Libyan Revolution Week 29 part 3

[joshcryer]

[joshcryer]

1. Libyan Revolution Day 201 updates below, current time in Libya, 1:20am Tuesday, September 6

[pinboy3niner]

2. K&R (& I c what u did there, lolol!)

Inside one of Gaddafi's torture cells
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030931/Libya-Inside-Gaddafis-torture-chamber-The-bloodstained-cells-inside-primary-school-used-brutalise-enemies.html

[joshcryer]

4. That picture is so chilling especially since you used the other one since the beginning...

It http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1836380#1842968">likely looked like this for anyone wondering:

[pinboy3niner]

3. Libyan forces mass outside stubborn town

• Conflicting messages on surrender talks

• China denies knowing of Gaddafi arms offers

• New government dealing with first problems


By Maria Golovnina


NORTH OF BANI WALID, Libya, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Libyan forces massed on Monday outside a pro-Gaddafi desert town that has refused to surrender, building a field hospital in preparation for a possible last stand.

On-off talks involving tribal elders from Bani Walid, south of Tripoli, and a fog of contradictory messages in recent days reflect the complexities of dismantling the remnants of Gaddafi's 42-year rule and building a new political system.

At a military checkpoint some 60 km (40 miles) north of the town on the road to the capital, Abdallah Kanshil, who is running talks for the interim government, told journalists a peaceful handover was coming soon. Nevertheless, a dozen vehicles carrying NTC fighters arrived at the checkpoint.

"The surrender of the city is imminent," he said. "It is a matter of avoiding civilian casualties. Some snipers have surrendered their weapons ... Our forces are ready."

...


But 20 km closer to the town, NTC forces built a field hospital and installed 10 volunteer doctors to prepare for the possibility that Gaddafi loyalists would not give up.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7K53LJ20110905?sp=true

[joshcryer]

5. Chavez Urges Qaddafi to Continue ‘Resisting’

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-05/chavez-urges-qaddafi-to-continue-resisting-.html">Chavez Urges Qaddafi to Continue ‘Resisting’
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez urged Muammar Qaddafi to resist a rebel siege in Libya, saying that his ally has no plans to leave the embattled North African nation.

“Nobody knows where Qaddafi is,” Chavez said today in a phone interview broadcast on state television. “I’m sure that he’s very far from thinking about leaving Libya. He’ll resist with what power he has left.”

A core group of soldiers and officials loyal to Qaddafi are holed up in the town of Bani Walid, said the rebel fighters besieging the town today. Negotiations have reached an impasse between the rebels and tribesmen for the peaceful handover of Sabha, Jaffra and Sirte, Qaddafi’s hometown. The rebel council says it’s focusing on those towns because Qaddafi may be hiding in one of them.

Chavez, who last month pledged support to Qaddafi and called the armed conflict in Libya the result of “imperial insanity,” said he doesn’t have information on the leader’s whereabouts. He said that by resisting, Qaddafi can lay the groundwork for a lasting peace in Libya.

[joshcryer]

6. Libya-China arms memos found on Tripoli roadside (found by chance, partially destroyed)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-14787042">Libya-China arms memos found on Tripoli roadside
Col Gaddafi, as recently as July - despite a United Nations embargo on weapons sales.

China maintains that the discussions were held without the knowledge of the government, and says that no deals were signed, and no arms were supplied.

The news was first reported in the Canadian Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper after one of their journalists, Graeme Smith, came across documents detailing the meetings.

Mr Smith told the BBC World Service that he found the memos by the side of the road in Tripoli, "blowing in the wind".

Audio at link. Very very telling. They couldn't destroy the other security papers but this one was important enough to "get rid of" the best they could. Amazing find.

[CJCRANE]

7. K&R nt

[pinboy3niner]

8. Large Libyan armored convoy (200-250 Libyan mil. vehicles) arrives in Niger -sources

Tue Sep 6, 2011 12:22am GMT


AGADEZ, Sept 6 (Reuters) - A large convoy of Libyan armored vehicles escorted by the Nigerien military arrived in the northern Niger desert town of Agadez late on Monday, a French military source and a Niger military source told Reuters.

The convoy contained between 200 and 250 Libyan military vehicles and included officers from Libya's southern army battalions, and likely crossed from Libya into Algeria before entering Niger, the sources said.


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7K600220110906

[pinboy3niner]

9. Qaeda offshoot acquires Libyan air missiles: EU

AFP – 7 hrs ago.


Al-Qaeda's north African branch has acquired a stockpile of weapons in Libya, including surface-to-air missiles that are threatening air travel, the EU's counter-terrorism coordinator said Monday.

Due to the turmoil in Libya, members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have "gained access to weapons, either small arms or machine-guns, or certain surface-to-air missiles which are extremely dangerous because they pose a risk to flights over the territory," said Gilles de Kerchove.

At a news conference marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States, de Kerchove said that while the threat of strikes by mainstream Al-Qaeda followers had decreased, AQIM was taking root both on the Arab peninsula and in Africa, posing a mounting threat.

"It is a group that is Africanising and seeking to extend its area of influence," he said.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/qaeda-offshoot-acquires-libyan-air-missiles-eu-164233009.html

[pinboy3niner]

10. Glencore snaps up Libya fuel contract

By Emma Farge

Tuesday, 6 September 2011


(Reuters) - Glencore has signed its first contract to deliver fuels to Libya's interim council, according to industry sources, in a further sign that rival Vitol is losing its place as top supplier to the rebels who now rule the country.

...


"They are supplying products. The deal was for two shipments of gasoline and two shipments of gasoil," an industry source in Libya told Reuters. Glencore declined to comment.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/glencore-snaps-up-libya-fuel-contract-2349910.html

[pinboy3niner]

11. Libyan spy files detail Gadhafi regime's collapse

By BEN HUBBARD - Associated Press | AP – 3 hrs ago.


TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — As the uprising grew against Moammar Gadhafi, secret reports from his vaunted intelligence service flowed back to Tripoli. Some were mundane — how agents erased anti-regime graffiti. Others were more deadly — a spy volunteered to poison rebel leaders' food and drink.

The reports grew more desperate as the Libyan rebellion veered into civil war: Military leaders in the western mountains were disregarding orders; troops in the city of Misrata ran out of ammunition, turning the situation into "every man for himself."

These reports and hundreds of other intelligence documents seen by The Associated Press in Tripoli trace how the tide shifted in the six-month uprising that ended Gadhafi's 42-year reign. They show how an authoritarian regime using all its means failed to quash an armed rebellion largely fueled by hatred of its tools of control.

The Arab-language documents read and photographed by an AP reporter during a visit to Tripoli's intelligence headquarters contain a mixture of military data and regime propaganda. Amid reports on rebels' movements, phone tap records and dispatches from Gadhafi's domestic agents are memos claiming that al-Qaida was behind the rebellion and that 4,000 U.S. troops were about to invade from Egypt.

...


One letter from the Investigation and Surveillance Office pleaded with al-Senoussi to intervene at the station, which "has become an office of alcohol, prostitution and theft of property of those arrested."

...


http://news.yahoo.com/libyan-spy-files-detail-gadhafi-regimes-collapse-193438242.html

[pinboy3niner]

12. Ottawa doctor beaten in Libyan prison

Freed after 5 months in Abu Salim

CBC News

Posted: Sep 5, 2011 3:37 PM ET
Last Updated: Sep 5, 2011 5:28 PM ET


A Libyan-Canadian neurosurgeon freed from a Tripoli prison by anti-Gadhafi rebels last month said he is lucky to be alive after he was beaten and threatened with rape by his captors.

Dr. Rida Mazagri, who once worked at Ottawa's Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, returned to Libya in February shortly after the rebellion broke out to tend to the wounded. But pro-Gadhafi forces soon captured him.

...


He said one loyalist asked him his medical specialty. When he answered spinal surgery, the man jumped on his back.

He said he was also repeatedly kicked and whipped with an engine belt from a car, and steeled himself for a detention that could have lasted years.

"This is Gadhafi. This is Libya. This is Abu Salim. So you have to prepare yourself psychologically, this is going to be weeks, months, or years," he said.

...


http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2011/09/05/ottawa-doctor-libya.html

[joshcryer]

13. The 'resource curse': An Alaskan solution for Libya?

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/BUSINESS/09/05/libya.oil.resource.curse/">The 'resource curse': An Alaskan solution for Libya?
In the aftermath of the 42-year rule of Moammar Gadhafi, the world is left wondering whether the bloodiest conflict in the popular unrest that has swept the Arab World will signal the rise of democracy in Libya or a descent into chaos.

A group of economists is proposing one solution to help a strong Libya emerge from the smoldering ruins of civil war: Give all Libyans direct annual payments from oil revenue.

Call it the 'Alaska solution.'

"In 1982 then-governor Jay Hammond of Alaska said, 'Look, there is no check or balance on our use (of state oil revenue)," said Todd Moss, a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development in Washington. Hammond started a program to give residents annual checks from the state's petroleum fund. "That held Hammond and all his successors into account."

Libya is a textbook example, Moss said, of what is known as the "resource curse" - countries whose economies depend on oil, gas or other natural resource exports. It's sometimes known as "the paradox of plenty" - rather than create an economic boom, export cash from resource-rich nations often flows directly to corrupt leaders while most the population doesn't share in the wealth.

Gaddafi http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wikileaks-files/libya-wikileaks/8294913/LIBYA-POSTPONES-GENERAL-PEOPLES-CONGRESS-WALKS-BACK-FROM-WEALTH-DISTRIBUTION-AND-PRIVATIZATION-PLANS.html">didn't want to redistribute the wealth. The http://www.scribd.com/doc/62823350/Libya-Draft-Constitutional-Charter-for-the-Transitional-Stage">Draft Constitution under Article 8 gives the wealth to the people: "The State shall further guarantee the fair distribution of national wealth among citizens, and among the different cities and districts thereof." Juan Cole also believes http://www.juancole.com/2011/08/how-to-avoid-bushs-iraq-mistakes-in-libya.html">wealth redistribution is a good thing.

