Muammar Gaddafi's 'trophy' body on show in Misrata meat store

[CHIMO]

Source: guardian.co.uk

Bloodied, wearing just a pair of khaki trousers, and dumped on a cheap mattress, Muammar Gaddafi's body has become a gruesome tourist attraction and a macabre symbol of the new Libya's problems.

Hundreds of ordinary Libyans queued up outside a refrigerated meat store in Misrata, where the dead dictator was being stored as a trophy. A guard allowed small groups into the room to celebrate next to Gaddafi's body. They posed for photos, flashing victory signs, and burst into jubilant cries of "God is great."

Wounds on Gaddafi's body appeared to confirm that he was indeed killed in cold blood in the chaotic minutes following his capture on Thursday. He was found in the town of Sirte, hiding in a drainage pipe. There was a close-range bullet wound on the left side of his head. Blood stains showed another bullet wound to his thorax. His body, subsequently driven to Misrata and publicly paraded, was barefoot and stripped to the waist.

This display came amid a row inside the Transitional National Council (NTC) over what to do with Gaddafi's body. Libya's interim prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, arrived in Misrata to talk with local NTC representatives. They have made it abundantly clear they do not want Gaddafi to be buried in their town. The NTC leadership in Tripoli wants a solution quickly. One popular option is to bury him at sea, as Osama bin Laden was.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/21/muammar-gaddafi-body-misrata-meat-store

[Taverner]

1. Sick and funny...horrifying and hilarious

For once I am speechless

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DCBob]

2. Perhaps for the Libyans this is a way for closer to horrors of the last 40 years.

I hope they can move on and have a better country.

[Fool Count]

15. They can now certainly say good-bye to all the "horrors"

of having comfortable middle-class lives, like free education, healthcare and housing, decent and well-paid jobs and peaceful,
if not terribly exciting, existence. All that for the right to vote for their tribal chief in some "democratic" election. Hope that
was worth it, suckers. Thanks from the 1% for your money and labor too.

[DJ13]

3. How much per lb?

[Turbineguy]

4. Probably about

one life per gram.

[izquierdista]

6. A bit like how Mussolini met his end.

But not nearly as public a spectacle.

[avaistheone1]

7. Ah how civilized the victors are!

NOT



:thumbsdown:

[JI7]

8. they should at least dress him up in one of his special outfits

[DinahMoeHum]

9. He died like a filthy pig. Or a sewer rat. How appropriate. . .

...for that monster.

You wanna flame me? - "DILLIGAF"???

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. But is it Halal?

[riverwalker]

11. Give him a sky burial

as in Tibet. Let his remains feed the birds.

[fascisthunter]

12. how humanity ebbs and flows, good and bad

Creepy but I see why they did what they did, which is a sad testament of how much these people fear a repeat.

[Kurmudgeon]

13. He reaped what he sowed, let the Libyans decide. They paid the price to, in blood.

[EFerrari]

25. Killing him was a war crime and displaying his body is another. nt

[Critters2]

46. +1 nt

[truthisfreedom]

14. Puzzling. They're allowing themselves to be portrayed as lawless and immoral.

Why would they relish something that stains their reputations before they've even solidified any plans for a new government?

Kill the guy just because you can? No. Bring him to swift justice before the people? Yes.

Libya is now seen as an uncivilized, lawless country.

[Enrique]

62. and unsanitary n/t

[riderinthestorm]

65. Yeah, they also just declared Sharia law as the basis of their new government

another big backwards step, akin to the new USA declaring their new constitution would be based upon Biblical law.

It's beyond bizarre as Libyans are some of the most well educated and literate populations on the planet. Yet they are reverting to the most base behaviors.

I am not hopeful for their future.

[ellisonz]

16. They should give him the Lenin treatment and display him in Martyrs Square!

That way all Libyans present and future can caste scorn upon this miserable rat-dog...

[joshcryer]

17. That'd be suitable for those who truly believe Gaddafi was loved and adored...

[ellisonz]

18. Maybe it'd stop the revisionism...

"Here lies the tyrant Gaddafi - pulled like a rat from a sewer"

and they'd go

"But Oh Muammar, You Were the King of Kings"

and then they'd realize the combination of spit and footprints on the glass case showed the true belief of the people of Libya.

[daleo]

19. Trophies and blood lust are never a good sign

Democracy means rule of law. This is a sign of victor's justice. That hardly bodes well.

