Libyan Revolution Week 33 part 2

[joshcryer]

[joshcryer]

1. Libyan Revolution Day 228 updates below, current time in Libya, 9:15am Monday, October 3

A Libya Oil employee protests to demand a change of the management committee made up of members who belonged to the Gaddafi regime to step down in Tripoli October 2, 2011.

Photo: Reuters

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3. K&R

[tabatha]

25. He spells better than T Par T

[joshcryer]

2. AJE: Tribal skepticism stalls Libyan politics - video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnlGHttq124">Tribal skepticism stalls Libyan politics
In the month since Tripoli fell to fighters allied with the National Transitional Council, Libya's new politicians have failed to appoint a new cabinet that better represents the newly freed areas of the country. One sticking point is said to be the important minister of defence, but Libya's various tribes are also skeptical of entrusting power to an untested and unfamiliar authority. Few want to give up their weapons, as the NTC has demanded, until they are sure. Meanwhile, Islamists interested in entering politics say they are being unfairly painted as extremists by more liberal groups. Al Jazeera's Sue Turton reports from Baida (2:55).

[joshcryer]

4. Libyan graffiti artists make fun of Gadhafi

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/odd/news/20111003p2g00m0dm064000c.html">Libyan graffiti artists make fun of Gadhafi
Libyan graffiti artists are taking advantage of newfound freedom to make fun of ousted leader Moammar Gadhafi on the streets of Tripoli.

For 42 years, the authoritarian leader banned writing or drawing on public walls. Artists are now expressing themselves throughout the capital of 2 million people, and their favorite topic is Gadhafi and other former members of his regime on storefronts and office buildings.

One picture mocks Gadhafi's habit of calling himself the king of kings of Africa by calling him the "monkey of monkeys of Africa."

Another shows the longtime leader's public relations officer Youssef Shakhir with a rat's tail and holding prayer beads, because people said he always held them in appearances.

[joshcryer]

5. ‘The Libyans must fall’

http://www.times.co.zm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2098:the-libyans-must-fall&catid=38:sports&Itemid=48">‘The Libyans must fall’
He said Zambia, on 12 points, one ahead of Libya, had a better chance of winning Group C and that could only be possible if everybody in the team remained focused on the October 8 match. "We just have to win and I think everybody is aware of this. We don't want to be involved in calculations," the veteran defender said.

Zesco United defender Nyambe Mulenga, who is among the few local players in the squad, said Zambia needed to beat Libya to qualify for the Equatorial Guinea/Gabon finals as Group C winners.

...

He, however, said the unbeaten Libya was equally a good team which should not be underrated and that the Chipolopolo needed to work hard for the victory. Team manager, Lusekelo Kamwambi said all the South Africa and DR Congo based players were expected in camp last evening to link up with the locals, Nyambe Mulenga, Jacob Banda and Thomas Nyirenda.

More on the Group C qualifiers on the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_Africa_Cup_of_Nations_qualification#Group_C">Wikipedia page for this, suffice it to say, it'd be pretty awesome if Libya pulled one out. The match in question is October 8. (edit: had the date wrong).

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6. Battle rages between Syrian forces and defectors

Posted in LBN by sce56:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5013754

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7. At least three positions have now been assigned in Libya's interim cabinet--AJE

Al Jazeera has learnt that at least three positions have now been assigned in Libya's interim cabinet.

Chairman of the National Transitional Council Mahmoud Jibril is expected to be confirmed as interim leader.

The finance and oil minister Ali Tarhouni will be Jibril's deputy.

And Salem Joha - an NTC commander in Misrata - will most likely become the new defence minister.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-oct-3-2011-1129

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8. Evacuation of African migrants from Libya's Sabha begins: IOM #alarabiya

From latestbreakingnews.com:

@AlArabiya_Eng

Evacuation of African migrants from Libya's Sabha begins: IOM #alarabiya #Yemen #Qaddafi #Tripoli

10:04AM GMT Oct 3, 2011

[tabatha]

9. Libya: the rebel troops enter into negotiations in Sirte

After several failed attempts of Libyan rebels to organize a meeting with the heads of large families of Sirte, five tribal sheikhs representing Fourjan Maadan and finally agreed to negotiate . Their small delegation presented on Saturday 1 st October, in the barracks of the brigade of "Dawn of the February 17", which was waiting for Colonel Abdel-Salam Jadallah, commander of the "National Liberation Army "on the front of Sirte. After a few complaints ("a man of honor can not tolerate the search of his car, even if the purpose of these searches is the collection of weapons "), the old sheikhs draped in their finest djellabas were filmed by a Libyan television channel smiling before the revolutionary flags, handing out big kisses to young fighters who, in turn, welcomed the alliance in firing their Kalashnikovs in the air. This last-minute rally has a new rebel advance, by east, south and west of Sirte, where brigades Misrata invested the old port. If the fall of the birthplace of Muammar Gaddafi appears imminent, the fighting has intensified in violence inside .The casualties in the ranks of the revolutionaries are the most important since the beginning of the siege of Sirte, with 42 deaths, Saturday and Sunday for the only Eastern Front. The fighters evoke bitter resistance of Libyan forces loyal to ousted Guide, supported by "mercenaries" . Chalmany Salam, head of the "Brigade patrol" which, with 360 men, is one of the most powerful in the east of Sirte, expressed his puzzlement over "the street battles that we face with the enemy strong fire power without reaching to the weakening , whereas ours fall under their bullets. "

...

The revolutionary army has in fact satisfied that Mouatassem, son of Muammar Gaddafi, who led the enemy resistance in Sirte, managed to s' escape Sunday by the sea, by boat. The man that all the rebels wanted to see captured would have benefited, according to Colonel Abdel-Salem Jadallah , the complicity of an employee of the Red Cross.

http://www.lemonde.fr/libye/article/2011/10/03/libye-les-troupes-rebelles-entament-des-negociations-a-syrte_1581380_1496980.html#ens_id=1481986

[tabatha]

10. Compassionate care, national pride sustain injured Libyans’ spirits

By Muath Freij

AMMAN - Despite injuries and homesickness, Libyan fighters currently convalescing in Jordanian hospitals said they are receiving excellent care and are proud of what their country has accomplished.

Since the start of the war, over 400 Libyan patients have been admitted into the Arab Medical Centre and the Istishari, Jordan, Al Israa and Specialty hospitals.

Fifty additional patients were scheduled to arrive in the Kingdom Sunday night, according to Othman Rishi, head of the Support Fund for Injured and Missing Libyans, which has been arranging injured Libyans’ evacuations to Jordan and Italy for medical treatment.

Patients interviewed by The Jordan Times yesterday said their desire to bring freedom to their country drove them to make great sacrifices they do not regret.

Mohammad Milad was at university studying economics at the start of the war, but decided to leave school temporarily for the sake of the "new Libya".

"Though my mother did not want me to take part in the war and was really scared, I was determined to help my fellow Libyans achieve our long-standing dream of freedom," he added.



http://jordantimes.com/?news=41896

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11. Loyalist families flee Sirte

After nearly three weeks of siege, residents of ousted Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's coastal hometown Sirte say their supplies are running low, while the sick and injured lack adequate medical care. One nurse said her injured brother could not reach the hospital because of the violence, and a Red Cross team was unable to get there on Saturday.

Some fleeing families readily admit their loyalty to Gaddafi, though fighters for the National Transitional Council appear to be allowing them to leave after searching for weapons. They say loyalist volunteers are responsible for holding out against NTC forces.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Sirte (1:59).

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-oct-3-2011-1321

[tabatha]

12. THE PROSECUTOR OF THE SPECIAL COURT V. CHARLES GHANKAY TAYLOR - Mathaba info

Q. Is there a distinction between the Libyan revolutionary committees and the Libyan government?

A. There is a big difference between the Libyan revolutionary committees and the Libyan government. The Libyan government is the Libyan people's authority that has its structures within its governmental institutions like any other normal government in the world. But the revolutionary committees are the militants that support the revolutionary Government of Libya.

Q. Were any facilities available to the Mathaba?

A. There were many facilities available at the Mathaba for both training and for both logistics to permit all liberation movements to organise with ease in their respective countries.

Q. What facilities were available for training?

A. Military camps and the weapons that were used to train the, how do you call it, the different - members of the different liberation movements.

Q. What were the camps available?

A. For military training.


Q. For military training. What were their names?

A. Tinning Ca March and camp Tajura.

Q. Apart from military training, was any other type of training provided by the Mathaba?

A. Ideological training.

Q. Where was that organised?

A. For the, how do you call it, for the militants who were undergoing military training, the ideological training was conducted within the military camp, ideologues from the Green Book revolutionary theory would go and lecture them in the military camps and after they go back. But also within the Mathaba premises there was the Mathaba institute that was responsible for training the cadres of different liberation movements in the Mathaba and not in the military camps.

http://www.sc-sl.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=7/kLPGFOou0=&tabid=160

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13. Libya's NTC eyes symbolic coup in Sirte

Source: AFP

2011-10-03 12:57


Qasr Abu Hadi - Fighting raged for Muammar Gaddafi’s birthplace on Monday as Libya's new leaders eyed a symbolic victory in their battle to eradicate the last vestiges of his 42-year rule.

Commanders of the advancing National Transitional Council troops said they now controlled most of Qasr Abu Hadi, the small town where Gaddafi was born in a nomad tent in 1942 when it was still a tiny desert hamlet.

It was the latest in a string of loyalist communities to be mopped up by NTC troops in recent days as they close in on the toppled despot's diehard fighters in the centre of coastal city of Sirte, 20km to the north.

Medics said they had been warned an all-out assault was imminent even as an international Red Cross team headed into the city centre to deliver desperately needed medical supplies.

"Seventy-five percent of Qadr Abu Hadi is under our control," NTC field commander Mufbah Raslan told AFP.

"We have had three days of intense fighting. They have been attacking us with Grad rockets, machineguns and sniper fire," he said.

...


http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Libyas-NTC-eyes-symbolic-coup-in-Sirte-20111003

[tabatha]

14. Nato: 'Very little we can do in Sirte'

http://audioboo.fm/boos/491140-nato-very-little-we-can-do-in-sirte?utm_campaign=detailpage&utm_content=retweet&utm_medium=social&utm_source

The UN's Baroness Amos describes conditions for residents trying to escape the Libyan city of Sirte and Nato spokesman Col Roland Lavoie explains its role in the battle for the city.