[Cali_Democrat]

14. ***BLACK MIGRANTS NOW LIVE IN FEAR IN LIBYA***

Black migrants now live in fear in Libya
September 02, 2011|By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

Reporting from Janzour, Libya — They huddle beneath dry-docked boats at the edge of the Mediterranean, petrified that the rebel gunmen who now own the streets will confuse them with mercenaries for the despot.

"We are workers, we are not soldiers," said Godfrey Ogbor, 29, voicing a plea shared by hundreds of men from sub-Saharan Africa trapped at this makeshift coastal camp 15 miles west of Tripoli. "We don't know politics. We have no guns."

But the new masters of Tripoli suspect that many are something else: shock troops for a reviled regime, collaborators who deserve no pity.

For decades, impoverished young sub-Saharan Africans came to Libya to work in construction, hotel, car-repair and other blue-collar and service jobs. But Moammar Kadafi also avidly recruited poor black men, both Libyans and sub-Saharans, for his security forces. Government rallies inevitably featured contingents of seemingly delirious gun-toting young blacks waving the leader's signature green flag. Rebels have not forgotten.

Read more..http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/02/world/la-fg-libya-migrants-20110902

[joshcryer]

15. That's from September 2, and was posted on Week 28 part 3.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1855387&mesg_id=1861509

Please be aware that we post every news item we come across, you'd do good to follow this thread. :hi:

[Cali_Democrat]

19. It was so important

I felt it should be posted again. :hi:

[joshcryer]

23. Please indicate the date so people aren't confused.

Being off by a day isn't a big deal but 4 days is really misinforming since things are moving so quickly. Some of these people were released. :hi:

[Cali_Democrat]

29. Post edited to indicate the date of the article

:hi:

[Cali_Democrat]

21. .

.

[pinboy3niner]

17. Dupe

[tabatha]

18. 'Day from hell': Detainees on both sides suffer in Libya

TRIPOLI, Libya — Rebel forces and armed civilians are rounding up thousands of black Libyans and migrants from sub-Sahara Africa, accusing them of fighting for ousted strongman Moammar Gadhafi and holding them in makeshift jails across the capital.

Meanwhile, stories of torture emerged from survivors who described how Gadhafi forces detained them in crowded metal containers and left them to die, Amnesty International reported Thursday. One survivor described a "day from hell."

In their own fight for leadership and control of Libya, the rebels' National Transitional Council has called on fighters not to abuse prisoners and says those accused of crimes will receive fair trials. There has been little credible evidence of rebels killing or systematically abusing captives during the six-month conflict. Still, the African Union and Amnesty International have protested the treatment of blacks inside Libya, saying there is a potential for serious abuse.

Virtually all of the detainees say they are innocent migrant workers, and in most cases there is no evidence that they are lying. But that is not stopping the rebels from placing the men in facilities like the Gate of the Sea sports club, where about 200 detainees — all black — clustered on a soccer field this week, bunching against a high wall to avoid the scorching sun.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44361720/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/day-hell-detainees-both-sides-suffer-libya/#.TmQQ_2o99I4



There has been little credible evidence of rebels killing or systematically abusing captives during the six-month conflict. Still, the African Union and Amnesty International have protested the treatment of blacks inside Libya, saying there is a potential for serious abuse.

[tabatha]

20. Libya a safe haven for Somali refugees

'Detention in Libya is still better than going back to Somalia because there you can get killed any minute,' Salat told AFP.

For four days the refugees stayed under the supervision of the victorious rebel fighters who were able to provide one meal a day despite shortages of fuel, food and water in the capital.

'Our religion encourages to treat this people humanely,' said commander Adnan Ibrahim Mleigta, leader of the Alqaqa unit which found the Somali refugees.

'It was clear they had not been involved in any violence,' he said.

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/World/2011/09/05/Libya_a_safe_haven_for_Somali_refugees_657991.html

[tabatha]

16. Spymasters' miscalculation on Gaddafi

IT was the hour of the spymasters. Some of the sharpest brains in the British and US intelligence establishment made their careers by supposedly converting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi - once dubbed the Mad Dog of the Middle East - into a surprisingly useful ally in the war against terror.

Now, in the confusion of crumpled memos and cables unearthed in the ransacked office of Moussa Koussa, the Libyan spy chief, it looks as if the great diplomatic breakthrough of 2003-04 - the taming of Colonel Gaddafi - might turn out to be yet another example of western miscalculation, of overestimating a tyrant's readiness to reform.

Moreover, Libyan oil had remained interesting for all the major players. The Gaddafi sons, especially Saif, were desperate for increased oil revenue so that they could begin modernising their country.

By March 2004, Mr Blair was shaking hands with the Libyan leader in a Bedouin tent and all seemed well with the world. Yet there were plenty of signs that Colonel Gaddafi had not changed his tune. By 2009 he was effectively blackmailing Britain into handing over Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi, the only Libyan intelligence officer convicted for the Lockerbie bombing. At stake was a huge BP oil deal.

Then, at the very latest, it should have been clear that there was no point in developing a relationship with the Gaddafi family. The much vaunted diplomatic triumph had become an exercise in British humiliation, with officials helping Saif Gaddafi complete his doctoral thesis and a general rush to keep on the right side of the family.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/spymasters-miscalculation-on-gaddafi/story-e6frg6so-1226130383160

[tabatha]

22. In Libya, euphoria mixes with uncertainty

By Patrick J. McDonnell, Los Angeles Times

September 5, 2011, 5:58 p.m.
Reporting from Tripoli, Libya—
Trash piles up on the streets, grocery shelves are nearly bare, water is in short supply and major battles loom before the war is won.

But a prevalent mood of optimism and a sense of new possibilities seem to prevail in Libya's battered capital almost two weeks after its liberation from Moammar Kadafi's longtime rule.

"Now we have a chance to do something right," said Shaban Fituri, 54, an engineer who was buying fresh fish near the port on Monday. "For too long, we were all slaves on Kadafi's farm."

Despite the ongoing hardships, there remains a kind of euphoria in the air, a feeling that it can't be true. The liberation of Tripoli removed a weight that was both physical and psychological.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-mood-20110906,0,5761496.story

[tabatha]

24. MI6 knew I was tortured, says Libyan rebel leader

A Libyan rebel leader who was rendered to Tripoli with the assistance of MI6 said on Monday that he had told British intelligence officers he was being tortured but they did nothing to help him.

In a claim that will increase the pressure for further disclosure about the UK's role in torture and rendition since 9/11, Abdul Hakim Belhaj said a team of British interrogators used hand signals to indicate they understood what he was telling them.

"I couldn't believe they could let this go on," he said. "What has happened deserves a full inquiry."

Belhaj was detained by the CIA in Thailand in 2004 following an MI6 tipoff, allegedly tortured, then flown to Tripoli, where he says he suffered years of abuse in one of Muammar Gaddafi's prisons.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/05/abdul-hakim-belhaj-libya-mi6-torture

[tabatha]

25. Rebels extend deadline for key town's surrender

Rebels extend deadline for key town's surrender
By Portia Walker in Tripoli
Tuesday, 6 September 2011

Forces loyal to Libya's new interim government massed outside one of the last regime-held towns yesterday amid reports that two of Colonel Gaddafi's sons fled the area at the weekend.

Opposition spokesmen say they wish to avoid a bloodbath as they battle for control of the last pockets of loyalist support, and have extended a deadline for regime troops to surrender until Saturday. Leading figures from the former regime are believed to be holed up inside the settlement of Bani Walid, 90 miles south-east of Tripoli.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/rebels-extend-deadline-for-key-towns-surrender-2349776.html

until Saturday? next week? They have bent over backwards.

[pinboy3niner]

26. Source: Gaddafi and son Saif could join Libyan mil. convoy in Niger, go to exile in Burkina Faso

Posted at AJE Live Blog:

A large convoy of Libyan armored vehicles escorted by the Nigerien military arrived in the northern Niger desert town of Agadez late on Monday, a French military source and a Niger military source told Reuters.

The convoy contained between 200 and 250 Libyan military vehicles and included officers from Libya's southern army battalions, and likely crossed from Libya into Algeria before entering Niger, the sources said on condition of anonymity.

The French military source said he had been told Muammar Gaddafi and his son Saif al-Islam might be considering joining the convoy en route to Burkina Faso, a landlocked West African state which has offered Gaddafi and his family asylum and has a border with Niger.

commander of Libya's southern forces, General Ali Khana, may also be in Niger, not far from the Libyan border.

He said he had been told that Gaddafi and his son Saif would join Khana and catch up with the convoy should they choose to accept Burkina Faso's offer of exile.

Burkina Faso, a former recipient of large amounts of Libyan aid, offered Gaddafi exile about two weeks ago but has also recognised the rebel National Transitional Council (NTC) as Libya's government. - Reuters


http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-6-2011-0434

[tabatha]

27. wheelertweets James Wheeler

11 hours ago

#Libya: Went thru part of Babalazizya yesterday. Very crowded, hot, and dusty. Smoke & dirt & debris everywhere.

#Libya: Many of the docs @ Tripoli Med Ctr say its just as well the nurses stopped coming to work now. They were certified but not qualified

#Libya: 80% or more of nurses, EMTs etc at #Tripoli Med Center were snitches for #Gaddafi. Most stopped coming to work. Hence the shortage.

#Libya: I'm sitting at the coffee shop at #Tripoli Medical Ctr. 1st time online since arriving here Friday.