They did similar stuff in Afghanistan to the Soviet backed leader after that government was overthrown. We all know how things developed there.

[EFerrari]

20. People don't seem to get that brutalization works in both directions.

This is as bad for the people doing this and everyone around them as it is for Gaddafi and his family.

[daleo]

26. Very true

Routine acceptance of brutality is a sickness. Large elements of Western society seems to have a bad case of it too. Occupy Wall Street is a response to that, as well as other things, in my opinion.

Sometimes justice demands harsh punishment but people should never revel in it.

[Ash_F]

21. This event should be a canary in a coal mine for a lot of posters here.

Stop taking the bobbleheads on cable tv at their word. This war is not good vs evil nor freedom vs tyranny by any means.

[fortyfeetunder]

22. I wonder what is the possibility of a Taliban-like takeover in Libya

That will definitely rock the country.

[Fool Count]

27. If different rebel factions couldn't agree on power (and money)

sharing arrangement soon and engage in warfare, much the same as they did in Afghanistan after the pro-Soviet regime fell,
it is almost a certainty that some kind of "pure" extreme islamist movement backed by Saudi money would eventually prevail
in consolidating the country. A not at all implausible scenario.

[fortyfeetunder]

23. I wonder what is the possibility of a Taliban-like takeover in Libya

That will definitely rock the country.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Little Tich]

28. I think he should be buried at sea.

An unmarked grave in Misrata or elsewhere could cause problems in the future.

[classysassy]

29. Goulish and inhuman.

we have lost our way.

[jakeXT]

30. Gaddafi still on show, rotting as wrangling goes on

Source: Reuters

By Rania El Gamal

...

Fighters guarding the darkening body and those of Gaddafi's son Mo'tassim and his former army chief had placed plastic sheeting under them as fluids leaked into the market cold store in Misrata, where they had been taken after their capture and killing in Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte on Thursday.

With the door constantly opening to allow a procession of onlookers, in a grim parody of the lying in state typically accorded to deceased leaders, the refrigeration unit was failing to prevent a rapid decomposition and guards handed out surgical face masks to visitors to shield them from the stench.

...

The burials have been held up by wrangling between the emerging factions within the National Transitional Council over where they should be interred.

...

An NTC official in Misrata said authorities in the city were still awaiting instructions from the interim government.

Read more: http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7LO14F20111024?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

---

[Bonobo]

31. The good guys won, huh.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Gadaffi was a bad guy, etc.

That still don't make these the good guys.

[SkyDaddy7]

32. I don't think displaying the body...

makes them bad.

[Bonobo]

33. Really? I do.

It is gross, disrespectful and against Islamic law.

What about the mass killing of 54 Gaddafi followers whose bodies are decomposing in a mass grave? Does that make them bad?

[harmonicon]

34. That was just 54 in one grave found in one day.

There have been many such instances, especially the bodies of black Libyans, killed for being black.

How's that saying go? "The enemy of my enemy is..."? However it goes, in some cases that phrase ends with, "... a brutal, aristocratic, racist mob far worse than my enemy."

[SkyDaddy7]

43. Those are two seperate issues...

Allowing the Libyan people see for themselves that the man who terrorized them for more than 40yrs is dead so that there cannot be rumors that he is still out there & could stage a come back is not a bad thing in my opinion. You & I sitting here in comfort & safety & never have been subjected to such terror claiming it is "gross, disrespectful and against Islamic law" is not right in my opinion.

Many of the same people who are saying showing off the body is bad are the same people who criticized the President for not showing the pictures of Bin Laden shot in the head.

"What about the mass killing of 54 Gaddafi followers whose bodies are decomposing in a mass grave?"

This is a completely different issue all together...If the evidence shows these people were executed after they were captured then to answer your question, YES, the people who did this are bad. But that does not make all the Libyans who fought for the freedom of their country "bad" only the people who committed the act.

[slackmaster]

36. If they are Muslims, it makes them hypocrites

Islamic law requires the body of a deceased Muslim to buried within 24 hours of death.

[hlthe2b]

41. That was my thought...

If they simply must provide the public a "view", why the hell can't they just videotape him and release the body to the family. We are guilty of a lot of offenses--including war crimes, IMO, but at least we dunked Osama Bin Laden within the prescribed 24 hour period. There was at least an attempt to keep with Muslim tenets. (No, I'm not ignoring the fact that he was intentionally killed rather than given the chance to surrender for trial).

