yet untapped and after Iraq is Iran. Go figure why the US government is so interested in these two countries.

You are forgetting one little thing...the extraction causes B I G pollution.

Originally Posted by Panda

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

looks like Gaddafi is N O ! Because these Arab/Islam countries have just catapult themselves back again. Back to the drawing board or stone age with them.

Brutal dictatorships armed, funded, installed and supported by the west, or the peoples choice of what kind of a political/social system they want to live in.

The only reasons the west gives a rats arse about the Middle east is because of the oil and the strategic geographic location.
All this talk about human rights and democracy verses a radical Muslim system is just a load of hypocritical moralizing and fear mongering. Western powers were and still are quite happy to support dictators who murder and torture their own people if its in western financial interests. In fact its been well documented that USA sent suspects to Egypt to be tortured. Add to that that the US and its "coalition of the willing" have murdered tens of thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan. And they continue to do so.

The west bears as much responsibility for the crimes we are seeing now in places like Libia and Bahrain as those dictators we support/ed do.

You are right, and nothing new about your statements. But why do muslims always get chased arround like camels? Where is the pride and dignity?
Of course, we squeeze them like lemons until the last drop of oil comes out of them. We supply the blender, and they are more than happy to turn it on.

Gadhafi war crimes reported in Tripoli

Published: Feb. 26, 2011 at 11:31 AM


The office of the chief of police is burned by anti-regime protesters in Benghazi, Libya, on February 25, 2011. Euphoria in Libya's second city Benghazi gave way to growing concern that it remains vulnerable to a counter-attack by Moammar Gadhafi's forces. UPI

TRIPOLI, Libya, Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Horrific reports of Moammar Gadhafi's repression emerged from Tripoli Saturday as the world community moved to sanction the Libyan dictator.

Witnesses told The New York Times government forces were shooting protesters from ambulances and turning antiaircraft guns against crowds. They also said bodies and wounded were being removed from hospitals and morgues to conceal the death toll.

The U.N. Security Council was considering war crimes charges against Gadhafi and the United States declared it had closed its embassy in Tripoli and was imposing sanctions, The Guardian newspaper in Britain said.

A rebel officer in Benghazi, Col. Tarek Saad Hussein, said a force of 2,000 men, including army defectors, was marching on Tripoli from the east, but this was not confirmed.

Gadhafi spoke on national television Friday, shouting that he was opening the arsenals to his supporters and warning "Libya will turn to hell."

Libya's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Ibrahim Dabbashi, who has defected from Gadhafi like many diplomats, said in New York on Friday that government forces were shooting from ambulances, and pleaded for international intervention.

"Hundreds of people have been killed. We expect thousands to be killed," he said.

There were indications some Western countries were preparing for a military response to the North African crisis. Britain had its SAS paratroopers on standby and helicopters in Malta, The Guardian said.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper made an unusually aggressive statement Friday night, saying the country had military aircraft stationed in Malta and "we are actively preparing to move to the next steps and to take other measures."


Read more: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-Ne...#ixzz1F5OamDzC

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/8...dafi-Inc..html

Exposed: Gaddafi Inc.

The Libyan dictator has salted away billions from stolen oil revenues in London, buying prestigious assets and influence among the Establishment. We should be ashamed, says Michael Burleigh.

Colonel Gaddafi, with his ever-present female guards, meets Silvio Berlusconi. Photo: REUTERS

By Michael Burleigh
7:00AM GMT 26 Feb 2011

As his country teeters on the brink, the embattled dictator Colonel Gaddafi is clawing for survival – both political and financial. Whether he is toppled or not, Gaddafi is desperate to preserve his fortune – some estimate it to be as much as £60 billion – which has been squirrelled away in safe havens across the globe. Yesterday, we learnt that the Treasury has set up a specialised unit to trace Gaddafi’s assets in Britain.

So should we be surprised to learn that much of his wealth has been salted away here? As we shall see, the warm embrace of the Gaddafis into our society – particularly Saif, the dictator’s second son – may have offered financial gain, but it has also brought shame to our shores. Only now can we see the damage done by those who rehabilitated the Gaddafis on the international stage.