[tabatha]

28. More slaughter

LibyaSteadfast Benghazi Youth
Multiple reports of a mass grave found in #Tripoli near Nasr University. Approximately 3000 martyrs via @TawasulMC #Libya
3 hours ago

[pinboy3niner]

30. Libyan army convoy in Niger may be Gadaffi deal

Tue Sep 6, 2011 3:06am GMT


• 200-250 military vehicles in Libyan convoy

• Sources say Gaddafi could have struck deal

• Fallen strongman may be headed to Burkina Faso


By Christian Lowe


TRIPOLI/AGADEZ, Niger, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Scores of Libyan army vehicles have crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a dramatic, secretly negotiated bid by Muammar Gaddafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state, military sources from France and Niger told Reuters on Tuesday.


The convoy of between 200 and 250 vehicles was given an escort by the army of Niger, an impoverished and landlocked former French colony to the south of Libya, and might, according to a French military source, be joined by Gaddafi en route for neighbouring Burkina Faso, which has offered him asylum.


It was not clear where the 69-year-old former leader was. He has broadcast defiance since being forced into hiding two weeks ago, and has previously vowed to die fighting on Libyan soil.


Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam, the heir apparent before the uprising which ended his father's 42 years of personal rule two weeks ago, also was considering joining the convoy, the French source added. France played a leading role in the war against Gaddafi and such a large Libyan military convoy could hardly have moved safely without the knowledge and agreement of NATO air forces.


Sources told Reuters that France may have brokered an arrangement between the new Libyan government and Gaddafi.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7K53TY20110906?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

31. Tuareg Leaders in Niger and Mali Urge Tuareg in Libya to Work With NTC

September 05, 2011

Scott Stearns | Abuja, Nigeria


Tuareg leaders in Niger and Mali are urging Tuareg fighters in Libya to abandon Moammar Gadhafi and work with the country's new leaders.

The change of power in Libya could further destabilize Africa's Sahelian region, where al-Qaida affiliated terrorists are already active.

Tuareg legislators from Mali and Niger say Libya's interim council has promised not to target Tuareg members of the Gadhafi army.

By urging those fighters to join Libya's new leaders, Sahelian governments are hoping to avoid a mass movement south that would worsen conditions in an already food-insecure region and could benefit al-Qaida affiliated terrorists.

...


http://www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Tuareg-Leaders-in-Niger-and-Mali-Urge-Tuareg-in-Libya-to-Work-With-NTC-129253488.html

[tabatha]

32. Libia non e` Gheddafi...Libya is not Gheddafi

STARTING THE CAREER WITH GHEDDAFI

My story was started on the 2nd of March 2011 when I was called by a friend of mine to translate for the foreign journalists arriving in Libya to cover the Libyan crisis, 830 a. m I move towards the Rixos hotel which is located in the south eastern part of Tripoli…

Hello …….? How can I get to the Rixos? OK just follow that smoke which is rising in the air.... ...was my telephone call asking my friend how to get there as he started one week earlier as a translator for the French TV..But the truth is this hotel was reserved just for the VIPS and I have never been part of them in Libya.

In this Libyan freedom war, Gheddafi did not just paid for non Libyan soldiers who fought in the battle front but also paid for some journalists to win the war of media, the hotel Rixos was the basis of these people who were given accommodation, food and transportation or promised of having future commercial deals in case of regime was succeeded to stay in power (super pocket money as well) ...

1-Nahada Zirwati of the Algerian newspaper ALMOSTAKBAL....
2-Ali shondub the correspondent of the Lebanese TV LBC....
3 - Jordan Jesus of the South American network Tele Sur which is financed by Hugo Chavez (Tele Chavez)...
4-Al Habib Laswad journal of Tunisia Alshorouk.....
5-Mahmud Kampar of Russia Today Arabic ...
......

http://fergiani.blogspot.com/2011/08/translating-for-gheddafi_24.html

[pinboy3niner]

33. BREAKING: Libyan rebels reach deal to enter town of Bani Walid on Wednesday without fighting

(Via breakingnews.com)

Libyan rebels reach deal to enter town of Bani Walid on Wednesday without fighting - Al Jazeera TV, via Reuters

4:45AM GMT Sep 6, 2011

Ed. to add Reuters excerpt:

DUBAI, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Libyan rebels plan to enter the pro-Gaddafi desert town of Bani Walid on Tuesday after reaching a deal with delegates from the town to avoid fighting, Al Jazeera television said.

[pinboy3niner]

34. Reports Say Loyalists Are Fleeing From Libya to Niger

Source: New York Times

By ROD NORDLAND and ALAN COWELL

Published: September 6, 2011


TRIPOLI, Libya — As rebel negotiators press loyalists in the desert town of Bani Walid to surrender peacefully before a Sept. 10 deadline, a long convoy of Libyan army vehicles was reported on Tuesday to have crossed the country’s southern border into Niger in what could represent a shift in the balance of power after six months of conflict.


The convoy’s movements were reported by several news agencies quoting witnesses and military officials from France and Niger itself. Reuters said the string of 200 to 250 vehicles could have been part of a dramatic and secretly struck attempt by Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi to find refuge in a friendly African state, possibly Burkina Faso, which has offered him asylum.


But other reports suggested that the vehicles were carrying Tuareg fighters who had been paid to fight for him.


Reuters quoted an unidentified French source as saying Colonel Qaddafi’s son, Seif al-Islam, once his heir apparent, was considering joining the convoy on its way to the northern Niger city of Agadez. Both Colonel Qaddafi and his son face charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

...


Reuters said France may have brokered a deal between the rebels and Colonel Qaddafi but the French government declined to confirm the report. France was the first country to recognize the rebels who launched their uprising in February and has played a central role along with Britain and the United States in the NATO air campaign to weaken his forces.


If the dramatic flight across the sands is confirmed, it could mean a significant military setback for Colonel Qaddafi.

...


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/07/world/africa/07libya.html

[tabatha]

36. The reports are wrong.

It is about 25 vehicles of Tuareg mercenaries returning home.

Gaddafi is holed up in Sabha.

[ellisonz]

37. Agreed. He's going to drag this out as long as possible.

[defendandprotect]

35. kr

[Iterate]

38. Breaking AJA: Sirte, Gaddafi 's hometown have given up their weapons

AnasAlaoui Anas Alaoui
BREAKING via AJA: #Sirte, #Gaddafi 's hometown have given up their weapons. yfrog.com/mej8nnj yfrog.com/h2bbtwosj #Libya via @menablog 10 minutes ago

photoimpactpixs Charlotte
Libyan opposition has "also agreed with some tribes in #Sirte, the #Gaddafi hometown, to lay down arms". #libya #feb17 bit.ly/pBt9vw 34 minutes ago

elshamyarsenal Elshamy Mohammed
Money in #Libyan trucks moved to #Niger was taken from central bank branch in #Sirte, #NTC spokesman 1 hour ago

freedom4libya Khalifa Leebee
AJA is reporting an agreement had been reached and #FF will enter #Sirte and Bin Waled peacefully. 1 hour ago

Maybe. Sometimes AJA is a bit too quick with a story.

ETA other Sirte tweets:

LibyanLion17 A Free Libyan
BREAK - Wefaq Media - Earlier today, a Scud missile was fired from #Sirte to #Misrata. NATO intercepted. #Libya #Feb17 15 hours ago

ChangeInLibya Ismael Zmirli
AJ Arabic is broadcasting the meeting/negotiations between #BaniWalid & freedom fighters live on TV. + some 20 other networks present #libya 2 hours ago

CBSNews CBS News
#Libya rebels reportedly make deal to enter #Qaddafi stronghold peacefully as loyalist troops flee to Niger: bit.ly/pRzxOn 3 hours ago

[Iterate]

39. No widespread confirmation -seems to be based on this video report:

Probably part of the larger negotiation.

Then I found this from misratapost YT:

Part of the negotiations with the dignitaries of the city of Sirte - Sep 6
http://youtu.be/6_wwm82gO3k

I can't think of any time in history when such negotiations have been broadcast. Translation in progress. These are the first two comments from mm84010 .

Translation (1)

They were discussing collection the weapons from the tribe members and some figures who are supporting Gaddafi.

FF: We came by the Law of our new government to collect all of your weapons. Mr. NTC president "Mustafa" had ordered us to collect all weapons. Your weapons will not be owned by FF, We will record all collected weapons and provide you with a receipt. You should submit all weapons not sbumit one outof 10 weapons.

Translation (2)

Tribe: Yes, Yes, but you have to trust us too, when we give you the weapons since it is goes to the government. What is the need of weapons under a justice government. If you catch any one hiding a weapon you apply your rules on him.

FF: We will provide you with food, baby milk, every thing. we will use our cars to bring water to your sheep. It is our responsibility to assist your tribe.

Tribe: We agree to all conditions and your are welcome

FF: I thing we finished a deal...

[tabatha]

42. That was Bani Walid

VIDEO of the #NTC & #BaniWalid surrender negotiations - this is very good 4 #Libya to see in open.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_wwm82gO3k&feature=youtu.be

[Iterate]

45. Thanks

I should have known better -it didn't quite add up but I thought maybe the video referred to parallel talks.

26 min 55 sec ago - Libya
Al Jazeera's Anit McnNaught, who was at the talks in Bani Walid, reports:

The discussion and the body language was interesting. They weren't talking specifics, but rather emotions, feelings, and people's prides.

They were trying to persuade the people of Bani Walid that there is a new era ahead of them that does not involve retributions or collective punishments. They were giving gentle assurances.

The leaders said they would go back to their communities and try to persuade their people
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-6-2011-1733

[tabatha]

49. Unfortunately ...

AJA: "Bani Walid's negotiators were shot at by Saadi Gaddafi's thugs when they tried to return to the town

@hadeelalsh Hadeel Al-Shalchi Now #BaniWalid rebel council rep says he is ready to fight becuase pro-Gadhafi forces shot at the tribal leaders.. #libya

** UPDATE ** from Libyan on AJE blog

most commaning officers outside bani-walid, on the NLA side; are from bani-walid and the werfella tribe...so are most of the soldiers...they know the place very well.some are very highly regarded in bani-walid.
my father is very close friends w/ the main ones personally....

they are going in, it wont be a serious battle, inshallah

[Iterate]

40. @plemochoe

Tweets from plemochoe are always good, and often far more complex than one would imagine possible from twitter. Wish now I had posted them often.

