Libya Roundup, March 19, 2011

Libyan rebels: Gaddafi's forces attacking Benghazi  From The Jerusalem Post.

US claims Libyan gov't violating ceasefire; French UN envoy says military intervention may be launched "hours after" upcoming int'l summit; Gaddafi calls UN resolution "blatant colonialism."
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Large explosions were heard in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi early on Saturday, and residents said that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces were attacking the rebel stronghold.
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A unilateral ceasefire declared on Friday by the Libyan government appeared to have done little to convince outside powers to hold off on plans for air strikes to force an end to an increasingly bloody civil war.



Other regimes emboldened by Gadhafi's tactics
 
..But in the end, it was Gadhafi's willingness to use brute force and the tools of his police state that has helped him so far avoid the fate of neighboring autocrats in Tunisia and Egypt who were swallowed up by popular revolutions.
 
Regimes in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Syria appear to have taken note, confronting their uprisings with a hard wall of state-sponsored violence.
 
On Friday, government agents fired on a peaceful protest in Yemen, security forces in Syria reportedly shot several demonstrators dead, and Bahrain's ruling monarchy tore down a 300-foot sculpture at Pearl Square, where protesters had been routed in a deadly confrontation just two days earlier.
 
Libya shuts air space in face of strikes
 
Libya shut down its air space on Friday as Britain and France were expected to scramble fighter jets against Moammar Gaddafi's forces after they secured the UN Security Council's blessing.
 
Eurocontrol, the continent's air traffic agency, said Tripoli "does not accept traffic" until further notice, citing information from Maltese authorities, as France announced air strikes would be imminent.
 
Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam said Friday his family was "not afraid" as the Libyan foreign ministry said Tripoli was ready for a ceasefire but wanted to discuss its terms.
 
Meeting Thursday, the UN Security Council voted by 10-0 to permit "all necessary measures" to establish the no-fly zone, protect civilian areas and impose a ceasefire on Gaddafi's military.
 
This paragraph is of long(looonng) term interest..
 
Five countries on the 15-strong council abstained, including permanent members China and Russia, who did not use their veto power. India and Brazil also abstained in addition to Germany.
 
Brazil
Russia
India
China..
 
and
Germany.
 
BRIC plus Germany.  This is not a coincidence.
 
Gadhafi plays deadly war games
 
 Trying to outmaneuver Western military intervention, Moammar Gadhafi's government declared a cease-fire against the rebel uprising faltering against his artillery, tanks and warplanes. The opposition said shells rained down well after the announcement and accused the Libyan leader of lying.
 
Wary of the cease-fire, Britain and France took the lead in plans to enforce a no-fly zone, sending British warplanes to the Mediterranean and announcing a crisis summit today in Paris with the U.N. and Arab allies. In Washington, President Barack Obama ruled out the use of American ground troops but warned that the U.S., which has an array of naval and air forces in the region, would join in military action.
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Parts of eastern Libya, where the once-confident rebels this week found their hold slipping, erupted into celebration at the passage of the U.N. resolution. But the timing and consequences of any international military action remained unclear.
 
Britain, France and NATO held emergency meetings Friday on using military force to enforce the no-fly zone, which was approved by U.N. Security Council on Thursday. Officials announced that the leaders of Britain, France and Germany and the chiefs of the United Nations and Arab League would join other world leaders for the emergency summit on Libya today in Paris.
 
France's ambassador to the United Nations, Gerard Araud, told BBC Newsnight that he expected military action to begin in Libya within hours of the Paris meeting.
 
Libya accuses revolutionaries of breaching truce
 
So far Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Qatar, Spain, Sweden and the United States have said they will help to implement the no-fly zone.
 
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said "everything is ready" to intervene in Libya, but he refused to give a timetable.
And:
Some 300,000 people have already fled Libya since the rebellion began and many more are expected to leave if full-blown war breaks out, the agencies said.
 
EU to back sanctions on Libya oil company next week
 
The European Union will move to add Libya's National Oil Corp. to its list of sanctions against Muammar Gaddafi's government at a summit on March 24/25, EU diplomats said on Friday.
 
The move follows Thursday's U.N. Security Council resolution which authorised a no-fly zone over Libya and expanded sanctions against Gaddafi and his inner circle that were first imposed in February. These measures include an order to freeze the assets of the oil company as well as Libya's central bank.
 
Indict Muammar Gaddafi now for War Crimes in Sierra Leone 
 
With international pressure already mounting on Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and with the International Criminal Court now in the process of gathering information on civilian deaths in Libya, the Special Court for Sierra Leone and the International Criminal Court have a profound opportunity to indict Gaddafi for war crimes and crimes against humanity he has committed in Sierra Leone. The United Nations has already sanctioned Gaddafi’s government, and now it’s time his prior crimes in West Africa are brought to justice, too.