[tabatha]

15. Egypt volunteer in Libya wants Qaddafi 'dead or alive'

SIRTE: He protested peacefully in Cairo's Tahrir Square to topple Hosni Mubarak but on the front line in Sirte he is fighting to capture Libya's fugitive strongman Moamer Qaddafi "dead or alive."

Egyptian volunteer Alaa Abdullah Salam Al-Masri heads out daily with his Libyan comrades to criss-cross the vast desert battlefield around Qaddafi's hometown on the back of a pick-up truck mounted with a machinegun, a Kalashnikov slung over his shoulder.

For him, capturing the toppled despot is a "humanitarian duty" and he is ready to shed his blood to fulfill it.

"I am here with my Libyan brothers to find Qaddafi. I believe it is a humanitarian duty," he told AFP at a base of troops loyal to Libya's new rulers, the National Transitional Council, just outside Sirte.

NTC forces have laid siege to the city since the middle of last month and have met fierce resistance from Qaddafi diehards in one of their last two remaining bastions.

But Masri is confident the city will fall soon.

http://www.thedailynewsegypt.com/people/egypt-volunteer-in-libya-wants-qaddafi-dead-or-alive.html

[tabatha]

16. Libya's NTC eyes symbolic coup in Sirte

2011-10-03 12:57

Qasr Abu Hadi -Fighting raged for Muammar Gaddafi’s birthplace on Monday as Libya's new leaders eyed a symbolic victory in their battle to eradicate the last vestiges of his 42-year rule.

Commanders of the advancing National Transitional Council troops said they now controlled most of Qasr Abu Hadi, the small town where Gaddafi was born in a nomad tent in 1942 when it was still a tiny desert hamlet.

It was the latest in a string of loyalist communities to be mopped up by NTC troops in recent days as they close in on the toppled despot's diehard fighters in the centre of coastal city of Sirte, 20km to the north.

Medics said they had been warned an all-out assault was imminent even as an international Red Cross team headed into the city centre to deliver desperately needed medical supplies.

"Seventy-five percent of Qadr Abu Hadi is under our control," NTC field commander Mufbah Raslan told AFP.

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Libyas-NTC-eyes-symbolic-coup-in-Sirte-20111003

[pinboy3niner]

17. NATO airstrikes conducted Saturday, October 1

Key Hits 2 OCTOBER:


In the vicinity of Sirte: 1 multiple rocket launcher, 1 armed vehicle.


...


International Humanitarian Assistance Movements as recorded by NATO


Total of Humanitarian Movements**: 1554 (air, ground, maritime)


Ships delivering Humanitarian Assistance 2 OCTOBER: 1


Aircrafts delivering Humanitarian Assistance 2 OCTOBER: 6


**Some humanitarian movements cover several days.


http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_10/20111003_111003-oup-update.pdf

[tabatha]

18. Anti-Gaddafi commander says targeting Gaddafi's son

Colonel Hamed Al-Hasi, commander of the anti-Gaddafi Qatar brigade east of Sirte, said the truce had expired on Sunday, but a full assault was still out of the question.

"There are still more than 15,000 persons inside. We cannot sacrifice them," he said.

He said NTC forces would for now instead be targeting the district of Bouhadi, just to the south of Sirte. He said a captured Gaddafi loyalist had told them that Mo'atassem, one of the deposed Libyan leader's sons and his former national security adviser, was in the district.

"We've been concentrating since last night on Bouhadi," he said. "If we catch Mo'atassem, things will calm down."

...

While it needs to stamp out the last resistance swiftly, the NTC does not want to use indiscriminate shelling, which could hurt its standing and make it even harder to govern Libya's fractious tribes and regions.

http://www.emirates247.com/news/world/anti-gaddafi-commander-says-targeting-gaddafi-s-son-2011-10-03-1.421599

[tabatha]

19. Many in Surt, Libya, don't trust revolutionary forces

(This was a town spoiled by Gaddafi with lavish payments and good infrastructure)

By Ruth Sherlock, Los Angeles Times
October 3, 2011
Reporting from Surt, Libya— As fighters loyal to Libya's revolutionary government gain on the holdout city of Surt, residents are making it clear that the battle for hearts and minds is far from won.

The scrublands that surround Moammar Kadafi's hometown have become a confused patchwork of loyalties. As vehicles of the revolutionary forces patrolled the dusty villages in newly seized territory Sunday, many residents peered angrily from their homes.

"The rebels are worse than rats. NATO is the same as Osama bin Laden," said a father, his seven children crowding around him.

Surt has been a primary target in the seven-month NATO bombing campaign that helped rebel forces gain control of most of Libya. The intensity of the bombing, coupled with recent rocket attacks by the opposition forces, has turned Surt into a "living hell," several families said.

Hundreds of families fled the city Sunday, anticipating a new assault. But too frightened, angry or mistrustful to flee to opposition-controlled territory, many sought refuge in nearby loyalist homes.

.....

The vast majority of city's 100,000 people didn't like Kadafi, he alleged. "But when the bombing started, most began to support him again," he said.



http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-surt-20111003,0,2536449.story

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20. Mahmoud Jibril to resign as de facto PM once NTC forces take Sirte

Just reported on AJE Live Stream. Jibril currently is the chairman of the Executive Committee of the NTC.

[tabatha]

21. RAF jets struck a series of targets in Sirte to stp the former dictator’s forces targeting civilians

RAF jets struck a series of targets in Sirte to stop the former dictator’s forces targeting civilians trying to escape. formation of Tornado GR4s used Paveway guided bombs to destroy a supply base for some of Gaddafi’s anti-aircraft artillery weapons used to target civilian areas. An armed pick-up truck was also hit in a separate mission using Brimstone missiles.


LIVE Libyan Unrest: October 3, 2011
http://feb17.info/live-libya-unrest/live-libyan-unrest-october-3-2011/

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22. African migrants evacuated from Libya to Chad

Mon Oct 3, 2011 11:59am GMT


GENEVA Oct 3 (Reuters) - More than 1,200 African migrants who have been stuck in the southern Libyan desert town of Sabha for weeks in dire conditions have been evacuated and are on their way to Chad, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Monday.

The group, half of whom are Chadian, were among up to 3,000 migrants stranded in Sabha due to fighting, the agency said. Interim government forces overthrew forces loyal to deposed leader Muammar Gaddafi there nearly two weeks ago.

"A convoy of 15 trucks with 1,206 migrants left Sabha on Sunday for Gatroun and is now en route to Chad," IOM spokeswoman Jemini Pandya told Reuters.

"This is the first really big group. We have negotiated safe passage for them," she added.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L31SK20111003?sp=true

[tabatha]

23. Where is Gaddafi?

3 October 2011, 7:42 PM It had slipped off the news front pages for a while but the hunt for Gaddafi is still on and it is a bit of a miracle that he has not yet been brought to book. As the battle of Sirte heats up and the path to his final Alamo is almost cleared of resistance one cannot help but wonder if he going to be where they expect him. Conjecture aside, there is very little data on tracking him and the spoor seems to have gone cold on the rebels.

The odds are that he may well be in Libya but not in this stronghold. Surrounding his home town is not equivalent to discovering where he is and anyone who has fought an urban battle will know how difficult it is to take street by street, lane by lane and be vulnerable to sniper fire and booby traps. The rebels have shown great fortitude and determination and it is probably time now that they were no longer given that nomenclature. They are now the provisional government receiving global recognition and pretty much in control of the country.

The sad part is the agony and suffering of the civilians. In all such confrontations they are the grass that gets trampled and they are always faceless and unrecognised by the world and by the media. The despair to get out of the line of fire and save one’s family is paramount but as the numbers increase somewhere in the neat future when it is all over the dust will not settle and the new regime will be faced with the huge logistic problem of resettling these people, of caring for the walking wounded and rehabilitating those who have lost loved ones in this ongoing war. One can only hope that in the aftermath the world does not get too busy with fresher crises and forget about the resurrection of Libya after the liberation. Recent history is far too full of broken promises and unfinished business.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?section=editorial&xfile=data/editorial/2011/october/editorial_october6.xml

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24. EXCLUSIVE-Megrahi says his role in Lockerbie bomb exaggerated

Mon Oct 3, 2011 12:25pm GMT


TRIPOLI Oct 3 (Reuters) - Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, told Reuters his role in the attack had been exaggerated and the truth about what really happened would emerge soon.

Al-Megrahi, released from a Scottish prison two years ago because he was suffering from terminal cancer, spoke to Reuters from a bed at his home in Tripoli. Looking frail and his breathing laboured, he said he had only a few months, at most, left to live.

"The facts (about the Lockerbie bombing) will become clear one day and hopefully in the near future. In a few months from now, you will see new facts that will be announced," he told Reuters Television over the pinging of medical monitors around his bed.

"The West exaggerated my name. Please leave me alone. I only have a few more days, weeks or months."

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L32GL20111003?sp=true

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26. Red Cross convoy turns back after heavy fire prevents it from reaching center of Sirte

Lizzy Davies posts at The Guardian's Live Blog:


Reuters and Al Jazeera are reporting that a Red Cross convoy hoping to bring urgently needed medical supplies to the centre of Sirte was forced to turn back this morning after coming under fire.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr tweeted that the aid trucks had turned back "after heavy exchange of fire", with forces in the city, and an NTC commander told Reuters:

The rebels secured the way for the International Red Cross to go but as soon as they entered the city they returned because of the (pro-Gaddafi) militias firing. We did not start the firing. The militias started the firing.

But a Reuters team who witnessed the incident said they saw no incoming fire from the Gaddafi loyalists inside Sirte.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2011/oct/03/syria-libya#block-11

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27. Libya's post-Gadhafi rulers name new Cabinet

By RAMI AL-SHAHEIBI - Associated Press | AP – 6 mins ago.


BENGHAZI, Libya (AP) — Libya's transitional leaders named a new Cabinet Monday and said they would step down after the country is fully secured, putting an end to weeks of political infighting as the North African nation struggles to get back on its feet.

The head of the National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, and de facto prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, made the announcement in a joint news conference in the former rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

Revolutionary forces are still battling loyalists of ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi on two major fronts as well as pockets deep in the southern desert. But Abdul-Jalil said liberation will be declared after Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte is captured because that would ensure the borders are secure. He also promised to name a new transitional government within a month after liberation is declared.