This was painfully revealed when Saif, a supposed friend of the West, spoke on Libyan television this week. Saif took the awkward manner of an international plutocrat, forced only by circumstances out of his usual exalted milieu of Blairs, Deripaskas, Mandelsons and Rothschilds, to address Libya’s “little people”.

The “little people” are the protesters in Benghazi, an area now largely freed from government forces. This region in the east of the country has long been treated as Tripoli’s poor relation – mainly because King Idris’s regime was strong here before Gaddafi’s 1969 coup. How demeaning it must have been for Saif to even talk to such a poor, insignificant rabble. He and his sibling Muatassim are so accustomed to the high life that they have paid $1 million a pop to hear Mariah Carey, Beyoncé and Usher sing at their birthday parties. Perhaps Mariah sang Can’t Let Go or Can’t Take That Away From Me – those lyrics of hers seem curiously apt today.

It became clear to me from his 45‑minute monologue that Saif, friend of the Duke of York, was just another dictator in a flashy suit. Whatever plutocrat’s polish he had acquired along with his MSc and PhD at the London School of Economics was rapidly shed. Jabbing his forefinger, Saif warned that the besieged Gaddafis would “fight to the last bullet”.

Much of Libya’s wealth, generated by crude oil and gas, has apparently been looted by Gaddafi and his regime. His sons vie between them for such rich pickings as the franchise to sell Coca‑Cola in Libya.

As well as Saif, the LSE seminarian and habitué of London casinos and nightclubs, other Gaddafi brothers include Hannibal, whose model wife Aline’s face has had several nasty encounters with doors and furnishings in swanky hotels in Geneva and London.

Aline’s not the only one to have come a cropper. When Hannibal was accused of assaulting two maids in a Swiss hotel, and subsequently arrested, Gaddafi retaliated by arresting Swiss nationals in Libya (one poor chap found himself in solitary confinement for more than 50 days) and even suspended oil deliveries to Switzerland, as well as withdrawing money and assets worth nearly £4 billion from Swiss banks. Similar “heat” was applied to Blair’s government over the release of Lockerbie bomber Abdulbaset al-Megrahi, together with intercession by former MI6 personalities such as Mark Allen, who had moved on to well‑rewarded positions at BP.

What’s clear is that just as controversy and violence follows the Gaddafi clan, so does the stench of filthy lucre.

The main vehicle for the Gaddafi’s wealth is the $70 billion Libyan Investment Authority (LIA), a “sovereign wealth fund” set up in 2006 to spend the country’s oil money. Let’s call it Gaddafi Inc. In Britain, its assets include 3 per cent of the publishing giant Pearson, which owns the Financial Times and Penguin Books; and several prestigious office blocks, including 14 Cornhill, opposite the Bank of England, and Portman House, home to several major stores in Oxford Street.

The LIA’s huge investment in Britain happily coincided with the meeting of minds between our leaders and the Libyans over the release of the Lockerbie bomber. Likewise, British investment in Libya has soared in recent years, with some 150 of our companies – from BP to Next – establishing a lucrative foothold there. Extraordinarily, Saif told a British newspaper last year that his “good friend” Tony Blair had become an adviser to the LIA – an allegation the former PM denies.

And it’s not just business. The Gaddafis had ingratiated themselves into the upper echelons of British society, handily aided by Saif’s charm and the sage-like status apparently conferred by his LSE doctorate. It is reported that Saif was even hosted at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle by the Duke of York. To go with this highfalutin, upper-class lifestyle, Saif also purchased a £10 million mansion in Hampstead – complete with suede-lined cinema room and swimming pool. Land Registry documents reveal that he used a British Virgin Islands-registered company, Capitana Seas, to make the purchase.

So successful was his adoption of British ways that he was lauded at the LSE by Professor David Held in a speech. It described his former student as: “Someone who looks to democracy, civil society and deep liberal values for the core of his inspiration.”