Muammar Gaddafi was the mastermind and key financier of the brutal war that left hundreds of thousands dead in Sierra Leone in West Africa in the 1990s. The war would not have happened in the first place had it not been for the desire of the Libyan leader to punish the government of Sierra Leone for what he regarded as its siding with the West in the 1980’s when Gaddafi was at loggerhead with particularly the United States and Britain. It was also part of Gaddafi’s broader agenda including his geopolitical ambition to destabilize much of West Africa and establish satellite states in the region to be headed by puppet regimes that will be doing his biddings. The decade-long war ripped Sierra Leone apart. Thousands of its victims, whose arms and limbs were chopped off by rebels, were reduced to paupers, roaming the streets as beggars in Freetown and other cities. Children as young as a day old were also among those whose arms and limbs were hacked off by Gaddafi’s rebels. Pregnant women, too, were disemboweled with delight in their display of ghastly brutality.

Libya Roundup, March 9, 2011

Gaddafi's scorched earth: Libya's skies turn black as desperate dictator blows up oil pipes and turns his tanks on civilians


Colonel Gaddafi's forces today blasted an oil terminal to smithereens as Libya's bloody civil war entered its blackest day.


Rebels retaliated by firing back with rockets as a fireball exploded from one of the oil tanks and the sky above the Es Sider terminal, in the east of the country, filled with hideous smoke.


A witness said one of the smoke plumes was the biggest he had seen in the conflict so far.


The fresh onslaught came as Gaddafi deployed tanks and snipers to 'shoot anything that moves'.



Forces loyal to the Libyan dictator poured into the city of Zawiyah in a desperate bid to oust the hardcore band of protesters and army defectors who have taken control.
 
 Unrest in Libya has cut oil output to about half a million barrels per day from 1.6 million bpd as many foreign and local workers left the oil fields, the country's top oil official said on Wednesday.


Rebels and Gaddafi forces battle in eastern and western Libya  Excerpts:


BENGHAZI, LIBYA - Rebel forces in Libya engaged in intense fighting on two fronts Wednesday, claiming to break through a three-day standoff with government fighters in the town of Bin Jawwad but suffering another day of heavy casualties in the besieged western city of Zawiyah.


In Zawiyah, government forces were heavily shelling the main square, residents said, with airstrikes, tank and mortar fire, machine guns and artillery.


"We need some international aid here," said Mohammed, an opposition spokesman in the city, which was bombed for a sixth consecutive day by forces loyal to Moammar Gaddafi. "At least stop them from having airplanes fly over us."

The Libyan paradox

Most likely he is desperate and over the years he must have been haunted by the fantasy that he really created a country of his own and therefore no one has the right to challenge his ownership of Libya. He must believe what he keeps repeating: that he is neither a president nor a king to resign; he is an uncontested leader of a revolution, who possesses nothing but his gun and he will use it to regain control. He also claimed that he turned power to the people to govern themselves, a form of democracy superior in his view to any other system of government yet devised. If he is truly insane, it is just because he believes this hallucination.

Libyan rebels' mood darkens amid fears revolution has stalled

Nearly three weeks after Libyans surprised themselves by revolting against Muammar Gaddafi's brutal 42-year rule, euphoria at the prospect of swiftly deposing the dictator has given way in the rebel capital, Benghazi, to the grim prospect of a popular uprising evolving into a drawn-out military conflict.

That is stoking fears about the consequences of losing, as Gaddafi's forces use tanks and artillery to crush the revolutionaries' takeover of the city of Zawiyah, near Tripoli, and stall the rebel advance from Benghazi hundreds of miles short of the Libyan capital.

Western powers exploit Libyan crisis to step up intervention plans

Inside Libya, Gaddafi’s former justice minister, Mustafa Abdel Jalil, who now heads the opposition National Libyan Council in Benghazi, called for foreign air strikes and a no-fly zone. Citing sources within the council, the New York Times reported that this stance was adopted at a heated council meeting where “others strongly disagreed”. There has been deep opposition to such a call within popular protests against Gaddafi, because of fears of a return to neo-colonial rule—fears that Gaddafi is exploiting to posture as a defender of Libyan sovereignty.

No-Fly Or Nothing At All? What About Door Number 3?

As America and the U.N. take some time deciding on a response to Libya, I am troubled by the two directions/ reactions offered as "solutions" to Libya's accelerating spiral into chaos.  Establishing a No-Fly Zone involves Western troops and, more importantly, Western troops attacking another Arab country.  All that militarism (not to mention explosions) plays into negative perception  of all things American/ Western, all around the region. 

Do nothing at all?  Hell, NO.  Something must be done.  The Libyan people MUST be helped.  Is this, really, the best the government can do?  Could the West help the Libyan People organize, change the direction of the revolution, and accomplish all this from a distance?