"We have signed a pledge ... that we will not take part in any future government in any way," Abdul-Jalil said.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/libyas-post-gadhafi-rulers-name-cabinet-130335759.html

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28. Libya govt forces capture district in Sirte, still clearing isolated pockets of resistance

From breakingnews.com:

Libya government forces capture district in Sirte, still clearing isolated pockets of resistance - @Reuters

1:06PM GMT Oct 3, 2011

[pinboy3niner]

29. Libya conflict: New offensive on Sirte

Source: BBC

3 October 2011 Last updated at 08:59 ET


Forces of the Libyan transitional government have launched a new offensive against the pro-Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte.

Barrages of rocket and tank fire were being directed at the city centre after a two-day lull in fighting.

...


National Transitional Council (NTC) forces have brought in most of their artillery to try to dislodge the loyalists who have been resisting them for the past three weeks.

...


NTC forces had observed a truce until Sunday to encourage the remaining civilians to get out, before launching this new offensive.

...


A Nato official has denied a report on a pro-Gaddafi TV station that a Nato helicopter was shot down over Sirte.

...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-15148491

[al bupp]

30. Tweet about Moatasim

@MatogSaleh
Matog Saleh Ahmed Bani reports that Moatasim is in #Sirt in the Ibn Seena hospital. #Libya
12 minutes ago

[pinboy3niner]

33. Gadhafi's son Mutassim hiding in Sirte hospital, NTC spokesperson tells Libya TV

From breakingnews.com:

Gadhafi's son Mutassim hiding in Sirte hospital, spokesperson for Libya's interim rulers tells Libya TV - @Reuters

3:58PM GMT Oct 3, 2011

[pinboy3niner]

31. Returned Libyan Jew says driven from Tripoli synagogue

Mon Oct 3, 2011 2:44pm GMT


By Joseph Logan

TRIPOLI Oct 3 (Reuters) - A Libyan Jew who returned to the country in hopes of resurrecting its Jewish community after the fall of Muammar Gaddafi said on Monday that armed men had forced him from the Tripoli synagogue which he had hoped to restore.

David Gerbi, who went aged 12 into exile in Italy after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war spurred attacks on Tripoli Jews, told reporters he was trying to resume cleaning at the long-shuttered synagogue, only to find its door locked. Residents of the area then warned him to flee, he said.

A man came and said, 'You need to stop now. There are men coming with guns and you will be killed,'" said Gerbi, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned "I Love Libya" and holding a scroll inscribed with "Yahweh", the Hebrew word for God.

...


Gerbi, who cultivated ties with Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) during the uprising that toppled Gaddafi, said the incident would force the NTC to confront anti-Jewish prejudice following its pledges to build a democratic state that respects civil and human rights following decades of dictatorship.

"It needs to be clear if it's a racist country or a free country," he said. "The door has been closed again ... it's happened to so many generations. It's a symbolic act."

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L32ZX20111003?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

32. Activists: Syrians detain 3,000 in town in 3 days

By BASSEM MROUE, Associated Press


BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops going house to house have detained more than 3,000 people in the past three days in a rebellious town that government forces recently retook in some of the worst fighting of the 6-month-old uprising, activists said Monday.

The activist group Local Coordination Committees said fighting has stopped in the central town of Rastan, which the government retook Saturday. The military operation there left dozens dead and more than 3,000 in custody, the group said.

A Rastan-based activist confirmed the number, telling The Associated Press by telephone that the detainees are being held at a cement factory, as well as some schools and the Sports Club, a massive, four-story compound.

"Ten of my relatives have been detained," said the activist, who asked that he be identified only by his first name, Hassan, for fear of retaliation. He said was he speaking from hiding in Rastan.

"The situation in the town is miserable," he said, adding that the population of some 70,000 was heavily bombed for five days starting Tuesday when the army launched an offensive.

...


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h0l379AOpCruYIWPEdoRhuqqfQiQ?docId=b0fdc9c98fc0444491dff43a5a9f786d

[pinboy3niner]

34. For Sirte wounded, frontline triage comes in a mosque

Mon Oct 3, 2011 3:50pm GMT


SIRTE, Libya Oct 3 (Reuters) - On one side of the one-room mosque is a clock showing both local and Mecca time, and a stack of Korans.

On the other are a dozen gurneys, festooned with plasma drips, awaiting rebels wounded in the battle for deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte.

"We receive the (rebels with) massive injuries, stop the bleeding, apply first aid and send them on," said 27-year-old Noori Al-Maieri, a surgeon at the front-line triage station two miles from the centre of Sirte.

"We get head injuries, chest, abdomen, limb injuries ... the ones that need urgent treatment," he said as rebels and pro-Gaddafi forces traded intermittent mortar and rocket fire three quarters of a mile away.

Since the battle for Sirte began last month, between 15 and 100 patients a day have been brought to the ad-hoc dressing station, most with shrapnel wounds from mortars and rocket salvos.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L335V20111003?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

35. NATO Urges Libyan Authorities to Seize Arms Caches

By SLOBODAN LEKIC Associated Press

BRUSSELS October 3, 2011 (AP)


NATO said Monday it is concerned about the possibility that large numbers of portable surface-to-air missiles, previously in the armament of Moammar Gadhafi's army, are missing in Libya.

"It is a matter of concern if stockpiles of weapons are not properly controlled and monitored," Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.

He was responding to a report that thousands of SAM-7 shoulder-launched surface-to-air missiles allegedly went missing after the defeat of loyalist forces by former Libyan rebels, who were supported by NATO air strikes.

On Sunday, the German news magazine Der Spiegel published a report saying that during a confidential briefing last Monday for German lawmakers, NATO's top military officer, Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola, said the military alliance had lost track of at least 10,000 surface-to-air missiles from Libyan military depots.

...


http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/nato-urges-libyan-authorities-seize-arms-caches-14655484

[pinboy3niner]

36. Libyan oil output to hit 1 million bpd by end of November - report

Mon Oct 3, 2011 4:10pm GMT


• Says El-Sharara field to restart soon

• Expects full production by mid-2012


LONDON Oct 3 (Reuters) - Libyan oil production is set to reach 1 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of November and will return to pre-war levels by the middle of next year, according to a report from Petroleum Policy Intelligence.

This prediction is more optimistic than an estimate from the head of Libya's interim government, who said on Monday it would take 12-18 months for production to return to normal.

Some analysts say it could take as long as three years for the OPEC member to reach full output.

"Pessimistic assessments of Libya's post-crisis oil industry are set to be swept aside over the next few weeks as Libyan oil officials bring major oil fields back on stream in the southwest, southeast and central eastern parts of the country," said the report from the UK-based consulting firm, citing unidentified senior officials of Libya's National Oil Corporation (NOC).

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L33LQ20111003?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

37. NATO airstrikes conducted Sunday, October 2

Key Hits 2 OCTOBER:


In the vicinity of Sirte: 1 multiple rocket launcher, 1 armed vehicle.


...


International Humanitarian Assistance Movements as recorded by NATO


Total of Humanitarian Movements**: 1554 (air, ground, maritime)


Ships delivering Humanitarian Assistance 2 OCTOBER: 1


Aircrafts delivering Humanitarian Assistance 2 OCTOBER: 6


**Some humanitarian movements cover several days.


http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_10/20111003_111003-oup-update.pdf

[Swede]

38. Chilly welcome for freedom fighters in Gaddafi's town

The people here -- many of them members of Gaddafi's own Gaddadfa tribe -- appeared to have left in a hurry. At one house visited by Reuters, glasses had been left with tea still in them.

At another, clothes were strewn on the floor next to a half-packed bag. It seemed whoever lived there had been desperately trying to pack some belongings, but ran out of time.

One homeowner had left behind his passport. Elsewhere, wedding photos had been abandoned.




http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/03/libya-sirte-deserted-idUSL5E7L33KU20111003

[tabatha]

41. This article disturbed me.

I don't like the looting.

[joshcryer]

52. Nor do I. But I suspect it will escalate a bit yet.

Sirte benefited a lot from Gaddafi, and a lot of people are going to want reprisals, and it's going to be damn hard to stop it.

edit: but we're supposed to feel more sympathy for Gaddafi's side when they get the bad end of it, than we should the rebel side, of course.

[joshcryer]

110. Bourgeoisie looting in London = class warfare. Proletarian looting in Gaddafi's hometown = horrific.

I don't like looting but I can recognize the distinction and can see when certain wealthy are targeted. There wasn't much noise about the looting of Gaddafi's compounds. I wonder how much noise will be made as this escalates? (And be assured that it will.)

[pinboy3niner]

39. Libya's NTC lowers bar for starting election process

Mon Oct 3, 2011 6:00pm GMT

By Emad Omar


BENGHAZI, Libya Oct 3 (Reuters) - Libya's new rulers will set in motion the process of democratic elections once Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte is captured, instead of waiting until the whole country is under their control, the caretaker prime minister said on Monday.

The statement represented a shift from the previous position, which was that the plan for elections would not go into effect until Libya was "liberated" -- meaning that all pro-Gaddafi resistance was stamped out.

Some of the Libyan government's Western backers had expressed concerns that this timetable could leave the country in a political limbo for an extended period, exposing it to infighting and instability.

The interim government, or National Transitional Council (NTC), has decided to "announce liberation of the whole country once Sirte is liberated", de facto prime minister Mahmoud Jibril told a news conference in the Libyan city of Benghazi.

NTC forces are advancing towards the centre of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast, but Gaddafi loyalists are still holding firm in Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli. They could take much longer to dislodge.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L33RV20111003

[pinboy3niner]

40. Cyberwar: Gaddafi’s online mercenary army

With so much pro-Gaddafi propaganda continuing to pollute the internet, I was reminded of this recent article:

30 Aug 2011 | Elizabeth Pickworth

...


We have all witnessed how social networking sites have been used for citizens to garner international support and topple corrupt dictators in the Arab Spring. However in the case of the Libyan revolution, the internet has been used for a more sinister purpose. People abroad have used Facebook and blogs to rally popular support for a dictator in an effort to keep him in power.


Social networking sites allowed pro-regime propagandists to spread global conspiracy theories in the comfort of their own home, without any scars or wounds of war. No combat experience, basic training or Libyan citizenship was required in the recruitment process for Gaddafi’s online army.

...


To support Gaddafi’s regime without ever thoroughly researching the history, his human rights violations and the plight of the Libyan people, is to entirely discredit every single Libyan of their history and struggle.

...