"Know anything about this 250-car convoy of G forces the BBC says entered Niger? Next, BBC examines Libya stalemate, quagmire

press is suggesting #gaddafi will stir up an insurgency "like Saddam Hussein" OK, but we get to decorate the spiderhole

During the war, Western reporters were adamant: the fighting was a stalemate, Libya a quagmire, the TNC incompetent,info sharing poor
In WaPo this morning: hunt for #gaddafi chaotic,ill-coordinated, "Gaddafi's tribal heartlands"(why are they his?) secret convoys etc.
All of which is topped off by a generous helping of Moussa Ibrahim's bullshit (accept no substitutes) saying that #gaddafi is winning

What all of this means is that such reporters have no real interest in or sympathy for the Libyan Revolution, state or people
They have figured out that their readers like #gaddafi Look at their use of the term "tribal" #bullshitjournalism #wapo
The term "tribal" has been used throughout the war as a synonym for primitive and unpredictable behavior in relation to the TNC
But when #gaddafi is the subject the subtext is his innate ability to "control" the tribes like some latter day Great White Father
Because when Americans hear "tribes" the first thing they think of is either red Indians or black Africans (or maybe bearded Arabs)

If the TNC is under discussion then the word most closely associated with "tribal" is "militia" a chaotic tribal army #racistbullshit
But now today in relation to #gaddafi the word associated with "tribal" is "heartlands" into which he disappears at will
I don't know when the Sahara fucking Desert became the "heartland" of anything, it's not the heartland of Libya, I know that
But see how #gaddafi gets the best of all interpretations. On one hand he's civilized, urbane and witty compared to the "bearded" TNC

OK so we kick his ass out of Tripoli then what? He's the will o the wisp "tribal" leader, the desert version of Che Guevara
Meanwhile the WaPo broadly implies that NATO could electronically "sniff out" #gaddafi but the "rebels" are too stupid to take adv.
Meanwhile, who is it that takes Moussa Ibrahim's fricking phone call? A television station in SYRIA"

Split for readability. There are no paragraphs in twitter.

[tabatha]

41. Gaddafi loyalists' 'torture chamber and mass grave' in Khoms - video

Amateur footage obtained by Reuters purports to show anti-Gaddafi fighters being tortured in what appears to be a shipping container, while residents of the Libyan town of Khoms, 60 miles east of Tripoli, have unearthed the bodies of 17 men in a mass grave

Warning: Contains disturbing images

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/sep/06/gaddafi-torture-mass-grave-video?CMP=twt_gu

[tabatha]

43. A convoy of 10 vehicles that crossed into Niger

A convoy of 10 vehicles that crossed into Niger was carrying money taken from a branch of the Central Bank of Libya, a spokesman for the ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Tuesday.

"They took the money from the central bank in Sirte," Abdel Hafiz Ghoga, an NTC spokesman told Reuters in Benghazi .

Sirte is the birthplace of fugitive strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

An NTC official earlier said a Libyan convoy of 10 vehicles carrying gold and cash crossed into Niger late on Monday, citing sources among the Tuareg people who live in the Sahara desert on both sides of the frontier.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya

[Iterate]

52. US has urged Niger to detain senior Gaddafi officials

40 min 5 sec ago - Libya
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-6-2011-2044

The US government has urged Niger to detain senior officials from the Gaddafi government who it believes crossed into the country in a convoy from Libya, Reuters reported.

Niger officials informed the US ambassador that the convoy carried several senior members of Gaddafi's government, but gave no indication that Gaddafi himself was among them, US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said.

"We have strongly urged the Nigeran officials to detain

those members of the regime who may be subject to prosecution,

to ensure that they confiscate any weapons that are found and

to ensure that any state property of the government of Libya,

money, jewels, etcetera, also be impounded so that it can be

returned to the Libyan people.

All of them would be subject to the U.N. travel ban which

is why we're working closely with the government of Niger"

[Iterate]

44. Special report: The secret plan to take Tripoli

Special report: The secret plan to take Tripoli
By Samia Nakhoul
TRIPOLI | Tue Sep 6, 2011 10:00am EDT

(Reuters) - Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's regime was delivered by a caterer, on a memory stick.

Abdel Majid Mlegta ran the companies that supplied meals to Libyan government departments including the interior ministry. The job was "easy," he told Reuters last week. "I built good relations with officers. I wanted to serve my country."

But in the first few weeks of the uprising, he secretly began to work for the rebels. He recruited sympathizers at the nerve center of the Gaddafi government, pinpointed its weak links and its command-and-control strength in Tripoli, and passed that information onto the rebel leadership on a series of flash memory cards.

The first was handed to him, he says, by Gaddafi military intelligence and security officers. It contained information about seven key operations rooms in the capital, including internal security, the Gaddafi revolutionary committees, the popular guards -- as Gaddafi's voluntary armed militia was known -- and military intelligence.

The data included names of the commanders of those units, how many people worked in each center and how they worked, as well as crucial details like the number plates of their cars, and how each unit communicated with the central command led by intelligence chief Abdullah al-Senussi and Gaddafi's second son Saif al-Islam.

more... http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/06/us-libya-endgame-idUSTRE7853C520110906

[Iterate]

46. 1,200 migrants (still) stranded in southern Libya

1,200 migrants stranded in southern Libya
September 6, 2011

Around 1,200 migrants, mostly Chadians, are stranded in the besieged southern Libyan town of Sebha, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said Tuesday.

...

Sebha, a Qaddafi stronghold, has an airport which was used by the IOM last July to evacuate 1,400 Chadian migrants, including women and children, who had fled fighting in Tripoli, Misrata and Benghazi, the IOM said.

It added that a that a "high-level delegation" from the organization would soon depart for Tripoli and Benghazi to address the issue.

more... http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=308691

They've been stuck at the transit center since late June. It's the same group reported in other posts about that time.

[Iterate]

47. Freed Egyptians tell of torture in Libyan jails

Freed Egyptians tell of torture in Libyan jails
Last Updated: Tue Sep 06, 2011 15:38 pm (KSA) 12:38 pm (GMT)
By AFP Benghazi

With drawn and gaunt faces, some 30 Egyptians holed up in a modest Libyan hotel speak of the incarceration and torture they suffered at the hands of Muammar Qaddafi’s loyalists.

“They told me, ‘You Egyptians, you caused problems in your country, and now you have come to destroy ours’,” said Mahmud Abu Zeid, referring to the popular uprising that ousted neighboring Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak in February.

“They wanted me to say that I was armed and had encouraged Libyans to rise up against Qaddafi,” he said.

The 31-year-old said he was the first Egyptian to have been jailed in Abu Slim, a district of Tripoli that saw some of the fiercest fighting and worst atrocities before Qaddafi lost his grip on the capital late last month.

more... http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/09/06/165646.html
or here... http://feb17.info/news/freed-egyptians-tell-of-torture-in-libyan-jails/

[Iterate]

48. Exclusive: Gaddafi used torture squads in bid to preserve rule

Exclusive: Gaddafi used torture squads in bid to preserve rule
By Christian Lowe
KHOMS, Libya | Tue Sep 6, 2011 1:17pm EDT

(Reuters) - Libya's Muammar Gaddafi deployed special squads which held suspected opponents in shipping containers, tortured them for information about insurgent networks and disposed of their bodies in unmarked graves in a campaign to smash the revolt against his rule.

Evidence gathered by Reuters in the provincial town of Khoms shows an organized system of repression with methods including delivering electric shocks to suspects' genitals, keeping them for weeks in baking heat with only a few sips of water a day, and whipping them with an electrical cable while their hands were bound with plastic ties.

...

But accounts from Khoms paint a different, and in some ways even more sinister picture. Months before the rebel victory, and out of sight of the outside world, Gaddafi was operating a system of torture - separate from the army and police - that was so well-organized the units has their own command structures and bureaucracy.

On a wall at a construction site just outside Khoms that one of the units used for detaining suspects, pro-Gaddafi forces had scrawled in red crayon the name of their unit: "Soqur Al-Fatah" - or "Hawks of Al-Fatah," a reference to the 1969 Al-Fatah Revolution that brought Gaddafi to power. Underneath that, in the same handwriting, someone had written the words: "Death Group."

more... http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/06/us-libya-torture-idUSTRE7854MR20110906

[tabatha]

50. Found on a farm near tripoli

Omar Ali Al-Kilani farm road to the airport in Tripoli

Tripoli - the discovery of a huge amount of gerds rockets in a farm near airport , the farm belongs to Ali Al-kaylani son Ali , one of G thugs- http://www. youtube. com/watch?v=IcTnkAN82kI

http://youtu.be/IcTnkAN82kI

[Iterate]

51. Tuareg fighters take tough road home as Gaddafi falls

Tuareg fighters take tough road home as Gaddafi falls
Tue Sep 6, 2011 5:38pm GMT

* Ex-hired guns speak of fleeing NATO bombs

* Gaddafi loyalists hunted deserters

* Despite ordeals, nostalgia for Gaddafi lingers

By Abdoulaye Massalatchi

DAGABA, Niger, Sep 6 (Reuters) - Recruited at $1,000 a month and handed a Kalashnikov and ammunition, Agali Ghissa thought his job was to defend Libya's Muammar Gaddafi from poorly-armed insurgents.

Now the small-time trader is back among his nomadic Tuareg people in the mountains of neighbouring Niger, his short career as a hired gun ended by a NATO bombing campaign which he and many co-fighters did not see coming.

"For us it was the rebels we were going to fight, not an airborne armada," Agali told Reuters in the Air mountains of northern Niger, near the town of Dabaga, 45 km (30 miles) north of the regional capital Agadez.