Visualize two men facing each other, fighting. Another man dives onto all fours behind one man, and the other man pushes.  The man on all fours gets up and walks away, and is not involved further.  The UN is the man on all fours.  Here's how that would work:

Deliver thousands of units of satellite phones, batteries, and chargers to safe areas (or safer, the closer to Tripoli) controlled by the opposition.  Now, rather than having the Libyans have to set them up and charge them and establish networks, those tasks are already done.  In fact, the Libyans are much less tech savvy than other parts of the region, so not only will the phones be networked with Internet, text, pictures, everything, the IT Support on the whole project would be massive, the likes of which not seen in customer service, not to mention in any military application!  Technological cave men could pick up the phone, dial 0, and accomplish functions(sending mass text/emails, surfing the web, teleconferencing, uploading pictures and documents, and tracking the Gaddafi family/ government by picture and GPS) by telling the agent on the other end!

This undertaking would require some logistics.  A lot of fucking logistics..  Creating groups of components, systems, and applications into a network, and then fostering the most user friendly service environment for optimum organization and efficiency during an armed conflict will be of some expense(No idea.  A Lot., I'm sure), but less expense than any military action would require, and the human cost would be much lower, too. Note:  There might *Might* be a scenario where popular opinion wouldn't be against a U.N.  "targeted missile strike," if it were accurate.  The GPS application helps minimize the risk of missing the target.  If it boiled down to action, a quick, powerful, accurate, one time only response is the preferred response.

Several upsides: 

If this network idea actually worked, it would put an end to the armed part of the revolution.

When Gaddafi's gone, the Libyans can use this network to jump start into technological society.  Techno-literacy would be a great compliment to Libya's rising prominence as a Middle Eastern agricultural powerhouse.

No troops from either Iraq, Afghanistan, or Reserve would have to be used in armed conflict.  The military still might be used for delivery or support, but major operations would be unaffected.

Could be used in future crisis situations that require action, but not necessarily military action..

"Al Queda," whatever that is, wouldn't have a lot of propaganda to work with, as American forces weren't involved.

And coolest of all, the West got in and helped without getting in and "helping" by "destroying."  If this undertaking were performed well and we did help and we didn't stay, the entire region's stance might soften on us, not much, but maybe just enough upon which to start building trust, which has to start somewhere..

To end on a pessimistic note:  This scenario is not likely to happen:  Not at all.  It's probably too unconventional for conventional minds to embrace.

Virtually unknown in the West: Libya's water resources

From poorrichards blog  I have never heard of this.  Wow..  I'm sure there are a lot of entities interested in grabbing some control of Gaddafi's Engineering Wonder.., a gigantic fresh water pipeline originating in Southern Libya, ultimately(before, you know, what's happening now..) bringing water to the majority of Libya, creating a self sustaining Agricultural economy.  Excerpts from Libya’s Great Man-Made River Project, contained within poorrichards' post.  (Colored highlights are from poorrichard)

The 1st of September marks the anniversary of the opening of the major stage of Libya's Great Man-Made River Project. This incredibly huge and successful water scheme is virtually unknown in the West, yet it rivals and even surpasses all our greatest development projects. The leader of the so-called advanced countries, the United States of America cannot bring itself to acknowledge Libya's Great Man-Made River. The West refuses to recognize that a small country, with a population no more than four million, can construct anything so large without borrowing a single cent from the international banks.
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In the 1960s during oil exploration deep in the southern Libyan desert, vast reservoirs of high quality water were discovered in the form of aquifers.
The emphasis here is mine..

...In Libya there are four major underground basins, these being the Kufra basin, the Sirt basin, the Morzuk basin and the Hamada basin, the first three of which contain combined reserves of 35,000 cubic kilometres of water. These vast reserves offer almost unlimited amounts of water for the Libyan people.

The people of Libya under the guidance of their leader, Colonel Muammar Al Qadhafi, initiated a series of scientific studies on the possibility of accessing this vast ocean of fresh water. Early consideration was given to developing new agricultural projects close to the sources of the water, in the desert. However, it was realized that on the scale required to provide products for self sufficiency, a very large infrastructure organization would be required. In addition to this, a major redistribution of the population from the coastal belt would be necessary. The alternative was to 'bring the water to the people'.
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The Great Man-Made River, as the largest water transport project ever undertaken, has been described as the "eighth wonder of the world". It carries more than five million cubic metres of water per day across the desert to coastal areas, vastly increasing the amount of arable land. The total cost of the huge project is expected to exceed $25 billion (US).

Consisting of a network of pipes buried underground to eliminate evaporation, four meters in diameter, the project extends for four thousand kilometres far deep into the desert. All material is locally engineered and manufactured. Underground water is pumped from 270 wells hundreds of meters deep into reservoirs that feed the network. The cost of one cubic meter of water equals 35 cents. The cubic meter of desalinized water is $3.75. Scientists estimate the amount of water to be equivalent to the flow of 200 years of water in the Nile River.
poorrichards emphasis:
The goal of the Libyan Arab people, embodied in the Great Man-Made River project, is to make Libya a source of agricultural abundance, capable of producing adequate food and water to supply its own needs and to share with neighboring countries. In short, the River is literally Libya's 'meal ticket' to self-sufficiency.

This strengthens Libya's potential as resource provider for the region, maybe stretching further into Europe or Africa or both..  Knowing this adds an extra dimension  for interpretation of events.

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..