I question if social networking sites were around during the Rwandan and Bosnian genocide or the time of Maoist China, would the narrative be any different and would so many members of the online community still blindly follow such a brutal dictatorship?


http://colonel6.com/2011/08/31/cyberwar-gaddafi%E2%80%99s-online-mercenary-army/

[joshcryer]

111. There was actually internet during the Bosnian War, and you can find old naive USENET postings...

...where people would claim that intervention was a bad thing, and they'd go on and on. Though back then USENET was intellectually coherent and the internet was not yet fully swept up by ignorant consumers. There were still a few defenders of the regime.

Kosovo (later) was actually an interesting example of the internet being able to deem something bad was happening, as they recognized as NATO was bombing that it was killing more civilians than it was helping. But that's another story...

[tabatha]

42. Gadaffi Billions of Dollars in accounts abroad. Why didnt you build roads in Libya first

http://youtu.be/znfjF2pquKk

[pinboy3niner]

43. Tripoli military chief says militias must pull out

Mon Oct 3, 2011 8:15pm GMT

By Joseph Logan


TRIPOLI Oct 3 (Reuters) - The military commander of Tripoli, a key figure in the revolution that overthrew Muammar Gaddafi, called on other militias to pull their weapons out of Tripoli, accusing them of terrorising the city's population.

The remarks by Abdulhakim Belhadj, whose Tripoli Military Council claims a mandate from Libya's new rulers, follow rising concern about potential conflict among armed groups that converged on Tripoli to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi and have stayed on to demand stakes in a future government.

They also follow the announcement a day earlier of another group that it would collect weapons and provide security in the name of the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC).

That group, the Tripoli Revolutionists Council, said it was cooperating with Belhadj's group, but accused it of carrying out arbitrary raids in the capital.

"The sense of safety is turning into terror," Belhadj told reporters in the capital. "All who care about the security and stability of Tripoli need to work with us to bring it back. We need to end the presence of heavy weapons and keep them from proliferating, except among authorized parties."

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L344V20111003?sp=true

[ellisonz]

49. They need to create a formal government sooner rather than later.

[pinboy3niner]

44. U.S. defense chief says fall of Syrian regime a ‘matter of time’

Last Updated: Mon Oct 03, 2011 20:27 pm (KSA) 17:27 pm (GMT)

By AFP
TEL AVIV


It is “a matter of time” before the Syrian regime headed by President Bashar al-Assad is ousted from power by a popular uprising, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Monday.

Speaking in Tel Aviv after meeting his Israeli counterpart, Panetta said Washington and other foreign capitals had “made clear Assad should step down.”

“While he continues to resist, I think it’s very clear that it’s a matter of time before that (exit) in fact happens. When it does, we don’t know,” he said.

The Pentagon chief, in a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Monday, said Assad’s regime had lost all credibility after a brutal crackdown that has killed at least 2,700 people, according to the United Nations.

“Anytime you kill your own people as indiscriminately as they have over these last number of months, it’s pretty clear that they have lost their legitimacy as a government,” Panetta said at a news conference with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

...


http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/10/03/170046.html

[pinboy3niner]

45. Family tells of terror from armed Gadhafi loyalists in Sirte

By Hannah Allam | McClatchy Newspapers


TRIPOLI, Libya — Militiamen loyal to Moammar Gadhafi swarm the streets of Sirte, brandishing rocket-propelled grenade launchers and passing out heavy weapons, including belt-fed machine guns, to anyone who's willing to fight. The electricity's been cut off since August, and those with generators are suspected of listening to news from the outside, marking them as disloyal.


Fed a nonstop stream of pro-Gadhafi propaganda, the loyalists are willing to die, rather than surrender, because they think that they'll have no place in the new Libya. Random fire from both sides is taking a toll on a civilian population caught in the middle.

...


"Muatassim's communications operation inside Sirte put out word that any family leaving could be shot, even the women and children," Sumaya Tarhouni said.

...


"Once, they killed two men from Benghazi and paraded their bodies through the streets, yelling, 'We killed some rats,' " Maryam Tarhouni said.

...


The former rebels changed a flat tire for the Tarhouni family and gave them free gas for the drive to Tripoli, where they were reunited with their sister Amina, who's married to a Libyan-American member of the National Transitional Council, the ruling authority. They now live together in a house where they wipe their shoes on a doormat that shows Gadhafi's face.


"My youngest sister saw a man eating an apple and said, 'Wow! An apple!' as if it were something very special," Amina Tarhouni said about the family's reunion. "When my other sisters felt air conditioning again, they said, 'Oh, we're in paradise!'"


http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/10/03/125985/family-tells-of-terror-from-armed.html

[pinboy3niner]

46. LIBYAN REVOLUTION DAY 229: CURRENT TIME IN LIBYA = 12:01 AM TUESDAY, OCTOBER 4

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

[tabatha]

47. Gaddafi's migrant invasion plan revealed

by: Tom Coughlan From: The Times October 03, 2011 10:43AM

SITTING on the dockside in Tripoli harbour is one of the strangest crime scenes left by the Gaddafi regime.

Harbour officials recall the day - Friday, May 6 - that a 100ft-long boat sailed off with its name painted over, as well as the reasons for its departure.

"When NATO said there was a no-fly zone, after that Gaddafi caught in the street and took them by bus and put them on a boat and sent them to Europe," said Abdul Bost, a harbour official. "Some people were jumping from the boats and swimming back."

Libya's new rebel government is to investigate claims that Colonel Muammar Gaddafi tried to trigger an immigrant invasion of Southern Europe as a crude weapon against Nato nations backing the rebels.

Just beyond the mouth of the harbour, the overloaded boat capsized and sank. When it was salvaged days later, holes had to be cut through the hull to drag out what officials said were the bodies of 200 migrant workers trapped inside. Below decks, among piles of salt-stained clothes, The Times found dozens of photographs. Seawater had warped some of the images, creating lurid haloes to ghostly faces of young Somalis, Nigerians, Senegalese and Guineans.

A powerful stench of death still clung to the boat.

Officials from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said they have received consistent accounts of the incident.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/gaddafis-migrant-invasion-plan-revealed/story-e6frg6so-1226156947214

[tabatha]

48. Visiting war-ravaged Misrata, UN envoy in Libya salutes courage of residents

3 October 2011 – The head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) today visited war-ravaged Misrata, reporting widespread destruction in the city, paying his respects to those who lost their lives during the protracted fighting earlier this year and hailing the spirit of the people.

“I came to present my deepest respect to the people of Misrata for their heroic struggle and to convey my condolences to the families of martyrs and to the injured,” said Ian Martin, who is also the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Libya.

“I have seen myself the evidence here of war crimes by the Qadhafi regime,” he said, referring to the now ousted government of Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi, which battled armed opposition forces for months this year.

“And I have come to hear the expectations of the people of Misrata for the support of the UN, as we now help Libya build a democratic state based on respect for human rights and rule of law.”

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39925&Cr=libya&Cr1=

[joshcryer]

50. Humanitarian fears grow over Libya Sirte battle

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/03/libya-idUSL5E7L347L20111003">Humanitarian fears grow over Libya Sirte battle
Libyan interim government forces have captured a district in Sirte after fierce battles that further raised concern about the dire humanitarian situation in Muammar Gaddafi's besieged hometown.

Government forces who had for weeks been pinned down by artillery and rocket fire on the eastern edges of Sirte were able to advance several km (miles) into the city, capturing the southern district of Bouhadi.

A Red Cross convoy delivered oxygen and other urgently needed medical supplies to the Ibn Sina hospital on Monday after an earlier attempt was aborted because of heavy fighting.

"The situation on the ground was very tense with ongoing fighting," Red Cross delegate Hichem Khadraoui said.

Not one mention on the WSWS http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/oct2011/pers-o03.shtml">propaganda article about how Gaddafi forces were http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAkrUBgDfJ8">killing FF supporters, and http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-casbah/civilians-blocked-fleeing-gaddafi-forces-gain-ground-sirte">stopped from fleeing.

Propagandist liars. :puke:

[joshcryer]

51. Libyan Rebels Clarify Steps to New Rule

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/04/world/africa/libya-leaders-promise-new-government-after-qaddafi-hometown-captured.html?_r=1">Libyan Rebels Clarify Steps to New Rule
TRIPOLI, Libya — Libya’s provisional leaders said Monday that they would resign once the former rebels defeat the vestiges of armed support for Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in his home city of Surt, a move that would clear the way for a new interim government that would run the country until elections can be held.

The announcement signaled that the Transitional National Council, as the provisional government is known, had had to revise its version of victory in the eight-month conflict against Colonel Qaddafi, who fled underground in late August when the anti-Qaddafi forces overran Tripoli. Previously, officials with the council had said they would not declare the conflict to be officially over until the country was completely pacified and Colonel Qaddafi and his top aides were either arrested, killed or confirmed to be out of the country.

...

The shift by the interim government on Monday reflected growing criticism of the caretaker government for not representing all of Libya and impatience with the pace of change in a country that still feels as if it is at war. The announcement put elections, scheduled for eight months after the naming of an interim government, within sight.

...

Local officials also moved on Monday to try to assuage the residents of Tripoli, who have complained about the dozens of armed militias that continue to patrol the streets and guard government installations. These include many militias from the Nafusah Mountains who have so far refused requests to leave Tripoli, the capital, leading to clashes in recent days between the city’s own militias and the fighters from other regions.

[inna]

53. The people of Sirte oppose NATO’s ambitions for Libya

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-surt-20111003,0,2536449.story


via

http://globalciviliansforpeace.com/

[joshcryer]

54. I thought you had me on ignore? That was posted in #19. We're covering the situation.

Thanks.

[tabatha]

65. And that illustrates the mindset.

Posts here are not read because they are assumed to be all pro, and one could never taint one's mind with anything mildly pro even if it were the facts. Just keep on digging and flinging the dirt or anything slightly negative, but ignore the fact that 99% of the country is pro and never post article that supports that. I will repeat a few posts from AJE that will shed some light on this situation.

----------------------------------

A few people – all of them with far more experience of Libya than me – have shared their experiences of living in or visiting Libya. I went there for 2 weeks in 2007. I was struck how, apart from public monuments, things looked run down for a country with such an allegedly high standard of living. In the east, particularly Benghazi, this was even more so, with dilapidated buildings, ruts in the roads, and a pretty bad sewage problem near the seashore. Getting to Tobruk, the situation was even worse, with the roads off the main highway in a pretty sorry state. The only place where things were different was Sirt, with shiny new monuments to Gaddafi and the Green Book, and obviously recent investment. Anywhere Gaddafi didn’t like clearly didn’t get any investment (and in those places didn’t get any rubbish collection either)

The other thing that struck me was how friendly and welcoming the Libyans all were UNTIL any of us naïve foreigners mentioned Gaddafi or the state system. Then they looked terrified in case someone was listening.