"Now we are back here to live in peace. Weapons, that is all finished for me," added Agali, sat next to fellow deserter Mahmoud Ahmed, a Tuareg of joint Libyan and Nigerien descent.

more... http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7K652520110906?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

53. Libyan NTC forces say ready to take pro-Gaddafi town

Tue Sep 6, 2011 7:20pm GMT


NORTH OF BANI WALID, Libya, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Representatives of Libya's ruling interim council said they were preparing to take over a desert town held by loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi after reaching an agreement with tribal elders on Tuesday, but disagreed on whether to use force.

...


"We are very happy with the result of the meeting," NTC negotiator Abdallah Kanshil said, adding that the Gaddafi loyalists had seen eye-to-eye with the NTC's proposals.

"We are just waiting for the order to go into Bani Walid."

But another NTC negotiator, Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, later cast doubt on the agreement, saying that the elders had been threatened by Gaddafi loyalists after the meeting and that this had soured the atmosphere.

He called for an attack on the town rather than a peaceful handover. "We are ready to attack very soon," he said, estimating the pro-Gaddafi forces at 100-120 gunmen with small weapons and one rocket launcher


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7K65A420110906

[tabatha]

57. Not very pro-Gaddafi - see #56

[pinboy3niner]

59. Bani Walid reminds me of old Western movies...

...in which a relatively small outlaw gang comes to a town and takes control by virtue of their firepower.

Posts on The Guardian's blog today indicate people of Bani Walid are getting all their news from Gaddafi propaganda broadcasts telling them the rebels are coming to kill them and they will "cut the breasts" of the women.

I'm still waking up and catching up here...going to make a second cup of coffee... :)

[pinboy3niner]

54. Convoys of Gadhafi loyalists flee Libya to Niger

By HADEEL AL-SHALCHI - Associated Press | AP – 41 mins ago.


TARHOUNA, Libya (AP) — Armed loyalists of Moammar Gadhafi, including his security chief, fled into neighboring Niger in multiple convoys across hundreds of miles of desert on Tuesday. Libya's former rebels — now the country's de facto rulers — claimed the convoys were a major flight by Gadhafi's most hardcore backers from his final strongholds.


The claims could not immediately be confirmed. Information on the size of the convoys and who was in them was scarce as they made their way across the vast swath of Sahara — over 1,000 miles — between any populated areas on the two sides of the border.


But as the first group of a dozen vehicles pulled into Niger's capital Niamey on Tuesday, a customs official confirmed that it included Mansour Dao, Gadhafi's security chief and a key member of his inner circle, as well as around 12 other Gadhafi regime officials. The official, Harouna Ide, told The Associated Press that other Libyan convoys had passed through Agadez, a town about halfway between Niger's border with Libya and its capital in the far southwest.


Gadhafi himself is not in the convoys, Niger's Foreign Minister Bazoum Mohamed said, according to Al-Arabiya television.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/convoys-gadhafi-loyalists-flee-libya-niger-152544808.html

[pinboy3niner]

55. Libyan rebel fighters near Bani Walid - in pictures

Sean Smith photographs Libyan rebel fighters at a checkpoint between Tarhouna and Bani Walid as negotiations resume between their leaders and tribal elders




Warfalla tribal elders meet NTC fighters at the Malti mosque (Photograph: Sean Smith/The Guardian)


guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 6 September 2011 17.40 BST


Gallery of 9 photos:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/sep/06/libya-rebel-fighters-in-pictures#/?picture=378657768&index=0

[tabatha]

56. Interesting first-hand story about/from Bani Walid

the bani-walid officers(and civilains-from bani-walid and not) whom led the rebellion/coup attempt in 93 came very close to blasting daffi to smithereens...one of which was the late martyr Col. Qarruom, who was commander of libyas ballistic missles corp.; (he was one who used to enter daffis tent w/ his side arm). He was one of the four top military officers and one civilian who were paraded before state tv, interegated on state tv by khalid tuhami(remember him)...the cilvilian was my uncle Dr. Said Musbah Al Ameen (allahu yarhama); whom along with qaruom(allahuyarhuma) were executed by firing squad in 97.

they were going to bring down balistic missles down on daffis bab al-aziziyah, while military units from misrata, were to move on capital....

the others, including my father, spent their days, years in abu-saleem, there was a specific wing for all those involved, est. 77 ppl. mostly from bani-walid, some are leading the liberation of bani-walid.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/africa/2011/08/24/crucial-moments-save-peace-libya

jan, there are a few new- generation opportunists that daffi people reached out to to sow the seeds of discord, but i know for sure, most bani-walid, and the werfella folks are against daffi people, dead regime..i would say off the top of my head, 80 against g / 20 pro, young thugs, outsiders, etc.

after the 93 thing, daffi used to visit tarhuna, misrata etc, and try to rally those ppl to isolate and turn them on bani-walid...

a few idiots from tarhuna (big sigh here) responded to the call and got thier ass es handed to them at a major brawl at tripolis al-fateh (main, btw) university.

[pinboy3niner]

58. Returning Bani Walid reps fired on by loyalists, take shelter with rebels

AJE Live Blog reports:

Al Jazeera's Sue Turton, reporting from north of Bani Walid, said the negotiations to reach a peaceful resolution in Bani Walid have failed as the representatives, upon their return to deliver the message, were fired upon.

The five Bani Walid representatives went back with the assurances from NTC, but as they approached the city, they were fired upon. They quickly came back to the rebel territory to take shelter for the night. We have talked to commanders and people here. They believe two of Gaddafi sons are still in the city, thats why no negotations work here.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-6-2011-2204

[pinboy3niner]

60. AP reports shots were "fired in the air to intimidate them, sending them fleeing"

AP just posted in its story:

Tribal elders from Bani Walid who met Tuesday with former rebels were met by angry residents of the city, including Gadhafi supporters, who fired in the air to intimidate them, sending them fleeing, mediators said. The round of talks illustrated how many in Bani Walid remain deeply mistrustful of the forces that have seized power in the country and reluctant to accept their rule, even beyond a simple loyalty to the ousted leader.

[pinboy3niner]

61. Niger govt denies large Libyan convoy in country

Tue Sep 6, 2011 8:28pm GMT


NIAMEY, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Niger's interior minister denied on Tuesday that hundreds of Libyan vehicles had crossed into the country, saying that, to his knowledge, only the head of Muammar Gaddafi's security brigades and his family had been welcomed in the country.

French and Nigerien military sources said earlier on Tuesday that a convoy of 200-250 Libyan military vehicles, including officers from Libya's southern army battalions, had crossed into the country on Monday.

Interior Minister Abdou Labo confirmed that security chief Mansour Dhao had been allowed to enter the country on humanitarian grounds, but said he was the only Libyan official to have been received.

"To my knowledge, there have not been hundreds of vehicles that crossed into Niger," Labo said at a press conference in Niamey.


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7K65DO20110906

Dhao admitted on 'humanitarian grounds' begs the question: How many months pregnant was he? :evilgrin:

[pinboy3niner]

62. Burkina Faso says not expecting Gaddafi for exile

Tue Sep 6, 2011 8:29pm GMT


OUAGADOUGOU, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Burkina Faso's government said on Tuesday that it had not received a request for exile from Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and the ousted leader was not expected in the West African state.

"Gaddafi in not in Burkina Faso and we have not been approached for any exile demand. Burkina (Faso) has not been informed of Gaddafi's arrival. We are not expecting him," Communications Minister Alain Edouard Traore said on state television.


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7K65EJ20110906

[pinboy3niner]

63. Reuters sidebar: Gaddafi's African caravan experience may prove a lifeline

Tue Sep 6, 2011 7:11pm GMT


• On-the-run Libyan has often travelled by convoy

• Has cultivated friendships with traditional kings


By Barry Malone


TUNIS, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Ugandans from remote northern parts of the country still fondly remember the snaking convoy of limos and armoured cars that would pass through their small villages, passengers hurling fistfuls of dollars out the windows.

Libya's Muammar Gaddafi was the man leading those expeditions, which became a regular sight in the east African country soon after the showy leader encountered one of its traditional leaders -- the strikingly beautiful Queen Mother of the Toro Kingdom.

Other guests at the inauguration of President Yoweri Museveni in 2001, where the two met, would later tell the media that the Colonel seemed instantly smitten.

Over the next few years, Gaddafi landed several times at Uganda's Entebbe airport and, instead of flying to Toro, unloaded a long caravan of vehicles and drove six hours, taking in the country's lake-dotted landscape, to meet his new friend.

...


The toppled leader's adventures in Uganda highlight two experiences from his swashbuckling life that could become central to his survival: his love of road trips across the continent and his years of lavishing attention and cash on its traditional leaders.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7K659Z20110906?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

64. Ex-Libya rebels search homes of Gadhafi loyalists

By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press – 58 minutes ago


TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — Former rebels, weapons drawn, burst into the houses of suspected supporters of Moammar Gadhafi, searching rooms and hauling away military uniforms, a portable safe and documents that appear to link residents to the deposed regime.


The search party leader, a mosque preacher-turned-military chief, insisted only those who fought for Gadhafi — and not his political backers — will be interrogated and possibly punished.


But the raids Tuesday raised concerns about vigilante justice among the former rebels who have taken control of most of Libya during a six-month civil war that brought down the Gadhafi regime.

...


Abdel-Basit Abu Mzirig, an aide to the interim justice ministry, acknowledged that neighborhood councils often carry out raids and arrests on their own, without authorization from a central authority. However, he insisted there's been little abuse, arguing most former rebels are educated civilians "and know how to handle people."


But Moammar Mahmoud, 33, was livid after his house in Tripoli's southeastern Khalet el-Furjani neighborhood was searched Tuesday, saying he felt his rights had been violated. "I am very angry," the former tax inspector said after the raid only turned up a green Gadhafi flag. "Who wouldn't be if people come to your house and search it?"