Now keen to prove that it is not as amorally venal as many suspect, the LSE has announced it will not take more of the £1.5 million pledged by Saif than the £300,000 it has already spent on its weighty purposes. It is worth noting that Mark Allen, who is credited with bringing Gaddafi senior in from the cold, and Tony Blair’s former chief of staff Jonathan Powell are present on the board of the LSE’s IDEAS cost centre, while its director, Sir Howard Davies, is a quondam adviser to the LIA. Tony Blair is a highly paid consultant to J P Morgan, the US investment bank that handles the LIA’s liquid funds. Small world, isn’t it?

Swinging London is but one hub of Gaddafi Inc – a useful networking site where the Rothschilds were able to point Saif Gaddafi to investment opportunities in marina complexes in Montenegro. It’s known that Saif had a desire to replicate a Dubai-style tax- and visa-free enterprise zone north of Tripoli, as well as developing luxury resorts near the spectacular Roman ruins of coastal Libya. Funds for the latter emanate from Magna Holdings, a Bermuda-based company chaired by Charles Powell – yes, you guessed it, that’s the brother of Jonathan Powell – and the firm responsible for Gaddafi Tower, a 50‑storey development in Tripoli.

Ties between Libya and its former colonial master, Italy, are also dense. A quarter of Libya’s oil and 15 per cent of its natural gas goes to Italy, in the last case via the Green Stream pipeline. Gaddafi Inc owns significant shares in Italy’s ENI oil corporation, Fiat and Finmeccanica, the Italian aerospace and defence conglomerate. Its 7.5 per cent holdings in the football team Juventus and the Unicredit bank are more controversial, exercising the Northern League coalition partners more than Prime Minister Berlusconi. This may not be unrelated to the fact that both he and the Libyans are heavily invested in a Paris-based film company, Quinta Communications, which makes Arabic language thrillers.

Yes, as in Britain, the Italian political class has not been fastidious in its Libyan dealings. This may be why Italy’s response to the crisis has been mixed, echoing Gaddafi’s warnings of a series of al-Qaeda emirates, or of a tidal wave of African migrants, if the Libyan lion ceases to roar at Europe’s southern gates.

And, as one would expect of the self-styled “King of Kings”, Gaddafi Inc has major investments in sub-Saharan Africa. The ex-footballer Sa’adi Gaddafi, the third son of the dictator, took charge of all the family’s investments in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, where the Libyans were keen on developing agriculture and tourism. Much Libyan money has also been disbursed in Chad, Sudan, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

Various things may happen in Libya, where the army lacks the unity and prestige of its Egyptian analogue, and tribal allegiances are potent. As generals, ministers, diplomats and brave fighter pilots defect, the regime will be reduced to the hardcore of Gaddafi and his sons. Threats to destabilise the flow of oil to Europe are not as effective as they might be since the Saudis, who hate Gaddafi’s guts, can increase production.

There are more local lessons for us in this story. It was predictable that revolutionary Left regimes – Castro, Chavez and Noriega – would defend Gaddafi, even as his jets reportedly strafed “his” own people.

But Britain’s gossip columns and glossy magazines also indulge a deracinated group of international plutocrats whose greed is aroused by the oil and gas revenues Gaddafi Inc has systematically embezzled. Rather than mouthing empty platitudes about orderly transition to democracy, in a country where civil society has been suffocated by a police state, our government should confiscate all the Gaddafis’ assets, so as to return them to the Libyan people. After all, in all its disgusting dealings with Libya, Britain knows that money talks.

Mariah Carey might be excused – but London’s high society and academic circles might be more fastidious too about consorting with such a grotesque as this ghastly murderous man.

BBC News - Libya: UN Security Council passes sanctions vote

27 February 2011 Last updated at 01:20 GMT

Libya: UN Security Council passes sanctions vote


Saturday night's vote was passed unanimously by all 15 members of the Security Council

The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to impose sanctions on Muammar Gaddafi's Libyan regime for its attempts to put down an uprising.

They backed an arms embargo and asset freeze while referring Col Gaddafi to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.

US President Barack Obama has said the Libyan leader should step down and leave the country immediately.

Discussions on forming a transitional government are reportedly underway.

Mustafa Abdel-Jalil - who resigned as justice minister in protest against the excessive use of force against demonstrators - said a body comprising military and civilian figures would prepare for elections within three months, Libya's privately-owned Quryna newspaper reported.