----------------------------------

Real Libya before the war
Sometimes no garbage pickup, you have to pay for service.
In winter the streets flood, no sewer system.
Electricity cuts normal.
Laws change every time Ghaddafi is on TV.
No schedule for holidays, must watch Libyan State TV night before to see if there is work or school.
No school schedule, final exam times are announced a few weeks before ending of school.
Passing of final exams 50%+ luck and nepotism.
Always pump and store water when available, unannounced cuts (this was worse before man made river-then someone had to wait all night for the sound of water in the pipes so the pump would not be burned by pumping air).
Holes in streets, which are paved, large enough to swallow small cars, many streets just dirt, and this is in good neighborhoods.
Municipal repairs are usually half done and then left, this ensures payment to contractors by government.

----------------------------------

Tara if Libya .."is ranked only 5th in terms of best economy, ranking 63rd world....." it is G and his loyalist wealth not Libyans.
If you ask ordinary Libyan he will tell you that Libya is among the most undeveloped countries in the world.This is how they see their country. They used to joke that Libya does not fit even in the Third World Countries.
I already wrote that there are no public service in Libya...we have old barrels for garbage...very, very rare you can find small bin in the streets... It is unbeliveable how Libyans cities are dirty.
G has destroyed everything in this country: education, health, economy....
Great Man Made River is joke....every summer we have problem with water supply...we have huge containers for spare water - one down and the other on the roof as sometimes there is no water for days. We used to buy it ..big cars with water circulate thorug Benghazi and people buy water and fill theirs containers.
I am not talking about situation after 17 Feb....
I remeber that 20 years back he had idea to close elemenatry school till 6th grade...and mother to teach the children..he cancell study of foreign languages, stop any sport activity....etc.
Just few years back my husband has a decent salary. Can you imagine, a doctor with PHD in medicine has less salary than a nurse from any other country ?
I wish there are more Libyans on blog to help me to make you understand how G made Libyan's life miserable.

[pinboy3niner]

55. Colonel Gaddafi: And to think we once found this ferocious tyrant funny

Source: The Telegraph

How many of us wanted to remember the massacres and tortures when Gaddafi's antics so added to the gaiety of life, asks Richard Spencer.


By Richard Spencer

7:19AM BST 03 Oct 2011


Tripoli notebook


If anything positive has emerged from a decade of Middle Eastern wars, it ought to be this: that it has put paid to the glibness with which we had begun to hear news from abroad. It was easy to be cynical about the horrors when so many of their perpetrators were cartoon characters – Saddam in his homburg, Osama in his cave, Muammar in his tent. Gaddafi was the biggest clown of all, and when we sneer at Tony Blair for being taken in, with his "Dear Muammar" letters and world-leader bonhomie, we should perhaps look inside ourselves. How many of us wanted to remember the massacres and tortures when Gaddafi's antics so added to the gaiety of life?


I have spent more time in Tripoli this year than anywhere else and witnessed some of the horrors myself. Even so, I found it hard to ignore the humour in the topsy-turvy world of Gaddafi logic. I particularly remember Saif al-Islam Gaddafi ranting on about how the young men at his pro-Gaddafi rallies were ordinary citizens and not "policemen and soldiers acting under orders as the western media says".


After that, I would ask these men what they did for a living and the answer was invariably that they were policemen and soldiers.

...


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8803153/Colonel-Gaddafi-And-to-think-we-once-found-this-ferocious-tyrant-funny.html

[pinboy3niner]

56. Gonzi awaits response from US Senator on suggested Libyan convoy

Source: Malta Today

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi says he has called on U.S. Senator John McCain to send a naval hospital to assist the wounded from Libya.

By Bianca Caruana

During U.S. Senator John Mc Cain's visit to Malta last week, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said he suggested that the US sends a naval hospital convoy to take on more Libyan war victims as part of their contribution to the much needed humanitarian assistance.

Addressing Parliament yesterday evening, Gonzi announced developments regarding the situation in Libya and government's in assisting in the evacuation of Libyan citizens, his participation in the 66th United Nations General Assembly and the Eastern Partnership Summit held in Warsaw.

Gonzi added that he is now awaiting a response from the U.S. Government after sending a written proposal requested by the senator.

...


Gonzi said that from the beginning of the war in Libya, the Maltese government could not remain neutral or ignorant of the blatant violation of human rights and harsh repression of popular demonstrations.

...


http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/2011/1004/gonzi-awaits-response-from-us-senator-on-suggested-libyan-convoy

[pinboy3niner]

57. NATO airstrikes Monday, October 3: NONE

(One humanitarian assistance movement by air was recorded.)

http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_10/20111004_111004-oup-update.pdf

[pinboy3niner]

58. Bloggers say Arab Spring has gone global

Source: Al Jazeera

Prominent Arab bloggers, who meet in Tunis, say their methods are being picked up by activists in the West.

Yasmine Ryan Last Modified: 04 Oct 2011 00:08


TUNIS, Tunisia – New forms of activism that have evolved in the Arab world in 2011 are being picked up by activists in the West, speakers at the Third Arab Bloggers' Meeting have affirmed.

...


The innovative use of technologies and methods of dissent that had been used so effectively by Tunisian and Egyptian protesters, in particular, were being picked up in Europe and the US, according to Zeynep Tufekci, a professor at the University of North Carolina.

The forms of civic activism emerging in the region were influencing protesters in other parts of the world, becoming a model for Western countries where citizens had seen an erosion of democracy in recent years, she said.

The parallels between the Tahrir Square protests and the "Occupy Wall Street" movement in the US were clear.

"This is really a very hopeful time in history," she said.

...


http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/10/201110322155284271.html

[pinboy3niner]

59. Unconfirmed: Tweets report attempt to kill Tripoli mil. leader; Mutasim G. may have left Sirte

These are unconfirmed reports relayed by journalists in Libya. Jenan Moussa is a reporter for Arabic Al Aan TV from Dubai, and Abigail Hauslohner is TIME Magazine Cairo Correspondent (currently in Libya).

jenanmoussaJenan Moussa

Acc to #libya(n) journalist Munir Al Go'oud, unkown attackers tried to kill head of #tripoli military council #belhaj hrs ago in #tripoli.

ahauslohnerAbigail Hauslohner

#Misrata's top military commander tells me Muatassim may have left #Sirte. Armored cars seen in Jufra, heading south a few days ago #Libya

[pinboy3niner]

60. Hundreds of Libyans flee Gadhafi's hometown

AP – 14 mins ago


SIRTE, Libya (AP) — Libyan revolutionary forces are firing rockets into the western half of Moammar Gadhafi's hometown even as hundreds of residents stream out of the city to flee the fighting.

Dr. Nouri al-Naari said Tuesday that two anti-Gadhafi fighters had been killed and 28 wounded in intense battles in Sirte the day before. Al-Naari works at a field hospital outside Sirte.

Amid concerns about a humanitarian crisis, the International Committee of the Red Cross said its staff had crossed the front lines and delivered urgently needed oxygen and other medical supplies to the hospital in Sirte on Monday. They also evacuated a Dutch nurse who had been working there.

Aid workers also are providing food and other items for thousands of people who have fled Sirte.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.


http://news.yahoo.com/hundreds-libyans-flee-gadhafis-hometown-111239943.html

[pinboy3niner]

61. Libyan forces plan "final" attack on Sirte

Tue Oct 4, 2011 11:41am GMT

By Tim Gaynor and Rania El Gamal


SIRTE, Libya, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Bullet-ridden cars carrying terrified, ill and hungry civilians crawled out of Muammar Gaddafi's home town on Tuesday as anti-Gaddafi fighters said they were planning a final attack.

Government forces who had for three weeks been pinned down by artillery and rocket fire on the eastern edges of Sirte were able to advance several kilometres (miles) into the city on Monday, capturing the southern district of Bouhadi.

...


Concerns about the humanitarian crisis have focused on the Ibn Sina hospital. Medical workers who fled Sirte said patients were dying on the operating table because there was no oxygen and no fuel for the hospital's generators.

"It's a disaster," a doctor who gave her name as Nada told Reuters as she fled the city on Tuesday. "They are hitting the hospital. Two kids have died there. There is random shooting at the hospital from both sides."

On the east of the city on Tuesday, NTC fighters said they were trying to clear a corridor to the hospital but that they were being hampered by pro-Gaddafi snipers.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L41K320111004?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

62. Syria accused of torturing relatives of overseas activists (Amnesty Int'l. report)

Amnesty International report also details more than 30 cases of intimidation of activists around world

Sam Jones
guardian.co.uk, Monday 3 October 2011 17.54 EDT


The Syrian government has been accused of torturing the relatives of Syrians protesting overseas in an attempt to silence international criticism of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.

The charges are made in a report from Amnesty International – The Long Reach of the Mukhabaraat (the name of the Syrian secret police) – which details more than 30 cases of direct and indirect intimidation of activists in Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, the UK and US.

One dissident, now living in Germany, told Amnesty that his brother had been arrested, held for a month and tortured by Syrian military intelligence because of his sibling's anti-regime stance. In Sweden, another pro-reform activist said her activities on the internet and the streets of Stockholm had attracted the attention of the Syrian authorities.

At the end of May, she received a letter in Arabic using her maiden name, which warned her: "Keep quiet or neither you, nor your family in Syria is safe." Not long after, her brother was arrested in Damascus, had both his hands broken and was forced to promise that the family would disown his sister.

...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/03/syria-accused-torturing-relatives-activists

[pinboy3niner]

63. Freed American journalist reported fighting alongside revolutionaries at Sirte

Meanwhile, the revolution gained one new fighter, U.S. national Matthew VanDyke. VanDyke is a journalist who was arrested and imprisoned by the Gadhafi regime in March. He was freed by the rebels only after the fall of Tripoli, and he has fought along side them since. Currently, he is with his brothers outside of Sirte.

"Sirte will take a couple of weeks. Snipers are too much of a problem," he told AFP.

"My family has raised me to keep my commitments. They know I will return after the war is over," he said.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/224601/20111004/libya-news.htm

[Swede]

64. Good for him.

[tabatha]

66. Amazigh rebels embrace representative of Libyan Jews

ROME – David Gerbi, the international relations representative of the World Organization of Libyan Jews, is called “Udai ugrauli” (“the Jewish revolutionary”) by the Amazigh rebel leaders on the Libyan National Transitional Council in the country’s western Jebl Nafusa mountains.