...


http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jGfzx2wHOSQXk-RMUsVtGkwA7EWw?docId=50a3a57a843b47d6aa3970ebd57c08f3

[pinboy3niner]

65. Near Libyan Holdout Town, a Waiting Game

Source: New York Times

By ROD NORDLAND

Published: September 6, 2011


WISHTATA, Libya — At this village on the highway to the loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid on Tuesday, negotiators from both sides sat down in the small mosque to talk peace, an event broadcast live by Al Jazeera.


Four elders from Bani Walid, one of a handful of holdouts still loyal to Muammar el-Qaddafi, came the 35 miles to the nearest major rebel checkpoint here to explain that 90 percent of their town supported the rebels, but that many believed government propaganda warning that the rebels would rape and pillage when they took over.


Rebel negotiators, seeking to reassure them, borrowed a phone from Al Jazeera to call their prime minister, Mahmoud Jibril, who has rarely been in Libya since assuming his post. Over a scratchy cellphone speaker, he reassured the elders that there would be no reprisals, and that civil authorities were waiting nearby to deliver food and to restore water, electric and medical services to the town.


The elders, representing some of the most prominent families there, said they favored ending everything peacefully, but they would have to return to consult with other leaders in Bani Walid.


No sooner had they stepped outside the mosque than rebels began firing sidearms and heavy weapons wildly into the air. One even set off a grenade. They were celebrating news — false, as it turned out — that Surt, another holdout place, had surrendered. Still, the gunplay did not seem calculated to reassure the loyalist negotiators that they would be in safe hands, and they left in a clearly nervous state.

...


.... After a few hours, the elders from Bani Walid returned — after having been turned away by loyalist fighters from their own community.


“They wouldn’t even listen to them,” said a rebel fighter, Jawad bin Dullah. “They said go back to the rebels.”


“Everything,” Mr. bin Dullah said, “is waiting for the zero hour.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/07/world/africa/07rebels.html

[pinboy3niner]

66. Muammar Gaddafi's deputy foreign minister has been captured in Tripoli--Al Jazeera

The NTC has confirmed that they have Khaled Kaim in their custody.

"The title does not sound that senior, but he was important because he had the authority to speak on behalf of Gaddafi," Al Jazeera's James Bays reported from Tripoli.

http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/libya-sep-6-2011-1806

[pinboy3niner]

67. Yemen premier convenes Cabinet after return

By AHMED AL-HAJ - Associated Press | AP – 1 hr 13 mins ago


SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Yemen's prime minister on Tuesday conducted his first Cabinet meeting since returning from Saudi Arabia for treatment for wounds he suffered in the same June attack that seriously injured the country's embattled president.


Ali Mohammed Mujawar, who returned to Yemen last week, presided over the Cabinet meeting in a symbolic show of defiance by President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government. Saleh is still in Saudi Arabia, rebuffing international pressure to step down.

...


Mujawar is a key Saleh ally, and his return to activity underlines the president's determination to retain power despite months of huge, sometimes violent demonstrations demanding his resignation — and the June 3 bombing of his compound that forced him to leave for Saudi Arabia for treatment.


He has repeatedly rejected a proposal by neighboring Gulf countries to transfer his powers to his vice president. The most recent rejection of the Gulf initiative came on Tuesday by members of Yemen's parliament, controlled by Saleh's party. Saleh's refusal to approve the deal prompted Qatar to recall its ambassador, as thousands of anti-Saleh protesters continue to take to the streets demanding his resignation.

...


http://news.yahoo.com/yemen-premier-convenes-cabinet-return-201342715.html

[pinboy3niner]

68. US derides Syria for blaming terrorists

By ZEINA KARAM - Associated Press | AP – 30 mins ago.


BEIRUT (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Syria said Tuesday that President Bashar Assad is not fooling anyone by blaming terrorists and thugs for the unrest in his country as security forces try to crush the uprising by unleashing a brutal crackdown that has killed more than 2,200 people in nearly six months.


In comments posted on the embassy's Facebook page, U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford said it was clear Assad's regime has no capacity for reform.


"Peaceful protesters are not 'terrorists,' and after all the evidence accumulated over the past six months, no one except the Syrian government and its supporters believes that the peaceful protesters here are," he wrote.


Ford's comments came the same day that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon leveled some of his strongest criticism yet at the Syrian regime, saying Assad must take "bold and decisive measures before it's too late."

...


http://news.yahoo.com/us-derides-syria-blaming-terrorists-173217244.html

[pinboy3niner]

69. LIBYAN REVOLUTION DAY 202: CURRENT TIME IN LIBYA = 12:01 AM WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 7

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










Inside one of Gaddafi's torture cells
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2030931/Libya-Inside-Gaddafis-torture-chamber-The-bloodstained-cells-inside-primary-school-used-brutalise-enemies.html

[Whats_Happening]

73. Let me thank all of you for these threads!

Thank you pinboy, Josh, and all the others who have given us this wonderful resource over the past six months and more!

I've been following your threads almost since the beginning -- and at least as far as I could tell, these threads were the best resource for Libya info throughout this revolution: one can visit libyaFeb17.com (good site), just Google "Libya" (and hit "news") and keep up with Al Jazeera English, but pound for pound, you guys are the best!

To show my appreciation for these threads, let me offer a couple of youtube Libya links I found fascinating --

This first one leads to a 6-part amateur documentary done by a couple young, carefree American (or Canadian?) men who visited Libya a few years ago. The guys are blissfully politically naive, but I like their videos because they give us a real feeling of the beauty of Libya. I hope to visit perhaps someday! --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnbQI8ZCgE0

This second one leads to an old Gaddafi propaganda curiosity: it seems that around 1979 or 1980, Gaddafi paid a group of European pop music creators to create a few propaganda songs for him in English -- which come across today as full-on, over-produced Disco-type music - with horns, and everthing else - the works! There are two parts to the videos. Gaddafi was a horror for over 40 years; it's nice to find a few things in all that horror to laugh at (such as Aisha's golden mermaid sofa.) --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc4yI20W1Ag


I'm really hopeful for the Libyans, despite the fact that many here in America, both on the right and the left assume that the country absolutely MUST decend into chaos, Islamic fundamentalism, or "a new boss same as the old boss." I'm hopeful for them because they HAVE suffered under such sociopathic, brutal crazyness for over 40 years. History has taught them a harsh lesson. I'd guess that the Libyans, far more than the Egyptians, for example, want nothing more now than to be a "normal" country -- and they want nothing more from their government than to provide them with a system of ordered liberty, maintain the roads, collect the garbage, provide education, etc. etc. -- and NOT to go tilting at windmills, whether pan-African, pan-Arabist, Islamic, or psuedo-direct democracy Green-Bookery.

Thanks again!

[pinboy3niner]

74. Thanks and welcome to DU, Whats_Happening

Even though you've been around for a long time. And thankyou for those links.

The golden mermaid sofa, lol. What an unforgettable monstrosity! :rofl:

At this rate, can we expect to see Post 6 in December, or in January? :)

Again, welcome...

:hi:

[pinboy3niner]

70. New authorities outline priorities for UN support to post-conflict Libya

Source: UN News Centre

6 September 2011 –


The new Libyan authorities have requested United Nations support for several post-conflict tasks, including elections, transitional justice and national reconciliation, according to a senior UN official who is in Tripoli to begin laying the groundwork for the world body’s operations.


“We’ve already been given some very clear priorities by the leaders of the National Transitional Council (NTC),” Ian Martin, the Special Advisor to the Secretary-General for Post-Conflict Planning for Libya, told reporters in the capital.


These include support for the electoral process, as well as advice and assistance regarding transitional justice and how to strike a balance between accountability within the law for the most serious human rights violations while also seeking national reconciliation.

...


As part of his five-day visit, which began on Saturday, the Special Advisor held discussions with various groups in Tripoli, including lawyers, judges, youth, women and human rights activists, and briefed representatives of the international community and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the nature of his visit.


He also visited, at the invitation of the authorities, two police stations and the Al-Jedaida prison, where he spoke to both Libyan and non-Libyan prisoners, including sub-Saharan Africans detained during the fall of Tripoli.


Mr. Martin stressed the urgent need for the basis of detention to be reviewed by public prosecutors, and to inform the prisoners’ families of their whereabouts. The relevant NTC officials confirmed their commitment to justice and the rule of law and said that any mistakes would be rapidly rectified, adding that everyone would be treated fairly and equally.

...


http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39463&Cr=libya&Cr1=

[pinboy3niner]

71. Attack on Gaddafi stronghold 'imminent'

Negotiations for peaceful surrender of Bani Walid, southeast of Tripoli, fail as negotiators from town are fired at.

Last Modified: 06 Sep 2011 21:52


Libya's National Transitional Council fighters are preparing for an imminent attack on Bani Walid, a stronghold of the deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, as efforts for a peaceful resolution to the standoff seem to have failed.


During prolonged negotiations on Tuesday, the NTC tried to convince representatives from Bani Walid, about 150km southeast of the capital Tripoli, that there would be no retributions if the the town surrendered peacefully.


But the representatives, upon returning to the town to deliver the message, were fired at and forced to retreat to NTC territory.


Al Jazeera's Sue Turton, reporting from north of Bani Walid, said the situation seemed bleak and an attack seemed imminent.

...


Full story and video report (2:47):
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/09/20119621641491834.html

[pinboy3niner]

72. Libya: asylum talks begin as Gaddafi loyalists flee across border

Source: The Telegraph

Secret diplomatic moves were under way to enable Col Muammar Gaddafi to leave Libya and seek temporary asylum in a sympathetic country.


By Rob Crilly, Benghazi and Damien McElroy in Algiers

10:00PM BST 06 Sep 2011

...


Talks have been taking place over a deal to ensure the deposed dictator escapes a final reckoning with the rebels, so sparing Libya any further bloodshed.


However, it is understood that the negotiations have yet to resolve the former leader’s final destination.


