Libya Roundup, March 4, 2011

Reality leads US to temper its tough talk on Libya

The Obama administration is tempering its tough talk on Libya with a dose of reality, explaining that even a no-fly zone over the country would require a military attack on Moammar Gadhafi's regime. Two leading senators on defense matters responded Thursday by urging a strong U.S. stance aiding Gadhafi's opposition.

The Pentagon is making it clear that it doesn't want war.

Statements Wednesday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton illustrated the administration's effort to rein in "loose talk" about military options to force Gadhafi from power. It was an acknowledgement that, short of an unlikely military offensive by a U.S.-led coalition, the options for international action to stem the violence appeared highly limited, even as armed rebels pressed their fight against troops still loyal to the Gadhafi regime.

Report: Gadhafi's warplanes attack Libya rebels

Moammar Gadhafi's forces renewed air attacks on rebels in Libya Friday as both sides struggled for control of a strategic coastal road and oil industry facilities.


Bombs were dropped on the oil terminal town of Brega in the east of the country, the Al-Arabiya news network reported.

And rebel volunteers guarding a military base in the eastern town of Ajdabiya told Reuters that a Libyan warplane had dropped bombs just beyond the walls of the base Friday but did not hit it. 

"We were sat here, heard the jet, then the explosion and the earth shook. They fell outside the walls," said Hassan Faraj, who was guarding an ammunitions store at the Haniyeh base.

Uh-Huh..  Libya bombings were only to 'frighten' rebels: Gadhafi son

Bomb attacks on Brega harbour were intended to scare rebels fighting Moamer Gadhafi into leaving Libya's oil and gas hub, his son Seif Al-Islam said late Thursday.


"The bombs were just to frighten them to go away," Gadhafi told Britain's Sky News. "There is no city there, the city of Brega is miles away. I am talking about the harbour, only oil refinery there."

Libyan rebels braced for attacks ahead of anti-Gaddafi protests

Tripoli/Cairo - Libyan rebels were braced for more attacks by forces loyal to leader Moamar Gaddafi on Friday as they prepared for mass protests across the country.



Witnesses in Libya's third largest city, Misurata, said they aimed to have a 1-million-strong march and that some of them would head for Tripoli, where Gaddafi remains in control.


Opposition forces in the capital have also called for mass protests, set to begin at the city's mosques after traditional Friday prayers.

Gadaffi faces investigation over killings..  From the I.C.C...

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has decided to investigate Libya’s leader over the killings of hundreds of civilians during uprisings across the country. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor at the ICC, concluded there was enough evidence to warrant and investigation of Gadaffi and his closest allies.

It doesn't really have to, but Oil rises to near $103 as Libya conflict escalates

 Oil prices rose to near $103 a barrel Friday in Asia as Libyan government and rebel forces dug in amid fierce fighting, raising investor fears of protracted oil output cuts in the OPEC nation.

Again:  The price of oil doesn't have to change, but Speculators can't control their greed.  Time to reign 'em in..   

Libya's 'Love Revolution': Muslim Dating Site Seeds Protest

Sweet..  Gaddafi's thugs were zigging, so naturally, the Libyan people zagged..  Excerpts:

To avoid detection by Libyan secret police, who monitor Facebook and Twitter, Mahmoudi, the leader of the Ekhtalef ("Difference") Movement, used what's considered the Match.com of the Middle East to send coded love letters to rally the revolution.
..
So he created a Mawada profile called "Where Is Miriam?" and pretended to be on the hunt for a wife.

The conservative site doesn't allow men to communicate with other men, so other revolutionaries posed as women to contact him, assuming aliases like "Sweet Butterfly," "Opener of the Mountain," "Girl of the Desert" and "Melody of Torture."
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On the site, the revolutionaries used poetry laced with revolutionary references to gauge support and make initial contact. Then they had detailed follow-up conversations via text message and Yahoo Messenger.

Nice.  So far, when the game changes, The People are the ones changing it;  Not The Oppressors.

Mid-East Uprising: Libya Edition

"Libya on the brink."

It's clear Qadafi's regime won't go quietly, and it seems like the tide is turning.. Moammar Gadhafi's son warns of civil war in Libya if father's leadership not recognized Excerpts:

After anti-government unrest spread to the Libyan capital and protesters seized military bases and weapons Sunday, Moammar Gadhafi’s son went on state television to proclaim that his father remained in charge with the army’s backing and would “fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet.”
Seif al-Islam Gadhafi, in the regime’s first comments on the six days of demonstrations, warned the protesters that they risked igniting a civil war in which Libya’s oil wealth “will be burned.”
The speech followed a fierce crackdown by security forces who fired on thousands of demonstrators and funeral marchers in the eastern city of Benghazi in a bloody cycle of violence that killed 60 people on Sunday alone, according to a doctor in one city hospital. Since the six days of unrest began, more than 200 people have been killed, according to medical officials, human rights groups and exiled dissidents.
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Although the elder Gadhafi did not appear, his son has often been put forward as the regime’s face of reform.
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Protesters had seized some military bases, tanks and other weapons, he said, blaming Islamists, the media, thugs, drunks and drug abusers, foreigners — including Egyptians and Tunisians. (It's amazing the feats drug users are capable of, huh?)
He also admitted that the unrest had spread to Tripoli, with people firing in central Green Square before fleeing.
The rebellion by Libyans frustrated with Gadhafi’s more than 40 years of authoritarian rule has spread to more than a half-dozen eastern cities — but also to Tripoli, where secret police were heavily deployed on the streets of the city of 2 million.
And:
In other setbacks for Gadhafi’s regime, a major tribe in Libya was reported to have turned against him and Libya’s representative to the Arab League said he resigned his post to protest the government’s decision to fire on defiant demonstrators in Benghazi, the second-largest city.
Khaled Abu Bakr, a resident of Sabratha, an ancient Roman city to the west, said protesters besieged the local security headquarters, driving out police and setting it on fire. Abu Bakr said residents are in charge, have set up neighborhood committees to secure their city.
The Internet has been largely shut down, residents can no longer make international calls from land lines and journalists cannot work freely, but eyewitness reports trickling out of the country suggested that protesters were fighting back more forcefully against the Middle East’s longest-serving leader.
“We are not afraid. We won’t turn back,” said a teacher who identified herself only as Omneya. ..“If we don’t continue, this vile man would crush us with his tanks and bulldozers. If we don’t, we won’t ever be free,” she said.

The Renaissance of the Arab World?

It's never good when your country's diplomats resign in disgust..

And finally, is global unrest starting to effect China?