The Amazigh (plural – Imazighen) as they prefer to be called, rebels, have embraced Gerbi in their midst, with special appreciation for his Jewish background.

Gerbi, a Jungian psychoanalyst and Libyan-Jewish exile living in Italy, has been to Libya on several missions over the past decade, driven by a desire to restore the two-millenniumold Jewish-Libyan heritage and return to his erstwhile home as a free citizen. The “Udai ugrauli” proudly displays his three legitimate identities: Italian, Libyan and Jewish. As Gerbi spoke with The Jerusalem Post via Skype from a rebel outpost in the mountains on Friday, gunshots could be heard in the distance.

After a week of volunteer service in the Benghazi Psychiatric Hospital last May, helping to treat victims of post-traumatic stress syndrome, Gerbi decided to cast his lot with the National Transitional Council rebels. He again left Italy and went to Tunis in August, where he met with Fahdel Hshad, an Amazigh whom David Gerbi met at the Benghazi Tibesti Hotel with the other NTC members. Hshad, considered a great though humble leader, has lived exile for over 30 years, having been among the first in the opposition to refuse to recognize Muammar Gaddafi. This was his first trip home in three decades. Hshad and other Amazigh NTC members escorted Gerbi to the Amazigh town of Jadu in western Libya where, during World War II, Italian Fascists and others erected a concentration camp that interned 2,600 Jews.

http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=236572

[Swede]

67. Libya's Interim Prime Minister Sets Plans to Step Down

Libya's interim prime minister said he would leave his post once Moammar Gadhafi's hometown is captured as the National Transitional Council Monday reappointed most of its top figures.

Meanwhile, fighters loyal to the TNC prepared to launch a final assault on the former leader's enclave of Sirte, where they traded fire with Gadhafi's loyalists still holed up in the coastal town.

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Libyas-Interim-Prime-Minister-to-Leave-Post-130974358.html

[tabatha]

68. Posts by Libyans on AJE

Hisham I have been in Tripoli and it looks better than Benghazi...at least it is a capital.
You know that Benghazi was for a long time punished by G and this even "the birds on the tree know".

Reg Japanese expert something similar happened here. There were delegation to see how to improve telecommunication ( there were no mobile in that time). When they saw spider net of the cables (not neat net) their answer was that they can do nothing about it. No way to make a maintenance it needed to be make a new communication system.

Before G had started GMMR Japanese have offered to make desalination of the water which will never rich the cost of GMMR. Of course that he has refused.

Hawari hospital was closed in 1991 due to maintenance. 60 000 million LD has been spent. The hospital is reopened in 2010. (April).

There are still the same doors, same tiles, same electricity.....from the last 4 months the ceiling panels start to fall down, there is water leaking in the rooms..nobody knows form where it is coming....there is central oxygen system and it does not work..still they carry the oxygen iron bottles to ICU and to the wards....
The administration offices were on the ground floor. After the maintenance was finished and all changes done they have realized that they forget that hospital needs the administration.
Now it is in the company barracks next to hospital.

Good that the company which did the maintenance is not actually construction company and they did not need them any more.
This Austrian company got the job from Saif. This company is specialized for medical equipment and installing it. They have never had construction department.

Dear Hisham I know that you know Libya I told this to blogers who have never been in Libya.

Sometimes, when I see the photos on net from Libya (Benghazi and Tripoli) I forget for a moment the reality and they look as nice cities.

You know the joke about Ajadabiya: Obama asked for satellite photo of the city. When it was brought to him, he told: I did not tell you to bomb it just to take a photo".

And here is the reply from another Libyan

yes azizor, you are absoultely correct, last time i was there in 2009 i saw what you are talking about..
a totally new infrasructure is needed, and alot of construction in both residential, and commercial buildings. All, drainage, sewer, telephone, electric,roads, highways, etc..after 42 yrs of neglect, it will take alot of wprk; but can be done, and i pray european, and american companies instead of turkish, etc...as they always seem to build things that dont last.

remember azizor, Dubai, Qatar was built the correct and proper way(and yes, some of the super skyscrapers and islands in the sea were not really nessecceary) in perhaps only ten years. Tjis can be done in Libya too, British, German, English, Italian and American, etc companies i wish to be at the forfront in constructing a new Libya, cities, highways and related infrastructures.

there was a story, an urban legend if you will, 'it goes in that one of japans most seniour engineers visited libya to talk about new construction for tripoli, well they drove him around the city; and after a while, he asked them
"where is the highest point in tripoli?" the libyan engineers told him the al-fateh tower! he told them "take me to the top of it" they did, upon surveying the city below, he simply told the libyan engineers, daffi minders" bury everything as high as we are now, and start over" - basically just goes to show the cynisym, but actually has some merit to it.

btw azizor, i know libya not threw pictures, but having lived there, and visit many times. Never been to benghazi, however my dad taught at garyounis, and he loved it there, especially he loved the good people of benghazi.

[tabatha]

69. Creative Collaboration

One of the wonderful things that is happening in Libya is that Libyans are finally free to express themselves. This is showing up in many ways, but I'm truly amazed by the graffiti and murals being painted all over the city. Many people are even hiring artists to decorate the outside walls of their homes. Designs range from very simple spray-painted graffiti to elaborate murals that are worthy of museums and galleries.

I cannot help but to slow down as drive by to admire these works inspired by the revolution and the Libyans' newfound freedom. My husband, children and I often stop to take pictures and we see other people taking pictures too.

Many of the messages are written in English as well as Arabic and sometimes in the Berber language, Tamazight. Red, green, and black, the colours of the new flag are used in abundance. And many pictures feature Kadafy and his son Saif Al-Islam. The range of work and ideas expressed by the people of Libya after 42 years of creative suppression is simply awesome.

I'd like to start a blog or website to post images of these interesting works of art. Is anyone interested in collaborating on this with me?

http://khadijateri.blogspot.com/2011/10/creative-collaboration.html?spref=tw

[ellisonz]

80. That mural is a good one.

[pinboy3niner]

70. Email scammers tout assets of deposed Arab leaders

Tue Oct 4, 2011 3:21pm GMT

By Oliver Holmes


BEIRUT Oct 4 (Reuters) - Scam emails supposedly from close aides or relatives of deposed Arab leaders are offering a huge chunk of their assets if recipients hand over their bank details or pay a fee up front.

"The quantity of attacks of this sort that we detect is enormous," said Chester Wisniewski, a senior security adviser at Sophos, which uses sophisticated spam filters to identify scam emails.

In one email, a scammer pretends to be the wife of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. She says she has managed to escape to Tunisia and is desperately looking for a "reliable partner" to transfer $25 million of Gaddafi's funds.

...


One internet con is called advance-fee fraud or the 419 Scam, after an article in the Criminal Code in Nigeria where the trick originated. It often works by promising recipients huge sums of money on the condition that an advance fee is paid.

...


"We've certainly been seeing a lot of these (for want of a better word) Arab Spring 419 scams since things kicked off over there," Graham Cluley, who writes for the Sophos 'Naked Security' blog.


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7KH0A420111004?sp=true

If you receive any emails from members of Gaddafi's family, it's probably best not to send them any money or banking information. :)

[pinboy3niner]

71. Panetta: NATO mission can't end before fighting

By LOLITA C. BALDOR - Associated Press | AP – 1 hr 25 mins ago.


CAIRO (AP) — NATO's mission in Libya isn't over so long as fighting continues, including in Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Tuesday.

"As long as there is fighting that continues in Libya, I suspect that the NATO mission will continue," Panetta said ahead of meetings later this week with other NATO defense chiefs.

...


"I think the fighting has to end," before NATO can withdraw, Panetta told reporters traveling with him in the Mideast and Europe. "They can't continue to have the level of fighting that they're still having there and be able to turn to the kind of governance and issues that they're going to have to confront in order to establish stability."

Panetta said he will have better answers about the length of the NATO mission in Libya once he sits down with other NATO ministers later this week in Brussels.


http://news.yahoo.com/panetta-nato-mission-cant-end-fighting-144123621.html

[pinboy3niner]

72. Gaddafi will fight on to the end: ex-PM

Tue Oct 4, 2011 4:44pm GMT

By Tarek Amara


TUNIS Oct 4 (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi's former prime minister said on Tuesday he believed the deposed leader was still in Libya and would carry on fighting the country's new leaders until the end.

"I think Gaddafi ... has not left the country. I strongly believe, based on my knowledge of him, that he is fighting with his weapons and alongside his men," Al-Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi, who is in prison in neighbouring Tunisia, said in comments passed to Reuters by his lawyer.

"He will not give up and he will not lay down his weapons until the end," he said.

The former prime minister is in a prison about 30 km outside the Tunisian capital while the authorities consider a request from Libya's National Transitional Council for his extradition.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L43LW20111004?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

73. Fleeing Gadhafi bastion, bitter at the new Libya

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI - Associated Press | AP – 35 mins ago.


SIRTE, Libya (AP) — ....

The fleeing residents were a sign of how resistance to Libya's new rulers remains entrenched among those who benefited from Gadhafi's 33-year-rule. Many of those fleeing Sirte said that the stiff defense against revolutionary fighters who have been trying to battle their way into Sirte for three weeks is coming not from Gadhafi's military units but from residents themselves, volunteering to take up arms.

...


On Tuesday, fighters eased shelling to allow residents to escape, and hundreds of cars filled with men, women and children lined up at checkpoints at Sirte's eastern exit. Mothers carrying babies in blankets stood by the side of the road, their children clutching their robes, as revolutionary fighters rifled through their cars, searching through mattresses, clothes and other belongings for hidden weapons.

...


There was a palpable dislike between those fleeing and the fighters searching through their belongings, though there was no visible harassment and families said they were well treated, some given food and water. During his rule, Gadhafi turned Sirte into virtually a second capital, pouring in investments and giving residents prominent positions. As a result, support for the regime ran high — and many of those fleeing were dismayed at the fall of the old order.

...


One Misrata revolutionary at the checkpoint, al-Hussein al-Sireiti, said they find four or five cars a day with hidden weapons.