Libya's ambassadors to the United States and UN have both reportedly voiced their support for the plan, which was being discussed in the rebel-controlled eastern town of Benghazi.

The UN estimates more than 1,000 people have died as Col Gadddafi's regime attempted to quell the 10-day-old revolt.

The global body's World Food Programme has warned that the food distribution system is "at risk of collapsing" in the North African nation, which is heavily dependent on imports.

Struggle for control

Saturday night's vote was passed unanimously by all 15 members. Ahead of the vote, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had urged the Security Council to take "decisive action" over the Libya crisis.

The Libyan delegation at the UN had sent a letter to the Council backing measures to hold to account those responsible for armed attacks on Libyan civilians, including action through the International Criminal Court - which had been one of the main points of contention in the resolution.

The US has already imposed sanctions against Libya, and closed its embassy in Tripoli.

On Saturday, one of Col Gaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam, insisted that normal life was continuing in three-quarters of Libya. By contrast, anti-Gaddafi forces say they control 80% of the country.

Each side's claims are difficult to confirm but it is known that the opposition controls Benghazi, Libya's second city, while Col Gaddafi still controls the capital Tripoli, home to two million of the country's 6.5 million population.

Evacuation

Thousands of foreign nationals - many of them employed in the oil industry - continue to be evacuated from the country by air, sea and land.

Saturday saw two British military transport aircraft pick up about 150 foreign nationals in the desert south of Benghazi and fly them to the Mediterranean island of Malta.

Britain also announced it had temporarily closed its embassy in Tripoli and pulled out its staff on the last UK government-chartered aircraft because of the deteriorating security situation.

Some 10,000 people remain outside Tripoli airport's terminal building and several thousand more are inside, says BBC Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen, who saw piles of discarded luggage abandoned by people desperate to flee the country.

Most of those trying to leave were Egyptians, many of whom had been waiting at the airport for several days.

Friday saw Col Gaddafi make a defiant address to supporters in Tripoli and reports of anti-government demonstrators in several areas of the city coming under fire from government troops and pro-Gaddafi militiamen.

On Saturday the capital city was calm, with shops open, people on the streets, and supporters of Col Gaddafi reportedly occupying central Green Square in a public show of support for the beleaguered leader.

Outside the capital, anti-Gaddafi protesters were consolidating their power in Benghazi, with leaders of the uprising establishing committees to run the city and deliver basic services.

Rebels were reportedly fighting units of the regular army in the western cities of Misrata and Zawiya.



At the scene


Jeremy Bowen
BBC Middle East editor

Colonel Gaddafi's men look to be in firm control of Tripoli.

Checkpoints are operating at major crossroads and on arterial roads into the city. Some are run by the army, at others armed men in civilian clothes are stopping cars.

The authorities here admit there's been trouble in Tripoli, but picking up the line used by Colonel Gaddafi himself they say it was caused by youths who'd been using drugs or by al-Qaeda supporters who are said to have hijacked the protests.

Small but very noisy crowds of Gaddafi loyalists surrounded the BBC team wherever we went.

Everywhere I went in Tripoli was calm except for the airport where there was chaos.

The security forces at the airport are tense and jumpy, struggling to control the crowds at the terminal entrances, sometimes using various kinds of clubs to keep them in line.

if the US was to face such a revolt, and they started bombing their own people, would the UN security council vote for sanctions ?

one would expect so , one would also expect that such a scenario would be highly unlikely .

one also wonders what your point may be ?

Originally Posted by Butterfly

see how Gadaffi doesn't give a fuck when shaking Blair hand,

Blair was really a whore, so typically British

Was a whore? As sluts of his ilk don't change their spots that fast. I'm sure that Mr. Blair still holds true to that club, in which there are numerous members.

Originally Posted by Mid

one would expect so , one would also expect that such a scenario would be highly unlikely .

one also wonders what your point may be ?

my point is that the UN security council vote is quite hypocrite,

every single member of that council have entertained those brutal ME leaders for decades, and now they are trying to white wash their complicit attitude with a single vote