“The deal isn’t cooked yet,” an official familiar with the negotiations said. Claims that the talks were being brokered by South Africa were denied.

...


Last month, two South African aircraft were on standby in Tunisia ready to fly Gaddafi to Zimbabwe or Angola as part of an African Union plan to resolve the crisis.


However, the rebels’ rapid assault on Tripoli cut off the escape route west into Tunisia, forcing Gaddafi family members to flee south instead.


The loyal retinue of Gaddafi relatives has finally peeled away, scurrying south and west to an uncertain future.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8745707/Libya-asylum-talks-begin-as-Gaddafi-loyalists-flee-across-border.html

[pinboy3niner]

75. Gaddafi last tracked in southern Libya - Libyan official

Tue Sep 6, 2011 10:51pm GMT


TRIPOLI, Sept 7 (Reuters) - Muammar Gaddafi has probably left the Libyan town of Bani Walid and is heading further south with the help of loyalist tribes towards Chad or Niger, a senior military official in Libya's new leadership told Reuters late on Tuesday.

...


"He's out of Bani Walid I think. The last tracks, he was in the Ghwat area. People saw the cars going in that direction .... We have it from many sources that he's trying to go further south, towards Chad or Niger," (Hisham Buhagiar, who is coordinating efforts to find Gaddafi) said in an interview.


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7K65HN20110906

[tabatha]

77. More rumors.

I think he is in a big, large bunker. And cannot come out.

[pinboy3niner]

78. Any reports on his supposed whereabouts may be disinformation...

...intended to give him a false sense of security on the off-chance he'll relax his guard (fat chance!).

I post these (while excluding the flakier ones) to show the range of possibilities that currently are being considered.

[pinboy3niner]

79. Update with more details

Tue Sep 6, 2011 11:11pm GMT


By Mohammed Abbas

TRIPOLI, Sept 7 (Reuters) -

...


Gaddafi, who was ousted from power in August after an February uprising against his rule spread to the capital Tripoli, is believed to be travelling in a convoy of some 10 cars and may be using a tent as shelter, Buhagiar said.


"It's the tent. We know that he doesn't want to stay in a house, so he stays in a tent. People say the cars came, and then they made a tent," he said, adding that his sources had not seen Gaddafi themselves.

...


Tribes in the region include the Owlad Suleiman, the Ahdayrat and the Touareg, he said.


"I would say some of the tribes we have a majority, some a minority," Buhagiar said, adding that anti-Gaddafi fighters could not simply move south to hunt Gaddafi without the tribes' approval.


"When we do it we have to organise with our loyalists in those tribes. Otherwise we will be intruders," he said.

...


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7K65HR20110906?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

76. British envoy offers olive branch to torture victim

Source: The Independent

By Archie Bland, Foreign Editor

Wednesday, 7 September 2011


A day after arriving in Tripoli to re-establish a diplomatic mission there, Britain's new envoy to Libya said yesterday that he would meet Abdelhakim Belhaj, the Libyan rebel leader who told The Independent that MI6 knew he was being tortured and did nothing to stop it.

...


He declined to say whether he would apologise to Mr Belhaj for Britain's apparent role in his treatment, as Mr Belhaj has demanded. Evidence that Britain played a key role in the rendition of Mr Belhaj, delivering him into the hands of the Gaddafi regime to spend six years in solitary confinement, was revealed after The Independent viewed a cache of secret documents at the offices of the fled Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa last Friday.

...


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/british-envoy-offers-olive-branch-to-torture-victim-2350418.html

[pinboy3niner]

80. The terrified decade

ALR: Tim Dunne and Matthew McDonald
From:The Australian
September 07, 201112:00AM

...


.... Ten years on, however, it is clear from the response to Libya's brutal repression of anti-government protesters that the "with us or with the terrorists" rhetoric deployed by Muammar Gaddafi could not be relied on as a trump card to be played by a head of state at any moment of their choosing.


Libya in particular, and the Arab Spring in general, tell us two important things about the 9/11 decade: one we should remember and one that is being forgotten. The first is that governments continue to be perpetrators of terrorism, despite the fact state acts of terror are always denied on the basis of a flawed assumption that governments have a monopoly on the legitimate means of violence.


If terrorism is the threat and use of violence against a target public to advance political ends, then it is clear that several Arab governments have turned to the strategy of state terrorism in their desperate attempt to hold on to power. While the threshold for tolerating mass atrocities committed by governments is lower than at any point since 1945, the UN-mandated enforcement action by NATO is a reminder that responding effectively to state terror is difficult even against a weak and friendless government.


The Arab Spring tells us about forgetting, too. The two key protagonists in the war on terror have been marginal to the social revolutions that have swept across the Middle East and North Africa. In Tahir Square, the chanting was not against the Great Satan, as Iranian revolutionaries described the US; neither was it pro al-Qa'ida. Outside the Libyan embassy in Cairo, the banners read "Free Libya" and the chanting expressed was for "the people" to unite "against military regimes".

...


Tim Dunne is professor of international relations in the school of political science and international studies, University of Queensland. He is co-author with Ken Booth of Terror in Our Time.

Matthew McDonald is a senior lecturer in international relations at the University of Queensland.


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts-arc/the-terrified-decade/story-e6frg8nf-1226126460821

[pinboy3niner]

81. Libyan Rebels Press Gains as Some Loyalists Are Said to Flee

Source: New York Times

By ANNE BARNARD, ADAM NOSSITER and ALAN COWELL

Published: September 6, 2011


TRIPOLI, Libya — Rebel negotiators pressed fighters loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in the town of Bani Walid to surrender on Tuesday amid reports of loyalists fleeing the country and confusion over the whereabouts of the former Libyan leader.

...


In a telephone interview, Marou Amadou, Niger’s minister of justice, described the convoy as small — “three vehicles maximum” — and unarmed. Niger had allowed the group to cross into its territory for purely humanitarian reasons, he said.


The director of Radio Sahara, an independent radio station in a town where the convoy was reported to have passed through, said that nothing larger than a three-vehicle convoy had been seen since Sunday. The director, Hamed-Assaneh Raliou, dismissed claims of anything larger in his town, Agadez.


“I’ve spoken with gendarmes, policemen, people on the side of the road,” he said. “At Agadez, nobody has seen the convoy. Outside, maybe, in the bush. Maybe. It would astonish me though, a convoy of 200 vehicles.”


“The only convoy was Sunday, 10 people,” he said. “Three vehicles. That’s the only convoy. I saw that one. They came Sunday afternoon. They were in contact with the Nigerien authorities.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/07/world/africa/07libya.html

[pinboy3niner]

82. Spymasters' miscalculation on Gaddafi (*Recommended)

Source: The Times of London (paywall) via The Australian

Roger Boyes
From: The Times
September 06, 201110:45AM



IT was the hour of the spymasters. Some of the sharpest brains in the British and US intelligence establishment made their careers by supposedly converting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi - once dubbed the Mad Dog of the Middle East - into a surprisingly useful ally in the war against terror.


Now, in the confusion of crumpled memos and cables unearthed in the ransacked office of Moussa Koussa, the Libyan spy chief, it looks as if the great diplomatic breakthrough of 2003-04 - the taming of Colonel Gaddafi - might turn out to be yet another example of western miscalculation, of overestimating a tyrant's readiness to reform.


Furthermore, as reports of renditions of Libyan dissidents leak out, there is a gathering sense that Britain may have betrayed its first principles in its eagerness to please.


At the heart of the plan to bring Colonel Gaddafi in from the cold were two professional agents: Mark Allen, head of counterterrorism in the Secret Intelligence Service (later knighted in 2005), and his US counterpart Steve Kappes, from the Central Intelligence Agency. After a long summer in 2003 of travelling to and from Tripoli, they had Mr Koussa where they wanted him. The US interception of a ship carrying centrifuge equipment from Dubai to Libya meant that Colonel Gaddafi could no longer credibly deny that he had plans to develop weapons of mass destruction.

...


Most of the actors survived unscathed. Sir Mark Allen lost out in a battle to be head of MI6, took early retirement in 2004 - and a job as a consultant for BP. Mr Kappes retired. Mr Koussa, who briefly became Foreign Minister, got out of the country, his bank accounts apparently unblocked.


But here's the rub: Abdel Hakim Belhadj, the Libyan dissident sent to Colonel Gaddafi's prisons with British connivance, ended up training the most effective of the rebel fighters. He is widely regarded as the man to watch. And he has no love of the British. Something worth bearing in mind, perhaps, the next time there is a meeting at the Travellers Club.


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/spymasters-miscalculation-on-gaddafi/story-e6frg6so-1226130383160

(Published in The Times under the headline, "An eagerness to please may have betrayed Britain’s first principles")

[pinboy3niner]

83. Libya Oil Chief Sacks Suspected Gadhafi Loyalists In joint ventures-Sources

Sep 6, 2011


LONDON -(Dow Jones)- Libya's new oil chief Nuri Berruien has started to replace suspected loyalists of the regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, starting with managers of foreign joint-ventures, people familiar with the matter said this week.

The move, coming only days after Berruien was appointed, underscores his swiftness in getting on with the job. But it also shows the complexity of the task at hand, with new managers stepping in to oversee the challenges of a production recovery.

At least three heads of companies partly operated with foreign partners have been removed, some of them because of alleged close ties to the former regime, the people said.

...


Their replacements are oil processionals with no political affiliation, the people said.

...


http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201109061200dowjonesdjonline000243&title=libya-oil-chief-sacks-suspected-gadhafi-loyalists-in-jvs-sources

[pinboy3niner]

84. Happy homecoming for Libyan footballers

Source: Soccerway

6 September 2011


Huge crowds gathered in Benghazi on Monday, as the Libyan national football team returned home to a hero's welcome.


Playing under the new red, black and green flag for the first time, they beat Mozambique 1-0 in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Saturday.

...