"We also check for people with bullet injuries, because that means they likely were fighting for Gadhafi," he said. They also search for those on a list of known Gadhafi loyalists wanted for interrogation, he said.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/fleeing-gadhafi-bastion-bitter-libya-174111762.html

[pinboy3niner]

74. As relations sour, Turkey plans military exercise at Syrian border

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Experts say drill, called Yildirim, or "lightning bolt," is a warning from Turkey to Syria

• Relations between nations had warmed in past decade; pair once had joint border maneuvers

• But Turkey has watched Syrian government's crackdown on civilians with growing concern

By Ivan Watson and Yesmin Comert, CNN

updated 1:24 PM EST, Tue October 4, 2011


Istanbul (CNN) -- As relations continue to deteriorate between neighbors Turkey and Syria, the Turkish armed forces announced Tuesday it will conduct a weeklong series of military exercises in a province along the Syrian border.

The objectives of the Yildirim ("lightning bolt") exercise include establishing coordination between military and civilian institutions and "testing of mutual activities performed during mobilization and war times," according to a statement on the Turkish Armed Forces website.

Some Middle East experts immediately interpreted the announcement as a warning to Damascus.

"Turkey is sending a signal to Syria," said Lale Kemal, a defense expert and Ankara bureau chief with the Turkish newspaper Taraf.

...


http://www.cnn.com/2011/10/04/world/meast/turkey-syria-relations/

[tabatha]

75. Gaddafi forces turn Sirte into military nerve centre

Forces loyal to Col. Muammar Gaddafi have transformed Sirte hospital into a fortified military base as rebel fighters close in on the city centre.

Doctors fleeing the area said they had seen arms depots inside the complex and that “rocket launchers and mortar detonators ring the hospital”.

Inside the built-up area of downtown Sirte, Ibn Sina hospital has become the nerve centre of the pro-Gaddafi operation. “There is a military operations room below the maternity ward of hospital,” said Osama Muttawa Swehli, one of the rebels.

“This has been a tactic of the regime to base themselves in hospitals where they know Nato will not attack”.

Two doctors from India and Bangladesh who escaped the hospital described the dire conditions.

“The hospital is full of military men and casualties. There are more than 200 patients and less than 15 doctors. There is no proper treatment, and a real lack of food. Blood streaks the corridors and we don’t have enough water to clean it,” said the doctors, who did not wish to be named for fear of recriminations. “The death rate is very high”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8806825/Gaddafi-forces-turn-Sirte-into-military-nerve-centre.html

what a bunch of murderous cowards

[pinboy3niner]

76. "...only pro-Gaddafi fighters or members of his tribe were being treated"

Medical staff outside Sirte who had treated wounded civilians fleeing the fighting said they had been told the corridors of Ibn Sina were full of patients and that only pro-Gaddafi fighters or members of his tribe were being treated.

A military spokesman for the interim government told a television channel that Gaddafi's son Mutassim was hiding in the hospital.

"Our revolutionaries (in Sirte) are fighting those who are accomplices of the tyrant in crimes against the Libyan people," Ahmed Bani told Doha-based Libya TV.

"They are a group of killers and mercenaries led by Mutassim Gaddafi who is now in the Ibn Sina hospital in Sirte to avoid being hit, according to newly received information."

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L41K320111004?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

77. European draft resolution on Syria calls for restraint on arms sale

Tuesday, 04 October 2011

By Al Arabiya
New York


The following is the latest draft resolution on Syria signed by France, Germany, Portugal and United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Security Council,
Expressing grave concern at the situation in Syria,
Recalling its Presidential Statement of 3 August,

Welcoming the Secretary-General’s statements articulating continued concerns about the ongoing violence and humanitarian needs, calling on the Syrian Government to halt its violent offensive at once, calling for an independent investigation of all human rights violations during recent demonstrations, and stressing the need to hold to account those responsible for human rights violations,

...


1. Strongly condemns the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by the Syrian authorities, such as arbitrary executions, excessive use of force and the killing and persecution of protesters and human rights defenders, arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment of detainees, also of children, and expresses profound regret at the deaths of thousands of people including women and children;

...


4. Demands that the Syrian authorities immediately:

(a) Cease violations of human rights, comply with their obligations under applicable international law, and cooperate fully with the commission of inquiry mandated by Human Rights Council resolution S-17 of 23 August 2011 (A/HRC/RES/S-17/1);

(b) Allow the full exercise of human rights and fundamental freedoms by its entire population, including rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, release all political prisoners and detained peaceful demonstrators, and lift restrictions on all forms of media;

(c) Cease the use of force against civilians;

...


9. Calls upon all States to exercise vigilance and restraint over the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer to Syria of arms and related materiel of all types, as well as technical training, financial resources or services, advice, or other services or assistance related to such arms and related materiel;

...


http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/10/04/170179.html

[pinboy3niner]

78. Russia calls latest U.N. Syria resolution ‘unacceptable’

(Syrian protesters react with sarcasm to the opposition of Russia and China to U.N. sanctions)

Last Updated: Tue Oct 04, 2011 16:07 pm (KSA) 13:07 pm (GMT)

By AFP
MOSCOW


Russia on Tuesday called the latest draft of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the Syrian crackdown “unacceptable” despite last-minute changes that removed a direct reference to sanctions.

“The text that Western nations are planning to put up for a vote is clearly unacceptable,” Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the Interfax news agency.

European nations were expected to seek a vote later Tuesday on a resolution imposing “targeted measures” against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for a crackdown that has killed 2,700 according to U.N. estimates.

...


The current proposal would impose sanctions if Assad failed to comply within 30 days with instructions to end violence and impose reforms.

...


http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/10/04/170164.html

[pinboy3niner]

79. Post-Revolution, Libyan Women Seek Expanded Roles

Source: NPR

In Tripoli, Libya, women celebrate the revolution against Moammar Gadhafi's regime and call for a strengthening of women's rights, Sept. 2.
After playing large but largely unsung roles during the uprising, women are now seeking a greater political role. (Alexandre Meneghini/AP)


by Corey Flintoff

October 4, 2011


One recent day in Tripoli, hundreds of people strolled through a charity fundraiser organized by the women in Libya's capital city.

Ladies sold baked goods and handicrafts in rows of stalls. For the kids, there was a moon bounce and face painting. There was even a rock band that could use some practice.

It was a lot like charity bazaars in towns across the U.S., with a couple of notable exceptions: most of the women wore headscarves and among the more popular items for sale were hand-knitted versions of the Libyan flag.

The women running this fundraiser are revolutionaries, and they played a large but often unsung role in the uprising that toppled Moammar Gadhafi back in August. Now, they want a larger role in the new government and political system under construction in Libya.

...


Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approx. 7:00 p.m. ET
http://www.npr.org/2011/10/04/141037471/post-revolution-libyan-women-seek-expanded-roles

[pinboy3niner]

81. Libya army recruits march in capital full of gunmen

Tue Oct 4, 2011 8:41pm GMT


TRIPOLI Oct 4 (Reuters) - Libya's new rulers on Tuesday unveiled a group of fighters trained to serve in a national army, in a step toward bringing armed groups under central authority in a capital bristling with revolutionary volunteers who ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

More than 500 new recruits marched behind a military band in Tripoli's Souq al-Jumaa district at a ceremony attended by a senior military officer to mark the end of their training for service in the national army.

Tripoli hosts several militias claiming the right to secure the city, some from regions which shook off Gaddafi's rule before the capital fell last month.

The ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) is struggling to form a more inclusive interim government. Some militias do not recognise the NTC's designated military commander for Tripoli.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L445P20111004

[tabatha]

82. BBC's Jonathan Head outside Sirte with evacuee from city - worth a listen

http://audioboo.fm/boos/493207-bbc-s-jonathan-head-outside-sirte-with-evacuee-from-city?utm_campaign=detailpage&utm_content=retweet&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Lying Gaddafi has caused this problem.

[Whats_Happening]

83. The Cult: The Twisted, Terrifying Last Days of Assad’s Syria (from TNR)

A great, long-form think piece about Syria and its regime from The New Republic --

http://www.tnr.com/article/world/95722/syria-damascus-bashar-basil-al-assad-sunni-alawi

[pinboy3niner]

84. LIBYAN REVOLUTION DAY 230: CURRENT TIME IN LIBYA = 12:10 AM WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5

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

[pinboy3niner]

85. Sean Penn visits ‘inspirational’ Libya

Source: Gulf Times

Hollywood star Sean Penn poses for a photo
with two Libyan women in Benghazi yesterday


Latest Update: Wednesday5/10/2011October, 2011, 01:06 AM Doha Time


Hollywood star Sean Penn yesterday flew in to Benghazi—the epicentre of rebellion against Muammar Gaddafi—to assess at first hand the humanitarian needs of the people of Libya.

“This is my first visit to inspirational Libya. I am inspired by the Arab Spring and am here to be able to get a sense of what humanitarian aid can be delivered” to the people, Penn told AFP after landing at Benghazi airport.

Penn, who arrived from a visit to Egypt, is set to meet humanitarian organisations already working in Libya and also to meet high-ranking officials and leaders of the uprising that toppled the now fugitive former strongman.

“It is amazing what is happening in this part of the world, be it Tunisia, Egypt or Libya. These are my initial moments. I am here to take it in,” the actor said, flashing a V for victory sign to a small crowd at the airport.

...


http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=462143&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17

[pinboy3niner]

86. Russia, China veto UN resolution condemning Syria

Posted in LBN by Bosonic:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x5015967

[ellisonz]

90. Shameful.

[inna]

91. Only for those who think that freedom drones rule.

[tabatha]

92. There was nothing to do with drones in the resolution.

It was a condemnation of murder of civilians. Something that does not seem to bother you.

[mark7sys]

93. 'Freedom Drone' has a mighty nice ring to it …

… as does 'Nobel Peace Drone'.

A hammer, a screw driver, a knife – virtually any tool we might name – can be used constructively or abusively. It isn't the tool's fault, either way.

I find it enormously refreshing to see an instance of using our advanced technology in a manner thoughtfully geared towards advancing freedom and liberty … just the opposite (as best as I can tell) to our hopeless engagement in Afghanistan, where I cannot imagine how anything we might conceivably do could secure (or even significantly help secure) long-term liberty and stability in an inherently corrupt milieu.

Should we target terrorists in Pakistan and elsewhere? I could argue either way. In any case, the people of Libya appear to be just as ready to govern themselves as the fledgling American nation was, and just as deserving of aid to that end (if not more so).

[ellisonz]

96. Better than PETN underwear bombs...

[pinboy3niner]

87. 7 civilians killed in Yemen bombardment: medic

AFP – 37 mins ago.


Shelling attacks on the southwest Yemeni town of Taez, a hotbed of anti-regime protest, left seven civilians dead and 22 others injured Tuesday, a medical source said.