[SkyDaddy7]

44. I don't think they are very concerned with...

giving the MONSTER who terrorized them for more than 40yrs a burial that is literally by the book...Most did not consider him to be a true Muslim anyway but more like Saddam he was only a Muslim when it was politically convenient.

[slackmaster]

59. Yes, I first learned of Quadhoffy or however you spell it in 1971

In a US History class. The teacher, a Mr. Peter Lorre, used him as an example of a dictator.

It wasn't until much later, right after a Clinton-era bombing that took the life of Khadhaffi's daughter, that Coddoghy adopted a mantle of Islam.

[hack89]

55. And we know how rare hypocrites are in the world. nt

[LanternWaste]

58. I'm not sure that an anger and frustration leading to a lack

I'm not sure that an anger and frustration leading to a lack of the strength of one's convictions makes them hypocrits as much as it makes them human.

However, I do realize we often see things through the narrowly defined lenses of bias which allows them to appear as we want them to appear...

[EFerrari]

39. It's a war crime but who's counting.

[slackmaster]

35. Barbaric tribal culture is still barbaric

And still tribal.

[Javaman]

37. nothing more than 21st century pike hoisting.

while we no longer chop off their heads and parade them around on a pike, we just make sure they are captured on video and broadcast to the world instead.

different medium, same effect.

only the tech has evolved, we haven't.

[riverwalker]

38. "After 42 Years"

read by Libyan poet, in English.

http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2940/after-42-years_poet-khaled-mattawa-reading-his-lat

[nc4bo]

40. You know what they say about old fish and relatives.......

I guess the same can be said about corpses.

[Beacool]

42. Gross!!!

Bury the guy already or cremate him and spread the ashes, but don't let him just lay on the floor to continue rotting. That's just disgusting.

;(

[bitchkitty]

45. This is all so disgusting I don't know what to say.

So I won't say anything except that I wish fervently that we didn't have to live in a death-worshipping world.

[closeupready]

47. So what. When we die, our bodies become inanimate objects. I don't

see what is so notable about this. If it helps those whose families he harmed help to grieve, then it's difficult to be offended about it.

[EFerrari]

48. It's a violation of the Geneva Conventions to desecrate the bodies

of the enemy dead.

It's sort of surprising that people don't know this and can't intuit it. But then, it's also surprising that the "rebels" are hiding the trigger man to protect him from prosecution but openly doing something almost as bad as the execution.

[closeupready]

49. Okay. Fair point.

nt

[Bacchus39]

50. rebels are not signatories to the Geneva Conventions. Gadafi certainly didn't respect the GC

so you are on Gadafi's side it seems.

[EFerrari]

51. Libya is and stuff your slur. nt

[Bacchus39]

52. upset at Gadafi's demise are we?? the end was predictable when Gadafi refused to step down

he could have done what Mubarek did.

here's a picture for you:

http://peacemoonbeam.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451af9f69e2014e867ab143970d-500wi

[EFerrari]

53. Justifying war crimes, are we? Good luck to Libya in the hands of

these criminals.

[Bacchus39]

57. yeah, no-one conducts a clean war anymore

to the victor go the spoils.

[hack89]

56. Civil wars by their nature are messy affairs

thinking that that anyone will be punished for this is laughable.

[EFerrari]

63. It's pretty simple. Either the UN upholds its founding documents or it doesn't.

[hack89]

64. The UN welcomes every despot and dictator with open arms

where did you get this notion that UN is a font of progressive values and justice? Look what countries are afforded full membership and privileges despite atrocious human rights records.

As a practical matter the new rulers of Libya simply have to hold an "investigation", arrest some poor sucker and lock him up for a year or two - as a rule, the UN will respect sovereignty and allow countries to handle such issues on their own. No country in the world will have it any other way.

[EFerrari]

66. I haven't claimed the UN is a font of anything.

Their complicity in the destruction of Libya is enough of a tell for anyone.

[hack89]

67. So stop going on about the UN's founding values

it is merely a political organization - nothing more and nothing less.

[CJvR]

54. Yuck!

If they are going to keep him as a tourist attraction then at least they could get an open freezer from a store to stick him in.

[BalmerLiberal]

60. All I care about...

...is that the Libyan people have thrown off a brutal, oppressive dictator without needing eight years of American commitment, billions of wasted dollars and thousands of wasted lives.

[Enrique]

61. anyone know the name of the store?

if I ever have to buy meat in Misrata, I'll make sure to go somewhere else.