The win meant far more than usual, given four of the team's players had fought for the rebels against dictator Muammar Gaddafi's regime.


Midfielder Ahmed Saad said the victory was one for the freedom fighters in Libya.

...


"We played with a new national anthem and with a new flag. Our goal is to reward the martyrs and to make every free Libyan happy," Saad said.

...


http://www.soccerway.com/news/2011/September/06/happy-homecoming-for-libyan-footballers/

[pinboy3niner]

85. Libya’s new envoy swamped with chaotic transition in Ottawa

CAMPBELL CLARK

OTTAWA— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

Published Tuesday, Sep. 06, 2011 9:42PM EDT


Libya’s new acting ambassador has no office, no budget, almost no staff and a phone ringing off the hook. One of his first challenges is recovering a half-dozen embassy cars from a boat sailing across the Atlantic.


Just before leaving Canada, the expelled diplomats at the old pro-Gadhafi embassy in Ottawa had the mission’s expensive Mercedes and fleet of newish Toyotas packed on a container ship to Tunisia. Now, Abubaker Karmos, Libya’s new chargé d’affaires, is working to have them sent back.


This is diplomatic Ottawa’s little microcosm of the new Libya, undergoing a chaotic transition with muddled information and little money, and a touch of the which-side-are-you-on mistrust that lingers after the toppling of paranoid dictator Moammar Gadhafi.


Mr. Karmos’s predecessors didn’t hold the door open. The rented embassy offices were closed. “Basically, they packed up everything and they dumped it here in the basement,” Mr. Karmos said in an interview at the still-unoccupied Libyan ambassador’s residence in Ottawa’s leafy Rockcliffe Park neighbourhood.

...


“They would say they had instructions to ship the cars to Tripoli,” he shrugs. “Okay. But even if Gadhafi gives you instructions, or a deputy minister, or somebody, they have no right,” Mr. Karmos said. “These are Libyan assets. And where are you taking them? You know, Libya was (under a) naval blockade, there was sanctions. They know they’re not going to take the cars back to the foreign ministry.”

...


http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/libyas-new-envoy-swamped-with-chaotic-transition-in-ottawa/article2155892/

[pinboy3niner]

86. Libya’s Weapons Problem

Source: Daily Beast

There is a plethora of weapons in Libya, and experts are concerned that arms could make their way into neighboring countries—and possibly fall into Al Qaeda’s grasp.

Sep 6, 2011 3:26 PM EDT


With the Libyan revolution winding down and armed conflict expected soon to be over, the rebel government, the United Nations, and the international community face a new headache: what to do with the huge amount of weapons floating around the country.


From assault rifles to antiaircraft missiles, Libya is overflowing with armaments. Neighboring countries fear the spread of these weapons into their own borders, where they may be used by militant groups such as Al Qaeda. Meanwhile Libya, with its checkered tribal history, might have a problem with armed young men in the streets. Though Libya’s transitional government is putting together a program to reclaim its fighters’ guns and explosives, the program is in its early stages and its success remains to be measured.

...


According to Human Rights Watch’s findings, the rebel armed forces have secured most of the heavier weapons and placed them under guard. However, it remains impossible to tell how many are still missing throughout the country. The country is also awash with small arms.

...


But weapons are just as dangerous inside Libya. The National Transitional Council has so far managed to keep its forces united against a common enemy, but plenty of Libyans are unsure where the armed men will aim now that Gaddafi is out of the picture.


http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/06/libya-s-uncontrolled-weapons-problem.html

[pinboy3niner]

87. Car Games for Muammar Qaddafi’s Alleged Long Drive to Burkina Faso :)

Source: Vanity Fair

ByJuli Weiner

4:06 PM, September 6 2011


Several news outlets are speculating on the possibility that poorly constructed Play-Doh doll Muammar Qaddafi may have fled Libya. “Scores of Libyan army vehicles have crossed the desert frontier into Niger in what may be a dramatic, secretly negotiated bid by Muammar Gaddafi to seek refuge in a friendly African state,” Reuters reports. It is unclear whether Qaddafi himself was in one—or several, if his Play Doh appendages are detachable—of the 200 or so vehicles that entered Agadez, Niger, or if he plans to meet up with the group “en route for adjacent Burkina Faso, which has offered him asylum.”


According to Google Maps, the drive from Agadez to Burkina Faso using any of three suggested routes is anywhere from 19 to 25 hours long, including a particularly monotonous 267 mile right turn on a road called N1.





For long trips like these, an arsenal of highly structured car games really helps the time pass quickly and—provided the convoy is not targeted by assassins—painlessly. Below, we’ve provided a few favorites.

...


http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/09/car-games-for-muammar-qaddafis-alleged-long-drive-to-burkina-fas

[pinboy3niner]

88. U.S. SecDef Panetta says Gaddafi is "on the run" but doesn't know if he is still in Libya

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said on Tuesday that Gaddafi was "on the run" but asked later on the Charlie Rose show if he thought he was still in Libya he said:

"You know, I don't know. I think he's been taking a lot of steps to make sure that in the end he could try to get out if he had to, but as to where, when, and how that'll take place, we just don't know."

Gaddafi's spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said he had not left.

"He is in Libya. He is safe, he is very healthy, in high morale," he told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.


http://af.reuters.com/article/libyaNews/idAFL5E7K65IB20110907?sp=true

[pinboy3niner]

89. Kadafi loyalists fled to Niger by convoy, U.S. affirms

The size of the convoy is in dispute. The news of the crossing fuels suspicion that a secret pact was reached to allow Moammar Kadafi to escape, but rebels say they are confident he remains in Libya.

By Patrick J. McDonnell and Paul Richter, Los Angeles Times

September 7, 2011


Reporting from Tripoli, Libya, and Washington—


More than a dozen high-ranking loyalists of Moammar Kadafi made a desert getaway into neighboring Niger, U.S. officials said Tuesday, but there was no indication that the former Libyan leader or his sons had escaped.

...


... the Associated Press reported late Tuesday that a spokesman for Niger's president said that only three cars had crossed into Niger, ferrying one member of Kadafi's inner circle. There was no immediate explanation for the contradictory versions.

...


Officials of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, whose aircraft patrol Libyan airspace and keep a close eye on its territory, said stalking Kadafi was not its job.


"Our mission is to protect the civilian population in Libya, not to track and target thousands of fleeing former regime members, mercenaries, military commanders and internally displaced people," Col. Roland Lavoie, a NATO spokesman, said in a statement, Reuters reported.

...


But the State Department said it had been informed by Niger that the vehicles had carried more than a dozen senior members of Kadafi's military staff. U.S. officials believe that Kadafi remains in Libya, spokeswoman Nuland said, and there was no evidence that any members of his family had escaped to Niger.

...


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-libya-convoy-20110907,0,4079457.story

[pinboy3niner]

90. Libya combs priceless ruins for war damage

AFP

Wednesday, Sep 07, 2011


SABRATHA, Libya - Libyan archaeologists are beginning to inspect the country's priceless historical sites, hoping part of their cultural heritage and economic future has not been ruined by war.

...


Mohammed, who in the 1970s spent a year in Gaddafi's jails before fleeing to Greece, scans the west side of the 5,000-capacity theatre and comes across three bullet holes he says can be easily restored.


The damage assessment from world-beating sites at Leptis Magna and Cyrene to the east are equally positive.


With at least three of Libya's five UNESCO sites preserved, locals hope tourists will now flock to Libya like they do to neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia.


"It was very difficult for tourists to come under the Gaddafi regime," said Hadi Mafuz, a Sabratha tourism official.


"If Gaddafi had a problem with one European country, he would block visas for all Europeans. If one of his sons came to a hotel, all reservations would be cancelled."

...


http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/World/Story/A1Story20110907-298184.html

[pinboy3niner]

91. Libya 'granted oil concessions to BP on understanding Lockerbie bomber Megrahi would return home'

Source: The Telegraph

Libya's former foreign minister has said that Tripoli granted massive oil concessions to BP on the understanding the Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, would be returned home.


By Damien McElroy, Chris Irvine

6:30AM BST 07 Sep 2011


Abdulati al-Obeidi told the BBC that Britain had accepted Libyan indications that Abdelbaset al-Megrahi’s release was an unwritten quid pro quo of the multi-billion pound contract.


“There was a hint that releasing him would help but it was not a condition,” he said. “The Libyan side, and you know the British, they know how to take things”.


Asked if an exchange of the prisoner was part of the talks, Mr Obeidi said: “This is what I think”.


BP secured one of the largest contracts to exploit Libyan oil reserves after Col Gaddafi’s regime came in from the cold. The contract was celebrated as part of Tony Blair’s infamous Deal in the Desert trip to Libya.


Last year BP admitted it pressed for a deal over the controversial prisoner transfer agreement amid fears any delays would damage its “commercial interests”, but denied it had been involved in negotiations concerning Megrahi’s release.

...


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/8745905/Libya-granted-oil-concessions-to-BP-on-understanding-Lockerbie-bomber-Megrahi-would-return-home.html

[joshcryer]

92. I called it.

Was dismissed, naturally.

[pinboy3niner]

93. South Africa 'intervention force' planned for Libya - report

Source: South African Press Association

September 07 2011 at 8:03am


Documents showing plans for a 136-strong South African-led "rapid intervention force" being deployed in Libya have been leaked to the media.

According to a Media24 report, the documents include an invoice from what appears to be a South African security company for "specialist training" in the country.

It also says that arms shipments from Chinese companies, via South Africa, were being considered.

...


Sanparks has denied having any knowledge of the security company. Another document, in both Arabic and English, shows plans for a "rapid intervention force" staffed by 73 South Africans and 63 Libyans under the group command of a South African.

...


http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/sa-intervention-force-planned-for-libya-report-1.1132491

[joshcryer]

94. Week 29 part 4 here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1890745

[pinboy3niner]

95. Wrong place

[pinboy3niner]

96. Wrong place