Local residents were targetted in four parts of the town by the elite Republican Guard and special police units. They launched appeals for help but were unable to get the victims to safety, the source said.

The attacks continued into the night, he added, without giving any information on what sparked the bombardment.
...

Earlier Tuesday, shells fired into a popular shopping district of Yemen's capital killed two civilians as demonstrators called for the president to be put on trial.
...

http://news.yahoo.com/shelling-kills-two-civilians-yemen-capital-114540277.html

[tabatha]

88. 10 civilians killed in mortar attack by #Gaddafi

10 civilians killed in mortar attack by #Gaddafi loyalists in Regdaleen in the city of #Zwara -
#NTC reinforcement said to be on their way.

-------------------------------

Zawara was attacked from over the border
Tunisian planes caught them on the way back in to Algeria

[tabatha]

89. Rise like a Tunisian

[pinboy3niner]

94. Volunteers care for sick animals at Gaddafi's menagerie

Wed Oct 5, 2011 9:10am GMT

By Tim Gaynor


WADI BAI, Libya, Oct 5 (Reuters)- Flopped in the baking sand, deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's ostrich thrashes wildly, then lays its beak in the dust to die.

"Gaddafi didn't care for people, he killed them with tanks. How can you expect him to care about his animals?" rebel commander Abu Bakr Essa asks indignantly.

The dying bird is among around 1,000 ostriches abandoned without food or water at Wadi Bai, Gaddafi's vast private menagerie in the sun-blasted desert west of Sirte.

...


"We tell the people not to steal them," said Al Siddeiq Al Fitory, a resident of Misrata who volunteered to look after the farm.

"We tell them 'those animals are for all Libyans, and you should get authority or a license from all the Libyans to get any' . and they go without any problem," added Fitory, a large man with a booming voice who commanded a natural authority.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L443J20111005?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

95. Qatar accused of interfering in Libyan affairs

Western diplomats say Arab state is bypassing international agreements, to pursue its own agenda

Peter Beaumont in Tripoli guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 October 2011 18.59 EDT


Mahmoud Jibril, Libya's de facto leader, speaks in Tripoli. International diplomats are particularly concerned at Qatari support for one of his critics, Sheih Ali Salabi. Photograph: Mohamed Messara/EPA
The tiny Arab emirate of Qatar, a leading supporter of the revolution in Libya, has been accused by western diplomats of interfering in the country's sovereignty.

The claims come amid growing concern among Libyans in the National Transitional Council (NTC) and western officials that Qatar, which supplied arms to Libyan revolutionaries, is pursuing its own postwar agenda at the cost of wider efforts to bring political stability to the country.

Concern has been mounting over the last month that Qatar is bypassing an internationally agreed assistance strategy to Libya to throw its support behind individuals and factions contributing to the continuing political instability.

...


At the centre of concerns are allegations that, rather than supporting the NTC, Qatar has chosen to back favoured key figures with financial and other resources. Most prominent among these woulld be the Islamist head of Tripoli's military council, Abdul-Aziz Belhaj.

...


http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/04/qatar-interfering-libya

[pinboy3niner]

97. NATO airstrikes conducted Tuesday, October 4 (one)

Key Hits 4 OCTOBER:


1 command and control node in Bani Walid


...


International Humanitarian Assistance Movements as recorded by NATO


Total of Humanitarian Movements**: 1584 (air, ground, maritime)


Ships delivering Humanitarian Assistance 4 OCTOBER: 1


Aircrafts delivering Humanitarian Assistance 4 OCTOBER: 28


**Some humanitarian movements cover several days.


http://www.nato.int/nato_static/assets/pdf/pdf_2011_10/20111005_111005-oup-update.pdf

[pinboy3niner]

98. Syrian TV airs interview with woman reported dead

By ZEINA KARAM - Associated Press | AP – 1 hr 1 min ago


BEIRUT (AP) — A young Syrian woman who was widely reported to have been beheaded and mutilated by security agents while in custody turned up on Syrian state TV on Wednesday in an interview designed to discount what the channel said were foreign "media fabrications."

International human rights groups and Syrian activists reported last month that 18-year-old Zainab al-Hosni was found dead and mutilated after her detention.

Rights activists said she was the first woman to die in Syrian custody since the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad began in mid-March, underscoring what witnesses and the U.N. human rights office said was a fearsome new tactic of retaliating against protesters' families.

But on Wednesday, Syrian TV showed a black-clad young woman who identified herself as 18-year-old Zainab al-Hosni from Homs. The woman said she had run away from her family home in late July because her brothers allegedly abused her.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-tv-airs-interview-woman-reported-dead-081311218.html

[pinboy3niner]

102. Amnesty, HRW are re-examining the case

Although Syrian activists expressed scepticism about the identity of the woman shown on TV, her family reportedly have confirmed to HRW that the woman in the TV clip is Zainab al-Hosni.

[pinboy3niner]

99. Al Jazeera reports on 'final assault' on Sirte

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera, the commanders leading the battle for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's hometown of Sirte, say they have begun a final assault to seize the town.

A senior commander in charge of the mission also claims most civilians have now fled the city.

Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr has this exclusive report from Sirte (2:14):

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-oct-5-2011-1216

[Distant Observer]

100. Factions opposed to the NEW REGIME are being disspossesed, tortured and killed -- before elections

Of course, we hope, there will be elections. But they need to kill all the opposition first.

[pinboy3niner]

101. Blocking of Security Council resolution on Syria a "shocking betrayal"--Amnesty

5 October 2011


Permanent members of the Security Council that used their veto yesterday to block a binding resolution on Syria have utterly failed in their responsibilities to protect the Syrian people, Amnesty International said today.

"It is shocking that after more than six months of horrific bloodshed on the streets and in the detention centres of Syria, the governments of both Russia and China still felt able to veto what was already a seriously watered down resolution," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa Director.

"Those countries which ducked this decision by abstaining must also bear a heavy responsibility for allowing the brutal crackdown on legitimate dissent in Syria to continue unchecked."

"Attempt to justify this position by referring to the military intervention in Libya are utterly irresponsible. The Syrian people should not have to suffer because of political disagreements about the situation in a different country. Yesterday's veto was nothing short of a betrayal of the Syrian people."

...


http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/blocking-security-council-resolution-syria-shocking-betrayal-2011-10-05

[pinboy3niner]

103. Sean Penn, in Tripoli, says he admires Libyans for their courage in overthrowing Moammar Gadhafi

Actor-activist Sean Penn visits post-Gadhafi Libya

By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, October 5, 4:12 AM


TRIPOLI, Libya — Actor-activist Sean Penn says he admires Libyans for their courage in overthrowing Moammar Gadhafi.

Penn spoke during a visit to Tripoli on Wednesday.

He declined to comment on details about what he plans to do in the Libyan capital. But he told Associated Press Television News that he admires “the courage to say we want freedom. It’s an extraordinary thing.”

...


He says that “an enormous price has been paid but I think that there is no question that they can follow it through.”

...


http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/actor-activist-sean-penn-visits-post-gadhafi-libya/2011/10/05/gIQA5DDtML_story.html?wprss=rss_middle-east

[joshcryer]

105. Good for Penn!

Won't bode well with Chavez, but yeah. He recognizes a popular movement. :)

rentistoodamnhigh.jpg I know :P

[pinboy3niner]

106. Well, if you insist...

:evilgrin:

[pinboy3niner]

104. Is Nato's campaign in Libya grinding to a halt?

That's the question raised at The Guardian's Live Blog. Matthew Weaver and Haroon Siddique note:

It has hit just three targets in the last three days.

It hit one "command and control node" in Bani Walid yesterday; nothing on Monday; and one rocket launcher and an armed vehicle in Sirte on Sunday.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2011/oct/05/syria-libya-middle-east-unrest-live#block-7

[pinboy3niner]

107. Libya NTC forces expect to take Sirte in 48 hours

Reuters headline on a 2-paragraph newsbrief:

http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L52VV20111005

[pinboy3niner]

108. Al Arabiya reports heavy clashes in the center of Sirte

@AlArabiya_EngAl Arabiya English

Heavy clashes between Libyan revolutionary fighters and pro-Qaddafi forces in the center of the city of Sirte

1 hour ago

[pinboy3niner]

109. INSIGHT - On the run, Gaddafi leaves few footprints

Wed Oct 5, 2011 11:08am GMT

• Gaddafi suspected to be in Libya's desert south

• Tuaregs seen as a refuge, big convoys detected

• Hunt may be long, spy effort seen under way


By William Maclean


TRIPOLI, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Dressed in rags and holding a cellphone, Muammar Gaddafi sits in the shade of an oasis palm in the southern Libyan desert. He gazes wistfully at signs that say "Niger 450 km", "Burkina Faso 2,700 km", "Algiers, 650 km".

The cartoon, displayed on an easel in the lobby of Tripoli's Mahari hotel, raises a smile from patrons checking their AK-47 assault rifles and machine pistols in the wooden gun rack behind the security desk.

Just about no one knows where the former leader is hiding, six weeks after Libya's revolution finally broke his hold on the capital in an operation coordinated with NATO and Arab powers.

His aides and some of his sons scattered to provincial strongholds, where at least two -- Mutassem and Saif al-Islam -- are now believed to be fighting for their survival, respectively in Gaddafi's coastal home town of Sirte and the inland town of Bani Walid.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L51KZ20111005?sp=true

:)

[pinboy3niner]

112. ANALYSIS-Gaddafi determined to avoid Saddam Hussein's fate

Wed Oct 5, 2011 12:33pm GMT

By Christian Lowe


ALGIERS Oct 5 (Reuters) - When Muammar Gaddafi ponders his future from his hideout somewhere in Libya, he will probably recall the fate of another fallen Arab autocrat, Saddam Hussein, pulled bedraggled from a hole in the ground.

With that precedent in mind, Gaddafi will be adamant, say people who know him, about two things: he will not give up the fight against Libya's new rulers and, if the end comes, he will not allow himself to be captured alive.

"Gaddafi will not stop fighting," said Fathi Ben Shatwan, who served under the former Libyan leader as minister for energy and industry until five years ago. "He will not stop unless he is stopped."

Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), almost certainly with help from Western intelligence services, has mounted a manhunt to find Gaddafi that is focusing on the Sahara desert near the borders with Niger and Algeria.

The outcome of the hunt for Gaddafi also depends, at least in part, on the state of mind of the prey, and what he chooses to do with the dwindling options in front of him.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7L44A020111005?sp=true

[joshcryer]

113. Week 33 part 3 here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2058503